John Yowan 1
CCAH
Sept. 27, 2004
Period 2
Revolutionary War
Howard Zinn believes that America’s victory in the revolution was “made possible by the existence of already armed people.”1 He says almost all white males had guns and could shoot. The leaders of the revolution had to get the white population to support their ideas. Zinn says that it was not an easy thing to convince the white population because general enthusiasm for the war was not strong. According to Zinn only a small amount of the people who started fighting in the Revolutionary War continued to fight through the entire war.
John Shy who Zinn
refers to as the author of the book A People Numerous and Armed, said They “grew weary of being bullied by local
committees of safety, by corrupt deputy assistant commissaries of supply, and
by bands of ragged strangers with guns in their hands calling themselves
soldiers of the Revolution.” 2Zinn
says Shy estimated that about one out of every five people in America was actively
treasonous. Also in the south slavery became a
problem.
South Carolina was still insecure because of the slave uprising in Stono in 1739. Almost all of South Carolina’s militia had to be used to keep slaves under control instead of fighting the British. People excluded from the militia during the revolution included friendly Indians, free Negroes, white servants, and free white men who had no stable
2
home. But in some
states poor people could join the army. The Military became a place of promise
for the poor because they could rise up in rank, make more money, and change
their social class.
Later in the revolution many states started a draft. In Connecticut a law was made that required military service from all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty not including certain government officials, ministers, Yale students and faculty, Negroes, Indians, and Mulattos. Someone who was drafted could get a substitute or pay five pounds get out of the army. When men did not show up for the military they were jailed and in order to be released, had to pledge to fight in the Revolution.
The Americans lost the first battles of the war. These included Bunker Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Harlem Heights, and the Deep South. Some small were battles were won at Trenton and Princeton. The Turning point in the war was the battle at Saratoga, New York, in 1777. With the help of the French the Americans won the final battle at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
At the same time there were conflicts between the rich and the poor. Eric Foner 3describes this time as "a time of immense profits for some colonists and terrible hardships for others,"4 In One month prices rose by forty-five percent, which led to agitation.
According to Paul Johnson the issue of the war was if the Americans could hold out long enough and keep an army in the field that was good enough. Another concern
3
was if the Americans had enough firepower to wear out and destroy Britain’s willingness to continue a struggle and pay for it.
The British had no fundamental national interest in fighting in the war. If they won it would only bring more political problems and if they lost it only hurt their pride. Few people outside London were interested in the outcome. The revolution made very little impact on the Literature, letters, newspapers, and diaries of the time. Almost nobody volunteered to fight in the war. Some people in the political group Whigs were “passionate” in opposing the war, but they had not popular support. The King and his ministers also did not have popular support for waging the war either.
The Americans were fortunate that they had
Washington as their commander-in-chief. Paul Johnson believes Washington was
the ideal commander for this type of conflict. He was not a great field
commander but he was a strategist. Washington knew that he had to train an
army, keep it in the field, supply it, and pay it. By doing this he kept all
thirteen State governments and the Congress functional.
Washington made it so the British were not
just fighting a collection of rebels or guerrillas but a nation. Washington was
always short on resources including arms, munitions, cannon, transport,
clothing, money, and food. But he managed to get enough to keep going.
Washington’s total forces number never went higher that 60,000 and he had an
annual desertion rate of twenty percent.
The British, Johnson says, “had no discernible
and certainly no consistent, strategy from beginning to end.”5 The British Strategy according to him
made no sense.
4
Lord George Germaine who was in charge of the war in the north had no
military gifts. He believed that the American militias could never be very
good.
Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the
United States. New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc. 2001.
Johnson, Paul. A History of the American
People. New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc. 1999.