Monday, January 30, 2012

Back on Track Wednesday

My mom's having some health issues, which I have to take care of. Will be back to blogging on Wednesday.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Revolutionary War subject of lectures at David Library

From the Philly Burbs: Revolutionary War subject of lectures at David Library
Want to learn more about the Revolutionary War
?

The David Library of the American Revolution is hosting a free, five-lecture series on the war beginning Feb. 12.

The lectures will take place at Stone Hall of the Feinstone Conference Center, which is adjacent to the library at 1201 River Road in Washington Crossing. The first begins at 3 p.m. The next four lectures are scheduled for 3 p.m. March 4; 7:30 p.m. March 22 and April 25; and 3 p.m. April 29.

Receptions will follow at the Rose Gallery, which is next to the library. Reservations are necessary and can be made at 215-493-2233, ext. 100.

Speakers include Andrew Shankman, associate professor of history at Rutgers University (Camden campus); Susan Klepp, professor of Colonial America and American women's history at Temple University; Michael W. Zuckerman, emeritus professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania; Brendan J. McConville, author of "The King's Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America," and David Silverman, history professor at George Washington University.

St. Augustine: British ruled city during 'Madness'

From the St. Augustine River: British ruled city during 'Madness'; free program Jan. 25
St. Augustine’s role during the American Revolution was not, as is commonly believed, a backwater Tory town known only for accepting British loyalist refugees from northern states.

Newly uncovered research shows that it served as the center of the British Empire in the New World.

The “Madness of King George” presentation on Wednesday night — third of the five-part Discover First America! series — explains the city’s important role.

Roger Smith, a University of Florida historian specializing in Early American History and Atlantic World Studies, has just completed 6 1/2 years of academic research in the British National Archives and at P.K. Yonge National Library in Gainesville.

“I found brand new twists on the American Revolution,” he said. “We think of the 13 colonies as the center of the British Empire. But from the British perspective, the empire stretched from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Grenada in the Caribbean. St. Augustine was the epicenter of British interests.”

Smith said the British were deathly afraid of losing their Caribbean holdings, because that is where they manufactured sugar, the oil of the 1700s.

“Sixty percent of the British Army was stationed there,” he said. “St. Augustine became central to their efforts to reclaim the American South. The American Revolution did not move south. It had never left the south.”

Smith, assisted by Sam Turner and Gary Bruce, will be illustrating the story through use of a play, written and directed by Bruce but including local re-enactors as British citizens and Redcoats.

The program is hosted by First Light Maritime Society (St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum and the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program), with support from the Maritime Heritage Foundation.

Also, the persuasive and slightly shady British broker — some would say rogue — Jesse Fish, played by the Fountain of Youth’s John Stavely, will appear. Watch your wallet.

Smith said that when the war started to turn against Great Britain, loyalists streamed south to East Florida.

From December 1782 to March 1783, St. Augustine was home to 21,000 to 22,000 people.

______________________
If You Go

Doors to the Flagler College Auditorium — across from City Hall on Granada Street — open at 6 p.m. for lobby displays, demonstrations and book signings.

The program begins at 7 p.m.

Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For information call 904.825.1053 or visit www.staugustine-450.com.

Monday, January 23, 2012

My Scrabble Books Took Precedence

Hello, all my faithful readers out there in computer land.

I've missed several days of posting and I apologize for it. I've been working on two Scrabble books (Eve Le QiNu's Flashwords) which help people to learn the 2 and 3 letter Scrabble words.

I won't provide links here since this is an apology not a sales pitch - but if you do like to play Scrabble, go to the Kindle Store (or the Nook Store) and type in Eve Le QiNu and my two books will be brought up. (Eve Le QiNu is an anagram.... see if you can unscramble it. Bear in mind my publishing name is Magic Mirror Press)

Anyway, I finished volume 2 yesterday, and today I'm chilling out...so regular posting resumes tomorrow.

Thanks again for your patience.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Flags Over America: Navy of Massachusetts


From: http://www.americanrevolution.org/flags.html
This flag was used as a symbol of New England in general and Massachusetts in particular. Once war broke out, it was swiftly adapted by the Americans in various forms, and in April of 1776, it became the official flag of the Massachusetts Navy. The Navy did not survive the battle of Penobscot Bay.

From Wikipedia
The Penobscot Expedition was the largest American naval expedition of the American Revolutionary War and the United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor. The fighting took place both on land and on sea, in what is today Maine.

In June 1779, British Army forces established a series of fortifications centered on a fort located on the Bagaduce Peninsula in Penobscot Bay, with the goals of establishing a military presence on that part of the coast and beginning a new colony to be known as New Ireland. In response, the state of Massachusetts, with some support from the Continental Congress, raised an expedition to drive the British out.

The Americans landed troops in late July and attempted to establish a siege of the British fort in a series of actions seriously hampered by disagreements over control of the expedition between Commodore Dudley Saltonstall and General Solomon Lovell. The operation ended in disaster when a British fleet under the command of Sir George Collier arrived on August 13th, driving the American fleet to total self-destruction up the Penobscot River. The survivors of the American expedition were forced to make an overland journey back to more-populated parts of Massachusetts with minimal food and armament.

Background
Following the partially successful raid of Machias in 1777, as well as General John Burgoyne's failed Saratoga campaign, British war planners looked for other ways to gain control over the rebellious New England colonies, while most of their effort was directed at another campaign targeted at the southern colonies. Lord Germain, the Secretary of State responsible for the war effort, and his under-secretary, William Knox, wanted to establish a base on the coast of the District of Maine (which was then a part of Massachusetts) that could be used to protect Nova Scotia's shipping and communities from American privateers and raiders.

