Episode 483: The American Revolution Part One

John Parker based British troops on Lexington Green. Stand your ground, Parker told his men don't fire unless fire to pong, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. A single shot, its origin never certain, set off a volley and eight Americans fell dead. The British pressed on to conquered, but at north Bridge they faced a stiff resistance. Militia sniping from behind stone walls and trees turned a retreat into a running gauntlet, killing or

wounding more than two hundred and fifty Red Coats. Within days, militia from New England surrounded Boston, beginning an eleven month siege, and June British troops under General William Howe assaulted America's position on Breed's Hill. By June of seventeen seventy five, the siege of Boston was in full swing. After Lexington had conquered in April, thousands of New England militia had encircled the city, hemming in the British under General Thomas Gage.

The British still controlled the harbor, but their supply lines over land had been cut. Now Boston itself settled in a narrow peninsula, connected to the mainland by a single neck of land. To the north across the Charles River lay the Charlestown Peninsula, with two prominent rises, Bunker Hill, which was further inland, and Breed's Hill, which was closer to the water. Whoever controlled these heights could command the harbor and northern approach to Boston with artillery. Rumors swelled

that the British intended to seize these hills. On the night of June sixteenth, seventeen seventy five, colonial commanders decided to beat them to it. Colonel William Prescott, accompanied by about one thousand men from Massachusetts and Connecticut, marched quietly across the Charlestown Neck under cover of darkness. Their orders were to fortify Bunker Hill, but for reasons still debated, they dug in at Breed's Hill instead, closer to Boston

but more exposed to attack. Throughout the night, militiamen worked feverishly shovels clinking against rocky soil, shaping a square earthen redoubts about eight feet high. By dawn, British lookouts in Boston were stunned to see the new fortification, silhouetted against the morning sky. From this position, Colonial guns could threaten British ships in the harbor. General Gage ordered an immediate assault to drive the rebels off, but instead of attacking

at once, the British spent the morning preparing. This delay gave the Americans more time to reinforce their position. Those supplies and ammunition were limited. Reinforcements under John Stark of New Hampshire and others took up positions along a rail fence running from the hill toward the Mystic River, improvising cover with whatever they could find bales of hay, some brush,

fence rails. In the early afternoon, British troops about two two hundred strong, crossed the Charles River in longboats and formed ranks on the Charlestown shore. They were led by Major General William Howe and Brigadier Robert Piggott. Red coated infantry advanced in tight formation under a blazing June sun, burdened by heavy packs and wool uniform. Before they could even close with the Americans, British artillery began pounding the

Redoubt and Friends line. At the same time, British guns in Boston set fire to Charlestown, sending up a massive pall of smoke to cover the battlefield. As the first wave of infantry approached, the Americans held their fire, waiting until the enemy was dangerously close. Accounts differ on who gave the famous command, but the intent was clear. Conserve ammunition and make every shot count. One officer we don't know who is remembered to shouting, don't fire until you

see the whites of their eyes. The first British assault staggered up the slope into a withering wall of musket fire. Red coated ranks crumbled. Survivors retreated down the hill to regroup. A second assault and me at the same fate. House officers struggled to keep their men advancing against the relentless volleys from the redoubt and the rail fence, but the americans ammunition was running out. By the third British advance, they were down to their last shots, resorting to firing

scrap metal when musket balls were gone. This time, the British fixed bayonets and surged forward. Inside the redoubt, Prescott fought desperately, parrying his sword and urging his men to hold, but with ammunition or bayonets of their own, the defenders were forced into a brutal hand to hand combat before the Americans eventually retreated toward Bunker Hill and across the

Charlestown Neck. In the end, the British had taken Breed's Hill, but at a massive cost, over one thousand killed and wounded, nearly half the attacking force, a pyrrhic victory if there ever was one. The Americans suffered similar casualties, around four hundred and fifty, but the morale effect was immense. They had stood toe to toe against the best army in the world and inflicted heavy losses, proving that the rebellion

could fight as equals on the field. In the days that followed, even General Gage admitted the high price of the victory, telling London that quote the loss we have sustained is greater than we can bear end quote. For the colonists, Bred's Hill became a rallying point, as Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, quote, our hopes are

not lost. We have only begun as a people. By Nate Fall On June seventeenth, seventeen seventy five, the Charlestown Peninsula was effectively a smoking ruin, but the revolutionary cause had gained something far greater than ground. It had finally gained some confidence. The Battle of Breds Hill, forever misnamed as the Battle of Bunker Hill, had shown that Liberty's

