American Revolution

American Revolution
the war between Great Britain and its American colonies, 1775-83, by which the colonies won their independence.

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or United States War of Independence

(1775–83) War that won political independence for 13 of Britain's North American colonies, which formed the United States of America.

After the end of the costly French and Indian War (1763), Britain imposed new taxes (see Stamp Act; Sugar Act) and trade restrictions on the colonies, fueling growing resentment and strengthening the colonists' objection to their lack of representation in the British Parliament. Determined to achieve independence, the colonies formed the Continental Army, composed chiefly of minutemen, to challenge Britain's large, organized militia. The war began when Britain sent a force to destroy rebel military stores at Concord, Mass. After fighting broke out on April 19, 1775 (see Battles of Lexington and Concord), rebel forces began a siege of Boston that ended when American forces under Henry Knox forced out the British troops under William Howe on March 17, 1776 (see Battle of Bunker Hill). Britain's offer of pardon in exchange for surrender was refused by the Americans, who declared themselves independent on July 4, 1776 (see Declaration of Independence). British forces retaliated by driving the army of George Washington from New York to New Jersey. On December 25, Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the battles of Trenton and Princeton. The British army split to cover more territory, a fatal error. In engaging the Americans in Pennsylvania, notably in the Battle of the Brandywine, they left the troops in the north vulnerable. Despite a victory in the Battle of Ticonderoga, British troops under John Burgoyne were defeated by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Saratoga (Oct. 17, 1777). Washington quartered his 11,000 troops through a bleak winter at Valley Forge, where they received training from Frederick Steuben that gave them victory in Monmouth, N.J., on June 28, 1778. British forces in the north thenceforth chiefly concentrated near New York. France, which had been secretly furnishing aid to the Americans since 1776, finally declared war on Britain in June 1778. French troops assisted American troops in the south, culminating in the successful Siege of Yorktown, where Charles Cornwallis surrendered his forces on Oct. 19, 1781, bringing an end to the war on land. War continued at sea, fought chiefly between Britain and the U.S.'s European allies. The navies of Spain and the Netherlands contained most of Britain's navy near Europe and away from the fighting in America. The last battle of the war was won by the American navy under John Barry in March 1783 in the Straits of Florida. With the Treaty of Paris (Sept. 3, 1783), Britain recognized the independence of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River and ceded Florida to Spain.

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▪ United States history
Introduction
also called  United States War of Independence  or  American Revolutionary War 

      (1775–83), insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain (British Empire)'s North American colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs (for background see United States). Until early in 1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire; afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778), Spain (in 1779), and the Netherlands (in 1780) joined the colonies against Britain. From the beginning sea power was vital in determining the course of the war, lending to British strategy a flexibility that helped compensate for the comparatively small numbers of troops sent to America and ultimately enabling the French to help bring about the final British surrender at Yorktown.

Land campaigns to 1778
      Americans fought the war on land essentially with two types of organization, the Continental (national) Army and the state militias (militia). The total number of the former provided by quotas from the states throughout the conflict was 231,771 men; the militias totaled 164,087. At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 insurgents under arms throughout the country. The war was therefore one fought by small field armies. Militias, poorly disciplined and with elected officers, were summoned for periods usually not exceeding three months. The terms of Continental Army service were only gradually increased from one to three years, and not even bounties and the offer of land kept the army up to strength. Reasons for the difficulty in maintaining an adequate Continental force included the colonists' traditional antipathy to regular armies, the objections of farmers to being away from their fields, the competition of the states with the Continental Congress to keep men in the militia, and the wretched and uncertain pay in a period of inflation.

      By contrast, the British army was a reliable, steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced. Many of the enlisted men were farm boys, as were most of the Americans. Others were unemployed persons from the urban slums. Still others joined the army to escape fines or imprisonment. The great majority became efficient soldiers owing to sound training and ferocious discipline. The officers were drawn largely from the gentry and the aristocracy and obtained their commissions and promotions by purchase. Though they received no formal training, they were not so dependent on a book knowledge of military tactics as were many of the Americans. British generals, however, tended toward a lack of imagination and initiative, while those who demonstrated such qualities often were rash.

      Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes. The Landgrave of Hesse furnished approximately three-fifths of this total. Few acts by the crown roused so much antagonism in America as this use of foreign mercenaries.

 The war began in Massachusetts when General Thomas Gage (Gage, Thomas) sent a force from Boston (Boston, Siege of) to destroy rebel military stores at Concord. Fighting occurred at Lexington and Concord (Lexington and Concord, Battles of) on April 19, 1775, and only the arrival of reinforcements saved the British original column. Rebel militia then converged on Boston from all over New England. Their entrenching on Breed's Hill led to a British frontal assault on June 17 under General William Howe (Howe, William), who won the hill but at the cost of more than 40 percent of the assault force (see Battle of Bunker Hill (Bunker Hill, Battle of)).

