Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Debunking a Few More Historical Myths
HISTORY
Stony Point was captured by Americans under
Mad Anthony Wayne a month and a half later on July 16, 1779, in an impressive
victory planned by George Washington. Wayne later
swore that he would storm Hell if Washington
The American Revolution was
unique in that many military actions took place in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley
The Myth that
Patriots Burned New York
Ironically, a week after their landing at Kip’s Bay,
on Sept. 21, 1776, the British were robbed of a portion of their prize by the
destruction of about a third of New York City in a disastrous fire that destroyed
493 houses before British troops and local citizens could extinguish the flames.
Because the city's volunteer
firemen had left with the American troops, the fire spread with intense speed.
The conflagration, which started in a house near Whitehall Slip, inconvenienced
caused the British because they had counted on billeting troops in the city.
In the belief that Americans
had deliberately fired the city, enraged British soldiers killed a number of
citizens. British soldiers and sailors called out to fight the fire pillaged
many houses.
Observing the red glow on
the southern horizon from his position at the Roger Morris house on Harlem Heights , Washington
commented, “Providence
The British claimed that the
fire had been planned with the knowledge of George Washington, but the General
and the Continental Congress denied the existence of any plot. In fact,
Congress had specifically prohibited the destruction of the city.
The Hessians of Croton’s Hessian Hill
Repetition of inaccurate information often embeds it
in local history. Hessian Hill, northeast of Mt. Airy ,
in the village of
Croton-on-Hudson
British General Sir Henry
Clinton sailed up the Hudson Clinton 's troops occupied Stony Point
on the west bank. A force under British Gen. John Vaughan landed at Verplanck
Point on June 1st and captured its Fort
Lafayette
Although
Americans abandoned the position, crucial to a key ferry crossing of the Hudson Virginia , two years later.
After Washington
reinforced American troops at Peekskill , the
British withdrew from the area north of the Croton River
Were German Mercenaries only Hessians?
Were German Mercenaries only Hessians?
No. Although many German mercenaries were from
Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau, other states, especially Brunswick
The practice of hiring
foreign soldiers was common up to the 18th century, although mercenaries could
not keep Constantinople from falling to the
Turks in the 15th century. Most small professional armies found it necessary to
employ auxiliaries in foreign wars of long duration.
Only 17,313 of the 29,867
German soldiers who reached these shores returned home. About five thousand
deserted and another 7,754 found graves in America
German mercenaries were
despised for their cruelty, even by the British. They gained no battle laurels
in America
The most notable German
defeats included their Christmas surprise at Trenton ,
N.J. , their drubbing at Bennington ,
Vt. , and General Knyphausen's failed raid
against American forces under Gen. Nathanael Greene at Springfield , N.J.
Instead of learning from
their experiences in America ,
German mercenaries returned home unshaken in their faith in the outmoded
military tactics of Frederick
This illusion persisted
until one October day in 1806 when Napoleon’s highly trained and adaptable army
crushed two great Prussian armies in a matter of hours in twin victories at
Jena and Auerstedt. Ruthless German efficiency on the battlefield had given way
to outworn precision on the parade ground with disastrous results.
The Patriots’Superior
Propaganda Skills
The Patriots’
The distorted view of the American Revolution that was
perpetuated so long is a tribute to American mastery of the art of propaganda.
Early in the struggle, patriots
like Sam Adams realized that to stir up their fellow citizens and to win
friends abroad, they had to circulate their own version of every incident and do
it quickly.
Take, for example, the
reporting of the running battle at Lexington and
Concord America to England
British General Thomas
Gage's report of the incident on April 18th and 19th in 1775 was dispatched
aboard the ship Sukey on April 22nd and reached London
Although the American
version of the affair went out four days later on April 26, it arrived at the
end of May. The Americans cleverly outwitted General Gage by sending Capt. John
Darby's ship Quero ”in ballast” (i.e., without cargo). Gage's
slower ship was heavily laden and took longer.
American propaganda
techniques occasionally backfired. A good example of this occurred a half century
after Lexington and Concord, when the Americans--who had labored to show that
they had not fired the first shot--had difficulty in proving that any Americans
had fired at all.
Myths about Militias
Large standing armies represent a relatively recent
innovation in the art of warfare. The almost continuous wars in America
Battles against the
rebelling colonists during the Revolution were fought by British regulars,
German mercenaries and Tory militia. British professional military men tended
to take a dim view of the capabilities of the colonial militias.
Yet during the American
Revolution, it was these same militiamen who gathered so quickly at Lexington and Concord , who
placed Boston under siege, who fought at Bunker Hill , and who formed the nucleus of the fledgling
Continental Army.
At the same time, because
they were part-time soldiers subject to their home state's authority, militia
units were often unreliable. After the battle of Long Island, of the 8,000 Connecticut militiamen serving under Washington
The second battle of Saratoga
in 1777 was the turning point of the Revolution Immediately before that
engagement, Gen. John Stark's New Hampshire
militia, only recently the heroes at the battle of Bennington
"Few events in the war so proved the utter
failure of the militia system," an American historian later wrote.
Paradoxically, if led by experienced officers who understood their inherent
weakness, the militia could—and did—fight like regular soldiers.
