In response to the British invasion, John Hancock, then president of the Continental Congress, put out a call to the colonies for troops. In a letter to the Maryland Convention, he wrote, “The Congress have this day received intelligence which renders it absolutely necessary that the greatest exertion should be made to save our country from being desolated by the hands of tyranny.” Congress asked the colonies to send reinforcements to New York. Hancock’s closing words demonstrated the gravity of the situation. He wrote:
I do therefore most ardently beseech you and require, in the name and by the authority of Congress, as you regard your own freedom, and as you stand engaged by the most solemn ties of honour, to support the common cause:—to strain every nerve to send forward your militia. This is a step of such infinite moment that in all probability your speedy compliance will prove the salvation of your country. We should reflect, too, that the loss of the campaign must inevitably protract the war; and that, in order to gain it, we have only to exert ourselves, and to make use of the means by which God and nature have given us to defend ourselves.
After the letter was received in Maryland, nine companies of Smallwood’s Battalion set out for Philadelphia. Congress ordered the Marylanders to join troops in Phildelphia and then report to General George Washington in New York. Two of the independent companies stayed in Maryland a while longer in the event the British attacked. They soon joined their brethren.
Smallwood’s Battalion, already an elite unit by virtue of training, equipment, and motivation, was about to become amalgamated into the Continental Army. This force had some success on the battlefield in 1775, but most of the world at the time believed it ludicrous to suppose that the ragtag assortment of amateurs with their unique set of principles could stand up to—let alone defeat—one of the finest armies in existence.
The top flag officers the king sent to America were considered exceptional in the British military. Leading the British forces in New York were the Howe brothers: General William Howe, a thirty-year army veteran; and Admiral Richard Howe, who commanded the British navy in North America. Sons of a viscount and of royal blood, they had enjoyed an aristocratic upbringing. The two mirrored each other in many ways: both were tall and dark-complexioned, both were quiet and brave, and both entered the military at an early age. Both also held seats in Parliament and had excellent military records. Richard Howe had fired the first shot in the Seven Years’ War and became a very influential admiral, revising the navy’s signals and advancing its amphibious warfare capabilities. William Howe had served in the French and Indian War, which gave him a good understanding of conditions in North America and the tactics likely to succeed there.
However, the Howe brothers had very different personalities. Richard, the more taciturn one, earned the nickname Black Dick both for his dark complexion and for his morose personality. One contemporary described the admiral as “silent as a rock.”
William, on the other hand, had a reputation for gambling and whoring, and he frequently brought his married mistress, Elizabeth Loring, known as the Sultana, to public events. She was the wife of Loyalist Joshua Loring, who held the position of commissary for prisoners. Public accounts mocked the cuckolded Loring, saying that he “had no objection. He fingered the cash, the general enjoyed madam.”
Despite their differences in temperament, the brothers both expressed sympathy for the colonists. As a member of Parliament, William even voted against the Coercive Acts. They served in America as a matter of duty, not out of any dislike for the Americans. Understanding that a political solution was the best way to end the Revolution, they also sought and received the authority to act as peace commissioners who could grant concessions to the colonists in order to halt hostilities. However, their authority to negotiate and bind the Crown to a peace settlement was extremely limited; they could grant pardons but not much more. Their dedication to seeking peace greatly affected the strategy they pursued throughout the war.
General Howe’s top lieutenant, General Sir Henry Clinton, had a very different view; he believed the aim of the war should be to destroy the American army. Clinton wasn’t particularly likable and even described himself as “a shy bitch.” He frequently clashed with William Howe. Clinton’s father, George Clinton, was an admiral and also served for a decade as governor of New York—an assignment that brought Henry Clinton to the state as a twelve-year-old. He later fought in the French and Indian War, during which he developed friendships with Charles Lee and William Alexander (otherwise known as Lord Stirling), whom he later faced as enemies on the battlefield. Descended from a noble family, Clinton, like the Howe brothers, held a seat in Parliament in addition to serving in the military. Although fairly unimpressive looking, Clinton was brilliant, and this brought him to the attention of his superiors even before the start of the Revolution. He often suggested plans that, if they had been followed, could have allowed the British army to flank and destroy the Americans. At Bunker Hill, he offered an alternative attack plan that might have resulted in enveloping American forces and reducing British losses. A superb strategist, Clinton believed that the key to winning the war was annihilating the Patriot forces, not just conquering territory.
