The History Book Club discussion

This is the Week Four - non spoiler thread for the book The British are Coming: The War For America, Lexington To Princeton, 1775-1777 - (The Revolution Trilogy #1) by Rick Atkinson.

by Rick Atkinson

Hello Everyone,

For the week of June 1st - June 7th, 2020, we are reading Part One - Chapters Seven and Eight and Part Two - Chapter Nine.

The fourth week's reading assignment is:

Week Four (June 1st - June 7th) - pages 182 - 240

Part One - continued:

7. THEY FOUGHT, BLED, AND DIED LIKE ENGLISHMEN
Norfolk, Virginia, December 1775   - page 182

8. THE PATHS OF GLORY
Quebec, December 3, 1775–January 1, 1776 - page 195

Part Two   - page 217

9. THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE
Boston, January – February 1776 - page 219

We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.

This book was kicked off May 10th

We look forward to your participation. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library, or on your Kindle.

There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to get started and/or to post.

Bentley will be moderating this selection. And Lorna will be my backup.

Welcome,

~Bentley

TO ALWAYS SEE ALL WEEKS' THREADS SELECT VIEW ALL

by Rick Atkinson

REMEMBER NO SPOILERS ON THE WEEKLY NON SPOILER THREADS - ON EACH WEEKLY NON SPOILER THREAD - WE ONLY DISCUSS THE PAGES ASSIGNED OR THE PAGES WHICH WERE COVERED IN PREVIOUS WEEKS. IF YOU GO AHEAD OR WANT TO ENGAGE IN MORE EXPANSIVE DISCUSSION - POST THOSE COMMENTS IN ONE OF THE SPOILER THREADS. THESE CHAPTERS HAVE A LOT OF INFORMATION SO WHEN IN DOUBT CHECK WITH THE CHAPTER OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY TO RECALL WHETHER YOUR COMMENTS ARE ASSIGNMENT SPECIFIC. EXAMPLES OF SPOILER THREADS ARE THE GLOSSARY, THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, THE INTRODUCTION AND THE BOOK AS A WHOLE THREADS.

Notes:

It is always a tremendous help when you quote specifically from the book itself and reference the chapter and page numbers when responding. The text itself helps folks know what you are referencing and makes things clear.

Citations:

If an author or book is mentioned other than the book and author being discussed, citations must be included according to our guidelines. Also, when citing other sources, please provide credit where credit is due and/or the link. There is no need to re-cite the author and the book we are discussing however.

Here is the link to the thread titled Mechanics of the Board which will help you with the citations and how to do them.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Also, the citation thread: (for Unreasonable Men - look at examples)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Introduction Thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Table of Contents and Syllabus

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Glossary

Remember there is a glossary thread where ancillary information is placed by the moderator. This is also a thread where additional information can be placed by the group members regarding the subject matter being discussed. In the case of this book we have two glossaries which are brought over from other selections (same timeframe) that we will add to.

Here are the links:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Bibliography

There is a Bibliography where books cited in the text are posted with proper citations and reviews. We also post the books that the author may have used in his research or in his notes. Please also feel free to add to the Bibliography thread any related books, etc with proper citations or other books either non fiction or historical fiction that relate to the subject matter of the book itself. In the case of this book, Rick Atkinson's primary sources start on page 703.
No self promotion, please.

Here is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Book as a Whole and Final Thoughts - Spoiler Thread

Here is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

by Rick Atkinson

Chapter Overviews and Summaries

Part One - continued:

7. THEY FOUGHT, BLED, AND DIED LIKE ENGLISHMEN
Norfolk, Virginia, December 1775   

Our attention is turned to Norfolk, Viriginia - December, 1775.

8. THE PATHS OF GLORY
Quebec, December 3, 1775–January 1, 1776

Back to Quebec - December 3, 1775 - January 1, 1776.

Part Two

9. THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE
Boston, January – February 1776

We turn our attention to Boston - January - February 1776.

And so we begin:

7. They Fought, Bled, and Died Like Englishmen
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, DECEMBER 1775


John Murray, the fourth earl of Dunmore and the royal governor of Virginia, had few rivals as the most detested British official in North America, particularly after he emancipated slaves owned by his rebel opponents. “That arch traitor to the rights of humanity, Lord Dunmore, should be instantly crushed,” Washington declared.

John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore and the royal governor of Virginia, had few rivals as the most detested British official in North America.

Now forty-five, he was a short, pugnacious Scot whose father had been arrested for treason in the 1745 Jacobite rising.

Young John subsequently chose to serve the English Crown as a soldier and was permitted to inherit the title after his father’s death in 1756. His estates in Perthshire provided £3,000 annually, but the fourth earl had accumulated both eleven children and expensive tastes.

He hired the eminent artist Joshua Reynolds to paint his portrait, in tam-o’-shanter and highland tartans; he also built a summer house with an enormous stone cupola shaped like a pineapple, later derided as “the most bizarre building in Scotland.”

Finding himself in financial straits, Dunmore sought to enlarge his fortune abroad.

Appointed governor of New York in 1770, he had no sooner arrived than London reassigned him to Virginia, a disappointment that sent him stumbling through Manhattan streets in a drunken rage, roaring, “Damn Virginia … I’d asked for New York.” One loyalist reflected, “Was there ever such a blockhead?”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 182). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

More:
http://www.thepeerage.com/info.htm

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, PC (1730 – 25 February 1809)



John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, PC (1730 – 25 February 1809), generally known as Lord Dunmore, was a Scottish peer and colonial governor in the American colonies and The Bahamas. He was the last royal governor of Virginia.

Lord Dunmore was named governor of the Province of New York in 1770. He succeeded to the same position in the Colony of Virginia the following year, after the death of Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt. As Virginia's governor, Dunmore directed a series of campaigns against the trans-Appalachian Indians, known as Lord Dunmore's War. He is noted for issuing a 1775 document (Dunmore's Proclamation) offering freedom to any slave who fought for the Crown against the Patriots in Virginia. Dunmore fled to New York after the Burning of Norfolk in 1776, and later returned to Britain. He was Governor of the Bahama Islands from 1787 to 1796.

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mu...

Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Virginia, PBS, Varsity Tutors, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Appleton's



Flight of Lord Dunmore.
This 1907 color postcard commemorates the flight of John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore and last royal governor of Virginia, from the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg to safety on the British man-of-war Fowey in June 1775. Dunmore essentially disarmed the colonists on April 20, 1775, by removing their gunpowder from the public magazine, and their strong reaction caused him to abandon permanently his Williamsburg post, seek Loyalist supporters in Hampton Roads, and ultimately sail to Great Britain in 1776.

The postcard was created for the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition in Norfolk.

Original Author: Ogden, artist, for the Jamestown Amusement & Vending Co., Inc.; American Colortype Co., printers
Created: 1907
Medium: Color halftone photomechanical postcard
Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

More:
http://www.thepeerage.com/p10852.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11941 (Lord Dunsmore's War)
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2i...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2i...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2i...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2i...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Applet...
https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyam...
http://www.redhill.org/biography.html
Numerous Errors in Wilstach's "Tidewater Virginia" Challenge Criticism
J. Luther Kibler
The William and Mary Quarterly
Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr., 1931), pp. 152-156 - Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1921010?...
by John Esten Cooke (no photo)
by James Corbett David (no photo)
by David Williamson (no photo)
by Michael Lee Lanning (no photo)
by Ray Raphael (no photo)
by Stephanie True Peters

Did you know that pineapple were first grown in Scotland in 1731?



The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly ranked "as the most bizarre building in Scotland", stands in Dunmore Park, near Airth in Stirlingshire.

The walled garden at Dunmore Park

Dunmore Park, the ancestral home of the Earls of Dunmore, includes a large country mansion, Dunmore House, and grounds which contain, among other things, two large walled gardens.

Walled gardens were a necessity for any great house in a northern climate in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, as a high wall of stone or brick helped to shelter the garden from wind and frost, and could create a microclimate in which the ambient temperature could be raised several degrees above that of the surrounding landscape. This allowed the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and also of ornamental plants, which could not otherwise survive that far north.

The larger of the two gardens covers about six acres, located on a gentle south-facing slope.

South-facing slopes are the ideal spot for walled gardens and for the cultivation of frost-sensitive plants. Along the north edge of the garden, the slope had probably originally been more steep. To allow both the upper and lower parts of the garden to be flat and level at different heights, it was necessary to bank up the earth on the higher northern side (away from the main house), behind a retaining wall about 16 feet (4.9 metres) high, and 3 ft 3 in (1.0 m) thick, which runs the entire length of the north side of the garden.[3]

Walled gardens sometimes included one hollow, or double, wall which contained furnaces, openings along the side facing the garden to allow heat to escape into the garden, and chimneys or flues to draw the smoke upwards. This particularly benefited fruit trees or grape vines that could, if grown within a few feet of a heated, south-facing wall, be grown even further north than the microclimate created by a walled garden would normally allow.

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore...

Source: Wikipedia

More:
https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/t...
http://www.visitfalkirk.com/things-to...
https://www.scottish-places.info/feat...
http://gillonj.tripod.com/ascottishpi...
https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/sear...

Did Washington have a less than altruistic motive for helping to lead the Continental Army? Your thoughts.


The Ex-Slaves Who Fought with the British (check out article below by Christopher Klein) - While the patriots battled for freedom from Great Britain, upwards of 20,000 runaway slaves declared their own personal independence and fought on the side of the British

"Rebel leaders persuaded Virginians that rebellion “would enhance their opportunities and status,” the historian Alan Taylor later wrote, while also safeguarding political liberties threatened by an overbearing mother country.

Planter aristocrats—like the Washingtons, Lees, and Randolphs—helped lead the uprising, but only by common consent. Moreover, evangelical churches, notably the Baptists and Methodists, were promised elevated standing “by disestablishing the elitist Anglican Church” favored by Crown loyalists.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 183). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

More:

all by Alan Taylor

Source: Wikipedia

Did you ever think that America started as a "fractious, disputatious, gun toting country with all the privates thinking they were generals" and with "very independent, courageous, pugnacious and fearless people" and that is why nothing has changed? Your thoughts?


The Virginia Gazette

"The colony became a leader in boycotting British goods and in summoning the Continental Congress to Philadelphia. Courts closed. Militia companies drilled. The Virginia Gazette published the names of loyalists considered hostile to liberty; some were ordered into western exile or to face the confiscation of their estates. “Lower-class men who did not own property saw the break from Britain as a chance to gain land and become slaveholders,” the historian Michael Kranish would write".

