Semiquincentennial of the American Revolution

[UAH]

250 years sounds long. Occasionally, I'm reminded, since my memories go back to WWII and toddlerhood, that I can remember 1/3 of our nation's history...

Your post brought a great deal of reflection about my early life in post World War ll Alabama.

 

[arthurdawg]

250 years sounds long. Occasionally, I'm reminded, since my memories go back to WWII and toddlerhood, that I can remember 1/3 of our nation's history...

My daughter once told me I was as old as the plains... When I mentioned hills she noted that over the vast geological epochs the mountains weather to hills and the hills to plains...

I told her she was a little rat and tickled her with no mercy.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago today, Congress resolves to have the Declaration of Independence embossed on parchment and that each member of Congress sign it. The DoI we see today in Philadelphia or when you do an image search is that parchment, embossed after July 4th.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago yesterday, Congress resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole* to consider the Articles fo Confederation. Congress decides to repeat that procedure tomorrow. The AoC will not be adopted and ratified until 1781.


* A parliamentary procedure which means committee rules applied, as opposed to rules of the entire house, allowing detailed line-by-line amendment and discussion that would be constrained under regular floor procedure.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago today, Washington's return indicate he has 15,215 rank and file in and near New York, but only 9,516 fit for duty.
The British force opposing him in the vicinity of New York are unknown exactly, but is greatly superior. Further, Washington must defend a huge area from Long Island to the upper reaches of the city and the British has naval supremacy and can sail where they want and land where they want.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago today Washington meets with a representative of General Howe and proposes a prisoner exchange. Like rank for like rank. One for one swap. Prisoners in eighteenth century POW camps tended to not survive long because of poor diet and poor sanitary conditions. Getting one's soldiers in enemy hands released meant they were more likely to survive.

Elsewhere, the President of South Carolina informs Congress that the Cherokee have engaged in war against South Carolina. Native tribes were neither all the allies of the Americans, nor all their enemies. Each tribe decided for itself, and some made different decisions at different times.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

250 years ago today Washington meets with a representative of General Howe and proposes a prisoner exchange. Like rank for like rank. One for one swap. Prisoners in eighteenth century POW camps tended to not survive long because of poor diet and poor sanitary conditions. Getting one's soldiers in enemy hands released meant they were more likely to survive.

Elsewhere, the President of South Carolina informs Congress that the Cherokee have engaged in war against South Carolina. Native tribes were neither all the allies of the Americans, nor all their enemies. Each tribe decided for itself, and some made different decisions at different times.

At first contact with tribes, Europeans, meaning mainly Anglos in what's now the lower 48, tended to Europeanize the tribes mentally. Usually, the friendliest male in the tribe came out to meet them. When he was asked if he were the leader, it commonly happened that he eagerly agreed with that. The true situation was almost always far different. The tribe was usually deeply divided and didn't have a real "leader" in the European sense of the word. Sometimes, leadership was divided, with a war chief, a peacetime guy, etc. Sometimes, there just wasn't agreement, but constant internal strife. There were many misunderstandings and some bloodshed with Europeans over this understandable mistake...

 

[Tidewater]

At first contact with tribes, Europeans, meaning mainly Anglos in what's now the lower 48, tended to Europeanize the tribes mentally. Usually, the friendliest male in the tribe came out to meet them. When he was asked if he were the leader, it commonly happened that he eagerly agreed with that. The true situation was almost always far different. The tribe was usually deeply divided and didn't have a real "leader" in the European sense of the word. Sometimes, leadership was divided, with a war chief, a peacetime guy, etc. Sometimes, there just wasn't agreement, but constant internal strife. There were many misunderstandings and some bloodshed with Europeans over this understandable mistake...

Native tribes were what I call undisciplined. Not undisciplined in the sense of unable to bear hardship, but undiscipline in the sense of following the decisions of the group leadership. I think throughout the history of interaction between native tribes and settlers there were often times when leadership of a tribe decided that the best way to maintain their position was peaceful coexistence with settlers, even if they were encroaching on their land, and some subgroup would take it upon themselves to attack the settlers cabin or ambush a wagon or something like that. From the perspective of the colonist/settlers, they had come to an agreement with the leaders of X Indian tribe, and they killed settlers. Anyway this provided rationale for harsh reprisals, and a lack of trust on the part of the settlers who had superior resources and frequently superior technology. The results were foreseeable.

For example, in 1859, certain Comanches had agreed to move onto a reservation in what is now SW Oklahoma. The US government said "Stop fighting, move to this reservation, and we will protect you from encroachment by settlers and predations by them." In 1860, some Comanches did not agree with the leaders who signed the treaty. So they raided the frontier in Texas, killing families, men, women, children, burning houses, stealing goods, and then riding back toward the reservation.

