American Revolution | Page 8 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 19, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was an insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies that won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.

The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.

Until early-1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire, but afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in 1779) joined the colonies against Britain. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, which provided both official recognition of the United States and financial support for it, was engaged in its own war against Britain.

From the beginning, sea power was vital in determining the course of the war, lending to British strategy a flexibility that helped compensate for the comparatively small numbers of troops sent to America and ultimately enabling the French to help bring about the final British surrender at Yorktown. (Britannica)

Americans fought the war on land with essentially two types of organization: the Continental (national) Army and the state militias. The total number of the former provided by quotas from the states throughout the conflict was 231,771 men, and the militias totaled 164,087. At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 insurgents under arms throughout the country.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced. Many of the enlisted men were farm boys, as were most of the Americans. Others were unemployed persons from the urban slums. Still others joined the army to escape fines or imprisonment. The great majority became efficient soldiers as a result of training and discipline.

Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes.

Preliminary articles of peace were signed on November 30, 1782, and the Peace of Paris (September 3, 1783) ended the US War of Independence. Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States (with western boundaries to the Mississippi River) and ceded Florida to Spain. Other provisions called for payment of US private debts to British citizens, American use of the Newfoundland fisheries, and fair treatment for American colonials loyal to Britain. (Britannica)

An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)

Click the following link to a general summary about the American Revolutionary War:

Click to access American-Revolutionary-War.pdf

September 21, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Virginia Declaration of Rights

After the members of the Fifth Virginia Convention voted in favor of preparing a new plan of government, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted by George Mason.

As a landowner and near neighbor of George Washington, George Mason took a leading part in local affairs. He also became deeply interested in Western expansion and was active in the Ohio Company, organized in 1749 to develop trade and sell land on the upper Ohio River.

At about the same time, Mason helped to found the town of Alexandria, Virginia. Because of ill health and family problems, he generally avoided public office, though he accepted election to the House of Burgesses in 1759. Except for his membership in the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, this was the highest office he ever held – yet few men did more to shape US political institutions.

A leader of the Virginia patriots on the eve of the American Revolution (1775 – 1783), Mason served on the Committee of Safety and in 1776 drafted Virginia’s state constitution. (Britannica)

Early in 1776 John Adams published Thoughts in Government, a pamphlet laying out his framework for a republican form of government that influenced colonies as they created their individual state constitutions. Virginia, like many of the states, would include a list of rights guaranteed to its citizens.

Mason’s initial draft contained ten paragraphs that outlined rights, such as the ability to confront one’s accusers in court, to present evidence in court, protection from self-incrimination, the right to a speedy trial, the right to a trial by jury, and the extension of religious tolerance. The final version of the Virginia Declaration of Rights consisted of sixteen sections.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was unanimously adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates, on June 12, 1776. The same Convention also framed and adopted the Virginia Constitution.

Among the delegates were Mason, the most important contributor, and twenty-five-year-old James Madison, who drafted the section on the “free exercise of religion.”

Also present at the creation of the Virginia Declaration and Constitution were John Blair and Edmund Randolph. Eleven years later, these four delegates were chosen to the seven-member Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was an influential document and a forerunner for many documents that followed. This declaration was the first state declaration establishing the fundamental human liberties that government was created to protect.

It was widely read by political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Jefferson drew upon it when writing the Declaration of Independence and James Madison expanded on Mason’s ideas of guaranteed rights when he wrote the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. (Virginia-gov)

The declaration was particularly influential on later state constitutions because it represented the first protection of individual human rights under state constitutions of the American revolutionary period.

It also represented the shift from colonial charters to state constitutions, as the nation moved toward independence from Great Britain. (Middle Tennessee State University)

Declaration of Rights Is Similar to the Declaration of Independence

In language echoed later in the Declaration of Independence (it was drafted the next month by Thomas Jefferson). Section 1 of the Virginia Declaration proclaimed that all men “are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights,” including “the enjoyment of life and liberty” and property and that of “pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

Section 2 recognized that the people were the source of all power, and Section 3 proclaimed the right of the people to replace governments that did not meet these needs. Section 4 reflected the republican principle that no individual is entitled to power on the basis of hereditary, while Section 5 proclaimed the idea of separation of powers.

The Rights are Similar to First Amendment Rights (Bill of Rights)

Much of the rest of the Declaration of Rights outlined rights similar to those later incorporated into the US Bill of Rights.