The British army that landed on Staten Island in 1776 was one of the most proficient armed forces in the world. Its ranks were filled with volunteers who viewed the military as a career and had a great deal of experience, much like today’s U.S. military. For example, the fifteen generals serving at the time averaged thirty years of service, and even the privates averaged nine years in the military. A substantial portion of the army consisted of seasoned combat veterans tested in the wilds of North America during the French and Indian War or in the killing fields of Europe during the Seven Years’ War. Its members took pride in Britain’s long history of imperial supremacy, leading one American to label it “the most arrogant army in the world.”
By contrast, the American army was a mongrel group made up of amateurs. Ambrose Serle, private secretary to Admiral Richard Howe, sneered, “Their army is the strangest that was ever collected: old men of 60, boys of 14, and blacks of all ages, and ragged for the most part, compose the motley crew.” The typical American soldier had less than six months of combat experience—or more likely, none at all. Unlike the long-serving British troops, the American generals averaged just two years of experience, while most of the rank and file had been serving on active duty for mere months.
The British army included a number of specialized departments covering everything from hospitals to engineers and quartermasters, making it one of the first global bureaucracies. British officers leading these departments and units differed greatly from their American counterparts, who were typically elected and were often responsible for raising their own troops. British leaders purchased their commissions, which weren’t cheap. In a typical regiment, it could cost five hundred pounds sterling to become a lieutenant, fifteen hundred for a captaincy, twenty-six hundred to be a major, and thirty-five hundred to be named lieutenant colonel. As a result, most came from the upper ranks of British society. Becoming a British officer could also prove to be a pathway to wealth. Officers got to keep the pay for any of their men killed in battle, and some who served during the Revolutionary War made as much as eight hundred pounds, the equivalent of a senior officer’s salary, in this manner.
But the heart of the British army was its regiments: each with its own identity. Made up of about four hundred to six hundred6 troops, a regiment recruited its own members. While a few were pressed into service from prisons and given the choice of imprisonment or the army, most were common men—tradesmen, farmers, and laborers. Some sought adventure, and others enlisted to escape poverty and starvation. Several of the regiments had existed for more than a century and had impressive, proud battle histories. They possessed cherished traditions that they passed on to each member of the regiment. Many thought, and were encouraged to believe, that their unit was the best in the ar
my. They also felt a deep loyalty to their king that set them in firm opposition to the Americans they were battling. As one historian has noted, “For men on both sides who actually did the fighting, the war was not primarily a conflict of power or interest. It was a clash of principles in which they deeply believed.” This army, highly motivated and imbued with its own principles and traditions, invaded the shores of Staten Island in the summer of 1776.
6. British regiments were normally divided into ten companies. They had a peacetime strength of thirty-five officers, twenty sergeants, thirty corporals, ten drummers (one per company), two fifers, and 380 privates. Understanding the challenge of fighting in America, Parliament typically increased a regiment’s authorized strength by 200 men.
The grenadiers led the assault on Staten Island. Chosen for their immense size and strength, the grenadiers accentuated their impressive height with caps that made them look a foot taller. As the name suggests, men in the grenadiers originally carried grenades. However, at the time of the American Revolution, the grenades had fallen out of use, and the men carried muskets and bayonets like other British soldiers. Every infantry regiment had its grenadiers, who tackled the toughest jobs in battle—they led daring assaults and stormed the beaches during amphibious landings.
