[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. The Spanish, under French prodding, joined in the war againstBritain, as did other European powers.Except for a few men, notably the eighteen-year-old Count de Lafayette, who em- I NDEPENDENCE, WAR, AND REPUBLI CANI SM, 1776 1783 475braced the principles of the Revolution, the French wanted revenge against Britainrather than American independence.Although its regular army numbered over150,000 men, France never committed more than 20,000 men to the North Ameri-can struggle.Fortunately for the Americans, the army France sent to aid the revolu-tionaries was highly professional, and its commander, the Count de Rochambeau,was an able officer.Unfortunately for the Americans, the French army was filled witheasily offended aristocratic officers and slowed by their extensive baggage trains.(They even brought furniture.) The French expeditionary force insisted on operatingas an independent command and poorly coordinated their plans with their Ameri-can allies.The war in the North dragged on from 1778 through 1780, with neither side gain-ing a decisive advantage.The French navy and a small expeditionary force joined inthe Continentals attempt to drive the British out of Newport, Rhode Island, butfailed.Howe retreated from Philadelphia in 1778, but Washington s attempt to en-gage the British rear guard at the battle of Monmouth Court House ended inconclu-sively.Howe s timidity and miscalculation cost him his command, but his successor inNew York, Henry Clinton, did little better.Clinton was able but indecisive, fidgetingwhen boldness might have won the day.While the fighting around New York Citycontinued sporadically, Clinton sent three thousand men to take Georgia in the win-ter of 1778  1779.The idea behind the resumption of British military activity in theSouth was to rouse the southern loyalists.The British occupied Savannah, Augusta,and the surrounding countryside, but again the vast distances they had to traverseand the great space they had to defend slowed further penetration of the interior.In similar fashion, a British raid up the Chesapeake in May 1779 caused conster-nation in Virginia and destroyed shipping, supplies, and much of the town ofPortsmouth, but had no lasting effect on the war.The raid did demonstrate that theravaging of civilian property, rare in the first years of the war, had become com-monplace.In the same year Washington ordered punitive raids against the Iroquoiswho supported the British in the Mohawk Valley of New York.Clinton retaliated withhit-and-run attacks on southern New England towns, whose inhabitants, burned outof their homes, bellowed in protest against  waging War against innocent womenand children.Behind the LinesThe drudgery of drill, the duration of their service, and the distance from homeof their campaigns, added to the brutality in camp life, hardened the revolutionarysoldiers.The lack of sanitation in the camps killed more men than enemy action.Unaccustomed to living in such close quarters with other men, some recruits actedout their frustration by picking fights.Desertion became an epidemic, and desert-ers neighbors sometimes rescued the deserter from the soldiers sent to capture him. 476 FROM PROVI NCES OF EMPI RE TO A NEW NATI ONPlundering and pilfering from civilians and other troops occurred with such regu-larity that Washington asked Congress to raise the punishment of offenders fromone hundred to five hundred lashes.Congress, far from the scenes of the crimes andstill wedded to the idea of the virtuous citizen army, refused.Still, the records showthat courts-martial were always busy with deserters, thieves, thugs, and malinger-ers.Some were acquitted; most were punished with whipping.Upward of fifty menwere executed after courts-martial for mutiny, deserting to the enemy, or commit-ting a capital offense while in the service.By the middle years of the war, most Americans had tired of the conflict.Farmerswho had pledged allegiance to one side routinely traded with the other.For exam-ple, as the Continental army starved at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania farmers cartedtheir harvest past Valley Forge and sold their food to the British in Philadelphia.TheBritish had hard currency to pay for the goods, while the Continental army only hadthe paper money that Congress printed, and its value sunk daily.As James Thacher,a doctor serving with Washington s troops at Morristown, wrote in the fourth win-ter of the war,  Besides the evils above mentioned, we experience another, in therapid depreciation of the continental money, which we receive for our pay; it is nowestimated at about thirty for one.Congress printed tens of millions of dollars to pay its troops and suppliers.In1779 alone, the quartermaster and the commissary for the army spent $109,169,000.People who had money rushed to spend it before it became worthless.Ironically,among the biggest consumer items were tea and tobacco, still necessities despitetheir scarcity.As one member of Congress lamented, Americans  longed for thefineries and follies that had corrupted England.New York City importers did a bet-ter business during the war than before the war started, feeding the appetites of theBritish and loyalists within the city and, when the British were not looking, the wantsof revolutionaries who traded across the battle lines.Within the army, graft and corruption spread [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • agnieszka90.opx.pl