      General George Washington (Washington, George) was appointed commander in chief of the American forces by the Continental Congress. Not only did he have to contain the British in Boston but he had also to recruit a Continental army. During the winter of 1775–76 recruitment lagged so badly that fresh drafts of militia were called up to help maintain the siege. The balance shifted in late winter, when General Henry Knox (Knox, Henry) arrived with artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in New York, which had been captured from the British in May 1775. Mounted on Dorchester Heights, above Boston, the guns forced Howe, who had replaced Gage in command, to evacuate the city on March 17, 1776. Howe then repaired to Halifax to prepare for an invasion of New York, and Washington moved units southward for its defense.

      Meanwhile, action flared in the north. In the fall of 1775 the Americans invaded Canada. One force under General Richard Montgomery captured Montreal on November 13. Another under Benedict Arnold (Arnold, Benedict) made a remarkable march through the Maine wilderness to Quebec. Unable to take the city, Arnold was presently joined by Montgomery, many of whose troops had gone home because their enlistments had expired. An attack on the city on the last day of the year failed, Montgomery was killed, and many troops were captured. The Americans maintained a siege of the city but withdrew with the arrival of British reinforcements in the spring. Pursued by the British and decimated by smallpox, the Americans fell back to Ticonderoga. General Guy Carleton (Dorchester, Guy Carleton, 1st Baron)'s hopes of moving quickly down Lake Champlain, however, were frustrated by Arnold's construction of a fighting fleet. Forced to build one of his own, Carleton destroyed most of the American fleet in October 1776 but considered the season too advanced to bring Ticonderoga under siege.

      As the Americans suffered defeat in Canada, so did the British in the South. North Carolina patriots trounced a body of loyalists at Moore's Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776. Charleston, South Carolina, was successfully defended against a British assault by sea in June.

 Having made up its mind to crush the rebellion, the British government sent General Howe and his brother, Richard, Admiral Lord Howe (Howe, Richard Howe, Earl, Baron Howe of Langar), with a large fleet and 34,000 British and German troops to New York. It also gave the Howes a commission to treat with the Americans. The Continental Congress, which had proclaimed the independence of the colonies, at first thought the Howes empowered to negotiate peace terms but discovered that they were authorized only to accept submission and assure pardons.

      Their peace efforts getting nowhere, the Howes turned to force. Under his brother's guns, General Howe landed troops on Long Island and on August 27 scored a smashing victory. Washington evacuated his army from Brooklyn to Manhattan that night under cover of a fog. On September 15 Howe followed up his victory by invading Manhattan. Though checked at Harlem Heights the next day, he drew Washington off the island in October by a move to Throg's Neck and then to New Rochelle, northeast of the city. Leaving garrisons at Fort Washington on Manhattan and at Fort Lee on the opposite shore of the Hudson River, Washington hastened to block Howe. The latter, however, defeated him on October 28 at Chatterton Hill near White Plains. Howe slipped between the American army and Fort Washington and stormed the fort on November 16, seizing nearly 3,000 prisoners, guns, and supplies. British forces under Lord Cornwallis (Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl, Viscount Brome, Baron Cornwallis of Eye) then took Fort Lee and on November 24 started to drive the American army across New Jersey. Though Washington escaped to the west bank of the Delaware River, his army nearly disappeared. Howe then put his army into winter quarters, with outposts at towns such as Bordentown and Trenton.

      On Christmas night Washington struck back with a brilliant riposte. Crossing the ice-strewn Delaware with 4,000 men, he fell upon the Hessian garrison at Trenton at dawn and took nearly 1,000 prisoners. Though almost trapped by Cornwallis, who recovered Trenton on January 2, 1777, Washington made a skillful escape during the night, won a battle against British reinforcements at Princeton the next day, and went into winter quarters in the defensible area around Morristown. The Trenton-Princeton campaign (Trenton and Princeton, battles of) roused the country and saved the struggle for independence from collapse.

      Britain's strategy in 1777 aimed at driving a wedge between New England and the other colonies. An army under General John Burgoyne (Burgoyne, John) was to march south from Canada and join forces with Howe on the Hudson. But Howe seems to have concluded that Burgoyne was strong enough to operate on his own and left New York in the summer, taking his army by sea to the head of Chesapeake Bay. Once ashore, he defeated Washington badly but not decisively at Brandywine Creek (Brandywine, Battle of the) on September 11. Then, feinting westward, he entered Philadelphia, the American capital, on September 25. The Continental Congress fled to York. Washington struck back at Germantown on October 4 but, compelled to withdraw, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge.