Note: All I could say was wow. Some broke from England so that they could own some land and have their own slaves! And then your name would be published in the newspaper if someone did not think you wanted to break from England! And you could be exiled! Tough times. Rough.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 183). Henry Holt and Co. Kindle Edition.

More:

by Michael Kranish (no photo)

Source: Wikipedia

The Ex-Slaves Who Fought with the British by Christopher Klein



While the patriots battled for freedom from Great Britain, upwards of 20,000 runaway slaves declared their own personal independence and fought on the side of the British.

When American colonists took up arms in a battle for independence starting in 1775, that fight for freedom excluded an entire race of people—African-Americans. On November 12, 1775, General George Washington decreed in his orders that “neither negroes, boys unable to bear arms, nor old men” could enlist in the Continental Army.

Two days after the patriots’ military leader banned African-Americans from joining his ranks, however, black soldiers proved their mettle at the Battle of Kemp’s Landing along the Virginia coast. They captured an enemy commanding officer and proved pivotal in securing the victory—for the British.

After the battle, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia who had been forced to flee the capital of Williamsburg and form a government in exile aboard the warship HMS Fowey, ordered the British standard raised before making a startling announcement. For the first time in public he formally read a proclamation that he had issued the previous week granting freedom to the slaves of rebels who escaped to British custody.


A copy of Dunmore’s Proclamation, issued November 7, 1775.
Library of Congress

Dunmore’s Proclamation was “more an announcement of military strategy than a pronouncement of abolitionist principles,” according to author Gary B. Nash in “The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America.” The document not only provided the British with an immediate source of manpower, it weakened Virginia’s patriots by depriving them of their main source of labor.

Much like Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, however, Dunmore’s Proclamation was limited in scope. Careful not to alienate Britain’s white Loyalist allies, the measure applied only to slaves whose masters were in rebellion against the Crown. The British regularly returned slaves who fled from Loyalist masters.

Dunmore’s Proclamation inspired thousands of slaves to risk their lives in search of freedom. They swam, dog-paddled and rowed to Dunmore’s floating government-in-exile on Chesapeake Bay in order to find protection with the British forces. “By mid-1776, what had been a small stream of escaping slaves now turned into a torrent,” wrote Nash. “Over the next seven years, enslaved Africans mounted the greatest slave rebellion in American history.”

Among those slaves making a break for freedom were eight belonging to Peyton Randolph, speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and several belonging to patriot orator Patrick Henry who apparently took his famous words—“Give me liberty, or give me death!”—to heart and fled to British custody. Another runaway who found sanctuary with Dunmore was Harry Washington, who escaped from Mount Vernon while his famous master led the Continental Army.

Dunmore placed these “Black Loyalists” in the newly formed Ethiopian Regiment and had the words “Liberty to Slaves” embroidered on their uniform sashes. Since the idea of escaped slaves armed with guns stirred terror even among white Loyalists, Dunmore placated the slaveholders by primarily using the runaways as laborers building forts, bridges and trenches and engaging in trades such as shoemaking, blacksmithing and carpentry. Women worked as nurses, cooks and seamstresses.

As manpower issues grew more dire as the war progressed, however, the British army became more amenable to arming runaway slaves and sending them into battle. General Henry Clinton organized an all-black regiment, the “Black Pioneers.” Among the hundreds of runaway slaves in its ranks was Harry Washington, who rose to the rank of corporal and participated in the siege of Charleston.

On June 30, 1779, Clinton expanded on Dunmore’s actions and issued the Philipsburg Proclamation, which promised protection and freedom to all slaves in the colonies who escaped from their patriot masters. Blacks captured fighting for the enemy, however, would be sold into bondage.


Colonel Tye, pictured left from the center, depicted fighting with the British in the painting The Death of Major Peirsons. Universal History Archive/Getty Images

According to Maya Jasanoff in her book “Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World,” approximately 20,000 black slaves joined the British during the American Revolution. In contrast, historians estimate that only about 5,000 black men served in the Continental Army.

As the American Revolution came to close with the British defeat at Yorktown in 1781, white Loyalists and thousands of their slaves evacuated Savannah and Charleston and resettled in Florida and on plantations in the Bahamas, Jamaica and other British territories throughout the Caribbean. The subsequent peace negotiations called for all slaves who escaped behind British lines before November 30, 1782, to be freed with restitution given to their owners. In order to determine which African-Americans were eligible for freedom and which weren’t, the British verified the names, ages and dates of escape for every runaway slave in their custody and recorded the information in what was called the “Book of Negroes.”

With their certificates of freedom in hand, 3,000 black men, women and children joined the Loyalist exodus from New York to Nova Scotia in 1783. There the Black Loyalists found freedom, but little else. After years of economic hardship and denial of the land and provisions they had been promised, nearly half of the Black Loyalists abandoned the Canadian province. Approximately 400 sailed to London, while in 1792 more than 1,200 brought their stories full circle and returned to Africa in a new settlement in Sierra Leone. Among the newly relocated was the former slave of the newly elected president of the United States—Harry Washington—who returned to the land of his birth.

Source: History.com

More:
by Maya Jasanoff
by Gary B. Nash

After reading the Klein article (which I hope you will do) - what are your impressions of Washington's motivations for leading the Continental Army? What did you think about the British terms for peace giving freedom to those slaves who fought for the British and restitution to their owners at the same time? Were you surprised that even Harry Washington was among them and ended up being taken back to the land of his birth to a settlement in Sierra Leone?


This portrait of an unidentified Revolutionary War sailor was painted in oil by an unknown artist, circa 1780. Prior to the war, many blacks were already experienced seamen, having served in the British navy and in the colonies' state navies, as well as on merchant vessels in the North and the South. This sailor's dress uniform suggests that he served in the navy, rather than with a privateer. Image Credit: The Newport Historical Society (P999)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_...
https://www.americanrevolution.org/bl...
https://notevenpast.org/black-loyalis...
(no image) The Negro Revolution in America by William Brink (no photo)
by Michael Lee Lanning (no photo)
by Alan Gilbert (no photo)
by Woody Holton (no photo)
by W.B. Hartgrove (no photo)
by Vincent Carretta (no photo)
by Sidney Kaplan (no photo)
by William Allison Sweeney (no photo)
by Jim Piecuch (no photo)
by William Cooper Nell
by Gordon S. Wood
by Benjamin Arthur Quarles
by William Wells Brown
by George Henry Moore
by Gary B. Nash
by Sylvia R. Frey

Source: PBS, The Newport Historical Society, Wikipedia, history.com

It doesn't sound like Lord Dunsmore was the brave soul that he depicted in his note to London does it? He fled in the dark of night and paid back the colonists (he called them rebels) what was owed to them because of his theft.

And, of course, heaven forbid if he had any Catholic blood in his veins so "off with the printing press" And then he becomes the "emancipator"! Did anyone think that Gage finally did not look so bad? Your thoughts?

Baffled by Virginians’ “blind and unreasoning fury,” Dunmore brooded in his palace. He peppered London with complaints and with unreliable appraisals of colonial politics, receiving little guidance in return.

In April 1775, even before learning of events in Lexington and Concord, he ordered a marine detachment to confiscate gunpowder from the public magazine in Williamsburg on grounds that “the Negroes might have seized upon it.”

Rebel drums beat and militia “shirtmen”—so named for their distinctive hunting garb—threatened “to seize upon or massacre me,” he told Whitehall.

After reimbursing the rebels £330 for the powder he had impounded, in early June he fled with his family in the dark of night for refuge first aboard the Magdalen, then on the Fowey, and eventually on the Eilbeck, an unrigged merchant tub he renamed for himself.

With his wife and children dispatched to Britain, Dunmore’s dominion was reduced to a gaggle of loyalist merchants, clerks, and scrofulous sailors. Still, with just a few hundred more troops, he wrote London in August, “I could reduce the colony to submission.”

The Gazette would accuse him of “crimes that would even have disgraced the noted pirate Blackbeard.” Most of his felonies involved what were derided as “chicken-stealing expeditions” against coastal plantations, although he also impounded a Norfolk printing press from a seditious publisher who dared suggest that Catholic blood ran through Dunmore’s veins. But then the earl decided to become an emancipator.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 183-184). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Today's Progress:

Part One - continued: - We continued Part One.

7. THEY FOUGHT, BLED, AND DIED LIKE ENGLISHMEN
Norfolk, Virginia, December 1775   - page 182 - We began discussion and moderator postings for this chapter - up through 184

We have begun this week's reading and what an interesting chapter - chapter 7 is! Remember this week we can discuss any page from the beginning of the book through page 240.

Good night!

All, we can begin posting about Chapters 7 through 9 now. You may respond to any of the discussion questions that I have posted or you can bring up some interesting ideas of your own about the chapters and the book. If you do quote from the book, please note the chapter and page number if you can - it always helps our readers.

You may discuss anything from the beginning of the book through the end of Chapter 9. Spoilers on a spotlighted read can be posted on the glossary thread which is a spoiler thread.

However, always try to assist your fellow members by indicating what chapter and if you can tell us - what page you are referring to. It always helps.

If you discuss books aside from the book we are reading - please provide the full citation. I have added many ancillary books as we go along which you might want to read on your own at a later time.

If you have not introduced yourself and you are new to the conversation (it is never too late to join in), please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from globally - city and state if USA, city and country if you are global - we love to know where everybody is from who is reading with us.

So we begin week four of the reading and discussion. Welcome all.

Regarding Dunsmore and Slavery:

What are your thoughts regarding these quotes? Pick one and discuss.

First:
In truth, although slavery had begun to disappear in England and Wales, Britain’s colonial economy was built on a scaffold of bondage. Among many examples, the almost two hundred thousand slaves in Jamaica outnumbered whites fifteen to one, and an uprising in 1760 had been suppressed by shooting several hundred blacks. The slave trade, carried largely in British ships, had never been more prosperous than in the years just before the American rebellion, and Britain would remain the world’s foremost slave-trading nation into the nineteenth century.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 184). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Second:
"Liberation applied only to the able-bodied slaves of his foes. There would be no deliverance for his own fifty-seven slaves—abandoned in Williamsburg when he fled and for whom he would claim compensation from the government—nor would loyalists’ chattel be freed. The governor intended to crush a rebellion, not reconfigure the social order.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 185). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Third:
“This pink-cheeked time-server,” as the historian Simon Schama called Dunmore, “had become the patriarch of a great black exodus.” Thomas Jefferson would later claim that from Virginia alone tens of thousands of slaves escaped servitude during the war, a number likely inflated but suggestive of white anxiety.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 185). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Fourth:
"An American letter written on December 6 and subsequently published in a London newspaper captured the prevailing sentiment: “Hell itself could not have vomited anything more black than his design of emancipating our slaves.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 186). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Fifth:
Edward Rutledge, a prominent South Carolina politician, wrote in December that arming freed slaves tended “more effectually to work an eternal separation between Great Britain and the colonies than any other expedient which could possibly have been thought of.” >Had the British “searched through the world for a person the best fitted to ruin their cause,” wrote Richard Henry Lee, “they could not have found a more complete agent than Lord Dunmore.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 186). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Sixth:
"No slave master was more incensed than General Washington. “That arch traitor to the rights of humanity, Lord Dunmore, should be instantly crushed, if it takes the force of the whole colony to do it,” he wrote. In another outburst from Cambridge, Washington told Lee, “Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will secure peace in Virginia.” Otherwise, the governor “will become the most formidable enemy America has.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 186). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

The colonists burned as well:

“The detested town of Norfolk is no more!” a midshipman wrote. The “dirty little borough,” now reduced to ash and skeletal chimneys, had suffered greater damage than would befall any town in America during the Revolution.