defense would be costly, but it would be possible. The Siege at Boston ended in March seventeen seventy six, when Colonel Henry Knox hauled cannon from Fort Tykwonderoga to the Dorchester Heights, forcing the British fleet to evacuate Boston. The focus of the war then shifted south, where Britain sought to crush the rebellion in New York. And we need to explain why. When the war began in April seventeen

seventy five. Boston was the center of armed resistance, but it was also a limited position from which Britain could control its war effort. It had extremely limited access to the countryside once the colonial militia surrounded it after Lexington and conquered, British General Thomas Gage could only supply his army by sea, and it was worse than that because Boston's harbor was more shallow than the British needed its

large as ships. The Ship of the Line was essentially the modern day equivalent of an aircraft carrier in its usefulness. But those ships had a huge draft, which means that they have a huge They need a lot of water to be able to navigate really deep ports, and Boston wasn't effective for that. The other of Boston harbor is it kind of looks like a giant half moon semi circle, and once you put cannons on the Dorchester Heights, they can hit any position within that harbor because they can

surround it completely. So you'd have two choices if you were a British naval officer. You could leave your ship in the harbor and get blasted to smitherings, or you can move out to the North Atlantic, where a storm might wipe you out at any moment. As a consequence, General William Howe, who was overall commanded the British forces at this point, recognized the untenable position and so he recognized that he needed to get out of Boston, and

he did. In March of seventeen seventy six. He left with his troops to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and took along any loyalist that he could. The withdrawal of the British made it clear that Boston was too small, too exposed, and too easily blockaded to serve as Britain's main base in the colonies. But the question then is, of course why New York. Well, New York had a series of advantages that I want to walk through. One is just geographic.

New York was ideally positioned at the mouth of the Hudson River, Controlling it offered a potential link between British forces in Canada and those operating in the South. If the British could seize the Hudson Corridor, they could split New England, the hotbed of rebellion, from the rest of the colonies, isolating it politically and militarily. Unlike Boston, New York had one of the best deep water harbors in

North America. This allowed the Royal Navy and its massive ship of the Line to anchor large fleets and maintain secure supply lines across the Atlantic. Its islands and waterways Staten Island, Long Island, Sound, the East and Hudson Rivers gave the British flexibility and maneuvering troops by ship. New York, unlike Boston, also had a very large loyalist population, particularly

among the merchants and wealthy landowners. British commanders hoped that taking the city would rally loyalist sentiment and encourage more colonists to declare for the Crown. As the second largest city in the colonies in a major commercial hub, New York was also symbolically and materially valuable. Occupying it could strike a blow to rebel morale while giving Britain a

secure administrative center for future operations. So the British plan was pretty straightforward, was to launch a massive assault on New York City in the summer of seventeen seventy six. He would bring overwhelming force, eventually over thirty thousand troops and hundreds of ships to crush the Continental army in one quick, decisive campaign. The British believed that capturing New York could both sever the rebellion's lifeline and compel the

Continental Congress to the negotiation table. But meanwhile, as we turned to that Continental Congress, we have to consider they's perspective and all this up until the summer of seventeen seventy six, this was not really for most American colonists about independence. This was about settling grievances with Great Britain. Most historians seemed to take the position that had George the Third been willing to negotiate with the colonists up to the summer of seventeen seventy six, this whole thing

could have been averted. And now there's a lot of factors that start to change American attitudes. And then the least of which is of course George's and transigents. But there are others, and so I want to talk about one really quickly, So enter stage left. Thomas Payne. Thomas Payne was born on January twenty ninth, seventeen thirty seven, in the small market town of Thetford in Norfolk, England. His father, Joseph Payne, was a Quaker and a corset

maker by trade. His mother, Francis Cook, was an. This mixed religious household gave young Thomas a perspective unusual for the time. He saw early tensions between faiths, but he also began to understand the ways in which different creeds can share the same home bed and obviously therefore country. Payne attended that Third Grammar school until he was thirteen, learning and excelling in Latin arithmetic and scripture, but his

formal education ended abruptly. Like many young men at his time, his family couldn't afford to keep him in school, and so he entered his father's trade, cutting whalebone and stitching stays for women's bodices, hardly a calling for an ambitious mind. Payne's twenties were a series of attempts to find steady footing, each ending in frustration. He tried the sea, serving briefly on a privateer during the Seven Years War. He became an excise officer, inspecting goods to enforce custom laws, but

he was twice dismissed for neglect of duty. His sympathies for struggling merchants and smugglers did not endear him to the Crown's revenue service. During this period, Hayne married twice. His first wife, Mary Lambert, died of illness within a year of their wedding. His second marriage, to Elizabeth Olive, ended in separation. The losses, combined with his career setbacks, left Pain in financial distress. In seventeen seventy two, he published The Case of the Officers of Excise, the pamphlet

petitioning Parliament for better wages for custom inspectors. It was a small work, but it revealed two key traits that would define his later career, a sympathy for the working poor and a knack for clear, forceful prose. In seventeen seventy four, Paine was in London, nearly destitute and seeking new opportunities. Fate intervened when he met no less than Benjamin Franklin, then serving as an American colonial agent in Britain.