Opportunity arrived when John Nutting, a Loyalist who had piloted Sir George Collier's expedition against Machias, came to London with the idea of establishing a British military presence in Maine. In September 1778, Nutting left for New York carrying orders for Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton to assist with the establishment of "a province between the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers. Post to be taken on Penobscot River." It was Knox's idea to call this province New Ireland. Unfortunately for the British, Nutting's ship was captured by an American privateer, and he was forced to dump his dispatches, putting an end to execution of the idea in 1778.

British forces arrive
Nutting reached New York in January 1779, but General Clinton had received copies of the orders from other messengers. Clinton had already assigned the expedition to General Francis McLean, who was based in Halifax, so he sent Nutting there with Germain's detailed instructions.

McLean's expedition set sail from Halifax on May 30, 1779, and arrived in Penobscot Bay on June 12. The next day McLean and Andrew Barkley, the captain of the naval convoy, identified a suitable site at which they could establish a post. On June 16, his forces began landing on a peninsula that was then called Majabigwaduce (now Castine), between the mouth of the Bagaduce River and a finger of the bay leading to the Penobscot River. The troops numbered approximately 700: 50 men of the Royal Artillery and engineers, 450 of the 74th Regiment of (Highland) Foot and 200 of the 82nd (Duke of Hamilton's) Regiment. These began to build a fortification on the peninsula, which jutted into the bay and commanded the principal passage into the inner harbor.

The principal works, called Fort George, was in the center of the small peninsula, with two batteries outside the fort to provide cover for the Albany, which was the only ship expected to stay in the area. A third battery was constructed on an island south of the bay in which Albany was harbored, near the mouth of the Bagaduce River. Construction of the works occupied the troops for the next month, until rumors came that an American expedition was being raised to oppose them, following which efforts were redoubled to have works suitable for defense against the Americans prepared before they arrived.

Albany's captain, Henry Mowat, who was familiar with Massachusetts politics, took the rumors (which were followed by reports that a fleet had left Boston) quite seriously, and convinced General McLean to leave additional ships that had been part of the initial convoy as further defense. Some of the convoy ships had already left; orders for armed sloops North and Nautilus were countermanded before they were able to leave.

American reaction
When news of this reached the American authorities in Boston, they hurriedly made plans to drive the British from the area. The Penobscot River was the gateway to lands controlled by the Penobscot Indians, who generally favored the British. Congress feared that if a fort were successfully constructed at the mouth of the river, all chance of enlisting the Penobscots as allies would be lost. Massachusetts was also motivated by the fear of losing their claim over the territory to rival states in any post-war settlement.

To spearhead the expedition, Massachusetts petitioned Congress for the use of three Continental Navy warships—the 12-gun sloop Providence, 14-gun brig Diligent, and 32-gun frigate Warren—while the rest of over 40 ships were made up of ships of the Massachusetts State Navy and private vessels under the command of Commodore Dudley Saltonstall. The Massachusetts authorities mobilised more than 1,000 militia, acquired six small field cannons, and placed Brigadier General Solomon Lovell in command of the land forces. The expedition departed from Boston on July 24 and arrived off Penobscot Bay that same day.

Landing
On July 25, nine of the larger vessels in the American flotilla exchanged fire with the Royal Navy ships from 3.30 p.m to 7.00 p.m. While this was going on, seven American boats approached the shore for a landing but turned back when enemy fire killed an American-allied Native warrior in one of the boats.

On July 26, Lovell sent a force of Continental Marines to capture the British battery on Nautilus Island (also known as Banks Island), while the militia were to land at Bagaduce. The marines achieved their objective but the militia turned back when British shot overturned the leading boat, drowning Major Daniel Littlefield and two of his men. Meanwhile, 750 men under Lovell landed and began construction of siege works under constant fire. On July 27, the American artillery bombarded the British fleet for three hours, wounding four men aboard HMS Albany.

Assault
On July 28, under heavy covering fire from the Tyrannicide, the Hunter and the Sky Rocket, Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth led an assault force of 400 (200 marines and 200 militia) ashore with orders to capture the British fort. They landed on the beach and advanced up the bluff leading to the fort. The British pickets, who included Lieutenant John Moore, put up a determined resistance but received no reinforcement from the fort and were forced to retire, leaving the Americans in possession of the heights. 8 British troops were captured.

At this point, Lovell ordered the attackers to halt and entrench where they were. Instead of assaulting the fort, Lovell had decided to build a battery within "a hundred rods" of the British lines and bombard them into surrender. The American casualties in the assault had been severe: "one hundred out of four hundred men on the shore and bank", with the Continental Marines suffering more heavily than the militia. Commodore Saltonstall was so appalled by the losses incurred by his marines that he refused to land any more and even threatened to recall those already on shore.

Siege
On July 29, 1 American was killed.

On July 30, both sides cannonaded each other all day.

On July 31, 2 American sailors belonging to the Active were wounded by a shell.

On August 1, Lovell ordered a night assault on the Half-Moon Battery, next to Fort George, whose guns posed a danger to the American shipping. The Americans opened fire at 2.00 a.m. Colonel Samuel McCobb's center column, comprising his own Lincoln County Regiment, broke and fled as soon as the British returned fire. The left column comprising Captain Thomas Carnes and a detachment of marines, and the right column comprising sailors from the fleet, both kept going and stormed the Battery. As dawn broke, the Fort’s guns opened up on the captured battery and a detachment of redcoats charged out and recaptured the Half-Moon, routing the Americans, who took 18 prisoners with them. Their own casualties were 4 men missing (who were killed) and 12 wounded.