An investigative commission the following year found that of 1,331 structures destroyed in and near Norfolk, the British had demolished 32 before evacuating the town, then burned 19 more during the January 1 bombardment.

Militia troops burned 863 in early January, and another 416 in the subsequent razing ordered by the convention. But that accounting remained secret for sixty years and then was buried in a legislative journal that stayed hidden for another century, as the historian John E. Selby would note.

Blaming the redcoats for wanton destruction was convenient, and like ruined Falmouth in Maine or Charlestown in Massachusetts, Norfolk became a vivid emblem of British cruelty.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 192-193). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Discussion Questions:

1. What did either the British or the colonists hope to gain by burning the towns? That certainly was not going to bring the conflict to an end sooner - only dragging it out and/or making it worse.

2. It appeared that both sides did not have control of their troops and "revenge" seemed to run rampant. What were your thoughts on the passage regarding the title of this chapter? I decided not to copy it here because it was entirely offensive.

Today's Progress - June 1st.

Week Four (June 1st - June 7th) - pages 182 - 240

✓Part One - continued: (We continued Part One)

✓7. THEY FOUGHT, BLED, AND DIED LIKE ENGLISHMEN
Norfolk, Virginia, December 1775   - page 182 - We completed this chapter today.

8. THE PATHS OF GLORY - We will begin this chapter tomorrow.
Quebec, December 3, 1775–January 1, 1776 - page 195

Part Two   - page 217

9. THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE - Not started yet.
Boston, January – February 1776 - page 219

Folks, all readers - please select some of the discussion questions and post your responses, opinions, ideas etc. There are no right or wrong answers.

This is where we are at the end of day today.

Have a good day!

And so we begin Chapter Eight - The Paths of Glory

8. The Paths of Glory QUEBEC, DECEMBER 3, 1775–JANUARY 1, 1776

A lowering sky the color of slag hung over Pointe-aux-Trembles at ten a.m. on Sunday, December 3.

Although it was cold enough to split stone, as the habitants said, the sight of canvas sails gliding down the St. Lawrence brought Colonel Benedict Arnold and his troops tromping through foot-deep snow from their flint cobble farmhouses to the river’s edge.

The brig Gaspé, the schooner Mary, and several smaller vessels—all seized from the British as they’d tried to flee Montreal a fortnight earlier—rounded a point on the north bank, nosing through patches of ice, then hove to and dropped their anchors. Cheers echoed through the aspens as a skiff from the little flotilla scraped onto the beach and Brigadier General Richard Montgomery stepped ashore, ready to complete the conquest of Quebec.

Three hundred soldiers came with him, mostly New Yorkers in captured British uniforms. They brought the combined American invasion force to just under a thousand, half the number Arnold had estimated would be needed to overwhelm Fortress Quebec.

Many of Montgomery’s New Englanders, including the Green Mountain Boys, had bolted south after Montreal’s surrender. “They have such an intemperate desire to return home,” General Schuyler told Congress in a note from Ticonderoga, “that nothing can equal it.”

If short of manpower, Montgomery brought ample munitions and winter garb confiscated from enemy stocks: cannons and mortars; sealskin moccasins, red cloth caps trimmed in fur, and underjackets with corduroy sleeves; full-skirted, hooded white overcoats; and more new uniforms from Britain that had been intended for the 26th and 7th Regiments. Forty more barrels of gunpowder—two tons—would shortly follow from Montreal.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 195). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Discussion Questions:

1. Since General Richard Montgomery's troops (now New Yorkers) seem to have donned the British uniforms - I wonder whether it was difficult for their own troops to be recognized and not fired upon? Did anyone else think that this group must have looked like a motley crew indeed? They were obviously well stocked having taken the British supplies, uniforms and other clothing, etc.

2. What impression was given by the author regarding the New Englanders and the rapid departure of the Green Mountain Boys? Do you think that Schuyler was just stating a fact or was there a bit of resentment in his note? Why did Atkinson include this detail?

3. What color did you assume was meant by the color of slag?

Philip Schuyler



Tall, thin, and florid, with kinky hair and erratic health, Major General Philip Schuyler was among America’s wealthiest, most accomplished men. He would command the invasion of Canada in 1775. - Ph. Schuyler, date unknown. (Courtesy Print Collection, New York Public Library)



Surrender of General Burgoyne, by John Trumbull, c. 1821. Courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol. Schuyler can be seen on the right side of the portrait, dressed in brown.

Philip Schuyler was born on November 11, 1733 in Albany, New York to parents Johannes “John” Schuyler Jr. and Cornelia Van Cortlandt. Schuyler’s family migrated from Amsterdam in 1650 and were related to the families of the old Dutch aristocracy. Schuyler’s second great-grandfather was the first mayor of Albany, New York, the place of his birth.

Philip Schuyler began his military service during the French and Indian War as a captain and was later promoted to major. He partook in the battles of Lake George, Oswego River, Ticonderoga, and Fort Frontenac.

After his first stretch in the military, Schuyler ventured into politics. He began his tenure as a New York State Assemblyman in 1768 and served until 1775 when he was selected as a delegate to the second Continental Congress in May of that year. On June 19, 1775, he was commissioned as one of only four major generals in the Continental Army. He established his headquarters in Albany, NY and began planning an invasion of Canada. Early into his campaign he was plagued with a medical condition that caused command to be deferred to General Richard Montgomery. After leaving his regiment he returned to Fort Ticonderoga and then later to his hometown of Albany. He remained there for the winter of 1775 to 1776 where he collected supplies and forwarded them to Canada. He also aided the American effort in subduing British forces in the Mohawk Valley region of Western New York.

Schuyler’s original plan to invade Canada fell short upon the death of General Montgomery and the Patriot force’s failure to capture Quebec. Upon the American troops’ retreat to Crown Point and the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga, General Horatio Gates attempted to claim precedence over Schuyler and sought Schuyler’s dismissal from service. The matter was taken up in front of Congress and Schuyler was superseded in August of 1777. Schuyler requested a trial in military court to prove his case. Schuyler was acquitted on all charges in 1778, but his reputation was still damaged. He resigned from military service in April of 1779.

Upon his departure from military service he reentered politics and served first as a delegate from New York to the Continental Congress from 1797 to 1781 and then three terms in the New York State Senate from 1781 to 1997. He served a term as a United States Senator from New York but lost his seat to Aaron Burr, who’s campaign was backed by enemies of Schuyler. Alexander Hamilton was enraged by the Schuyler’s loss, as Hamilton backed his campaign due to his support of New York ratifying the Federal constitution.

In addition to being a political ally of Schuyler’s, Alexander Hamilton married Schuyler’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 1780. Once Hamilton regained control of New York State politics, Schuyler won back his seat in the United States Senate from Aaron Burr in 1797. Schuyler served only a few years of his term before resigning due to poor health. Philip Schuyler died on November 18, 1804.


Schuyler Mansion


Source: American Battlefield Trust, Encyclopedia Britannica, PBS, New Netherland Institute, Fandom, American Revolutionary War, Founders Archive, Schuyler Mansion, Albany Institute, Mount Vernon, Find a Grave, Times Union, Congress, National Park Service, Union College, Smithsonian

More:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.or...
https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.or...
https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/le...
https://founders.archives.gov/documen...
https://founders.archives.gov/documen...
https://founders.archives.gov/documen...
http://schuylermansion.blogspot.com/p...
https://www.albanyinstitute.org/the-s...
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9...
https://www.timesunion.com/albanyrura...
https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Ho...
https://www.nps.gov/sara/planyourvisi...
http://threerivershms.com/schuylerman...
https://founders.archives.gov/documen... (discussing a later yellow fever epidemic)
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/c...
https://www.union.edu/news/stories/20...
by Benson John Lossing (no photo)
(no image) Proud Patriot: Philip Schuyler And The War Of Independence, 1775 1783 by Don R. Gerlach (no photo)
(no image) Proud Patriot: Philip Schuyler And The War Of Independence, 1775 1783 by Don R. Gerlach (no photo)
(no image) Revolutionary enigma; a re-appraisal of General Philip Schuyler of New York by Martin H. Bush (no photo)


Original Summer Home - burned by the British- it was rebuilt

Video: https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/vi...

Video: Interesting -https://youtu.be/WZ9-dZpJBvg (more about Hamilton and Jefferson)

Video: Tour of Schuyler Mansion - https://youtu.be/Ublgp2EpZN8 and https://www.thirteen.org/programs/tre...

General Richard Montgomery



The youngest son of an Irish baronet, Richard Montgomery served sixteen years in the British Army before emigrating to New York in 1772 and accepting an American commission as a brigadier general three years later. “I have been dragged from obscurity much against my inclination,” he told his wife. - Alonzo Chappel, Richd. Montgomery, engraving by George R. Hall, 1881. (Courtesy Print Collection, New York Public Library)

"For his part, General Montcalm wrote an affecting final letter to his wife before riding his black horse onto the Plains of Abraham. “The moment when I shall see you again will be the finest of my life,” he told her. “Goodbye, my heart.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 206). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"At least not a living soul. Grape hit Montgomery in both thighs and, mortally, through the face. He pitched over backward, knees drawn up, the sword flying from his hand. Behind him Cheeseman fell, rose, and fell again for good, the burial gold still in his pocket. Macpherson never moved. Ten other bodies would be found in the snow at Près de Ville. The survivors had plunged back through the barrier opening, dragging the wounded by their collars."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 210). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"Montgomery’s body was found where he fell; a drummer boy scuffing through drifts in Près de Ville also retrieved his sword—a short-bladed hanger with a silver bulldog’s head on the ivory handle. A British officer gave the boy seven shillings for the treasure."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 213). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"Thirteen years earlier, at the siege of Havana, Carleton had served as a colonel in one British regiment when Montgomery was a captain in another.