At least two of these rights are similar to those incorporated in the First Amendment. Section 12 proclaimed that “freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

Although the Virginia Declaration does not contain a provision on freedom of speech, its provision for religious freedom is actually more extensive than those incorporated in the First Amendment.

Mason had originally phrased this declaration in terms of “tolerance” for all, but, consistent with the teachings of John Witherspoon, the president of College of New Jersey (later Princeton) under whom he had studied, Madison insisted that religious practice was not a matter of majority grace but of natural rights.

Although the content of the Virginia Declaration and the later US Bill of Rights overlap in many ways, there are differences.

Madison appears to have constructed most provisions of the Bill of Rights more forcefully, so that courts could more readily protect individual rights by enforcing such provisions – for example, the First Amendment provision stating that “Congress shall make no law”. (Middle Tennessee State University)

Click the following link to a general summary about the Virginia Declaration of Rights:

Click to access Virginia-Declaration-Of-Rights.pdf

September 7, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

British Army

Frederick North (Lord North) entered the House of Commons at the first general election after he came of age; he spent almost the whole of his political life there; and was its leader for nearly fifteen years.

He became First Minister at the age of 37 and served as First Lord of the Treasury from 1770 to 1782 (North was an exceptionally conscientious first minister and was generally referred to as the Prime Minister, however, he never referred to himself as such). (gov-uk and Institute of Historical Research)

Lord North and the British cabinet, made up of nearly 20 ministers, first considered resorting to military might against the Americans as early as January 1774, when word of the Boston Tea Party reached London. (Recall that on December 16, 1773, protesters had boarded British vessels in Boston Harbor and destroyed cargoes of tea, rather than pay a tax imposed by Parliament.)

Contrary to popular belief both then and now, Lord North’s government did not respond impulsively to the news. Throughout early 1774, the prime minister and his cabinet engaged in lengthy debate on whether coercive actions would lead to war. A second question was considered as well: Could Britain win such a war?

By March 1774, North’s government had opted for punitive measures that fell short of declaring war. Parliament enacted the Coercive Act – or Intolerable Acts, as Americans called them – and applied the legislation to Massachusetts alone, to punish the colony for its provocative act.

Britain’s principal action was to close Boston Harbor until the tea had been paid for. England also installed Gen. Thomas Gage, commander of the British Army in America, as governor of the colony. Politicians in London chose to heed the counsel of Gage, who opined that the colonists would “be lyons whilst we are lambs but if we take the resolute part they will be very meek.” (Smithsonian)

Britain miscalculated. In September 1774, colonists convened the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia; the members voted to embargo British commerce until all British taxes and the Coercive Acts were repealed. News of that vote reached London in December. A second round of deliberations within North’s ministry ensued for nearly six weeks.

Throughout its deliberations, North’s government agreed on one point: the Americans would pose little challenge in the event of war. The Americans had neither a standing army nor a navy; few among them were experienced officers.

Britain possessed a professional army and the world’s greatest navy. Furthermore, the colonists had virtually no history of cooperating with one another, even in the face of danger.

In addition, many in the cabinet were swayed by disparaging assessments of American soldiers leveled by British officers in earlier wars.

For instance, during the French and Indian War (1754-63), Brig. Gen. James Wolfe had described America’s soldiers as “cowardly dogs.” Henry Ellis, the royal governor of Georgia, nearly simultaneously asserted that the colonists were a “poor species of fighting men” given to “a want of bravery.”

After the Americans convened the Continental Congress, King George III told his ministers that “blows must decide” whether the Americans “submit or triumph.”

After King George III declared that the colonies were in a rebellion, in 1775, and vowed to suppress it with force, the British government began to increase the size of the British army by creating larger infantry regiments and companies. The number of soldiers per regiment was increased to 200 and the number of soldiers per company was increased to 18.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, the total size of the British army, excluding militia, consisted of 48,647 soldiers. Of these soldiers about 39,294 were infantry, 6,869 were cavalry and 2,484 were artillery. (History of Massachusetts)

The British Army of the late 18th century was a volunteer force. Unlike the navy, there was no impressment or conscription into the army, a point of pride for most British subjects. The majority of men who volunteered for service were farm laborers or tradesmen who were out of work.