The siege continued with minor skirmishing. On August 2, militiaman Wheeler Riggs, of Falmouth, was killed by an enemy cannon shot that bounced off a tree before hitting him. On August 4, Surgeon John Calef recorded in his journal that several men were wounded in exchanges of fire. On August 5, one American-allied Indian was killed and another man captured. On August 7, 100 Americans engaged 80 British but the only casualties were 1 killed and 1 wounded on the American side and 2 wounded among the British.

During this time, the British had been able to send word of their condition, and request reinforcements. On August 3, a fleet of 10 warships left New York under the command of Commodore Collier.

On August 11, about 250 American militia advanced from their fortified camp and occupied a recently abandoned battery about a quarter mile (400 m) from the British fort. As expected, a sortie of about 55 British troops advanced from the fort to engage: but the poorly trained American troops fired only one volley at the attacking British troops and fled back to their fort, leaving behind all of their arms and equipment.

The next day, Saltonstall finally decided to launch a naval attack against the British fort, but the British relief fleet arrived and attacked the American ships. Over the next two days, the American fleet fled upstream on the Penobscot River, pursued by the British. On August 13, an American officer was wounded by enemy fire. Several vessels were scuttled or burned along the way with the rest destroyed at Bangor. In the 18th century there were rapids at Bangor at the approximate location of the old Water Works. The surviving crews then fled overland back to Boston with virtually no food or ammunition.

Casualties
Over the course of the siege, Colonel David Stewart claims the British garrison suffered 25 killed and 34 wounded. Stewart gives no figures for captured or missing but 26 prisoners are known to have been taken by the Americans.

Apart from the 100 men killed and wounded during the assault of July 28, the known American casualties throughout the siege came to 12 killed, 16 wounded and 1 captured, in addition to "several wounded" on August 4. This adds up to at least 130 killed and wounded. The History of Penobscot says that "our whole loss of men was probably not less than 150". The chaotic retreat however, brought the American loss up to 474 killed, wounded, captured or missing.

Aftermath
A committee of inquiry blamed the American failure on poor coordination between land and sea forces and on Commodore Saltonstall's failure to engage the British naval forces. Saltonstall was declared to be primarily responsible for the debacle, and he was court-martialed, found guilty, and dismissed from military service. Paul Revere, who commanded the artillery in the expedition, was accused of disobedience and cowardice. This resulted in his dismissal from the militia, even though he was later cleared of the charges. Peleg Wadsworth, who mitigated the damage by organizing a retreat, was not charged in the court martial.

The British evacuated the area pursuant to the terms of the 1783 Peace of Paris, abandoning their attempts to establish New Ireland. During the War of 1812 the British again occupied the area they called New Ireland, and used it as a naval base before withdrawing again with the arrival of peace. Full ownership of present-day Maine (principally the northeastern borders with New Brunswick) remained disputed until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842. Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it was admitted into the Union as the 23rd state.

Legacy
In 1972 the Maine Maritime Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology searched for and found the wreck of the Defence, a privateer that was part of the American fleet. Evidence of scuttled ships has also found under the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge in Bangor and under the Bangor town dock, and several artifacts were recovered. Cannonballs were also reported to have been recovered during the construction of the concrete casements for the I-395 bridge in 1986.

The earthworks of Fort George still stand at the mouth of the Penobscot River in Castine, accompanied by concrete work added later by the Americans in the 19th century. Archaeological evidence of the expedition, including cannonballs and cannon, was located during an archaeological project in 2000–2001.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

American Revolution: Battle of Eutaw Springs

From About.com Military History : American Revolution: Battle of Eutaw Springs
Fought on September 8, 1781, the Battle of Eutaw Springs was the last major battle to take place in the Carolinas during the American Revolution. Having been forced to abandon the Siege of Ninety-Six in June 1781, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene (right) largely suspended operations for the summer. Resuming in August, he moved against Lt. Col. Alexander Stewart's force at Eutaw Springs, SC. Clashing on September 8, the Americans were initially pushed back until a determined counterattack saw them storm forward and capture the British camp. As the Americans elected to pause to loot his former camp, Stewart was able to rally his men and launch a counterstrike against the disorganized enemy. Mustering a rear guard, Greene was able to retreat from the field in good order. Though a tactical defeat for Greene, the aftermath of Eutaw Springs saw British forces continue retreating to enclaves on the coast and effectively surrender the interior to the Americans.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Beaver Wars - book review

From the Wall Street Journal: The Beaver Wars
By STEPHEN BRUMWELL
In 1661, the celebrated English diarist Samuel Pepys spent £4.25, more than 1% of his annual income, on a hat. This was no ordinary piece of headgear but a prized and prestigious "beaver."

From Pepys's day until the early 19th century, hats made from processed beaver fur were the crowning glory of Europe's kings, generals and men of fashion, coveted as status symbols. These were boom years for hatters and trappers, although, as Alan Axelrod points out in "A Savage Empire," they were less auspicious for North America's largest rodent. By the time of the American Revolution, the buck-toothed beaver had been hunted to near-extinction in its eastern habitat. And it was not just wildlife that suffered to satisfy the insatiable consumer demand; as rival groups of incoming colonists and Native Americans alike fought over the trade and its profits, the human cost was also high.

From medieval times, Europeans had obtained furs from Russia and Scandinavia. American pelts began coming on the market during the 16th century—decades before the French, English and Dutch established permanent settlements and trading posts on the continent—after Basque fishermen chasing cod off Newfoundland's Grand Banks bartered with local Indians for beaver robes to help fend off the numbing Atlantic chill. Back home, these second-hand garments were eagerly bought by hat makers who knew that the simple act of wearing them had already begun the process by which fur could be transformed into high-quality hats—human sweat helps to break down the tough fibers. A market was born.