John S. "Rip" Ford took a party of Texas Rangers and followed the trail back from the destroyed houses/murdered families to the Comanche reservation, looking to arrest the perps or otherwise exact revenge. The US Army prevented them from going onto the reservation. On other similar situations, the Army was not there or did not stop settlers, so both sides saw the other as undisciplined. This made making and sticking to treaties very difficult.

I think this dynamic explains a lot of three centuries of history between the two.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago today, Washington thanks Schuyler for rooting out a Royalist plot in Albany. It seems not all colonists were in favor of independence.

Also, Washington informs Schuyler that "those[Indians], that were at Philadelphia and this place, have returned with such favorable ideas of our strength and resources to their several nations."

This dovetails with the discussion from yesterday. Mohawk warriors in western New York, for example, saw only individual family cabins appearing on their land and probably were not impressed with the strength of Europeans. "Let's just go to the cabin, kill the invaders, take the valuables, and burn the cabin. That will teach them to encroach on our land." Mohawk leaders who travelled to New York or Philadelphia saw that there were tens/hundreds of thousands of European settlers there and knew they had to tread carefully in their relations with the colonists.

 

[Tidewater]

One other interesting anecdote from Washington's letter.
Apparently, some British officers had been captured. Following the practice of the day, they had given their parole (promise not to escape and not to return to fighting until given permission by the American authorities). Then they could roam around freely, because they were gentlemen and had given their word. This is a very eighteenth century custom.
Then they used that liberty to escape and make their way back to the British army. Washington had complained to Howe's adjutant-general:

"I conceive it will not be only proper, but absolutely necessary, to request General Howe to deliver the officers, who, regardless of their paroles, have escaped from Pennsylvania; and all others, that have acted in the same manner; pointing out the impropriety of such conduct, and the difficulty it lays us under as to the line of treatment to be observed to others. In a conversation with the adjutant-general of the King's army, I touched upon this subject, and he assured me, all complaints of this nature would be strictly attended to by General Howe, and those who gave rise to them be handled with severity. Lord Howe, too, I am confidently informed, has expressed his great disapprobation of such behavior, and said that those who were guilty of it should be severely noticed, if they came into his hands. Every thinking and sensible person must see the impropriety of it, and the consequences that must attend it. I should suppose the requisition will claim General Burgoyne's attention and be readily complied with."

If officers who gave their paroles subsequently violated it, then officers' paroles will not longer be accepted and officers will be kept in prison camps like the soldiers. Thus, a few bad apples will spoil things for every officer captured.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

250 years ago today, Washington thanks Schuyler for rooting out a Royalist plot in Albany. It seems not all colonists were in favor of independence.

Also, Washington informs Schuyler that "those[Indians], that were at Philadelphia and this place, have returned with such favorable ideas of our strength and resources to their several nations."

This dovetails with the discussion from yesterday. Mohawk warriors in western New York, for example, saw only individual family cabins appearing on their land and probably were not impressed with the strength of Europeans. "Let's just go to the cabin, kill the invaders, take the valuables, and burn the cabin. That will teach them to encroach on our land." Mohawk leaders who travelled to New York or Philadelphia saw that there were tens/hundreds of thousands of European settlers there and knew they had to tread carefully in their relations with the colonists.

There are many quotes from the plains tribes' members who visited cities, not even large ones, places like St. Louis at the time. "As numerous as the blades of grass on the prairie" is one which sticks with me. They understood the problem. Of course, by then, many Indian nations had been decimated in advance by white-borne pathogens...

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago today, most of the delegates in the Continental Congress sign the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock (President of the Continental Congress) had signed on July 4. On August 2, the delegates sign by states, all the Virginians signing one after the other, then the Pennsylvania, etc.


Washington notices the increase in the size of the British can of whoop-up that is forming in New York harbor. Washington has a thousands potential landing sites to cover and 9,000 serviceable troops. Nearby states are sending elements of their militia, but they will find that militia tends to not be very durable in combat. They tend to break and run away when things get tough.

 

[Tidewater]

250 years ago Monday, Washington declared to the troops, "That the Troops may have an opportunity of attending public worship, as well as take some rest, after the great fatigue they have gone through, the General in future, excuses them from fatigue duty on Sunday (except at the Ship Yards, or special occasions,) until further orders. The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army,) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will by example as well as influence endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the Blessing of Heaven on our Arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly; added to this it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character, detests and despises it."

Now we know the origins of the Tidefans policy on bad language.