The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  Few suspected that Arnold – one the most capable officers in the Continental Army – was both a spy and a traitor. While serving as the American commandant in Philadelphia, he forwarded secrets about military activities to Royal officers. Disgruntled about the ineptitude of Congress, he confided to a loyalist that he wanted to terminate the war. Moreover, he married Peggy Shippen in 1779 and found himself short of money. After a court-martial for graft and embezzlement, he requested command of the military stronghold at West Point. He conspired with Major John André, the deputy adjutant general of British forces in New York, to hand it over to Clinton. In exchange, he demanded a commission in the Royal Army as well as immediate remuneration and a lifetime annuity from the Crown.

  Before the Royal Army arrived, a party of volunteer militiamen captured André in disguise near the Hudson. They discovered the West Point papers in his boot. Upon hearing about his accomplice's capture on September 25, 1780, Arnold fled to British lines. Eventually, André was hanged as a spy. Arnold's treason fired the animosity of Americans, who condemned him evermore as a turncoat.

  Amid the uncertainty and doubt, American enthusiasm for home rule hit rock bottom. Congress crafted the Articles of Confederation for “perpetual union,” but state by state ratification stalled. Civilian authorities could not compel anyone to serve. Voluntary enlistments declined. Desertions and disease plagued the military camps. After suffering in their winter quarters time and again, the Continentals teetered on the brink of mutiny.

  Southern Strategy

  Frustrated with the recalcitrant rebels in New England, Lord Germain articulated a grand strategy for dividing and conquering the United States. He urged Clinton in a “most secret” letter to concentrate military efforts on the southern states, where numerous loyalists vowed to assist the Royal Army and Navy. From Georgia to Virginia, he called for a series of campaigns to pacify the population. While confiscating plantations to fund ongoing operations, the redcoats would secure the coastal ports for trade with the West Indies. Thus, the British Empire prepared to strike back.

  Starting in late 1778, British forces quickly overran Savannah, Georgia. They rolled northward to Charleston, South Carolina, where they bottled up Continentals and militiamen under General Benjamin Lincoln during a prolonged siege. Lincoln surrendered 5,500 troops to the British on May 12, 1780, which constituted the largest American loss of the war.

  Owing to the capture of Savannah and Charleston, the British campaign gained significant momentum. Clinton issued a proclamation that offered pardons to Americans in exchange for loyalty oaths. His troops secured a line of strategic bases along the seaboard while training loyalist units for striking inland. He turned command of military operations over to Cornwallis and confidently returned to his headquarters in New York.

  Figure 2.4 The Southern Campaigns

  Cornwallis inherited a partisan war in the south, which entailed irregular combat between paramilitary bands seeking power. For years, “regulators” or vigilantes operated in the backcountry beyond the purview of Royal government. Likewise, outlaw banditti formed cohesive groups based upon ethnic or social networks. Whether calling themselves Whigs or Tories, militia in the rural communities feuded for generations.

  As Tory militia conducted reprisals against their neighbors, the armed citizenry drifted into a civil war. A veteran Indian fighter named Andrew Pickens of South Carolina organized rangers in the countryside despite his loyalty oath. Militia units coalesced under the leadership of Thomas Sumter, an ex-Continental officer known as the “Carolina Gamecock.” Operating in the marshlands between the Pee Dee and Santee Rivers, Francis Marion, another former Continental officer, earned the sobriquet “Swamp Fox.” Although the bayonet and torch dispersed opponents, British actions reinforced enmities that persisted for years.

  Cornwallis directed British officers to eliminate the residuals of the American military. Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, an Oxford-educated son of a Liverpool merchant, commanded a Tory unit in the backcountry. His green-coated dragoons covered 105 miles in 54 hours while pursuing a Virginia regiment. Tarleton caught his prey at the Waxhaws near the Carolina border. Although they waved a white flag to surrender, he accepted “no quarter” on May 29, 1780. The phrases “Bloody Ban,” “The Butcher,” and “Tarleton's Quarter” fueled patriot propaganda in the southern theater thereafter.