While nothing like as arduous or dangerous as trapping beavers, hat making was not without its own hazards. Before it could be formed into impressively brimmed and crowned hats, the soft "beaver fluff" scraped from the pelts had to be steeped in highly toxic salts of mercury. Prolonged exposure to the fumes released when the material was steamed for final shaping had dire effects on the nervous system, hence the expression "mad as a hatter."

Such snippets suggest that "A Savage Empire" is a book along the lines of Mark Kurlansky's best seller "Cod," with historical and ecological strands woven into a full portrait of the North American fur trade. But the focus is instead on human conflict. Mr. Axelrod contends that the enmities and alliances fostered as settlers, trappers and their Indian contacts struggled to dominate the lucrative business during the mid-17th century set in motion the course of war that ultimately led to an independent American republic.

The book's early chapters certainly demonstrate fur's role in fomenting strife. By the time that Pepys acquired his pricey hat, competition for pelts had triggered a ferocious sequence of "Beaver Wars" in which the Mohawks—one of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois League spread across modern upstate New York—ruthlessly plundered their tribal neighbors, hijacking furs to swap for prized European goods like spun cloth, iron hatchets and liquor.

This "blitzkrieg," as Mr. Axelrod terms it, was all the more devastating because the Mohawks had been armed with guns by their Dutch trading partners in Albany. Their victims included the Hurons, fur trade "middlemen" who supplied the French in Canada with the thicker—and therefore more valuable—pelts from the colder north. Escalating tribal warfare generated a nightmarish cycle of violence in which those not slain outright or spared for adoption were ritually tortured to death and communally cannibalized—the flesh consumed for reasons that baffle anthropologists (the best guess is that it was a means of absorbing an enemy's courage).

A Savage Empire
By Alan Axelrod

Thomas Dunne Books, 336 pages, $25.99
When the story moves forward into the 18th century, and the fur trade further and further west as stocks are depleted, a direct link between fur trading and widespread frontier warfare becomes much harder to establish. Far more was increasingly at stake—for Indians and colonists alike. France had traditionally used the fur trade to cultivate militarily useful tribal allies, yet its "invasion" of the Ohio Valley in the 1750s was not about monopolizing supplies of beaver pelts but about penning English colonists east of the Appalachians: Imperial territorial friction, not competition for furs, kindled the pivotal French and Indian War that eliminated France as a power broker in North America. "A Savage Empire's" central thesis, that fur fueled nation-shaping conflict, becomes weaker with subsequent wars. The American colonists who defied the British Empire and the Indian tribes that struggled to stem white settlement beyond the Ohio River were fighting for nothing less than independence.

Mr. Axelrod makes some more specific factual errors as well. The 400 firearms that the Dutch supplied to the Mohawks in 1648 with undeniably bloody consequences were not "rifles" but smoothbore muskets: It would be another century before rifles became common among either whites or Indians on the frontier. Maj. James Grant was not killed when the French and their Indian allies defeated his raiding party outside Fort Duquesne (modern Pittsburgh) in 1758: Grant survived to boast in 1775 that he could march the length of the rebellious American colonies with just 5,000 redcoats, a statement that proved optimistic to say the least.

And even though Mr. Axelrod's emphasis upon recounting successive wars dictates an overwhelmingly narrative approach, he sometimes becomes sidetracked. He gives over four chapters, for example, to the efforts of the young George Washington to counter French expansion in 1753-54. Such digressions over much-trodden ground leave scant space to explore more interesting facets of this specific story—for instance, how the demand for furs prompted Indians to replace traditional hunting, where prey was afforded a spiritual respect, with indiscriminate slaughter; or how the vagaries of European fashion granted the hard-pressed beaver a belated reprieve in the first decades of the 19th century.

Likewise, more might have been said about the lifestyles of the tough, independent voyageurs and coureurs de bois (literally "woods runners") of French Canada. Their feats of endurance and exploration anticipated the trappers who ranged the Rockies during the fur trade's Far West phase of the 1830s and '40s. These trappers are mentioned in a brief coda to Mr. Axelrod's chronicle of colonial and revolutionary warfare. Yet in their quest for increasingly elusive pelts, the semi-legendary "Mountain Men" blazed the westward trails for wagon trains that surely shaped America as profoundly as any frontier war.

—Mr. Brumwell's books include "White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery and Vengeance in Colonial America."

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Dalton, GA: Service to honor Revolutionary War soldier from Murray

From Dalton Now: Service to honor Revolutionary War soldier from Murray
A Revolutionary War soldier and Murray County resident will be honored later this winter with a memorial service.

The service for William Peeples (1751-1854) will be March 10 at 11 a.m. at the Mount Zion United Methodist Church cemetery in Chatsworth at 30 Wilbanks Road. The event is sponsored by The Sons of the American Revolution Piedmont Chapter of Atlanta.

Descendants of Peeples and the public are invited. A reception following the service will be in the church fellowship hall only for family and members of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Dunwoody resident Jerry A. Maddox, a sixth-generation descendant of Peeples, is one of the event organizers.

“This is an opportunity for all members of the Peeples family to reunite and meet at a place where many of their ancestors are buried,” Maddox said.

Maddox has researched Peeples’ lineage. He compiled a complete genealogical record of the family in “The Peeples Family, Descendants of William Peeples (1751-1854).” The book is available at public libraries in Catoosa, Gordon, Murray, Pickens and Whitfield counties. It can also be found at the Emory University library and the Georgia Archives Building in Morrow.