For old times’ sake, the governor asked his carpenters to make a “genteel coffin” of fir lined with flannel and draped in a black pall.

On Wednesday, January 3, regulars from the 7th Foot, their arms reversed and black scarves knotted on their left elbows, led the cortege past the seminary cell windows where American officers wept.

A rocky defile near the St. Louis Gate powder magazine had been used as a Protestant cemetery in Quebec, and here the mortal remains of Richard Montgomery were interred with military honors.

He would never know that the previous month, Congress had promoted him to major general. Nor would he know that his puling threats to resign had brought a rebuke from Washington, who on Christmas Eve wrote Schuyler, “When is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 213). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"Streets, counties, towns, and children would be named for him. Nor did the adulation soon fade. In June 1818, an American delegation arrived in Quebec, located and identified Montgomery’s body, and took him home."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 214). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Montgomery had written his will at Crown Point in August 1775, before marching into Canada; he had divided his estate between Janet and his sister in Ireland.

But in a practice common after battles, his effects at Quebec were inventoried at Holland House on January 3, 1776, and his personal kit then auctioned. Several officers, including Captain Aaron Burr, counted out a bag of coins worth £347, including Spanish milled dollars, gold half-joes, English crowns, Connecticut and Massachusetts shillings, and Continental dollars, plus a string of Indian white wampum.

His sheets went to the convent hospital, “Dick the Negro boy” got a pair of wool socks, and Montgomery’s watch—London-made, with a 22-karat case and a rare ruby cylinder escapement—was saved for Janet after Carleton returned it to the American camp.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 214). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Colonel Benedict Arnold of Connecticut



Colonel Benedict Arnold of Connecticut was “as brave a man as ever lived,” in one comrade’s estimation. Born to lead other men in the dark of night, both on land and under sail, he was perhaps the finest battle captain that America would produce in the eighteenth century. - H. B. Hall after John Trumbull, Benedict Arnold, engraving, published after 1879. (Courtesy National Archives, 532921)

"Although a crippling attack of gout compounded the pain from his wounded leg, Arnold, now in command, traveled by sleigh ambulance to his new headquarters in Holland House and reimposed a blockade around the city. Quebec remained an “object of the highest importance,” he wrote, although a proper siege would require three thousand men, with five thousand needed for a renewed assault.

Riflemen resumed their potshots at the battlements and gunners once again lobbed cannonballs over the parapets. What they failed to win by force of arms, the Americans claimed by sheer effrontery: rumors spread that Americans held the Lower Town, the bishop’s house, and British powder magazines; that six hundred defenders had been killed; that Montgomery had merely gone to fetch twenty thousand Bostonnais reinforcements; and that Carleton had hanged sixty Canadians for treason.

Arnold knew better. To Washington he wrote that “upwards of one hundred officers and soldiers instantly set off for Montreal” after the failed assault; since most enlistments had now expired, “it was with the greatest difficulty I could persuade the rest to make a stand.” He was desperate for medical supplies, musket balls, troops, and gunpowder—the American stockpile in Canada was down to four tons. Including his many sick and injured, “our force at this time does not exceed eight hundred men,” he wrote Wooster on January 2.

“For God’s sake, order as many men down as you can possibly spare.” To his sister Hannah in Connecticut he added, “That Providence which has carried me through so many dangers is still my protection.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 213). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"But easily the biggest buyer of Montgomery’s wardrobe was Benedict Arnold: three ruffled shirts, six cambric stocks, two Holland waistcoats, a silk neckcloth, a cashmere waistcoat, moccasins, a pair of Indian leggings. Also: a dozen knives and forks, six silver tablespoons, six silver teaspoons, five tablecloths, three linen handkerchiefs, a powder box and muff, an old valise, and a pair of tea tongs purchased in Montreal. The kit guaranteed that General Montgomery would be with Arnold through the hard campaigning still to come."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 214-215). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Guy Carleton



Major General Guy Carleton, the British governor and military commander of Canada, was said by one acquaintance to be “a man of ten thousand eyes . . . not to be taken unawares.” Described by George III as “gallant & sensible,” Carleton confessed to London that with American invaders approaching Quebec, “I think our fate extremely doubtful.” - Eyving H. de Dirkine Holmfield, Guy Carleton, oil on canvas, c. 1895. (© Château Ramezay, Historic Site and Museum of Montréal)

"In Carleton’s irrefutable phrase, the enemy had been “repulsed with slaughter.” By the governor’s tally, American casualties on December 31 totaled 461, including 30 killed in action, 42 wounded, and 389 captured; more than three dozen prisoners would die of disease or their wounds. British casualties amounted to 5 dead and 41 wounded; all the defenders who had been captured in the Lower Town were freed."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 211-212). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"Thirteen years earlier, at the siege of Havana, Carleton had served as a colonel in one British regiment when Montgomery was a captain in another.

For old times’ sake, the governor asked his carpenters to make a “genteel coffin” of fir lined with flannel and draped in a black pall.

On Wednesday, January 3, regulars from the 7th Foot, their arms reversed and black scarves knotted on their left elbows, led the cortege past the seminary cell windows where American officers wept.

A rocky defile near the St. Louis Gate powder magazine had been used as a Protestant cemetery in Quebec, and here the mortal remains of Richard Montgomery were interred with military honors.

He would never know that the previous month, Congress had promoted him to major general. Nor would he know that his puling threats to resign had brought a rebuke from Washington, who on Christmas Eve wrote Schuyler, “When is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?”

Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 213). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Montgomery had written his will at Crown Point in August 1775, before marching into Canada; he had divided his estate between Janet and his sister in Ireland.

But in a practice common after battles, his effects at Quebec were inventoried at Holland House on January 3, 1776, and his personal kit then auctioned. Several officers, including Captain Aaron Burr, counted out a bag of coins worth £347, including Spanish milled dollars, gold half-joes, English crowns, Connecticut and Massachusetts shillings, and Continental dollars, plus a string of Indian white wampum.

His sheets went to the convent hospital, “Dick the Negro boy” got a pair of wool socks, and Montgomery’s watch—London-made, with a 22-karat case and a rare ruby cylinder escapement—was saved for Janet after Carleton returned it to the American camp.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 214). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.



More:
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http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/...
by Paul David Nelson (no photo)
by A.G. Bradley (no photo)
by Hilda Neatby (no photo)

General James Wolfe


Major-General James Wolfe, 1759
Oil on canvas by J S C Schaak after a drawing by Captain Hervey Smyth, 1760. - National Army Museum

In the decade following General Wolfe's death in 1759, this was the most famous image of this remarkable young man. It is the earliest accurate portrait of him at the moment of his greatest victory.

Displayed at Wolfe's childhood home until 2007, this painting was at risk of entering a private collection overseas, but it was saved for the nation by the National Army Museum through a public appeal.

When news of Wolfe's heroic death in the service of his country reached Britain on 16 October 1759, he became a celebrity overnight. The public wanted to know what he looked like, but because he died in action there were no existing portraits showing him at the time of his triumph. This painting is the closest there is: although painted shortly after his death, it is based on an eyewitness sketch by Wolfe's aide-de-camp, Captain Hervey Smyth.

In the eighteenth century, much as today, popular images helped to form the public view of a celebrity or hero. This painting is probably so small because it was created specifically as a model for popular prints, to satisfy the demand for images of Wolfe. Not only prints, but statues and even pub signs were based on this painting, which meant that this view of Wolfe was seen by large numbers of people, both in Britain and North America.

"It was said that in preparing for his own attack on Quebec sixteen years earlier, General Wolfe, who would die in the assault, recited Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” with its prescient line “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 206). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.


The Death of General Wolfe, 1759
Oil on copper panel, after the painting by Benjamin West (1738-1820), 1770 (c).

Wolfe is shown surrounded by officers and men after being fatally wounded at the Battle of the Heights of Abraham, Quebec, 13 September 1759.

James Wolfe came from a family of professional soldiers and was a rising star of the British Army. Wolfe fought at the Battles of Dettingen (1743) and Culloden (1746) but it was his role in the campaign in North America during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) that raised him to the level of national hero.

In 1759, although still only 32, Wolfe was appointed to command the British expedition against the French fortress of Quebec. In a battle fought just outside the city, Wolfe's army won a stunning victory over the French. It led to the fall of Quebec and marked the beginning of the end of French control of Canada.

Wolfe was mortally wounded early on in the battle, and did not live to celebrate his victory. He became a legend - a charismatic young soldier who died heroically in action at the moment of his triumph.

NAM Accession Number
NAM. 1960-03-56-1

Copyright/Ownership
National Army Museum, Out of Copyright

More:
James Wolfe: The Heroic Martyr
Link: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/James-W...

Source: The National Army Museum

General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm



"In 1759, the illustrious general James Wolfe had considered eight different attack plans here before successfully luring General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and his French army onto the Plains of Abraham. There, in fifteen minutes on September 13, with what one admiring British historian called “the most perfect volley ever fired on the battlefield,” the regulars blew apart Montcalm, his legions, and Versailles’s claim to New France.

But Montgomery also knew that Carleton had served in that campaign as Wolfe’s quartermaster. The governor was undoubtedly aware that British security this winter lay within Quebec’s fortifications, however imperfect. Montcalm had faced starvation in 1759, while Carleton’s larders were now full; Wolfe’s artillery that summer had wrecked much of the Lower Town with an estimated forty thousand cannonballs, far more than the paltry stock of “fire pills” available to American gunners.

Moreover, the French commander had been provoked into attacking because the British were waging a savage war of terror in Quebec against what Wolfe called “Canadian vermin”—razing mills, churches, barns, and an estimated fourteen hundred farmhouses. Their depredations included rape, plunder, scalped habitants, and murdered prisoners. “It is war of the worst shape,” a British officer had written his wife. Sixteen years later, American invaders could hardly carry out such a campaign and hope to win Canadian fealty. “Wolfe’s success was a lucky hit, or rather a series of hits,” Montgomery told his father-in-law in a letter. “All sober and scientific calculation was against him.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 197-198). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Samuel de Champlain



"A French writer once observed that “in the new colonies, the Spanish start by building a church, the English a tavern, and the French a fort.” When the adventurer Samuel de Champlain dropped anchor on July 3, 1608, seven hundred miles up the St. Lawrence from the Atlantic Ocean at a place known to local Indians as Kébec—where the waters narrow—he promptly began fortifying the site to withstand a siege. Only eight of his original twenty-eight colonists remained alive the following spring, but more settlers arrived and a miniature European fortress soon took shape, with a palisade, a ditch, a drawbridge, and bastions mounting cannons."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 200). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

More:
https://www.biography.com/explorer/sa...