Life in the army promised steady pay, regular meals, and a way to escape grinding poverty.

Before the war, enlistment in the army was a lifelong commitment, but during the war, shorter term enlistments of several years were introduced to encourage recruitment. Recruits were generally young, averaging in their early 20s, and were drawn from all over Britain and Ireland.

By the eve of the American Revolution, the majority of the men in the ranks had never seen active military service and were not battle hardened veterans. The exception were many of the army’s non-commissioned officers. These men formed the backbone of the regiment and were often veterans of many years or even decades of service. (Battlefields)

As the war in America dragged on the British Army expanded rapidly. At least 50,000 soldiers fought in America, with many more serving in the West Indies, Europe, and India. Britain struggled to meet these manpower needs with volunteer enlistments and soon turned to other means.

The men leading the army were drawn from a drastically different social class. The majority of army officers came from the upper classes of British society, and were often the younger, non-inheriting sons of well to do families.

With the exception of Colonels, who were appointed by the king, officer’s commissions were purchased. A retiring officer would offer to sell his commission to the next most senior officer, and if he refused then it would be offered to the next officer and so on in order of seniority. (Battlefields)

British Commanders in the Revolutionary War:
Commander in Chief, North America: Thomas Gage (1763 – October 1775)
Commander in Chief, America: William Howe (October 1775 – 1778)
Commander in Chief, America: Henry Clinton (February 1778 – 1782)
Commander in Chief, America: Guy Carleton (1782 – 1783)
Commander in Chief, America: John Campbell (1783 – 1787) (Battlefields)

The basic building block of the British Army was the battalion or regiment. The two terms were used somewhat interchangeably in the 18th century, as most regiments consisted of a single battalion (although there was a handful made up of 2 or more battalions).

Each battalion consisted of ten companies for a total strength (on paper at least) of 642 officers and men. Eight of the companies were known as “battalion” or “hat” companies and were made up of standard infantry troops. (Battlefields) As the war continued, the size of companies was increased to 70 soldiers before being reduced to 58 soldiers by the end of the war. (History of Massachusetts)

The remaining companies were the “flank” companies made up of specialized soldiers. On the right of the battalion was the grenadier company. Grenadiers were chosen from the largest and most physically strong and imposing men of the battalion and were used as shock troops for assaulting enemy positions.

On the left flank was a company of light infantry. Unlike the grenadiers, light troops were chosen for their speed, agility, marksmanship, and ability to operate independently. Their role on the battlefield was to skirmish with the enemy from behind cover, provide reconnaissance, and protect the flanks of the army.

During the Revolutionary War, most grenadier and light companies were stripped from their battalion and amalgamated into separate battalions made up entirely of other grenadier or light companies. (Battlefields)

One of the major advantages of the British army was that it was one of the most powerful and experienced armies in the world. During the previous 100 years, the British army had defeated many powerful countries in war, such as France and Spain, and seemed almost unbeatable. The British army was also funded by the British government and the Crown, which was very wealthy.

One major disadvantage or weakness of the British army was that it was fighting in a distant land. Great Britain had to ship soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic, which was very costly, in order to fight the Revolutionary War.

The British army didn’t know the local terrain as well as the Continental Army did and weren’t trained to fight guerrilla-style warfare in the wilderness. Up until the Revolutionary War, the British army had only fought European-style warfare on an open battlefield.

Until early-1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire, but afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in 1779) joined the colonies against Britain. The British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 Hessian troops from various German princes to assist them in America.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Many of the enlisted men were farm boys, as were most of the Americans. Others were unemployed persons from the urban slums. Still others joined the army to escape fines or imprisonment. The great majority became efficient soldiers as a result of training and discipline.

Click the following link to a general summary about the British Army:

Click to access British-Army.pdf

August 21, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Salem Poor

“The Subscribers begg leave to Report to your Honble. House, (which wee do in Justice to the Character of So Brave a Man) that under Our Own observation, Wee declare …”

“… that A Negro Man Called Salem Poor of Col. Fryes Regiment Capt. Ames. Company in the late Battle at Charlestown behaved like an Experienced officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier, to Set forth Particulars of his Conduct Would be Tedious, Wee Would Only begg leave to Say in the Person of this Sd. Negro Centers a Brave & gallant Soldier.”