Peeples enlisted as a private on April 1, 1776, in the Continental Army of the U.S. to be a soldier in the Revolutionary War under Gen. George Washington. He was a member of Capt. Robert Fenner’s Company, 2nd Battalion, commanded by Col. John Patton of the 2nd North Carolina Regiment. He served for two and a half years. In 1778 he was stationed near White Plains, N.Y., in the area close to the Hudson River Highlands and West Point at Camp White Plains. However, the 2nd North Carolina Regiment did not fight at the well-known battle of White Plains, N.Y., in 1776. It remained in the South at this time, being involved in skirmishes in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Peeples later moved to Georgia in 1795 and had five children.

According to Maddox, “considerable references regarding the place of interment for William indicate a burial site in the Mount Zion Church cemetery. The exact location of the grave has not been found and a memorial grave marker was donated in the Peeples section of the cemetery to show that William was buried somewhere in the cemetery.”

In 2009, Maddox helped organize a memorial service and grave marker dedication ceremony for Henry Clay Erwin, a 1st lieutenant for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and a prominent Daltonian. He is buried in Dalton’s West Hill Cemetery.

For more information about the Peeples memorial service, call Maddox at (770) 396-6135.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Caribbean theater of the American Revolutionary War

From Wikipedia: Caribbean theater of the American Revolutionary War
The Caribbean theater of the American Revolutionary War was the scene of numerous naval and amphibious engagements, principally involving the forces of Great Britain and France between 1778 and 1782.

Background
Britain's numerous island colonies in the West Indies were politically divided with respect to the issues that eventually drove the Thirteen Colonies in North America to revolution. Some colonial assemblies expressed sympathy for the rebel movement, but the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775 did not result in similar mobilizations in the Caribbean. British military authorities, in fact, drew resources from there to support their activities against the rebel colonies in the early years of the war.

The main impact on the British West Indies in those early years was economic. The islands were dependent on North America for a number of resources, including lumber for construction and food to feed the large slave population that worked on plantations producing sugar cane for export. This trade fell substantially after the Royal Navy began blockading major ports in North America. Some trade continued, but the Americans, desparate for supplies (particularly military supplies, like gunpowder) from Europe, engaged in trade with French and Dutch possessions in the Caribbean. The Dutch island of Sint Eustatius in particular became a major supply point where Dutch merchants and officially sanctioned French traders did business with American merchants.

The situation changed following the entry of France into the war as an American ally in early 1778.

1778-1779
News of the France's entry into the war reached the French governor at Martinique, the marquis de Bouillé, in August 1778. He immediately planned and executed the Invasion of Dominica, successfully taking the island on September 7.

The French Admiral the comte d'Estaing, after an unsuccess attempt to capture Newport, Rhode Island, sailed from Boston for the West Indies on November 4. On the same day, Commodore William Hotham was dispatched from New York to reinforce the British fleet in the West Indies. Admiral Samuel Barrington, the British admiral in the Leeward Islands, retaliated against the capture of Dominica by seizing Saint Lucia on December 13-14, after the arrival of Hotham from North America. D'Estaing, who followed Hotham closely, was beaten off in two feeble attacks on Barrington at the Cul-de-Sac of Santa Lucia on December 15.

On January 6, 1779, Admiral Jack Byron reached the West Indies. During the early part of this year the naval forces in the West Indies were mainly employed in watching one another and building in strength. But in June, while Byron went to Antigua to guard the trade convoy on its way home, d'Estaing first captured St Vincent, and then Grenada. Admiral Byron sailed in hopes of saving first one and then the other, arrived off Grenada shortly after it fell. An indecisive action was fought off Grenada on July 6, 1779 in which Byron's fleet was significantly damaged. The war died down in the West Indies, with Byron repairing his fleet, and d'Estaing failing to capitalize on French naval superiority. Byron returned home in August. D'Estaing was ordered back to France in August, but instead answered appeals from the Americans for assistance in retaking Savannah, Georgia, which had fallen to British forces in December 1778. After the unsuccessful Siege of Savannah d'Estaing sailed for France.

Spain entered the war in 1779 as a French ally, further widening the war. Spanish colonial forces on the Yucatan peninsula captured captured the principal British settlement in present-day Belize at Saint George's Caye in September, and British forces from Jamaica briefly occupied the fortress of San Fernando de Omoa in present-day Honduras. Spain's entry into the war stretched British resources even further, since the combined Spanish and French naval forces exceeded theirs.

1780-1781
The 1780 campaign season was comparatively quiet. A French fleet under the comte de Guichen sparred with that of George Brydges Rodney in the inconclusive Battle of Martinique, but neither side was able to maneuver away from the other for substantive operations against the other's possessions. British authorities launched a major expedition from Jamaica, initially led by the young Horatio Gates, to gain control of Spanish Nicaragua. The San Juan Expedition was a disastrous failure, and one of the most expensive British ventures in the war.

In late 1780 the Dutch Republic was formally brought into the war, and the British government was compelled to withdraw part of its fleet from other purposes to protect the North Sea trade.

In the West Indies, Rodney, having received news of the breach with the Netherlands early in the year, took the island of Sint Eustatius, which had been a great depot of contraband of war, on February 3, 1781. He also authorized privateering against other Dutch targets, which resulted in the capture of three Dutch colonial outposts in South America. Rodney was accused of applying himself so entirely to seizing and selling the booty taken at Sint Eustatius that he would not allow his second in command, Sir Samuel Hood, who had recently joined him, to take proper measures to impede the arrival of French forces known to be on their way to Martinique. The French admiral, the comte de Grasse, reached the island with reinforcements in April, driving Hood away in the process. De Grasse then embarked on a diversionary attack on St. Lucia that masked the detachment of some of his fleet to capture Tobago. De Grasse and Rodney then engaged in a series of skilful but ultimately fruitless operations in which the former sought advantage to attack British holdings and otherwise avoid battle.