Lieutenant Colonel Allan Maclean



Allan Maclean of Torloisk (1725–1798) was a Jacobite who became a British Army general. He was born on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. He is best known for leading the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) in the Battle of Quebec.

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_M...

"Perhaps most vital to Quebec’s defense was the arrival of a pudding-faced, Hebridean brawler who quickly put starch into both the garrison and Governor Carleton. Lieutenant Colonel Allan Maclean, described by one admiring officer as “beloved, dreaded, and indefatigable,” had fought at Culloden in the 1745 Jacobite rising, then fled to Holland until an amnesty allowed his return to Britain. Since then he had served the Crown faithfully on various European and Caribbean battlefields, as well as here, at Wolfe’s side, in 1759. The king himself, the previous spring, had approved sending Maclean back to America to raise the Royal Highland Emigrants, a new regiment of loyal Scots, many of them veterans, who had settled in the New World. In November Maclean had slipped into Quebec with 220 of these men wearing scarlet jackets, dark tartan kilts, and raccoon-pelt sporrans, ready to defend Quebec in the fourth siege of the city’s history. He, too, slept dressed for action in the Récollet monastery.

Sources: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 203-204). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition, Wikipedia

Captain Daniel Morgan - ultimately became Brigadier General


Portrait of Brigadier General Daniel Morgan by Charles Willson Peale

Daniel Morgan (July 6, 1736 – July 6, 1802) was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from Virginia.

One of the most respected battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791–1794.

Born in New Jersey to Welsh immigrants, Morgan settled in Winchester, Virginia. He became an officer of the Virginia militia and recruited a company of soldiers at the start of the Revolutionary War.

Early in the war, Morgan served in Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec and in the Saratoga campaign. He also served in the Philadelphia campaign before resigning from the army in 1779.
Morgan returned to the army after the Battle of Camden, and led the Continental Army to victory in the Battle of Cowpens. After the war, Morgan retired from the army again and developed a large estate.

He was recalled to duty in 1794 to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion, and commanded a portion of the army that remained in Western Pennsylvania after the rebellion.

A member of the Federalist Party, Morgan twice ran for the United States House of Representatives, winning election to the House in 1796. He retired from Congress in 1799 and died in 1802.

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_...

"Three hundred yards on, a second barricade loomed across an area known as the Sault-au-Matelot—sailor’s leap—where a sheer rock face rose on the right, unbroken but for the twisting defile that carried Mountain Hill Street to the Upper Town. The barrier’s sally port appeared to be unguarded, but when Morgan urged the attack forward, an impromptu conclave of officers resisted, huddling in the shadows for discussion. The Holland House plan called for Arnold to rendezvous with Montgomery at this spot before advancing uphill. Not only had casualties reduced the column, but as many as two hundred men had lost their way in the snowstorm and were wandering around the docks, sheds, and riverine warehouses. Wet firelocks needed to be dried; prisoners required careful watching. A strange tranquillity settled over the Lower Town as the order was passed to each company: wait here for General Montgomery and his men. “I was overruled by hard reasoning,” Morgan later said. “To these arguments, I sacrificed my own opinion and lost the town.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 208-209). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition., Wikipedia

What do you think?

1. Did America lose Quebec because the troops countered Morgan and did not go in right away and take advantage of the confusion that had ensued?

Brigadier General David Wooster


David Wooster, Esqr. Commander-in-Chief of the Provincial Army against Quebec

David Wooster was born in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut to Capt. Abram and Mary Walker Wooster. He was the grandson of Edward Wooster, progenitor of the Wooster family in America, and Tabitha Tomlinson.

In 1745 he married Mary Clapp, daughter of Yale President, Thomas Clapp. There is conflicting information as to the offspring of David and Mary, but it is likely that there was only one surviving child, Thomas, who also served in the Revolution. A graduate of Yale, he spent the better part of his life in distinguished military service. Thomas died in 1792 at sea leaving a wife and seven children.

One of America's unsung heroes, Brig. Gen. Wooster was the highest ranking officer to die in the Revolutionary War when, at the age of 66, he was killed in the battle at Danbury. After the death of her husband, Mary was attacked in her home by British soldiers, who destroyed Wooster's papers and personal effects.

A relatively wealthy man throughout his life, Wooster died insolvent, having paid his troops with his personal funds. The destruction of his papers by the British made it impossible for the family to recover sums which he had advanced; no pension was paid to his family.

Gen. Wooster is also known for his efforts in organizing the first lodge of Freemasons in Connecticut, Hiram No. 1, which earned him the recognition, "Father of Freemasonry in Connecticut." In 1973, the Grand Lodge of Connecticut struck a medal in honor of David Wooster to recognize "service other than to Freemasonry in the fields of art, science, business, government, entertainment, religion, and other service to humanity." Two castings, one in silver for Master Masons and one in bronze for non-Masons, are awarded each year.

There is extensive information and various military and Masonic symbols carved into the 30-foot high monument that marks his final resting place; among them, this quote regarding his country: "My life has ever been devoted to her services from my youth up, though never before in a cause like this — a cause for which I would most cheerfully risk and lay down my life."

"Upon learning of Montgomery’s repulse and death near Cape Diamond, Arnold scribbled a dispatch to Brigadier General David Wooster, now commanding the rear guard in Montreal. “I am exceedingly apprehensive,” he wrote. Reports were unclear about whether his own column was still fighting. “They will either carry the Lower Town, be made prisoners, or [be] cut to pieces,” he told Wooster. “It is impossible to say what our future operations will be until we know the fate of my detachment.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 211). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

More:
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/...
https://www.the-daily-record.com/news...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOJZR...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSey6...

Note:

1. He was born in Connecticut in 1711, the youngest of six children of Abraham and Mary Wooster. All early records of his life were lost when the British burned New Haven in 1779.

2. His first military command was as the captain of the sloop Defense during The War of Jenkins’ Ear — a battle between the British and Spanish for the domination of the Caribbean Islands. The conflict during the 1740s took its name from the British merchant captain Robert Jenkins, who was believed to have his ear cut off by a Spaniard who attacked Jenkins’s ship while at sea. That is how wars sometimes begin.

3. The only known portrait of Wooster was made in London and shows him in his British uniform. Wooster had been received in London by King George II and rewarded with the position of Captain of the Regulars in the 51st Regiment of Foot for his heroics at the Siege of Louisbourg during the War of Jenkins’ Ear. His death is depicted in a painting by Constantino Brumidi which can be found in the Senate Appropriations Committee suite in the U.S. Capitol building.

4. Wooster also fought and commanded troops during the French and Indian War.

5. At the age of 65, he was the oldest American general in the Revolutionary War — 22 years older than George Washington.

6. He devised the strategy that allowed Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold to capture Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, though Allen and Arnold are typically given credit.

7. Wooster was shot through the spine while on horseback rallying his troops during the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut and died three days later in Danbury, his wife and son at his side. His last words were about his hopes for American independence.

8. Due to the urgency of the battle, Wooster was buried in haste and without a funeral. Nearly 80 years later, when the Connecticut General Assembly ordered a monument to placed at his gravesite, no one even knew where his final resting place was, except for the by-then elderly black man who had buried the body in 1777.

9. Because he’d used much of his own money to support his troops in the field, Wooster’s widow, Mary Wooster, was left financially strapped and sought President Washington’s assistance in securing a job for her son, which Washington said his position prevented him from doing.

10. American poet Phillis Wheatley composed “On the Death of General Wooster” in July 1778.

11. Though there are other “Woosters” — both incorporated and unincorporated — Wooster, Ohio is the only municipality to be named in honor of Wooster.

12. There was not one man, but likely many men, who suggested the Wayne County seat be named in Wooster’s memory. Wayne County was the final resting place of of 51 Revolutionary War veterans, 13 of whom were from Connecticut. One veteran, who is buried in Fredericksburg, also was Wooster’s former neighbor.

Discussion Questions:

1. What surprised you the most about Wooster and was his widow treated fairly by George Washington?

2. What were your thoughts about the British commanders burning his papers and personal effects in his home?

3. In reading the above, it was obvious that Carleton did more for Montgomery than Washington did for Wooster? Your reactions?

By the end of 1775, the only significant place in Canada not under American control was Fortress Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. Although revetments, palisades, and walls extended in a two-mile arc around the city, the fortifications had fallen into disrepair.

With smallpox, frigid weather, and desertion reducing his small force, General Montgomery attacked Quebec during a storm on December 31, 1775. His death, from grapeshot through his thighs and face, was far bloodier than artist John Trumbull’s subsequent depiction.

A fieldstone mansion on the Rue Notre-Dame in Montreal, the Château Ramezay had once served as headquarters for the fur trade in New France. Benedict Arnold used it for his command post in early 1776 and received Dr. Franklin here on April 29, just as the American occupation of Canada was collapsing.

Disaster at Quebec, December 31, 1775

This was the view during the Wolfe and Montcalm encounter previously:


View of the Taking of Quebec, 13 September 1759
Coloured engraving, artist unknown, published by Laurie and Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London, 1 November 1797.

Quebec occupied an almost impregnable position on the St Lawrence river. It was defended by the French general, the Marquis de Montcalm, with a large garrison.

In the early hours of 13 September 1759, General James Wolfe landed upriver of Quebec with 4,500 men. Climbing a steep cliff path, Wolfe's forces reached the 'Heights of Abraham', a plateau behind Quebec. Later that morning, the French came out to meet them and, in the battle which followed, both Montcalm and Wolfe were mortally wounded. The French retreated into the town, which surrendered on 18 September. The fall of Quebec led to the conquest of Canada by Britain and was one of the greatest victories of the Seven Years War (1756-1763).

NAM Accession Number
NAM. 1971-02-33-314-1

Copyright/Ownership
National Army Museum, Out of Copyright

Source: The National Army Museum

Guy Carleton continued:



There is a lot of praise for Carleton

Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, 1724–1808, governor of Quebec and British commander during the American Revolution. He began his service in America in 1758 and distinguished himself in the French and Indian War.

After 1766, as lieutenant governor, acting governor, and governor of Quebec, he proved to be a very able administrator.

He fostered the Quebec Act of 1774, which brought about better relations between the British and the French Canadians. The loyalty of the French Canadians to the British in the American Revolution was at least partly the result of the act. On the other hand, it infuriated the colonists in the present United States and helped bring on revolution.