Franklin recognized in Pain both intelligence and discontent with Britain's political order. He advised Paine to emigrate to the American colonies, writing him letters of introduction and arranging for his passage.

Paine arrived in Philadelphia in November of seventeen seventy four, weakened by a bout of shipboard Typhus, but invigorated by the energy of the city, a bustling port alive with political debate, he quickly found work as the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, where his essays championed abolition, women's rights, and the dignity of labor. He signed many articles simply

common sense, foreshadowing what was to come. The outbreak of fighting at Lexington and Concord in April seventeen seventy five transformed colonial unrest into open war. Pain new to America, but quick to grasp the stakes. Frustrated with those still hoping for reconciliation with Britain, he began drafting a pamphlet to cut through the legal arguments and emotional ties binding

the colonists to the Crown. In a rented room, Pain wrote with unrelenting directness, quote, the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. End quote. Rejecting monarchy, outright. Pain argued that hereditary rule was quote an insult and imposition on

posterity end quote, and that America's destiny was independence. The manuscript, sharpened by the advice of Philadelphia printer Robert Bell, appeared in January seventeen seventy six as Common Sense, selling an estimated one hundred and twenty thousand copies in its first three months, a staggering number for the era. Common Sense was read aloud in taverns, reprinted in newspapers, and carried

eventually by soldiers in the field. Its plain, impassioned style reached farmers and tradesmen who might never read a long political tract. Pain had given the revolution a language ordinary people could claim as their own. Before seventeen seventy six, Pain was a failed corset maker, a dismissed exciseman, a twice bereaved husband, and a newcomer to the American shore. By the time the ink dried on Common Sense, he had become the pen of the revolution, his words a

drum beat for independence. By the time Congress met in June seventeen seventy six, the war for Independence had already begun. In the battlefield. Blood had been shed at Lexington and Concord on Breed's Hill, and in Canada, George Washington's army stood between the British and New York City. Yet politically the colonies remained bound to the British crown. Many delegates still hoped for reconciliation. Others feared that declaring independence would

alienate wavering colonists and invite devastating retaliation. But of course, as I mentioned, there were several developments that pushed the issue forward. In January, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense had sold tens of thousands, making the case for independence painfully obvious. Quote the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth,

tis time to part end quote. In May of seventeen seventy six, the Continental Congress had advised each colony to form its own government, an unmistakable sign that the old imperial relationship was ending. On June the seventh, seventeen seventy six, Virginia Delegate Richard Henry Lee rose on the floor of Congress with instructions from the Virginia Convention. His resolution was bold and unambiguous that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states that are

absolved from all allegiance of the British Crown. The Chamber was now charged retention. Some delegations, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, were already Others Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina were hesitant or divided. New York's delegation was bound by instructions not to vote for independence at all. Because such momentous steps require unanimity, Congress decided to postpone a final vote. Instead, they appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration should the resolution

eventually pass. This committee of five consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson, at thirty three years old, was chosen to write the first draft. Working in his lodgings on Market Street, he composed a sweeping statement of principles and grievances, drawing on Enlightenment, philosophy,

and colonial experience. His opening, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, echoed John Locke's Natural Rights, but gave them a truly American voice. Jefferson's draft listed King George the Third's offenses dissolving colonial legislators, imposing taxes without consent, keeping standing armies in peacetime, cutting off trade, and waging war against his own subjects. Franklin and Adams made stylistic etics, softening some language and sharpening

other points. By the twenty eighth of June, the draft was presented to Congress for consideration, And so we come to July first and second, seventeen seventy six, the days of the decisive debate. When Congress reconvened on July the first, the debate was fierce. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania urged caution, arguing that independence would close the door on any chance

of a negotiated peace. John Adams responded in what contemporaries called one of the most powerful speeches of his life, insisting that the colonies had already been driven to endepen pendants by Britain's actions. Quote we are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of nations. End quote. By the end of the day, the delegations of Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed the Lee resolution, Delaware was split, and New