Disembarking alongside the grenadiers was another type of elite unit—the light infantry. Known as the Light Bobs, these soldiers were chosen not for their size, but for their endurance, intelligence, and mastery of firearms. Rather than the regimented drills of the regular army, these men practiced “leaping, running, climbing precipices, swimming, skirmishing through woods, loading and firing in different attitudes, and marching with remarkable rapidity.” This was a relatively new concept of a military unit, first deployed during the French and Indian War, when British officers attempted to adopt some of the nimble fighting techniques of the American Indians. Based on that experience, General William Howe himself convinced the king to authorize the formation of light infantry companies within each regiment. These were some of the most battle-hardened and bloodied troops in the British army, having lost many men in the battles at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. The American army (including the Marylanders) later adopted light infantry.
The British also had light cavalry, known as the Light Dragoons. These were often gentleman warriors, highly educated and drawn from the upper crust of society. Originally formed to handle reconnaissance and scouting duties, they were later renowned for their charges. Typically, each carried a small arsenal: “two pistols, a short-barreled carbine, and a long cavalry sword.” Their sabers, used for hacking and slashing, were among the most feared weapons of the war in the hands of an experienced rider. Well-armed and mounted on fast horses, these recently created units, which often fought dismounted, were a force to be reckoned with throughout the Revolutionary War.
The British forces on Staten Island also included several companies of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, equipped with seventy-two guns. Its members wore dark blue uniforms instead of red, and it promoted officers based on merit rather than allowing men to purchase commissions. Because getting a cannonball to reach its target was cutting-edge science at the time, they were among the most highly trained specialists in the British military. They studied mathematics, engineering, and chemistry at Woolwich Military Academy, affectionately known as the Shop. These artillerists brought with them a variety of field pieces: three-, six-, eight-, and twelve-pounders (so named for the weight of the cannonball), among many other sizes. A crew of several men manned each gun. For added mobility and to deal with the rough terrain of America, the artillerists also towed lighter, three-pound brass cannons known as grasshoppers that they utilized during the war.
The artillery fired a variety of projectiles. Solid shot was just that, iron spheres or cannonballs. Howitzers and mortars, artillery which lobbed high altitude shots at the enemy rather than firing directly, sometimes shot balls that had been hollowed out and filled with explosives. These shells had fuses that were ignited by the blast when fired. The artillerists carefully prepared the fuses to ignite the ball approximately when it hit the ground or for air bursts. In addition to single iron balls, cannons could also fire a “canister,” a tin can filled with lead or iron balls which let out a terrible squeaking sound and acted like shotguns at close range. They used “grape,” a canvas bag filled with lead or iron balls, resembling a bunch of grapes, for longer-range shots. Each type of ordnance had a devastating effect.
The invading forces included two armies within the army: the Scottish Highlanders and the Hessians. The Highlanders initially fought against the English during the failed Jacobite Rebellions between 1688 and 1746, but the British skillfully turned their former enemies into allies and integrated them into their army. Often extremely poor—though fiercely proud—these Gaelic-speaking clansmen were frequently recruited by and served with members of their own families. For this reason, the men were intensely loyal to their units. A typical Highlander viewed “any disgrace which he might bring on his clan or district as the most cruel misfortune.” Most served for life, including one record-setting private who spent seventy-five years in the service. Dressed in kilts and heavily armed with muskets, bayonets, pistols, broadswords, and various knives, they cut an impressive figure and often struck fear into the hearts of their enemies.
Ten thousand Hessians arrived in New York in mid-August, the first of many who fought beside the British. Professional soldiers primarily from the Hesse region of Germany, the Hessians were “the largest suppliers of troops in the world, [and] also the most expensive.” All together more than thirty thousand of them took part in the American Revolutionary War. The king compensated them well for their service, and officers and enlisted men alike expected to make their fortune fighting in America. One Hessian captain noted, “Never in this world was an army as well paid as this one during the civil war in America. One could call them rich.” Looting was an expected benefit of service for some European soldiers, and in spite of repeated orders against it and strict punishments, opportunistic soldiers availed themselves of whatever booty they could acquire. This rampant looting undermined the Howe brothers’ intended strategy of protecting the Loyalist population, who they incorrectly believed vastly outnumbered the insurgents.