In one of the most significant miscalculations of the war, Admiral Rodney, in ill health, decided to return half his fleet to Europe at the start of 1781 hurricane season, leaving Admiral Hood with the other half to follow de Grasse. De Grasse, however, decided to undertake the risky proposition of taking almost all of his fleet to North America, leaving the French merchant fleet with only minimal Spanish protection. When de Grasse sailed north in August, this resulted in a significant imbalance of naval power in favor of the French in North American waters.

On the coast of North America, the war came to its climax. When Hood arrived off Chesapeake Bay in late August, de Grasse had not yet arrived, since he had deliberately taken a longer route to avoid notice. Hood proceeded on to New York, bringing news of de Grasse's approach (although ignorant of his strength) to Arbuthnot's successor, Admiral Thomas Graves. Word that de Barras had sailed from Newport with the entire French fleet led Graves to lead the combined fleet south to the Chesapeake, where de Grasse had in the meantime arrived. In the pivotal Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, de Grasse got the better of the British, who ended up retreating back to New York while de Barras slipped into the Chesapeake carrying the French siege train. The naval blockade completed the encirclement of the British army of Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, where he was compelled to surrender on October 19. Cornwallis' surrender spelled the end of significant military operations in North America, and led to the start of peace negotiations. While they went on, the war continued in other theaters.

1782
De Grasse returned to the West Indies in November 1781, where he was followed by Hood, and resumed attacks on the British islands. In January and February 1782, de Grasse conquered St. Christopher, while a smaller French fleet under Kersaint retook the Dutch South American colonies, and de Barras took Sint Eustatius from Britain. De Grasse's action at St. Christopher was vigorously opposed by Hood, who with a much inferior force first drove de Grasse from his anchorage at Basseterre and then repulsed his repeated attacks. The next objective of the French was to join with a Spanish fleet for an attack on Jamaica. Admiral Rodney, having returned to his command with reinforcements, baffled this plan with a series of operations which culminated in the Battle of the Saintes on April 12, 1782, in which de Grasse's flagship was captured. No further operations of note occurred in the West Indies. In August, La Pérouse's squadron raided the Hudson Bay, capturing and sacking a number of British posts. At home, Howe relieved Gibraltar for the last time in September and October 1782.

Following the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to a Franco-American force at the Siege of Yorktown, there was a tacit armistice on on continental North America between Britain and the United States during the winter of 1781–1782. A large convoy and reinforcements for the Antilles were being prepared in France, with the aim of putting the Admiral de Grasse's fleet in a state of readiness to support the struggle against admiral George Brydges Rodney's Royal Navy force. In the second half of January the marquis of Bouillé recaptured the islands of Sint Eustatius and Saint Kitts, and in February general de Crillon took Minorca.

Battle of the Saintes
However, the large convoy that had left France escorted by admiral de Guichen was scattered by a storm. The British regrouped all their naval forces at the îles du Vent, and the comte de Grasse, despite his fleet's inferiority, set sail to convey the troops of M. de Bouillé which had had to regroup, at Saint-Domingue, with those commanded by the Spanish general don Galvez. Admiral Rodney, manoeuvring to cut the French fleet off from its convoy, was only able to reach the vessel Zélé, the slowest ship in the rearguard. The comte de Grasse decided to save this ship and committed his vanguard under the command of M. de Vaudreuil.

The French won this first encounter on 9 April 1782. Admiral Rodney followed them and, having got the weather gauge, engaged the French fleet on 12 April. The French admiral's flagship Ville de Paris and six others were immobilised and captured in the face of resistance. The comte de Grasse was captured and only gained his freedom the following year, when the war ended. His vessel's bridge had been completely razed by British bullets and the admiral and two officers were the only two people standing not to have been wounded when the ship finally surrendered, and Admiral Rodney could not hold onto any of the four vessels he had captured since they were too badly damaged. The César also caught fire and sank with around 400 British sailors who had taken possession of her.

Peace proposal
When news of the Saintes reached the United States, the Continental Congress considered whether to receive general Carleton, who had replaced Clinton as supreme commander of the British land forces in America, and his proposition from the British government to fully recognise the United States' independence in return for America renouncing its alliance with France. The Congress did not let itself be influenced by news of the French disaster in the West Indies and showed only indignation at it, refusing to admit the negotiator who was responsible for this suggestion. The States unanimously declared any proposition for a separate peace as high treason. These overtures, as well as the armistice demanded at the same time by the commander of Charleston and refused by general Nathanael Greene, were sufficient proof that (despite their success in the West Indies) the British were about to give up forcing their former colonies to submit. The Americans certainly desired peace, but showed their loyalty to their French allies and appreciation of their help by making new sacrifices to gain a peace that was as honourable for their allies as for themselves.

On their part, the French government only stopped sending help to the Americans when the poor state of their national finances left them no option but to do so. Two frigates, the Gloire and Aigle, were sent from Brest on 19 May 1782 under the command of M. de la Touche Tréville. The marquis de Vaudreuil took over from the captured comte de Grasse as commander of the fleet and received the order to sail into Boston to repair and refit his squadron.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Naval Academy gate gets new name

From Annapolis HOmetown: Naval Academy gate gets new name
With its bright Navy blue and its golden letters glinting in the sunlight, visitors to the Naval Academy might not realize a new archway over one of the most highly traversed entrances to the academy hasn't always been there.
Tina Reed — The Capital Workers attach a new archway over the Naval Academy pedestrian gate nearest the academy’s visitor center yesterday. The archway is part of a memorial that is being created near the gate to honor Commodore John Barry, the first commissioned officer of the Navy.

Displaying the name "BARRY," visitors certainly wouldn't realize the work that went into getting it there.

Put in place near downtown Annapolis yesterday, that archway is the start of a permanent memorial at the academy to the first commissioned officer of the Navy, Commodore John Barry.