When Thomas Gage resigned as commander in chief of British forces in America, the command was divided—Sir Guy Carleton had command in Canada, and Sir William Howe had command farther south. When the American Revolutionaries launched their Quebec campaign, Carleton had few men and was forced to abandon Montreal, which fell to the forces under Richard Montgomery.

Withdrawing to Quebec, Carleton repelled (Dec. 31, 1775) an attack led by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold and withstood a long winter siege. British reinforcements in the spring enabled him to push the American forces out of Canada to Crown Point, which he took in the autumn of 1776.

Disagreements with the British colonial secretary, Lord George Germain, led to his being replaced as commander by Gen. John Burgoyne in 1777. Carleton resigned as governor and left Canada in 1778, when he was succeeded by Sir Frederick Haldimand. In Feb., 1782, after the Yorktown campaign had already effectively ended the American Revolution, Carleton replaced Sir Henry Clinton as commander in chief of the British forces.

His delicate task was to suspend hostilities, withdraw the forces from the New York and Vermont frontiers, and protect the Loyalists—both those who were emigrating to Canada and those who were attempting to reestablish themselves in their old homes.

He was again governor of Quebec from 1786 to 1796. High-principled and able, Carleton was perhaps the most admirable British colonial commander in America in his time.

From Mount Vernon:

Guy Carleton, First Baron of Dorchester, was the Governor of Quebec from 1768 to 1778, and Commander-in-Chief of British forces from 1782 to the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. He resumed his role as Governor of Quebec and Governor-in-Chief of the remaining provinces of British North America from 1786 to 1796.

Born into the Anglo-Irish gentry, Carleton began his military career in 1742 at the age of 17, and served briefly in the War of Austrian Succession and in the British defense of Hanover during the Seven Years’ War. During this period, he became friends with James Wolfe who advanced Carleton’s career by appointing him Quarter-Master General during the campaign against New France and the capture of Quebec in 1759. Carleton was present at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in which he was lightly wounded. He then saw considerable action in the Caribbean, and ended the Seven Years’ War as a colonel.

In 1766, Carleton was appointed acting Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, and then Governor in 1768. Much to the chagrin of English-speaking American colonists who poured into Quebec after the conquest, Carleton advocated preserving many aspects of French Canadian governance, including the Catholic Church, writing that British-style representative assemblies were doomed to failure “because it is impossible for the Dignity of the Throne, or Peerage to be represented in the American Forests.”2 Carleton’s outlook was instrumental in drafting the Quebec Act of 1774, which expanded the borders of the province, restored French Civil Law and tithes to the Catholic Church, and perhaps most troublesome for American colonists, did not include an elected assembly or the right of habeus corpus. American Revolutionaries considered the Quebec Act despotic, and included it among the hated “Intolerable Acts.” It is considered a cause of the American Revolution.3

In May 1775, news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord reached Quebec, and Carleton sent more than half of his garrison to assist Thomas Gage in Boston. Left with few regular troops, Carleton’s efforts to form effective fighting units from the French Canadian population met with limited success, and he was reluctant to employ First Nations warriors who offered their services.

Carleton’s defense against Montgomery and Arnold’s Quebec Campaign of 1775-1776, while successful in the end, showcased the fact that the General’s talents lay more in administration and diplomacy than in war. He overestimated the loyalty of the French Canadian population and their willingness to fight for the British against the invading Continentals. Likewise, Carleton underestimated the revolutionary fervor of the Thirteen Colonies and its influence in Quebec. Continental forces captured the strong points of Ticonderoga, St. Johns, and Montreal, laying siege to Quebec City in November 1775. Carleton repulsed an attack on Quebec by American forces on December 31, in which the American commander, Major General Richard Montgomery, was killed. Despite their defeat, the Americans maintained the siege until it was lifted with the arrival of British reinforcements under John Burgoyne in May 1776. Carleton then lead the pursuit of Continental forces which culminated in the British victory at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in October. Although victorious, the American force successfully prevented Carleton from invading New York before the onset of winter. The Governor was incensed the following year when Burgoyne was granted command of the ill-fated Saratoga Campaign. Carleton demanded to be recalled to Great Britain, and was replaced as governor by Frederick Haldimand.

Knighted for his efforts in Canada, Carleton returned to North America as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in 1782. He became a champion of the loyalists and felt that they were grossly mistreated and neglected in the final terms of the Treaty of Paris. He was even more incensed that it fell to him as the British commander in New York to implement the treaty’s provisions. Though not an abolitionist, Guy Carleton was a staunch defender of British promises of freedom for escaped slaves who had found refuge behind British lines. He ordered careful records kept (known as “The Book of Negroes”) of all former slaves granted their freedom by British authorities who were then evacuated from New York in 1783.

The evacuation of former slaves was a point of controversy between Carleton and George Washington when they finally met face-to-face in May 1783. Washington argued that the removal of former slaves was a breach of the peace treaty, to which Carleton replied that honor demanded Britain’s promises of freedom made before the treaty be kept. Washington dropped the issue, and historians have applauded Carleton’s “principled defense of the black loyalists,” but the dispute over compensation for slave holders continued.

In 1786 Carleton was ennobled as the First Baron of Dorchester for his services to the Crown and he returned to North America as both Governor of Quebec and Governor-in-Chief of all the remaining British provinces. His primary task was to find a constitutional way to satisfy the thousands of loyalist newcomers who resented the presence of French Civil Law and land tenure in Quebec, while still maintaining the loyalty of the French Canadian majority. Though Carleton was unable to find a suitable compromise, Parliament debated and passed the Constitutional Act of 1791 which split Quebec into English-speaking Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) under English Common Law with its own assembly, and the French majority Lower Canada (Quebec).

Carleton presided over the constitutional changes, and returned to England in 1796, passing away in 1808 at the age of 84.

Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, is memorialized across Canada in the names of dozens of towns and villages, as well as Carleton University in the nation’s capital, Ottawa.

Source: Columbia University Press, Mount Vernon

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you view Carleton as a leader and general; what personal characteristics stood out and why?

The entries above are the ones that I will be adding to today - I will add the discussion questions and other ancillary above - when completed that will encompass the moderator entries for Chapter 8 - much of what occurred during the time period of this chapter set the stage for Canada continuing to be part of the British Empire as a "parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy" in the Westminster tradition, with a monarch and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the Cabinet and head of government.

The consensus leadership issues which Morgan (for the Continental Army) faced at the time probably cost them the victory when they could have used the initial confusion to work in their favor. Timing was everything.

As far as Guy Carleton - his gentility, empathy, careful consideration, moral compass have held him in the highest regard. Montgomery too made the ultimate sacrifice and will likewise not be forgotten and Carleton did honor him.

If you are in the New York City area (metro) or in any of its boroughs - here is an interesting source cited by Atkinson. You might want to visit these locations. There are links to other locations on the site.

North American Forts

Link: https://www.northamericanforts.com/Ea...

Source: North American Forts

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray


Portrait of the poet w:Thomas Gray by painter w:John Giles Eccardt; oil on canvas, painted 1747-1748

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,
The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
How jocund did they drive their team afield!
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,
If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove,
Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

"One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,
Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

"The next with dirges due in sad array
Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,
Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."

THE EPITAPH
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his Father and his God.

More:

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by Thomas Gray, first published in 1751. Read by Alexander Scourby.
Video: https://youtu.be/kl9MF4BINA8

Poetry & Remembrance: Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Professor Belinda Jack
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrvo...


Belinda Jack is Fellow and Tutor in French at Christ Church, University of Oxford. She features regularly in the press and media thanks to the popularity and insight of her published works, including books such as The Woman Reader, George Sand: A Woman’s Life Writ Large and Negritude and Literary Criticism: The History and Theory of "Negro-African" Literature in French.

Professor Jack obtained her D.Phil. in Negritude and Literary Criticism at St John’s College, University of Oxford in 1989, having earlier obtained a degree in French with African and Caribbean Studies from the University of Kent. Her academic career over the past twenty years has been at Christ Church, University of Oxford, where she is an ‘Official Student’ (Fellow and Member of the Governing Body) and Tutor in French. Her main interest lies in French literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

As well as her five books, Professor Jack is widely published through her many articles, essays, chapters and reviews. Her recent articles and reviews have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Literary Review, Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Education Supplement, BBC History Magazine and Littérature. She is a regular on the BBC and international radio and television, as well as a frequent speaker at literary festivals throughout the British Isles and beyond.

“Reading is a subject which has long fascinated me, not least because of my role in teaching undergraduate students to read ‘difficult’ literature with the greatest attention to detail, structure and internal connections. My most recent book, The Woman Reader, is a history of women’s reading from ancient times to the present day, and the writing of it deepened my interest in the subject of reading more generally. My Gresham lectures will draw on some of the material on which I based my book, including material that I didn’t have space to treat, and on the research I am currently undertaking. My primary aim will be to encourage informed reading of a wide range of material, which will make us reconsider literature, ourselves and the society in which we live.”

by Belinda Jack (no photo)
by Belinda Jack (no photo)
by Belinda Jack (no photo)
by Belinda Jack (no photo)
by Belinda Jack (no photo)
by Belinda Jack (no photo)

Discussion Questions:

1. What are your impressions of the poem and the circumstances surrounding General Wolfe's recitation prior to his own attack on Quebec sixteen years prior to the Montgomery/Carleton encounter?

"It was said that in preparing for his own attack on Quebec sixteen years earlier, General Wolfe, who would die in the assault, recited Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” with its prescient line “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Wolfe was mortally wounded early on in the battle, and did not live to celebrate his victory. He became a legend - a charismatic young soldier who died heroically in action at the moment of his triumph.

Sources: Wikipedia, Gresham College

Today's Progress - June 2nd.

Week Four (June 1st - June 7th) - pages 182 - 240

✓Part One - continued: (Completed)

✓7. THEY FOUGHT, BLED, AND DIED LIKE ENGLISHMEN
Norfolk, Virginia, December 1775   - page 182 - We completed this chapter this week.

✓8. THE PATHS OF GLORY - We completed this chapter today.
Quebec, December 3, 1775–January 1, 1776 - page 195

Part Two   - page 217

9. THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE - Not started yet. Next!!
Boston, January – February 1776 - page 219

Folks, all readers - please select some of the discussion questions and post your responses, opinions, ideas etc. There are no right or wrong answers.

This is where we are at the end of day today.

Good night!

When you have completed the book at any time - although we hope that you will read along with us - please post your review on the Book as a Whole and Final Thoughts thread.

Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Just post your thoughts about the book and let us know what you liked and disliked when you get to that point. Just remember no links to reviews anywhere else on goodreads because we do not allow any self promotion.

The Book as a Whole thread is a Spoiler thread so posting your thoughts about the book as a whole is allowed and welcomed.

