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Revolutionary Summer: the Birth of American Independence

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Revolutionary Summer: the Birth of American Independence Praise for Joseph J. Ellis’s REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER “Ellis, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, is always a dependable guide through the early days of the new nation. … [He] gives us a feeling of that time when the quest for liberty began.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “The best thing about Joseph Ellis’s vast writings on early America is his ability to construct unvarnished and original accounts, clear away myth and yet leave the reader with a sense of the color, irony, humor and … the great good luck present throughout our country’s history.” —The Seattle Times “[Ellis’s] books are chock full of penetrating analysis, from their often-innovative structures to the provocative insights woven into their narratives. Revolutionary Summer is no exception.… Ellis’s admiration for Adams is infectious. In truth, it is difficult not to be charmed by a politician who exchanged such genuine and intelligent letters with his wife, Abigail, and who, when forced to evaluate military strategy, sought ideas from the classical historian Polybius.” —The Washington Post “An insightful history.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Joseph J. Ellis’s tenth book does not disappoint.… Revolutionary Summer reads like a good yarn by a kindly uncle who, the listener comes to feel, may well have been a participant in the events he describes.… [Ellis] captures this critical moment in our history with clarity, as well as a soft-spoken authority that is endearing.” —The Christian Science Monitor “[A] dramatic slice of history.… Thoughtful and colorful history, filled with facts left out of most school versions.” —USA Today “Fast-paced.… Ellis writes with such élan and deep understanding of this era and its exceptional leaders that anyone interested in a succinct … account of this crucial period in American history will eagerly seize upon this volume.” —The New York Times “Quite good … in a relatively few pages the author makes clear how very close the American rebellion came to failing.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch “With revolutionary-period expertise and extensive knowledge of the founders, Ellis contends that American independence was born during this ‘long summer.’ … This thought-provoking, well-documented historical narrative is packed with insightful analysis.” —Library Journal “A worthwhile chapter in the excellent library of Ellis-produced literature on the American Revolution.” —Smithsonian.com “Illuminating.… Ellis argues lucidly in Revolutionary Summer that political events and military actions during those vital months were intertwined.” —The Courier-Journal “A focused examination.… Ellis writes in a chatty manner, avoiding the dryness of some historical tomes.” —Houston Chronicle “The definitive book on the revolutionary events of the summer of 1776. Ellis’s prose is characteristically seductive, his insights frequent, his sketches of people and events captivating, and his critical facility always alive.… Another brilliantly told story, carried along on solid interpretive grounds, by one of our best historians of the early nation.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “As usual, Ellis combines powerful narrative with convincing analysis. His tale of the crucial summer of 1776 shows how political and military events wove together to create a new nation. Read this book and understand how America was born.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs “Ellis once again demonstrates that a proper narrative of events, considered to be so well known as to present no puzzles, can exhibit the deep causes of the conflicts that forced men to war. His lucidity and insight make him the master storyteller of the Revolutionary moment.” —Edmund S. Morgan, author of Benjamin Franklin “Joseph Ellis has once again liberated the American Revolution from powdered wigs and patriotic cant. Riding briskly through the summer of 1776, he portrays the birth of independence as untidy, improvised, and at times, miraculous. This is a lucid and revelatory read for novices and buffs alike.” —Tony Horwitz “In Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis serves up the spirit of 1776 with sparkling prose, lucid analysis, and knowing portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams. Best of all, he captures the subtle and often complex interplay between the lofty rhetoric pouring forth from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and the perilous plight of the Continental Army in New York. This invaluable addition to the rich literature of the Revolutionary War is a volume to savor, ponder, and simply enjoy.” —Ron Chernow, author of Washington: A Life JOSEPH J. ELLIS REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER Joseph Ellis is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Founding Brothers. His portrait of Thomas Jefferson, American Sphinx, won the National Book Award. He is the Ford Foundation Professor of History Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife and their youngest son. www.josephellishistorian.com FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 2014 Copyright © 2013 by Joseph J. Ellis All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies. Originally published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, in 2013. Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC. The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows: Ellis, Joseph J. Revolutionary summer : the birth of American independence / by Joseph J. Ellis.—1st ed. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783. I. Title. E208.E48 2013 973.3—dc23 2012026140 Vintage Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-307-94637-9 eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-34962-8 Author photograph © Erik Jacobs Book design by Cassandra J. Pappas Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward Cover design: Gabriele Wilson Cover image: The Battle of Long Island by Alonzo Chappel. Collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society. v3.1 In memory of ASHBEL GREEN CONTENTS Cover About the Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Preface 1. Prudence Dictates 2. Of Arms and Men 3. Dogs That Did Not Bark 4. Etc., Etc., Etc. 5. After Virtue 6. The Fog of War 7. Hearts and Minds 8. A Long War 9. Postscript: Necessary Fictions Acknowledgments Notes Index Illustrations Other Books by This Author PREFACE If you will grant a somewhat expansive definition of summer, then the summer of 1776 was the crescendo moment in American history. During the five months between May and October, a consensus for American independence emerged and was officially declared, the outlines for an American republic were first proposed, the problems that would shape its future were faced and finessed, and the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic arrived to kill the American rebellion in the cradle, which it then very nearly did. There are two intertwined strands to this story that are customarily told as stand-alone accounts in their own right. The first is the political tale of how thirteen colonies came together and agreed on the decision to secede from the British Empire. Here the center point is the Continental Congress, and the leading players, at least in my version, are John Adams, John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The second is the military narrative of the battles on Long Island and Manhattan, where the British army and navy delivered a series of devastating defeats to an American army of amateurs, but missed whatever chance existed to end it all. The focal point of this story is the Continental Army, and the major actors are George Washington, Nathanael Greene, and the British brothers Richard and William Howe. My contention in the pages that follow is that the political and military experiences were two sides of a single story, which are incomprehensible unless told together. They were both happening at the same time, events on one front influenced outcomes on the other, and what most modern scholarship treats separately was experienced by the participants as one. More specifically, the political consensus that formed around American independence in June and July was driven by a widespread loathing of the looming British invasion at New York. And the commanders of both the British and the American armies made battlefield decisions on multiple occasions based on their perceived political impact on public opinion. The battles on Long Island and Manhattan were political contests for hearts and minds more than military maneuvers for territory. Knowing the outcome of the American Revolution has also blinded us to the problematic character of this intense moment, when everything was in the balance, history was happening at an accelerating pace, and both sides—especially the Americans —were improvising on the edge of catastrophe. The delegates in the Continental Congress and the officers in the Continental Army were forced to make highly consequential decisions without knowing what the consequences would be. In this compressed moment, they were living, as Adams put it, “in the midst of a Revolution,” which almost by definition meant that they were making it up as they went along. Two articles of faith were also colliding. The first was that the British army and navy were invincible, which turned out to be true. The second was that the cause of American independence, often referred to in semi-sacred incantations as “The Cause,” was inevitable, which turned out to be truer. Recovering this supercharged moment as a historian necessarily entails seeing the choices as they were perceived by the participants at the time, on both the American and the British sides. But how we assess those choices is inescapably a function of our privileged perch in the twenty-first century. For example, the Continental Congress made a deliberate decision to avoid any consideration of the slavery question, even though most delegates were fully aware that it violated the principles they claimed to be fighting for.
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