Timothy Birdnow

AMDG

(Sorry for the crazy formatting problem. I've had a devil of a time writing this and after all was said and done this formatting issue occurred. I went through and corrected it by hand and then the site crashed before I could save all the changes - they had to be made in the editor, not in notepad first which is my custom. I just gave up for now; will try to come back and fix it later.)

I promised yesterday to round out our story about the



Battle of Yorktown and so I am keeping that

promise. Fate seems determined to keep me from doing

so; I had a long text written and it all deleted

again, for perhaps the fourth time now! This is my

last attempt and I'm going to save the text every step

of the way so I get it done.

While Yorktown largely ended the war (it didn't end it

completely all at once but the Bitish people soured on

the war after Yorktown and Parliament decided to make

peace, probably believing they could take the colonies

back in due course - and they tried in 1812. But it

was the confluence of highly improbable events that

led to the birth of the United States and I want to

flesh out how this all transpired.

First, to understand why the Marquis Cornwallis was at

Yorktown one must understand the British strategy in

waging the war. Britain believed the animosity was

mainly limited to New England and that the other

colonies were acting solely out of sympathy to a

brother colony. So they sought to cut New England off

from the other colonies, stop all aid and then crush

the rebels economically. This strategy failed. The British wanted to use the Hudson river to send up warships and thus control any

crossings into New England, but they were never able

to take the powerful fortress at West Point, which

commanded the high ground on both sides of a wicked

bend in the river. They almost took West Point by

subtrefuge thanks to the machinations of one of

Washington's most trusted men, but we'll get to that

later.

The other problem they had was Fort Ticonderoga, on

Lake Champlain. Ticonderoga was called the Gibralter

of the West for no small reason; it was a formidable

fortress that commanded the whole region. It fell

early in the war to the very same man who would later

try to hand over West Point, along with Ethan Allan of

the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont who were each

captaining an expedition to take the fortress. The

British would take it back for a time but lose it

again. Interestingly the first major naval battle of

the war was fought on the Lake in an effort to take -

and defend - Ticonderoga. The British had actually

carried a large warship overland and put it in the

lake and the Americans built a makeshift fleet to

attack. The Americans won.

Two other things plagued the British in their northern

strategy; one was a maddening lethargy that seemed to

settle over every British commander who was sent (at

one point there were THREE of them and all of them

seemed sucked into the black hole of sapped will,

largely because of the comforts of a place much like

home which included willing English women). The other

thing was George Washingto and the Continental Army

ever lurking about, attacking in places of their own

choosing, and moving like ghosts through the land.

As Commanders go Washington was only middling in terms

of military strategy and capabilities. He was actually

the man who started the French and Indian War when he

ordered his scouting party to fire on a party of

Frenchmen who were actually going to Virginia to

negotiate peace. It was the first shot fired in the

war, and Washington never acquitted himself all that

well after that. The British decided no colonials

would serve as officers because of Washington and he

left military service and married a rich widow, thus

acquiring his wife's plantation - Mount Vernon.

But Washington was a man of immense dignity and his

troops loved him despite his being a rather strict

disciplinarian. And Washington could run away like

nobody else. Several times he was cornered and the

British decided to take their time finishing him, only

to find the entire army gone when they finally pressed

the attack. He was the very best at a tacitcal

retreat.

At any rate Washington lost far more battles than he

won, but he kept fighting them. The British had

limited manpower and resources and while Washington's

army was broke and hungry they just kept coming.

In fact, Washington won just a few major battles. He

won Second Bunker Hill decisively and then lost almost

everything until he beat the Hessians at Trenton and

went on to take Princeton. The big victory for the

Americans came not under Washington but under Horation

"granny" Gates, a fusspot commander who wanted to be

in charge of the Continental army. He would have lost,

and in fact ordered a retreat, but a young officer

under his command disobeyed orders to stay out of the

fight, went into battle and turned the Colonial troops

into the fray and won the day. His name is not

mentioned now, not even at Saratoga, but one of the

earliest acts of Congress. Oh, and he was the same man

who took Ticonderoga. Guess his name?

At any rate this young man was shot in the leg and

needed to convalesce so George Washington saw he was

appointed governor of Philadelphia, which the British

had seized for a time. There the young officer met a

young woman named Peggy Shippen, whose father was a

stout loyalist to the British. And while there the

officer was accused of corruption by the state

governor, who was jealous of him. The scandal led

Congress to call for disciplinary action and George

Washington was forced to issue a strong reprimand. The

young officer, who was also owed quite a bit of money

by Congress, never forgage his former benefactor

Washington. When Washington approached him about a new

assignment he was going to essentially make him his

second in command, but the man asked to be put in

charge of West Point instead. Washington gave that to

him. The man immediately made plans to hand over the

formidable stronghold to the British, and lure

Washington into a trap where he would be hanged. By

dumb luck some highwaymen robbed the courrier between

the man and the British and Washington learned of the

treachery. It is illegal to this day to write the name

Benedict Arnold on any official document,and at

Saratoga, where he carried the day, Arnold is just

referred to as "a young officer".

At any rate the British attempt to split New England

off had failed so they went to plan B; the "southern

strategy". Cornwallis was dispateched to the South

where it was believed the public would be more

agreeable and helpful.