  That summer, Congress commissioned Gates to regain control of the southern theater. His Grand Army of 3,052 Continentals and militiamen marched toward Camden, South Carolina. Unfortunately, his troops ate half-cooked meat and molasses mixed with cornmeal mush. After consuming meals not ready to eat, many suffered from diarrhea. About 5 miles north of town, Gates encountered a smaller army under Cornwallis. He positioned Continentals under General Johann DeKalb on the right, North Carolina militia under General Richard Caswell in the center, and Virginia militia under General Edward Stevens on the left. Swamps surrounded his flanks, while nearly 250 yards of open space stretched between him and his foes. Recalling their general's previous success elsewhere, Americans expected to “burgoyne” the British.

  American and British forces clashed at dawn on August 16, 1780. Unnerved by the fixed bayonets and loud “huzzahs,” the militiamen ran to the rear and to the swamps. The Royal infantry wheeled and attacked with relentless precision in the gun smoke. The Continentals scrambled from the battlefield in haste. After an hour, the Battle of Camden turned into a rout. Reaching Charlotte, North Carolina, Gates outpaced his men astride a fast horse. Americans lost close to 900 killed and wounded in action, while 1,000 more were captured.

  Cornwallis pursued the Americans forthwith, ordering Major Patrick Ferguson to lead a Tory unit across the Carolina border. That fall, Ferguson warned rebels that he would “march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.” Enraged by his taunts, the “over-the-mountain men” gathered at King's Mountain, a level summit along a 16-mile ridge. Without a unified command, they organized under the leadership of folk heroes such as William Campbell, Isaac Shelby, and John Sevier. On October 7, 1780, the Battle of King's Mountain raged for an hour. Ferguson led 1,000 men in a series of desperate charges, while an equal number of angry partisans stood their ground on the wooded slopes. Americans lost 29 dead and 58 wounded while inflicting 407 casualties upon their enemies. They offered “Tarleton's Quarter” to the defeated. After killing Ferguson, they urinated on his mangled corpse. Consequently, the outcome reversed British momentum in the south.

  Meanwhile, Congress replaced the humiliated Gates with Washington's quartermaster and confidant, Greene. Though a private in the Rhode Island militia at the start of the war, he took command of the Southern Department in late 1780. Colleagues observed that the “Fighting Quaker” possessed infinite patience. Upon his arrival in Charlotte, he found no more than 1,000 Continentals fit for duty. He steered them southward to Cheraw Hill near the Pee Dee River, where more partisans gathered. “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again,” he resolved.

  Greene divided his army, sending the recently promoted General Morgan with the light infantry and cavalry on a backcountry march. The “Old Wagoner” led 600 Continentals and 400 militiamen to Cowpens, a meadow near the Broad River. Tarleton's dragoons took the bait on January 17, 1781, and commenced their attack. In the Battle of Cowpens, the American militia fired their volleys before exiting to the rear. The impetuous Tarleton charged the wavering flank without delay. On cue, Colonel William Washington swung 80 horsemen around his infantry and cavalry. Morgan delivered more volleys from the front, which culminated in a dramatic bayonet charge. He won a stunning victory that day, losing only 25 dead and 124 wounded. The British lines completely disintegrated, as Tarleton fled the battlefield in disgrace.

  Cornwallis attempted in vain to trap Morgan along the Catawba River, while Greene maneuvered 4,400 men to Guilford Court House in North Carolina. On March 15, they formed a line at the crest of a rising hill and aw
aited the advancing enemy. Marching up the Salisbury Road, Cornwallis pressed the attack at noon with only 1,900 men. The American flanks withstood the charges, but Greene soon ordered them to retreat to Troublesome Creek. He lost 78 dead and 183 wounded in the Battle of Guilford Court House. Although the British gained control of the field that day, nearly a quarter of them became casualties. With his ranks depleted and his supplies exhausted, Cornwallis withdrew to Wilmington on the North Carolina coast to replenish his army.

  With Cornwallis at bay, Greene intensified his military efforts in South Carolina and in Georgia. A mile east of Camden at Hobkirk's Hill, he moved against a British garrison commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Lord Francis Rawdon. On April 25, they fought the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, which some called the second Battle of Camden. An American thrust battered the British, but Rawdon's line held. Greene counted 18 dead, 108 wounded, and 136 missing among his troops. Rawdon won a tactical victory, though at a high cost in lives. Unable to muster reinforcements, the British abandoned Camden the next month.