“The Reward due to so great and Distinguisht a Caracter, Wee Submit to the Congress” (Petition, signed by thirteen Continental Army officers and a brigade surgeon, to the Massachusetts General Court, December 5, 1775)

Let’s look back …

To prevent British soldiers from conducting further attacks on the countryside after the march to Lexington and Concord, 20,000 provincial militiamen encircled Boston in the spring of 1775. The Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester Heights, commanding both the city of Boston and Boston harbor, lie abandoned. This has been referred to as the Siege of Boston.

Hoping to make the British “masters of these heights,” General Gage, in conference with Major Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne, planned to seize the neglected positions before the colonists do so.

News of Gage’s intent filtered across from Boston and down from New Hampshire on June 15. Acting quickly on this intelligence, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety ordered General Artemas Ward, commander of the colonial militia surrounding Boston, to race the British to the Charlestown peninsula, capture Bunker Hill, and then seize the Dorchester hills.

Construction began sometime around midnight as hundreds of colonial men with pickaxes and shovels constructed a fort atop the lower hill overlooking the settlement of Charlestown and the beaches along the Harbor. (NPS)

Astonished British generals woke on the morning of June 17 to discover the newly erected defenses. As the day continued, British ships bombarded the untrained militia as they worked, and Colonel Prescott walked the fortifications to raise morale. Thirsty and tired, the soldiers received “no refreshment.”

At three o’clock in the afternoon, over 2,000 British soldiers, commanded by General Howe, landed on the Charlestown shore. Continental snipers fired at the British as they marched, and General Howe ordered a combustible shell launched on Charlestown. Amid smoke and flames, local inhabitants fled their homes in order to escape “Charlestown’s dismal fate.”

Then, British troops headed uphill, where they were frustrated by fences, pits, and tall grass. In dust and heat, the continental militia waited behind their walls. They hold fire until the British are in within 150 feet of the fortifications.

(Contrary to urban legend, there’s no evidence anyone ordered the men to hold their fire until they saw “the whites” of the enemies’ eyes. The writer Parson Weems seems to have invented this decades later.)

The Americans opened fired at about 50 yards, much too distant to see anyone’s eyes. However, one commander did tell his men to wait until they could see the splash guards – called half-gaiters – that British soldiers wore around their calves.) (Smithsonian)

The British charged three times. Prescott’s men again waited until the last minute to fire. On the final charge the Americans were running out of ammunition and were soon overrun by the British; then they fought with rocks and the butts of their muskets.

No longer able to withstand the British attack, Prescott’s men retreated north over the road to Cambridge, as General Stark’s New Hampshire troops covered them in the rear.

In total, 140 colonists were dead and 271 wounded. Before dark, the British again command the Charleston peninsula, though 226 British lie dead and 828 are wounded. Popularly known as ‘The Battle of Bunker Hill,’ as noted, the battle actually occurred on Breed’s Hill.

Despite renewed British control of the peninsula, colonial forces still trapped the British in Boston. As supply issues and shortages plague them, the British prepared for further military commitment to defeat the “poor and ignorant” colonists. Meanwhile, the colonies scrambled to assemble more soldiers.

About Salem Poor

Born enslaved in Andover, Massachusetts, Salem Poor (~1747-~1802) worked on the farm of John and Rebecca Poor. In 1769, at 22 years old, he bought his freedom for 27 pounds, which equaled a working man’s annual earnings.

In May of 1775, Poor enlisted in the interim Massachusetts Army. This last-minute army consisted of colonial forces primarily from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Thus, the troops that fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 were under the command of Massachusetts and New Hampshire officers.

During the battle, Salem Poor served in an Andover unit commanded by Capt. Thomas Drury, whose company included several other African American minute men. Poor’s unit arrived as a secondary force, in order to “assist in the building of fortifications.”

Instead, due to the dire circumstances, they covered the retreating units that had constructed the barriers on Breed’s Hill and had run out of ammunition. His unit received heavy fire; the British Regular Army killed five Andover men near him on the spot and left another six seriously wounded.

As he helped the wounded, Poor slowly retreated and fired one last shot that killed British Army Lt. Col. James Abercrombie. The British Regular army successfully drove the New England forces off the Charlestown Peninsula, but not without paying a heavy price in losses themselves. (NPS)

Salem Poor fought on with the Continental Army to the end of the American Revolution. He re-enlisted for a three-year term with Colonel Edward Wigglesworth’s 13th Massachusetts Regiment, starting in mid-1777.