But it wasn't so easy; the South is full of swamps or

mountains and guerilla warfare was waged against the

Bloodbacks. Cornwallis authorized a "do whatever is

necessary" policy and some graat atrocities were

committed by the British troops. Any good will on the

part of the locals evaporated.

Still, Cornwallis was a formidable man and would go on

to be the man largely responsible for British control

of Indian later on. His problem was he was going up

against forces he could not hope to fight. I would

argue God Himself was against him.

Washington had dispatched Lafayette to the area to

harrass the British while he attempted to attack New

York City again. (Losing New York had stung his pride

and he was determined to take the city.) Cornwallis

chose the site on the peninsula between the James and

Susquehenna rivers with care, even though it was a

poor place to be situated for Cornwallis as the

peninsula was sandy and swampy and his back was to the

sea. But so what? That worked towards his plan.

It was a trap. He was hoping to lure Washington down

to support the much smaller forces of Lafayette.

The plan was simple; get the whole Continental army

together on the peninsula and then send British

warships up both rivers, cutting off Washington's

avenue of escape. Cornwallis had seen how good

Washington was at retreating and needed him pinned

down. So the gunship would lay down heavy fire and

Washington would be facing the very best forces the

British had, who would move inland and force

Washington to surrender or die.

This all depended on the British navy doing their job

- they didn't.

The fleet was up in Halifax and had they moved when

instructed all would have been lost for the Patriot

cause. But the admiral in charge of the fleet came

down with dysentary and his replacement was a long--

retired old coot who dottered for three days before

departing. The end result was the French forces,

coming up from the West Indiees, arrived first and the

British were trying to attack an entrenched navy. They

lost.

Cornwallis was caught in his own trap. With French

naval guns to his back and on either side and

Washington moving inexorably up the peninsula he was

in an untenable position.

(BTW Washington wanted to leave and attack New York

with so many British soldiers at Yorktown and the

French had to talk him out of it "you're excellency

you have won the war" they had to advise him.)

Day by day Washington moved on towards Cornwallis'

main body and engaged his forces repeatedly. Realizing

the jig was up Cornwallis was forced to surrender.

But he didn't do it. So ashamed at having lost to this

upstart faux general and his ragtag crew of militia

Cornwallis sent an aid with his sword, apologizing tht

the general was ill. Washington refused to accept the

surrender of a junior officer and sent one of his

lowest officers to accept for him. So the batle that

won American independence was settled by two minor

officers.

One condition Washington insisted on was that the

British not play any insulting music as they were

marched out. No Yankee Doodle (which mocked Americans)

or anything else of that stripe was permitted. So they

played a song called "the World Turned Upside-Down"

which indeed it had; the greatest military in the

world, with the greates navy and the one of the

greatest commanders the British had, had surrendered

to a bunch of rude hillbilly colonists.

While the war went on for some time thereafter it was

a foregone conclusion. The British People were sick of

paying for a losing proposition, and Parliament was

soured on it too. King George was furious, of course,

but he was also descending into madness at that point

and nobody was listening to him by then.

And what of Benedict Arnold, the brilliant and

courageous leader who threw it all away? The British

never trusted him, and while they made him a

commissioned officer he never had a decent command. He

moved to London where he died pretty much penniless a

few years later.

And we all know Washington was elected the first

President under the Constitution (there were

"presidents" under the Articles of Confederation too

but that was more like Senate Majority Leader than a

true executive and nobody even remembers their names)

and created so much of the executive branch of our

government. He was a titan, a man among men, who

voluntarily gave up power (in direct opposition to

King George's prediction that Washington would make

himself king).

Washington's strategy, if it WERE a strategy, during

the war was to fight defensively, make the British

move about and pick them off little by little. It was

OUR country, after all, and we knew it better than the

Brits, and there were three million of us to fight

them. It was a sound strategy considering this was the

best army and navy in the world. And it worked.

But also there were so many things that happened that

could have gone another way and ended the war. Had

Arnold's communique not been intercepted by criminals

who happened to be Patriots all would have been lost;

Washington would have been hanged and his lost would

have led to a sense of doom. There were so many other

cases in this; Washington was in the sights of ayoung

Briish soldier who stayed his hand because of the old

custom of not shooting officers. Had he fired it would

all have been over. Washington had several horses shot

from under him and was miraculously never harmed. He

broke up at least one plot against him by his

political rivals. His army survived miraculously,

winning at Trenton in the snow on Christmas day with

most of his troops about to leave his service. Many

were barefoot and it was said the red streak the left

in the snow that day could be seen from all around as

their feet bled. They caught the Hessians drunk and

carousing in their quarters and won handily.

America was truly blessed by God and the fact this

British Admiral got sick at a critical moment is proof

of that claim. If that hadn't happened Cornwallis

would have slaughtered the Continental Army and we

would all be eating Bangers and scones and drinking

tea under the Union flag (it's only called a jack at

sea, I once learned).

So yesterday was a day to remember and to cherish.

Sadly if school children learn of it at all it is no

doubt about how great a disaster it was for native

americans and how horrible it was that we won this

battle.

Hope you enjoyed this. I enjoyed writing it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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