  The Continentals and militiamen reduced British outposts one by one. They seized Orangeburg, Fort Motte, and Fort Granby, while Royal officers abandoned Nelson's Ferry and Georgetown. A successful strike on Fort Watson marked the first use of the Maham Tower, which gave riflemen a high platform for delivering fire inside the walls. Next, Colonel Henry “Light Horse” Lee linked with Pickens to capture Fort Grierson and Fort Cornwallis in Augusta, Georgia. Greene targeted a stockade called Ninety-Six, where a siege operation unfolded for weeks. Although the Americans eventually lifted their siege, the ailing Rawdon decided to evacuate Ninety-Six. In effect, the British withdrew nearly all of their forces to Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah.

  Just 40 miles from Charleston, Greene drove against a British camp along the Santee River. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart commanded 2,000 regulars and loyalists at Eutaw Springs, where they faced 2,400 Continentals and militiamen. At 9:00 a.m. on September 8, the British tried to break the first line of the American advance. The North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia regiments in the secondary lines reinforced their comrades, which threw the charging infantry into a disorderly retreat. The Americans rushed forward to plunder the camp, but the British repulsed them with a counterattack. The Battle of Eutaw Springs cost Greene 139 lives and another 375 wounded, even as Stewart lost close to two-fifths of his men. Despite claiming a tactical victory, the British retired to Charleston.

  Unable to trade space for time, the British lacked a winning strategy in the southern theater. Greene lost battles in the Carolinas, to be sure, but he found ways to liberate the backcountry from Royal authority. His impressive operations blended a partisan war with conventional maneuvers. He stretched the communication and supply lines of his enemy to a breaking point, while he kept American forces intact against all odds.

  Yorktown

  With the countryside in arms, the British Empire appraised the tidewater of Virginia. The sight of sails and blue water comforted Royal officers, who despised the swamps and rugged terrain of the hinterlands. As early as 1779, an expeditionary force sailed into the Chesapeake Bay for a raid on Portsmouth and Suffolk. Clinton authorized military incursions thereafter, which shifted the war's center of gravity to the Old Dominion.

  Clinton dispatched his new brigadier general, Arnold, to occupy Virginia. After reaching Hampton Roads in late 1780, he ascended the James River to Richmond, the state capital. Governor Jefferson fled from Arnold's hit-and-run attack, while Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe directed the Queen's Rangers to destroy the foundry at Westham. After burning Richmond on January 5, 1781, Arnold established a base of operations at Portsmouth. The British planned to remain in Virginia while enjoying the spoils of war.

  Though distraught by the news from Virginia, Washington considered New York City the key to North America. He sent Lafayette with 1,200 Continentals southward, where they collaborated with militiamen under General John P. G. Muhlenberg. As the young Frenchman planned to take action against Arnold, he assumed command of all American troops in Virginia.

  Discounting American strength, British commanders failed to coordinate their actions in 1781. Clinton reinforced Arnold with 2,000 soldiers under General William Phillips, who took overall command in Virginia. The redcoats ravaged towns along the James River until Lafayette attempted to block them near the Appomattox River. With the blessing of Lord Germain, Cornwallis abandoned North Carolina and marched his troops into Virginia that spring. Because Phillips suddenly died from a fever, Arnold greeted his new superior before retiring to New York. Cornwallis massed close to 7,000 effectives at Petersburg while driving the Continentals and militiamen into flight. In the sweltering heat of the summer, Clinton directed him to fortify a naval base along the Chesapeake Bay and to await further orders.

  Cornwallis chose the port of Yorktown, which sat on a low plateau overlooking the York River. His troops began constructing trenches, redoubts, and batteries near the marshes. They established a post at Gloucester on the opposite bank. With British dispositions on both sides of the half-mile-wide river, the campaign in Virginia came to a standstill.

  Lafayette's force in Virginia expanded to 4,565 men, but he informed Washington that “the war in this country is becoming a war of depredation.” Weighing his next move, the commander-in-chief conferred with French General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vigneur, Comte de Rochambeau, at Wethersfield, Connecticut. That August, they learned that Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse, who operated in the West Indies, had steered a French fleet toward the Virginia Capes. On September 5, his warships clashed with a Royal fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves. Even though the naval battle amounted to a draw, the French cut off exterior supply and escape routes in the Chesapeake.