This brought him to Monmouth, New Jersey and Saratoga, New York. He also served at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and White Plains, New York. He returned home in 1780, free and with veteran status.

On the home front in Andover, he married four times: in 1771 to freed woman Nancy Parker, with whom he had a son in 1774; in 1780 to Mary Twing, no longer enslaved; 1787 to Sarah Stevens, White and therefore free; 1801 to Hannah Ayliffe, a Black woman of unknown status.

In 1802, at age fifty-five, Salem Poor died and was buried anonymously at Boston’s Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. What he went through after his years of enlistment and battles, we can only imagine.

Here are some solid facts: he was a hero of Bunker Hill, recognized by all regimental leaders, and was one of at least 5,000 African Americans who served on the side of the Colonists throughout the Revolutionary War. (NPS)

Click the clinks below for a general summary that helps explain it – the file ending with ‘SAR–RT’ is a formatting used by the Sons of the American Revolution for presentations by its members under its Revolutionary Times program:

Click to access Salem-Poor.pdf

Click to access Salem-Poor-a-brave-and-gallant-soldier-SAR-RT.pdf

June 15, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Solemn League and Covenant

With the repeal of the all but one of the Townshend duties and the new government of Lord North eager to avoid more trouble with the colonies, colonial moderates and royal officials hope to discredit the radical opposition.

By the end of 1773 there had been a peaceful interlude of about three years. But in December of that year the so-called Boston Tea Party and London’s reaction in the early months of 1774 shattered the quiet.

In the spring and summer of 1774, news had reached Boston that Britain’s Parliament had enacted a number of measures in retaliation for the Tea Party of late 1773. Known in the colonies as the “Intolerable Acts”, these most notably closed the port of Boston, revoked the colony’s charter, and outlawed town meetings.

Outraged, Samuel Adams and his colleagues in the Boston committee of correspondence considered a non-importation pledge known as the “Solemn League and Covenant”. (The name of the document mimicked that of the 1644 pledge between England’s Parliament and Scotland, pledging religious reform in return for support against Charles I during the English Civil Wars.)

The Covenant called for its signers to halt the purchase of British goods after August 31 and, further, to stop dealing with those who did not sign.

The document was fiercely resisted by area merchants. In addition, there was growing sentiment amongst Bostonians toward waiting for a more comprehensive, inter-colony non-importation agreement.

During the summer of 1774, colonists debated the merits of the ‘Solemn League and Covenant,’ a proposal offered by the Boston Committee of Correspondence to cease all trade with the mother country. While not necessarily opposed to the idea of a boycott, leaders in other colonies (and other Massachusetts towns) hesitate to follow Boston’s lead.

The precise terms of resistance, they argue, should be formulated among, agreed to and followed by all.

Although Adams ultimately managed to find support at the Boston town meeting in late June, it did not come easily. In an effort to swing around the Boston opposition, Adams and the committee of correspondence sent the document into the surrounding countryside via the network formed by each town’s committee of correspondence.

Apparently, many towns found it difficult to support the action, and those who did usually made modifications to the language on the printed form they received from Boston. In the end, the effort was eclipsed in the fall of 1774 by similar actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Congress first visits the issues of nonimportation, nonexportation and nonconsumption in late September. The discussion centers on logistics and on the particular interests of individual provinces. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Those who signed the non-importation pledge promised to stop purchasing British goods, but also to cease business dealings with those who continued. This agreement eventually spread beyond Boston to surrounding communities such as Concord. (Concord Museum)

The Solemn League and Covenant was the first concerted response to the Boston Port Act. Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren are believed to be the architects and authors of this document, issued by the Boston Committee of Correspondence, and distributed to towns throughout Massachusetts. It is a more forceful non-consumption and non-importation agreement than any preceding it.

Joseph Warren stumbled politically in the initial implementation of the Covenant when Samuel Adams was away from Boston at a meeting of the House of Representatives in Salem. Despite bluster in the Boston Gazette of countrymen allegedly clamoring in droves to sign the document, acceptance was in fact spotty.

The growing likelihood over the summer of 1774 that a Continental Congress would become a reality, combined to render moot the Solemn League and Covenant.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Solemn League and Covenant:

Click to access Solemn-League-and-Covenant.pdf