"We had numerous people told us this was never going to happen," said Jack O'Brien, who spearheaded the project with John E. McInerney and other members of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians.

It was the fruit of several years work trying to recognize Barry for the impact he had on the Navy. Barry's original commission from George Washington, Commission No. 1, is displayed in the Naval Academy Museum. But he otherwise had little memorializing him there, O'Brien said.

The group began a massive letter-writing campaign pushing to allow the Hibernians, a Catholic Irish American fraternal organization, to create the memorial. "We started a conversation in the Navy: 'Isn't it time to honor Barry?' " he said.

Within the year, the Revolutionary War hero - and, according to some, the "Father of the U.S. Navy" - should have a permanent monument created inside the "Barry" gate on what will be called the "Barry Plaza." The gate faces Craig Street, around the corner from Gate 1.

The Naval Academy's Memorial Oversight Committee approved the Barry Memorial last spring. Academy officials originally rejected the plan for a Barry monument because of the original location it was being proposed in, officials said.

As the arch was put into place yesterday morning, a small group of people stayed to watch.

"I can't believe it's finally happening. Someone pinch me," one woman said.

The arch even attracted out-of-town visitors who came to see it yesterday, including Russell Wylie, a past president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. The Philadelphia chapter helped to raise funds and to lobby for the project.

As midshipman are just beginning the first few years of training, heroes of the past like Barry serve as an important reminder, Wylie said.

"Barry became captain of a ship at 19 years old and that was what he was doing when the Revolution broke out," Wylie said. "What we hope they will pick up from this is the courage, the fortitude, the things you need inside of you to deal with adversity."

Barry was born in Ireland in 1745, and died in Philadelphia in 1803. He commanded three ships during the American Revolution - Lexington, Raleigh and Alliance. In April 1776, Lexington captured the British ship Edward, plus some privateers.

The British once offered Barry a fortune in British pounds, and command of any frigate in the British Navy, if he would defect. Barry refused.

In 1783, Barry commanded Alliance during the last naval battle of the Revolutionary War.

He was commissioned a captain in 1797, the highest rank that existed in the new United States Navy. Because he was the first commissioned officer in the Navy, he was generally referred to as "commodore," or commander, and he is recognized as the Navy's first flag officer.

The memorial also is a reminder of the contributions Irish Americans have had on the history of the nation despite a time in history when Irish Catholics were largely discriminated against, said Annapolis resident and Hibernian resident Dave Aland.

"This is also a celebration of overcoming prejudice," Aland said. "We've got to do more of that in this country."

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Massachusesetts: Shots heard ’round Gillette

From Community Advocate: Shots heard ’round Gillette
Region – History runs deep in New Englanders who proudly recall the significant role that Massachusetts played in history – from the Boston Tea Party protest against taxation in 1773 to the Minutemen who started the American Revolution by battling British troops at Lexington and Concord in 1775.

Nearly every Sunday during football season, the New England Patriots, clothed in red, white and blue, set out to defend their turf, but they do not do so alone.

While the Patriots take to the field, a group of 10 re-enactors dressed as Revolutionary Minutemen line each end zone. The End Zone Militia (EZM), as they are known, provide a living history of New England’s rich heritage. Each member of the EZM dresses to depict an individual from a different occupation: doctors, cobblers, carpenters, farmers and blacksmiths. Each carries a reproduction flintlock musket loaded with real black gunpowder. When the Patriots take the field, the EZM fires a salute. Every time the Patriots score, another salute is fired. When the game is over, and if the Patriots have won, the EZM fires a congratulatory volley. The barrage of gunfire creates a smoke show that is met with enthusiasm from fans.

Local EZM members include: Bob Elliott and Steve Miller from Southborough; Bill Gundling from Westborough; and Bryon Bausk, Kevin Collins and Dan Higgins from Marlborough.

Other members of the EZM hail from Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and other towns on the North and South shores of Massachusetts. EZM members come from different walks of life, but all have two traits in common – a love of history and the New England Patriots. All participate in re-enactments, historical events, parades, and educational activities outside of their EZM roles.

The EZM merges New England history and football. Named by Pete Brock, a former center for the New England Patriots, the EZM carry the spirit of the past into the present.

Militia members do not get paid, and they purchase their own authentic 18th-century costumes and gunpowder.

Elliott, a member of the Lexington Minutemen, as well as the EZM, recalled memorable games braving the cold at Gillette Stadium. He was there during the coldest home game ever played, when the Patriots held off the Tennessee Titans, 17-14, on a 46-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri in the final minutes of the game. It was January 2004 and the temperature was 3 degrees. In the end zone, while frozen snow covered Elliott’s beard, he remembers looking up at the fans bundled in parkas and heavy blankets who never lost their enthusiasm despite the temperature.

Another militia member has his own cold-weather memories.

“There are games,” said Miller, “when the sodas in the cooler keep our hands warm against the frigid New England temperatures.”

Another game of note took place Jan. 19, 2002. Wearing two pairs of long underwear beneath his Colonial garb with warmers in both his hands and his feet, Elliott recalled snowballs from the stands filling the air as the Patriots beat the Oakland Raiders in overtime – during a blizzard. The Snow Bowl, as it was later called, is remembered by Elliott as the snowiest game he has ever attended at Gillette.

“The Patriots [playing at home] and snow seem to be a winning combination,” quipped Elliott, who is more than happy to brave the elements in the end zone. The EZM probably play a part of the Patriots’ home-field advantage as well.

The presence of the group is an element of home games that the players have come to love and appreciate. According to Elliott, ex-players such as Randy Moss make it a point to stop and visit with the EZM when they are in town. The living history that the EZM bring to the field is not lost on competing opponents. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, he added, is one of the many players who have come to greet him and his fellow EZM after a game and shake their hands.

