Christopher Ward The

Preface This book is not a history of the American Revolution. It is a history of the war that was caused by the Revolution. As John Adams well said: "A history of the first war of the United States is a very different thing from a history of the American Revolution. The revolution was in the minds of the people and in the union of the colonies, both of which were accom plished before hostilities commenced. This revolution and union were gradually forming from the years 1760 to 1776." With the Revolution as thus properly described, this book is not con cerned, except in the brief resume of the causes of the war in the first chapter. Its aim is to tell the story of the war on land, the campaigns, battles, sieges, marches, encampments, bivouacs, the strategy and tactics, the hard ships, and the endurance of hardship. It is purely military in its intention and scope. The war, from the first shot at Lexington in 1775 to the cessation qf hos tilities in 1782, lasted nearly eight years. It was fought in a territory extend ing from Quebec southward to Georgia and from the Atlantic seaboard westward to the frontier settlements. Many of its campaigns, in the various regions in which they were fought, were simultaneous. In the spring of 1776, while the American army under Arnold was still - struggling to keep a foothold in Canada, a British army under Henry Clinton was on its way south to attack Charleston in South Carolina. On September 11, 1777, while Washington was fighting the Battle of the Brandywine, Bur goyne was on his way down the Hudson to Saratoga. It will be seen, then, that an attempt to tell the tale of the various cam- vii paigns and battles in strict chronological order would involve leaping, chapter by chapter, from one campaign to another, from the North to the South and from the East to the West, and would result in hopeless confusion. Fortunately for the sake of clarity in this chronicle, the whole territory in volved was fought over, by different armies, in well defined sections, in the North from Canada down to the Mason and Dixon line, in the South from Virginia down to Georgia, with practically no overlapping. It has therefore been thought best to treat the campaigns separately in the two sections, thus enabling the reader to follow the movements of the armies and the progress of the various campaigns with a minimum of confusion. While making no pretensions to the role of a military expert, the author has ventured to express opinions as to the strategy and tactics employed in some of the operations herein recorded. In doing so, he relies upon the dictum of Baron Jomini in that eminently authoritative military treatise, Precis de l'art de la guerre, "The theory of the great speculative combina tions of war is simple enough in itself; it only requires intelligence and attentive reflection," and upon von Moltke's statement that "strategy is the application of common sense to the conduct of war." CHRISTOPHER WARD C H A P T E R 1 Tlie Causes of the War Tuesday, the 17th of May, 1774, was an unpleasant day in Boston. A pelting rain, driven by a strong east wind, poured upon the town. Gutters ran full; hollows in the cobbled streets became puddles. The few of its citi zens who owned umbrellas found some shelter under those newfangled, cumbrous contrivances of oiled silkor linen spread on clumsy ribs of whale bone.1 The thousands of others who were abroad that day could only turn the brims of their hats down, the collars of their coats up, wrap their cloaks around them, and take the storm as it came, with a philosophical endurance born of habit. But the provincial troop of horse, the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company, the Boston Grenadier Corps, fine, tall fellows in notably hand some uniforms, and more companies of militia, drawn up in line along King Street, could not even flap their hats or turn up their collars. They bad to stand stiffly at attention in their ordered ranks, while the rain beat upon their faces and dripped fromtheir noses and chins. The Boston Cadets, the "Governor's Own," were equally defenseless as they marched against the blast down King Street. So were "a number of His Majesty's Council, several Members of the Commons House of Assem bly [and] many principal Gentlemen of the town" who followed the soldiers, in dripping discomfort. At the Long Whad the procession halted. The military formed its ranks, and the gentlemen following grouped themselves in proper disposition as a reception committee. All eyes, not only those of the official party but those also of the thronging multitude of common people gathered around and behind them, were turned upon one of His Britannic Majesty's ships of war lying at the wharf. There was a ruffle of drums aboard the ship; the guns on the other war vessels in the harbor and in the batteries in the town began a thunderous salute and the bells in all the steeples rang out as the expected guests, brave in scarlet coats and white breeches that glittered with gold braid, descended the gangplank and were welcomed with all due form and ceremony and with more or less sincerity according to the political principles of the indi vidual greeters. Whether Boston liked it or not, it was indeed an occasion of moment, for these impressively arrayed military personages were none other than Lieutenant General the Honorable Thomas Gage, commander in chief of all His Majesty's forces in the American colonies and Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and his staff-his "family," in the languageof the period. The official greetings over, a procession was formed. Led by the guard of honor, the great man with his entourage and the official civilians, followed by thousands of unofficial sight-seers, proceeded up King Street. The rain, on their backs now, was no doubt less discomforting. The troop of horse, the artillerymen, the grenadiers, and the embodied militia, all amateur soldier boys, stood stiffly at attention while their officers gave these awe-inspiring professionals their very best in the way of a military salute, which the general politely returned. They then fell in behind the procession in its march up King Street to the Town House. In the Council Chamber, His Excellency presented his commission and was sworn in by the President of the Council. From the balcony of the State House, the High Sheriff read the new Governor's proclamation "continuing all Officers &c in their places till further orders." It was answered by "three huzzas from the concourse of the people," three volleys of musketry from the soldiers of Boston, and the discharge of the Ancient and Honourables' three three-pounder brass fieldpieces.2 After the Governor had "received the compliments of civil and military officers and other gentry" and reviewed the militia he was escorted to Faneuil Hall, "where an elegant entertainment was provided at the expence of the province. Many loyal toasts were drank, and the strictest harmony and decorum observed." He then rode in a carriage to the Prov ince House, his official residence. 3 From all these sights and sounds one might have supposed that it was a day of rejoicing in Boston, that the coming of the new governor was hailed by the people as a fortunate event. But no, the flapping flags, the pealing bells, the saluting guns, all the parade and circumstance of welcome were mere matters of form; the huzzas of the populace were no more than throat deep. The people of Boston knew what his coming meant and what his orders were; they dreaded what he had come to do. Against him and what he represented, Boston harbored strong feelings of antagonism. Gage was no stranger in America. After about seventeen years of military service in Britain and on the continent of Europe, he had come to America in 1755 and had taken part in Braddock's disastrous expedition against the French and Indians. He had fought bravely under Braddock, and also under Abercromby in the ill-fated British attack upon Ticonderoga in 1758. Serv ing as governor of Montreal after the conquest of Canada, he had become commander in chief of the British army in America late in 1763, succeed ing his good friend Sir Jeffrey Amherst. His wife, born Margaret Kemble, was an American and a member of a prominent New Jersey family, a cousin of Philip Schuyler and a relative of colonial Van Cortlandts and Bayards. He was a good soldier and was devoted to his duty. He was handsome and dignified, his manners were pleasing; and he was described by the historian William Smith as "a good-natured, peaceable, sociable man." With these qualities, and replacing at least temporarily the hated Governor Thomas Hutchinson, he might have been received with pleasure-would have been so received ten years earlier. On the other hand, Bostonians had known of him as the commander of the British forces in America who had directed the activities of the four regiments sent to town in 1768, and they had not forgotten the consequent bloody affair in their streets in 1770. To be sure, the regulars had been ordered to Boston by the British cabinet, and Gage had merely executed its orders; but the memory of the "Boston Massacre" would have diminished his welcome now, even "if he had come with the most amicable intentions.

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