We begin Part Two - and Chapter Nine:

9. THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE
Boston, January – February 1776

"The new year brought boredom, sickness, and more misery to occupied Boston. “The cold is so intense that the ink freezes in the pen whilst I write by the fireside,” a lieutenant in the 40th Foot wrote to a friend on December 31.

“Our little army has suffered severely from the dampness of the season, and from living totally on salt provisions.”

General Howe warned London that he had only three weeks of fuel left for his garrison. Firewood had grown scarce, and Boston was burning 336 tons of coal a week, with stocks dwindling rapidly. Rebel pirates captured a British collier near Salem, and the Spanish River coal pits in Nova Scotia had flooded. Civilians in Boston were reduced to burning horse dung for heat. The government promised to send three thousand blankets—“coarse, yet strong & well-milled”—plus fifty iron stoves and almost five thousand tons of English coal, despite the outrageous cost of transatlantic shipping."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 219). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Atkinson's Notes:
The new year brought boredom: Carter, A Genuine Detail of the Several Engagements, 17–18 (“ink freezes”); W. Howe to Dartmouth [sic], Dec. 14, 1775, UK NA, CO 5/93, f. 30 (three weeks of fuel); Maj. Francis Hutcheson to Maj. Gen. Frederick Haldimand, Dec. 23, 1775, Haldimand Papers, LAC, micro, H-1431. Hutcheson, the brigade major, put weekly coal consumption at 214 chaldrons, with approximately 3,140 pounds in a London chaldron.


Chaldron wagon at Beamish. The long brake lever is for control when running down to the staith by gravity. Note that the perspective of this photo makes the chaldron seem much larger than it is. - Note: It looks huge - towering over the policeman


John Blenkinsop's pioneering locomotive pulling several chaldrons (1813)

Discussion Topic:

1. Did anyone else wonder (when reading the notes) about the measurement of a chaldron? And what was the difference between a larger caldron versus the London chaldron? I know that I did. Atkinson uses tons in the book but in the notes you will see the references were to (cauldrons, chaldrons, caldrons). The net net was that the British troops were running out of coal and they were freezing.

Here is a little bit about chaldrons
A chaldron (also chauldron or chalder) was an English measure of dry volume, mostly used for coal; the word itself is an obsolete spelling of cauldron. It was used from the 13th century onwards, nominally until 1963 when it was abolished by the Weights and Measures Act 1963 but in practice until the end of 1835 when the Weights and Measures Act of that year specified that thenceforth coal could only be sold by weight.

Coal
The chaldron was used as the measure for coal from the 13th century, measuring by volume being much more practical than weighing low-value, high-bulk commodities like coal. It was not standardized, and there were many different regional chaldrons, the two most important being the Newcastle and London chaldrons. The Newcastle chaldron was used to measure all coal shipped from Northumberland and Durham, and the London chaldron became the standard measure for coal in the east and south of England.

Many attempts have been made to calculate the weight of a Newcastle chaldron as used in medieval and early modern times. Coal industry historian John Nef has estimated that in 1421 it weighed 2,000 lb (907 kg), and that its weight was gradually increased by coal traders due to the taxes on coal (which were charged per chaldron) until 1678 when its weight was fixed by law at 52 1⁄2 long hundredweight (5,880 lb; 2,670 kg), later increased in 1694 to 53 long hundredweight (5,940 lb; 2,690 kg).

A London chaldron, on the other hand, was defined as "36 bushels heaped up, each bushel to contain a Winchester bushel and 1 imperial quart (1.14 L; 1.20 US qt), and to be 19 1⁄2 inches (495 mm) in diameter". This approximated a weight in coal of around 28 long hundredweight or 3,140 lb or 1,420 kg.

The chaldron was the legal limit for horse-drawn coal wagons travelling by road as it was considered that heavier loads would cause too much damage to the roadways. Railways had standard "chauldron wagons" which were about 10 ft (3.05 m) and around 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) high.

The value of a chaldron of coal depended on the size of the lumps of coal and also their water content. Unscrupulous merchants would purchase their coal in lumps as large as possible then sell them in smaller sizes. This was abolished by the Weights and Measures Act of 1835, which legislated that from January 1836 coal was only to be sold by weight.

More:
https://archive.org/details/philosoph...Charles Hutton1hutt
by John Hatcher (no photo)
by Charles Hutton (no photo)
by William J. Ashworth (no photo)
by Ephraim Chambers (no photo)

Before I begin adding the moderator notes, ancillary material, photos, etc. for the chapter - what are your impressions on the book so far, this week's reading assignment, etc.

General Howe is back in Chapter Nine:

Atkinson wrote: "Howe authorized the garrison to scavenge firewood as necessary. Countless trees had already been reduced to stumps, including a fine row of buttonwoods lining the street near the Old South Meeting House.

Each regiment assigned a twenty-man detail with saws, axes, and crowbars to dismantle selected fences, barns, wharves, sailing vessels, warehouses, and a hundred dilapidated houses.

The pulpit and pews from Old South were chopped up for kindling—“in a wanton, unprecedented, and impious manner,” as church records noted—except for one beautifully carved deacon’s box, which was salvaged as a hog sty.

With only the sounding board and east galleries spared in Old South, the floor was covered with dirt and used as a riding ring by British dragoons. Books and manuscripts fed British stoves, and many officers agreed with Captain Glanville Evelyn, who told his father he hoped all of Boston burned “that we may be enabled to leave it.”

The regulars grew so indiscriminate in pulling down houses and fences without permission that Howe ordered an executioner to accompany his provost marshal on patrol “to hang upon the spot the first man he shall detect in the fact, without waiting for further proof by trial.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 219-220). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

General William Howe


This is a color mezzotint of British General Sir William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, active in the American Revolutionary War at Brown University

William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC (10 August 1729 – 12 July 1814) was a British Army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British land forces in the Colonies during the American War of Independence. Howe was one of three brothers who had distinguished military careers. In historiography of the American war he is usually referred to as Sir William Howe to distinguish his brother Richard, who was 4th Viscount Howe at that time.

Having joined the army in 1746, Howe saw extensive service in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War. He became known for his role in the capture of Quebec in 1759 when he led a British force to capture the cliffs at Anse-au-Foulon, allowing James Wolfe to land his army and engage the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Howe also participated in the campaigns to take Louisbourg, Belle Île and Havana.

He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, a post he held until 1795.

Howe was sent to North America in March 1775, arriving in May after the American War of Independence broke out. After leading British troops to a costly victory in the Battle of Bunker Hill, Howe took command of all British forces in America from Thomas Gage in September of that year. Howe's record in North America was marked by the successful capture of both New York City and Philadelphia. However, poor British campaign planning for 1777 contributed to the failure of John Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign, which played a major role in the entry of France into the war. Howe's role in developing those plans and the degree to which he was responsible for British failures that year (despite his personal success at Philadelphia) have both been subjects of contemporary and historic debate.

He was knighted after his successes in 1776. He resigned his post as Commander-in-Chief, British land forces in America, in 1777, and the next year returned to England, where he was at times active in the defence of the British Isles. He sat in the House of Commons from 1758 to 1780 for Nottingham. He inherited the Viscountcy of Howe upon the death of his brother Richard in 1799. He married, but had no children, and the viscountcy became extinct with his death in 1814."

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

More:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_E...

General Howe's Orderly Book
https://archive.org/details/generalsi...

From the American Battlefield Trust:
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/bi...

The Enigma of General Howe:
https://www.americanheritage.com/enig...
He did not want to fight the Americans because they were British but was called to serve his King.

Letter from George Washington to General Howe
https://founders.archives.gov/documen...

Pulling Down the Statue of George III by the "Sons of Freedom"
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/...



Stirred up after hearing the Declaration of Independence read publicly on July 9, 1776, the so-called Sons of Freedom—a mix of George Washington's soldiers and civilians—tear down a statue of the British monarch George III in New York City. The lead statue was later moved to Connecticut and used to make guns and bullets. This engraving, based roughly on a painting created about 1859, shows a mix of white men, women, and children of varying social classes, as well as an Indian in headdress carrying a spear (at left). In contrast, a contemporary print of the event made in Europe in 1776 portrayed a group of free blacks or slaves helping to topple the statue.

The equestrian statue had originally been erected in Bowling Green, a public park in lower Manhattan, in the wake of the king's help in repealing the hated Stamp Act of 1765.

The Conquerors: William Howe - Conqueror of New York
Video Link (quite good): https://youtu.be/0zM5y3grWJo
Bunker Hill was a devastating blow to Howe - even though he won the hill (Breeds Hill) he lost over 40% of his forces doing so.

The Brown Bess - musket of choice for British during RW

Revolutionary War Brown Bess Flintlock Musket – Tower Short Land Pattern Brown Bess with Bayonet

After surviving the bloodletting at Bunker Hill, Major General William Howe took command of all British forces in America, overseeing both the evacuation of Boston and the attack on New York. Famously taciturn, he “never wastes a monosyllable,” one wit quipped.


by William Howe (no photo)

by Joseph Galloway (no photo)

by Barnet Schecter (no photo)

by Edwin G. Burrows (no photo)

Sources: Wikipedia, Brown University, Encyclopedia Britannica, Internet Archive, The American Battlefield Trust, American Heritage, Founders on Line - General Archives, Youtube, Encyclopedia of Virginia, Worthington Galleries, History Channel

Discussion Thoughts and Questions (what do you think?)

1. The British soldiers were miserable too. The ink was freezing in their pens; they were freezing during bitter weather and they had to live on salt provisions. It is hard to believe that the Parliament and the King were not in any way adversely affected in terms of food, supplies, coal, fireplaces, warm blankets - yet in their comfort - both the colonists and their own military suffered. Did you have any sympathy for the British troops in terms of their indiscriminate acts of tearing up the fine row of buttonwoods, sundry fences, houses, books, barns, sailing vessels (all of the colonists and done without their permission)? Or was their plight so dire that they had no other choice?

2. Or were you also justly horrified that the pews were ripped out of the Old South Church and the inside dumped with dirt and used as a riding ring! Or that British regulars as well as Gage had said that they hoped all of Boston would burn so that they could leave it? Or was this just the result of war during those times with occupied forces? Obviously the British soldiers were miserable too!

3. Is it any wonder that the colonists were enraged and would do anything to rid themselves of the British - forgetting as did the British soldiers that they were brethren and fellow countrymen? Any thoughts on this situation?

4. Compounding Howe's worries was a spreading universally through the town of "smallpox". It was not a bad thing that Howe Howe authorized inoculation both for unprotected soldiers and "for civilians", despite Boston’s historic aversion to the practice. Some residents with symptoms were expelled from the town. How do you think Howe handled the epidemic during a time of war?