The group began in 1996 with their debut on the sideline of the New England Revolution. Just a year later, in 1997, the New England Patriots invited them to come to Schaefer/Foxboro Stadium. At the time, there was room for only six militiamen in the end zone.

The EZM participate in many Patriots charitable fundraisers. They have also been asked to conduct Honor Guard at Boston Red Sox games. They’ve even been featured in commercials, including one for Visa and another for Olympia Sports.

Elliott was one of the members who attended the Matt Light Annual Shoot-Out, where they entertained attendees by shooting clay pigeons with their muskets.

The group has no official affiliation with the New England Patriots or Gillette Stadium.

Ashley, AR: Crossett Rotary Club Has Speaker on Revolution, U. S. Constitution

From Ashley County Register: Crossett Rotary Club Has Speaker on Revolution, U. S. Constitution
Curtis Coleman, chairman of the Institute for Constitution Policy in Little Rock, shared historical facts pertaining to the Constitution of the United States with members of the Crossett Rotary Club during their regular luncheon on Thursday, Dec. 29.

"It's not difficult to discover what the 55 men were thinking when they wrote the constitution," he said, referring to the events that led up to writing the constitution. Coleman said he has discovered that telling people about the constitution causes people to rediscover a new passion for the document and revive some of what has been lost since the country was established.

"We are an infant in terms of the nations and countries in the world, which makes it incredibly remarkable that our constitution is the oldest document of its kind in use in a government in anywhere on the planet," he said.

Coleman said while the majority are familiar with George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Eve, there are some facts less commonly known.

In September, 1976, Coleman said, five battleships transporting 3,000 Hessian soldiers and 13,000 British troops anchored in the East River, New York. Although Washington had 30,000 volunteers in his army who were unprepared to battle the British soldiers, Washington and his soldiers fled. Within the first two weeks of the retreat, he said, Washington lost half his army. The retreat continued until Washington was forced to cross the Hudson River into New Jersey. There, Coleman said, Washington watched through a telescope as the British attacked Fort Washington which led to the deaths of 2,800 American troops. "They said that he (Washington) wept like a child," said Coleman.

Following the attack of Fort Washington, Coleman said, Washington and his commanders hatched a "daring" plan to attack 4,500 Hessian soldiers camped at Trenton near the Delaware River.

"Neither Washington nor the Continental Army in six months had ever won a battle, never had they won a battle with the British Army, they were defeated in every single battle," said Coleman.

Injury, illness and military discharges, Coleman said, had taken a toll on the number of soldiers in Washington's army. However, on Christmas Eve in 1776, Coleman said, Washington divided his army into three groups. Each group, he said, was to cross the river at different locations and carry out the surprise attack.

"Had that failed, it is more than likely that our nation would not be here," said Coleman.

He said at 11 p.m., the three groups began their journey. However, the divisions stationed at Trenton and south of Trenton were not able to cross because crests of ice standing five feet tall.

"Only one third of Washington's army was able to cross, and just as they begun to cross one of the worst storms in history of the area started," he said.

The storm, Coleman said, consisted of hail, sleet, snow, and freezing rain and clogged the soldiers' muskets. Washington told his soldiers to use their bayonets instead. "Which is interesting because most of the guys, before their war for independence, had never even seen a bayonet," added Coleman.

After crossing the river, the soldiers encountered rugged terrain and ice covered roads. The ice was so bad, he said, soldiers had to unhitch their teams and use trees and ropes to transport artillery over the steep inclines and deep trenches. Coleman said the soldiers tied their artillery to a rope tied to a tree and pulled it up and then had to lower it over the next embankment.

"It took them nine hours to make that trek," he said, adding the storm was so severe that two of the soldiers collapsed and froze to death along the way.

"So poorly equipped were Washington's soldiers you could trace their march by the footprints of blood in the snow," he said. "The storm that slowed them down and prevented their attack also covered their approach."

Instead of a constant watch, Coleman said the Hessian soldiers would check outside then go back inside to avoid the storm. Washington and his soldiers arrived around 9 a.m., almost four hours later than planned, but by 9:30, Coleman said, 4,800 Hessian soldiers surrendered to Washington's army. "The battle lasted 30 minutes and totally changed the course for our war for independence," he said.

Coleman said it was Washington's courage, relentless determination, integrity and ability to lead men and women, who followed him even in the face of death, that the colonies were able to have a convention in Philadelphia in 1787 that led to the writing of the Constitution of the United States.

"I personally believe if we are able to continue what our forefathers created, that if our children are able to enjoy the freedom and liberties that our forefathers purchased for us; we must strive with an equal passion to theirs to protect what we've been given," Coleman added.

Coleman is the founding president and CEO of Safe Foods Corporation (headquartered in North Little Rock and doing business on four continents), publisher and editor of The New South Conservative, and is involved in numerous organizations and a Paul Harris Fellow.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Charlotte, NC: Redcoats return to Cowpens

From Charlotte Observer: Redcoats return to Cowpens
JAN. 14-15

Chesnee, S.C.

Redcoats return to Cowpens

To mark the 231st anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens - a turning point in the American Revolution - an array of activities will be held at the National Park Service site the weekend of Jan. 14-15. The battle will not be restaged, but nearly 100 re-enactors (portraying Colonial and British soldiers) will offer a slice of the 18th century at encampments, firing and cavalry demonstrations. There will be fife-and-drum concerts, author talks and book-signings, ranger-led battlefield walks and a guided lantern-lit walk. All events are free. Hours: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Jan. 14, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Jan. 15. Details: 864-461-2828; www.nps.gov/cowp.