York still abstained. Then On the second of July, the tide shifted overnight. Caesar Rodney had ridden eighty miles through a thunderstorm to reach Philadelphia and join Delaware's delegation to cast his vote, and casting what had been a two to two deadlock in favor of independence. South Carolina, persuaded by Edward Rutledge, switched sides, and Pennsylvania's majority changed when two delegates opposed in abendance liberately stayed away. The vote

was taken twelve colonies in favor, none opposed. New York abstained. John Adams wrote to his wife and Abigail that July second quote will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the Great Anniversary Festival end quote. He was close with the question decided, Congress turned to Jefferson's draft. They made over eighty changes, removing some passages. They made over eighty changes, removing some passages, including a denunciation of the slave trade

that angered delegates from South Carolina and Georgia. On the fourth of July, Congress approved the final text. The vote for independence had actually been taken two days earlier, but now the declaration would be the public justification to be in town squares and printed in newspapers across States. John Hancock, President of Congress, affixed his bold signature, and copies were

sent to the States and to the army. But while conger Is debated and ratifying the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Britain continued to shift its gaze to New York. The British returned in overwhelming force, some thirty two thousand troops and four hundred ships to seize New York City on August twenty seventh. At the Battle of Long Island, Washington's army was flanked and nearly trapped. Only a nighttime evacuation across the East River saved the Continental Army from destruction.

Through September and October, Washington fought delaying actions at Harlem Heights and White Plains before retreating across New Jersey. By December, the situation was desperate. Enlistments were expiring, morale was collapsing, and Philadelphia braced for the British advance. By late December seventeen seventy six, the American Revolution was truly on the brink of collapse. Washington's army, now battered from defeat in New York and driven across New Jersey had dwindled to

a few thousand, ragged, frostbitten men. Enlistments would expire on the thirty first at the end of the year. Morale was so low that Thomas Paine, who was marching with the army, took up his pen to remind the soldiers in the public what they were fighting for, writing quote, these are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink. But he that stands now deserves the love and the

thanks of man and woman. End quote. And it was in this desperate moment that George Washington decided to throw the dice. He put everything on a pretty bold gamble, if I must say. The British, under General William Howe, had settled into their winter quarters. By this time their German allies, the Hessian troops, commanded by Colonel Johann Rahul, were stationed in a string of outposts along the Delaware River. Washington set his sights on Trenton, New Jersey, a Hessian

held town of about fifteen hundred soldiers. The plan was risky. Crossed the ice choke Delaware River on Christmas night, marched nine miles to Trenton and strike at dawn. The choice of timing was deliberate. The Hessians, Washington believed, would be caught off guard after Christmas festivals, perhaps dulled by drink, and confident that no attack would come in the dead of winter. On the evening of December the twenty fifth, under a freezing sleet rain, Washington led about two four

hundred men from mcconnie's ferry north of Trenton. The operation was made harder by the river itself, swollen by the winter melt, packed with chunks of ice, and whipped with strong winds. Colonel Henry Knox oversaw the ferrying of men, horses, and eighteen pieces of artillery across the treacherous waters in Durham boats. The crossing took far longer than expected. Instead of reaching the New Jersey shore by midnight, the last

units landed around four in the morning. Washington pressed on despite the delay, knowing that the surprise was the key. The men marched south through blinding sleet, most without proper shoes. Some left bloody footprints in the snow. Washington divided the force into two columns, one under his direct command and under Major General Nathaniel Greene. The plan was to converge on Trenton from different roads and envelop the Hessians. The storm that made the march miserable for the Americans had

also massed their approach. Hessian patrols saw nothing unusual at all in the near white out conditions. At around eight am on December the twenty sixth, Washington's column burst into Trenton from the north, Greens from the west. Knox's artillery was quickly unlimbered and began pounding the streets, cutting off escape routes. The Hessians, surprised and disorganized, scrambled to form ranks. Colonel Rawl tried to rally his men, but he was mortally wounded in the fighting. In less than an hour,

the American forces had surrounded the town. By the time that the shooting had stopped, over nine hundred Hessians had surrendered, with minimal American casualties. The victory at Trenton electrified the colonies. It proved that Washington's army, even after months of defeat,

could still strike a decisive blow. It also reinvigorated morale, inspiring many soldiers to re enlist and fresh recruits to join Washington followed that with another triumph at Princeton on January the third, seventeen seventy seven, keeping the momentum alive in a war where perception and spirit were as important as territory. The Delaware crossing and the capture of Trenton transformed the narrative from one of inevitable collapse and defeat

to one of determined resistance. As one Continental soldier wrote in his journal, this day will be remembered when our cause seem lost, Providence smiled upon our arms.