4. On top of the smallpox - there was scurvy. Does anyone know anything about spruce beer and why each man got three pints a day?

5. To his credit Howe did write London about the small quantities of provisions and told Germain that even just eating salt meat - that they were on rations. What could Howe do differently when his troops were cold, hungry, sick with smallpox or scurvy and he had to purloin food and animal stock from the colonists which made their existence even more precarious?

Source: John Singleton Copley, Admiral Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, oil on canvas, 1794.(© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection)

And so is Lord Percy:

Brigadier Hugh Earl Percy

Atkinson wrote:"To bolster morale through this hard winter, masquerade balls were occasionally held at Province House or the Concert Hall on Hanover Street. >Lord Percy, now a major general, ordered his band to give serenades. “We have been better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation,” one officer wrote. “England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves.”

Officers also organized the Society for Promoting Theatrical Amusements, a corps dramatique to raise money for widows and orphans. Boston had long banned all theatricals, including puppet shows, as conducive to “immorality, impiety, and a contempt of religion,” but “Howe’s Strolling Players”—as they would later be known—delighted in lampooning such sensibilities.

Young women were even permitted to play female roles, to the clucking disapproval of Boston matrons. Comedies like The Citizen and The Apprentice proved enormously popular, and The Tragedy of Zara, adapted from a Voltaire drama, was performed several times.

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 220). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.



Family Background:

The name “Percy” conjures up images of a proud northern dynasty of territorial magnates dating back to the Norman Conquest. For centuries, the powerful Percies, earls of Northumberland, were almost viceroys of northern England and the Scottish borderlands. That historic family, prominent in Shakespeare’s historical plays, was actually the second Percy family; it survived five centuries, and many vicissitudes, until the direct male line ended in 1670.

Hugh, earl Percy was actually a member of the third Percy family, which was the product of a conscious and deliberate effort in the middle of the eighteenth century to re-establish those past glories (De Fonblanque 1887; Brenan 1902). On his death in 1670, the last earl of Northumberland left a daughter and heiress, Lady Elizabeth Percy, who had married the sixth duke of Somerset. On her death in 1722, her son, Algernon Seymour (1684-1750; seventh duke, 1748) was created baron Percy in his own right, in recognition of her inheritance. Algernon’s son died early (1744) and his estate ~ and title of baron Percy ~ devolved onto his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1716-1776). Lady Elizabeth had married, in 1740, an aggressive and wealthy Yorkshire baronet, Sir Hugh Smithson (1714-1786). Sir Hugh sought to restore the heritage of his wife’s grandmother: in 1749, the duke was created earl of Northumberland and baron Warkworth, with the special provision that those titles would pass on his death to Sir Hugh. Immediately after the duke’s death in February 1749/50, a special act of Parliament changed the new earl of Northumberland’s family name from Smithson to Percy. He later became a knight of the Garter (1757) and was lord lieutenant of Ireland (1763-65). In recompense for having his political ambitions thwarted ~ he almost became prime minister ~ the government elevated him in October 1766 to duke of Northumberland and earl Percy (Dictionary of National Biography 15 [1917]: 863-65; Complete Peerage, 9:742-44 and 10:468-69).

About Lieutenant General Hugh Percy

Lieutenant General Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland FRS (14 August 1742 – 10 July 1817) was an officer in the British army and later a British peer. He participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Long Island during the American War of Independence, but resigned his command in 1777 due to disagreements with his superior, General William Howe.

Born Hugh Smithson, he assumed the surname of Percy by Act of Parliament along with his father in 1750 and was styled Lord Warkworth from 1750 until 1766. He was styled Earl Percy from 1766, when his father was created Duke of Northumberland. He acceded to the dukedom in 1786.

Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Pe...

Source: Wikipedia, The Revolutionary War in Staten Island



More:

by R. Arthur Bowler (no photo)

He seemed to be a generous man:

II. Hugh Percy, (sometime Smithson), 2nd Duke of Northumberland, 1742-1817 Eldest son of the first Duke, Hugh Smithson assumed the surname of Percy by Act of Parliament along with his father in 1750. He entered the Army in 1759 and in 1764 married Lady Anne Stuart, daughter of Lord Bute. He served with distinction at the Battle of Lexington and was named Lieutenant-General of the Army in America early in 1777, but was recalled from command after many disputes with General Howe. He continued his military career, however, taking command of the Percy yeomanry regiment in 1798 and a colonelcy in the horse-guards in 1806.

Northumberland was granted a divorce in Parliament from Lady Anne in 1779 on the grounds of her adultery; he immediately married Frances Julia Burrell, with whom he had three daughters and two sons. He continued his father's agricultural improvements, and when corn prices fell after 1815, he reduced his rents by twenty-five percent; his tenants built a monument to him in gratitude. He held twice-weekly gatherings at Alnwick Castle, inviting tenants and local tradespeople. The second Duke of Northumberland died suddenly "of rheumatic gout" in July 1817. His widow died in May, 1820.

Percy Family Papers at Yale
https://archives.yale.edu/repositorie...

The Percy Map
https://oshermaps.org/special-map-exh...

Discussion Thoughts and Questions (what do you think?)

1. What do you think the officer meant when Lord Percy ordered his band to give serenades - "We have been better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation," one officer wrote. "England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves."? Lord Percy could have been thinking that this might be a morale booster?

2. Isn't it odd that in the middle of the American Revolution and bitter fighting and running out of coal and tearing down the Old South Church, that Lord Percy decides to become the patron of the arts for his men with masquerade balls, serenades, theater and writing plays (all in Boston)?

Joshua Loring



There do not appear to be any paintings or drawings of his wife Elizabeth Lloyd Loring.

Atkinson writes:

"Gossips would claim that General Howe had found his own winter entertainment, and her name was Elizabeth Lloyd Loring.

Known to her friends as Betsy, the young Mrs. Loring and her loyalist husband, Joshua, had fled their home in Roxbury for refuge in Boston.

He sold provisions to the garrison before later being appointed commissary of prisoners by Howe; scandalmongers alleged that the position encouraged a cuckold’s complicity, although little evidence supported this accusation or confirmed Betsy Loring’s infidelity in Boston."

Even so, it would be asserted that Even so, it would be asserted that the general and Mrs. Loring shared an enthusiasm for gambling, if not other passions. “Nothing seemed to engage his attention but the faro table, the playhouse, the dancing assembly, and Mrs. Loring,” a loyalist New York judge would complain.

She came to be known privately to British officers as Delilah, Cleopatra, and, especially, “the Sultana”; behind his back the general was called “the Chevalier.” Their alleged liaison later inspired a memorable snatch of balderdash:

Awake, arouse, Sir Billy,
There’s forage in the plain,
Ah, leave your little filly,
And open the campaign."

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 222). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

More:
Historic Roxbury/Boston National Historical Park
Link: https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/educat...

Discussion Thoughts and Questions:

1. Did you think that there was any special liaison between Howe and Loring? There were rumors at the time that the Lorings who were Loyalists were actually assisting the colonists - however they ended up leaving Boston and going to England and they remained there.

Siege of Boston, Winter 1775–1776



More:
Massachusetts in the American Revolution
Link: https://www.societyofthecincinnati.or...

Source: Society of the Cinncinnati

Major General John Burgoyne (General Swagger)



Major General John Burgoyne, dubbed “General Swagger,” was celebrated as much for playwriting in London as for military acumen. His farce The Blockade of Boston featured various illiterate Yankee caricatures, including a bumbling rebel general who “can’t read but can speechify.”

Discussion Thoughts and Questions:

1. Were these caricatures/farces of the colonists, the militia and the rebel generals another example of how the British underestimated and looked down on the colonists and the Continental Army? Is this another reason why they lost the Revolutionary War? Do you think that the British soldiers and officers viewed themselves as being superior?

2. One of the thespians, Captain Francis Lord Rawdon, wrote home, “I hope we shall soon have done with these scoundrels, for one only dirties one’s fingers by meddling with them.” Is this another example?

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (p. 222). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

It would not be until March 7, 1776 that the British would leave Boston. Boston was still under siege.



Thomas Paine had failed at everything he ever attempted in Britain: shop keeping, teaching, tax collecting, corset making, and marriage. But soon after emigrating to Philadelphia in late 1774, he found fame with Common Sense, a bold, brilliant pamphlet that made the case for American independence with, in General Washington’s assessment" unanswerable reasoning.”

Source: John Singleton Copley, Admiral Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, oil on canvas, 1794.(© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection)

Captain Glanville Evelyn



For more than two years, Captain Glanville Evelyn of the King’s Own Regiment had been eager “to scourge the rebellion with rods of iron.” He survived heavy combat at Concord, Bunker Hill, and Sullivan’s Island, but his luck would betray him at Pell's Point.

Source: William Glanville Evelyn, frontispiece portrait, artist unknown, 1775. (From G. D. Scull, ed., Memoirs and Letters of Captain W. Glanville Evelyn, 1879)

Discussion Topics and Questions:

1. Was the shortage of food so severe that England and George III should have done more? Or do you think that the distance and the perils of travel/transportation created these difficulties? Did the people at home (in London, England) understand how serious a situation their military and soldiers were facing?

Rick Atkinson cited Captain Evelyn:

But that hardly sufficed. In a plaintive letter, Captain Evelyn asked his father to send “a little beef, butter, or potatoes. Any of them would be extremely acceptable [in] these hard times.” He hoped that accounts of privation “may open the eyes of the people at home, and convince them that this is a more serious matter than they apprehended.”

Source: Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy) (pp. 223-224). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Joseph Reed



The Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Reed, who served as Washington’s aide and adjutant general, was the commanding general’s closest confidante until the discovery in late November 1776 of his disloyal correspondence with General Lee. Reed later provided useful intelligence after leading a cavalry troop to capture British dragoons near Princeton.

More:
http://www.revolutionarywarjournal.co...

The British Perspective:

King George III and the American Revolution

King George III was shrewder, more complex, and more intriguing than we often acknowledge. He was king for sixty years, from 1760 to 1820. He was frugal in an age of excess, pious at a time of impiety. He despised disorder and loathed disobedience.

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGH9e...

Source: Rick Atkinson's Revolution Trilogy site

CONVERSATION AT THE WASHINGTON LIBRARY PODCAST
Rick Atkinson talks with Doug Bradburn, the CEO of Mount Vernon.

Link: https://soundcloud.com/mountvernon/th...

Source: Sound Cloud

Rick Atkinson discusses The British Are Coming on the B&N Podcast.

Link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review...

Source: Barnes and Noble