  While the French commanded the bay, Washington and Rochambeau joined Lafayette in Williamsburg, Virginia. On September 28, their columns advanced to the edge of Yorktown. Their combined forces swelled to 8,845 Continentals, 3,000 militiamen, and 7,800 French, whereas the British under siege numbered 9,725. Allied sappers and miners commenced digging entrenchments in parallel lines to enemy earthworks. Amid the deep ravines and pine trees, engineers built redoubts, parapets, and depots. For weeks, troopers dragged cannons down the road and from the James for emplacement in the Pigeon Quarter. The artillery batteries commenced firing a steady barrage of more than 15,000 rounds. Their superior positions afforded direct fire, in which the gunners visually located exposed targets before launching their deadly projectiles. With the completion of a second parallel, the infantry stood in trenches less than 300 yards from the main British line.

  “Our watchword was Rochambeau,” recalled Sergeant Joseph Plumb Martin of Connecticut on October 14. That night, he crept beyond the trenches as a member of an American detachment led by Colonel Alexander Hamilton. They awaited a signal to storm redoubt 10, while the French moved into position to swarm redoubt 9. Upon observing three shells with fiery trains passing overhead, they launched a concerted attack.

  In the darkness, the British troops opened fire on them with sharp musketry. Martin heard the watchword shouted quickly in the noise, which sounded like “rush-on-boys!” As he plunged through a hole in the abatis, a comrade “received a ball in his head and fell under my feet, crying out bitterly.” Undaunted, he danced past exploding grenades and mounted the enemy breastwork. By sunrise, the Americans and the French controlled the redoubts.

  After losing the redoubts, the Royal Army received a pounding at close range. Their food and ammunition neared exhaustion. Furthermore, outbreaks of smallpox and dysentery rendered many unfit for duty. “The safety of the place is so precarious,” Cornwallis wrote Clinton in despair, “I cannot recommend that the fleet and army should run great risk in endeavoring to save us.” He attempted to ferry troops across the river to Gloucester on the night of October 16, but a squall with high winds drove them back.

  Cornwallis asked for terms the next day, when the Battle of Yorktown climaxed. American
losses amounted to 70 killed and 55 wounded, whereas British casualties reached 552. After capitulation, another 7,241 became prisoners of war. Standing inside redoubt 10, Washington ordered an aide to notarize the final draft of the surrender document: “Done in the trenches before Yorktown in Virginia, October 19, 1781.” The redcoats marched down the road to a meadow, where they piled their muskets. The regimental bands played songs that afternoon, including one called “The World Turned Upside Down.”

  A Standing Miracle

  At the beginning of 1782, His Majesty's forces held New York City and Charleston as well as a few scattered outposts in North America. Nevertheless, London yearned for peace. Taxes rose even higher in support of the costly armed conflict. British voters expressed disenchantment with the war effort, because their expenditure of blood and treasure failed to overwhelm the American military.

  That spring, the British ministry under Lord North collapsed. King George III contemplated abdication. Following the resignation of the cabinet, Lord Charles Watson-Wentworth Rockingham organized a new administration. He selected Lord William Petty Shelburne to succeed Lord Germain in the handling of the American colonies. After Lord Rockingham's sudden death, Lord Shelburne took control of the ministry. London seemed open to talks with the Americans but refused to recognize the existence of Congress.

  Seeking mediation by Russia and Austria, Congress formed a peace commission to discuss terms. The delegates appointed Franklin and Adams in addition to a New York attorney named John Jay. They traveled to Paris, but the Franco-American alliance undermined their overtures. Because the French pledged to help the Spanish recover Gibraltar from Great Britain, the Americans feared that their allies intended to secretly swap “the rock” for lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. Playing an artful game, Franklin and Jay ignored congressional directives for them to consult Vergennes. On November 30, 1782, they signed a preliminary treaty with Great Britain that acknowledged the independence of the United States. Their parleys stimulated France and Spain to make deals with their adversary early the next year, thereby conferring legitimacy on what the commissioners in Paris wrought. After London proclaimed an end to hostilities, Congress did the same on April 11, 1783.