Hessian boys registered with the military at age seven and came before the recruiters as teenagers to see if they would be needed in the army or would be considered “indispensable personnel” who were more valuable to the country as farmers, merchants, or skilled craftsmen. Many of the rank and file began life as peasants but enlisted because the pay was better than that of a farmworker or servant. Others were “expendable people”—bankrupt or unemployed men, some kidnapped and forced into service against their will. Discipline was brutal, as the officers often beat or hanged soldiers for various offenses. In some cases, they also inflicted punishments on soldiers’ families at home. The result of this harshness was an army that obeyed orders immediately and unquestioningly. They were professional warriors who looked down on the American rebels.
With the arrival of the British fleet, George Washington faced a nearly impossible strategic situation. Surrounded entirely by water, New York was vulnerable to invasion by the British navy at every point, making it virtually indefensible. At the time, New York was home to around twenty thousand residents and had a sizable Loyalist population. The main thoroughfare was Broadway, a wide, tree-lined street with many houses and churches, while City Hall dominated Wall Street. A sound move would have been to evacuate the city, but that was politically untenable. Local leaders and the Continental Congress urged Washington to defend New York. Washington attempted to turn the city into a fortress, constructing forts and defensive works throughout Manhattan and on Long Island.
Washington also worked to build up the morale of his men, proclaiming in his general orders, “The time is near at hand which must probably determine whether or not Americans are to be f
ree men or slaves. . . . The fate of unborn millions now depend, under God, on the courage . . . of this Army.” His stirring words had the intended effect. One of his men wrote in a letter to his wife, “The whole army is in better spirits than I have known it at any time.” He added, “Indeed, the city is now so strong, that in the present temper of our men, the enemy would lose half their army in attempting to take it.”
At 6:00 p.m. on July 9, 1776, their spirits got another boost. The few Marylanders and the rest of Washington’s army in New York assembled by unit at various parade grounds and common areas. They listened intently as the head of each brigade read aloud the Declaration of Independence. The men greeted the words with various cheers and “Huzzahs!” Shortly after the reading, a mob formed and marched down Broadway, where they tore down the lead- and gold-leaf-adorned equestrian statue of King George III. The Declaration effectively made traitors of all Americans who bore arms against the Crown.
Despite the rhetoric, the Howe brothers attempted to set up a peace summit to end the rebellion through negotiation. The meetings went nowhere because the Americans understood that the Howes had no power to negotiate an overarching treaty. Ambrose Serle succinctly summed up the only official meeting between the two governments till the end of the war: “They met, they talked, they parted.”
The Battle of New York moved closer.
Chapter 7
Maryland Goes to War
Nearly seven hundred men strong, Smallwood’s Battalion marched proudly into its nascent country’s capital—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the middle of July 1776 and the Marylanders had traveled by barge up the Chesapeake, and marched on foot the rest of the way to the city to parade in front of the Continental Congress. An officer in the city at the time made note of the Marylanders’ arrival, writing in his diary, “Never did a finer, more dignified, and braver body of men face an enemy. They were composed of the flower of Maryland, being young gentlemen, the sons of opulent planters, farmers and mechanics. From the colonel to the private, all were attired in hunting-shirts.” Another of the city’s residents agreed, noting, “Colonel Smallwood’s battalion was one of the finest in the army, in dress, equipment, and discipline.” They were distinguished by “the most macaroni cocked hat, and hottest blood in the Union.” After a brief stay in the City of Brotherly Love, the Marylanders continued the long journey to join the forces already assembled in New York and arrived on July 30.
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