 In the north the story was different. Burgoyne was to move south to Albany with a force of about 9,000 British, Germans, Indians, and American loyalists; a smaller force under Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger was to converge on Albany through the Mohawk valley. Burgoyne took Ticonderoga handily on July 5 and then, instead of using Lake George, chose a southward route by land. Slowed by the rugged terrain, strewn with trees cut down by American axmen under General Philip Schuyler, and needing horses, Burgoyne sent a force of Germans to collect them at Bennington (Bennington, Battle of), Vermont. The Germans were nearly wiped out on August 16 by New Englanders under General John Stark (Stark, John) and Colonel Seth Warner. Meanwhile, St. Leger besieged Fort Schuyler (present Rome, New York), ambushed a relief column of American militia at Oriskany on August 6, but retreated as his Indians gave up the siege and an American force under Arnold approached. Burgoyne himself reached the Hudson, but the Americans, now under General Horatio Gates (Gates, Horatio), checked him at Freeman's Farm on September 19 and, thanks to Arnold's battlefield leadership, decisively defeated him at Bemis Heights on October 7. Ten days later, unable to get help from New York, Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga (Saratoga, Battles of).

      The most significant result of Burgoyne's capitulation was the entrance of France into the war. The French had secretly furnished financial and material aid since 1776. Now they prepared fleets and armies, although they did not formally declare war until June 1778.

Land campaigns from 1778
      Meanwhile, the Americans at Valley Forge survived a hungry winter, which was made worse by quartermaster and commissary mismanagement, graft of contractors, and unwillingness of farmers to sell produce for paper money. Order and discipline among the troops were improved by the arrival of the Freiherr von (baron of) Steuben (Steuben, Frederick William, Freiherr von), a Prussian officer in the service of France. Steuben instituted a training program in which he emphasized drilling by officers, marching in column, and using firearms more effectively.

      The program paid off at Monmouth Court House (Monmouth, Battle of), New Jersey, on June 28, 1778, when Washington attacked the British, who were withdrawing from Philadelphia to New York. Although Sir Henry Clinton (Clinton, Sir Henry), who had replaced Howe, struck back hard, the Americans stood their ground.

      French aid now materialized with the appearance of a strong fleet under the comte d'Estaing (Estaing, Charles-Hector, comte d'). Unable to enter New York harbour, d'Estaing tried to assist Major General John Sullivan (Sullivan, John) in dislodging the British from Newport, Rhode Island. Storms and British reinforcements thwarted the joint effort.

      Action in the North was largely a stalemate for the rest of the war. The British raided New Bedford, Massachusetts, and New Haven and New London, Connecticut, while loyalists and Indians attacked settlements in New York and Pennsylvania. On the other hand, the Americans under Anthony Wayne (Wayne, Anthony) stormed Stony Point, New York, on July 16, 1779, and “Light-Horse Harry” Lee (Lee, Henry) took Paulus Hook, New Jersey, on August 19. More lasting in effect was Sullivan's expedition of August 1779 against Britain's Indian allies in New York, particularly the destruction of their villages and fields of corn. Farther west, Colonel George Rogers Clark (Clark, George Rogers) seized Vincennes and other posts north of the Ohio River in 1778.

      Potentially serious blows to the American cause were Arnold's defection in 1780 and the army mutinies (mutiny) of 1780 and 1781. Arnold's attempt to betray West Point to the British miscarried. Mutinies were sparked by misunderstandings over terms of enlistment, poor food and clothing, gross arrears of pay, and the decline in the purchasing power of the dollar. Suppressed by force or negotiation, the mutinies shook the morale of the army.

 The Americans also suffered setbacks in the South. British strategy from 1778 called for offensives that were designed to take advantage of the flexibility of sea power and the loyalist sentiment of many of the people. British forces from New York and St. Augustine, Florida, occupied Georgia by the end of January 1779 and successfully defended Savannah in the fall against d'Estaing and a Franco-American army. Clinton, having withdrawn his Newport garrison, captured Charleston—and an American army of 5,000 under General Benjamin Lincoln (Lincoln, Benjamin)—in May 1780. Learning that Newport was threatened by a French expeditionary force under the comte de Rochambeau (Rochambeau, Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de), Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis at Charleston.

      Cornwallis, however, took the offensive. On August 16 he shattered General Gates's army at Camden (Camden, Battle of), South Carolina. The destruction of a force of loyalists at Kings Mountain (Kings Mountain, Battle of) on October 7 led him to move against the new American commander, General Nathanael Greene (Greene, Nathanael). When Greene put part of his force under General Daniel Morgan (Morgan, Daniel), Cornwallis sent his cavalry leader, Colonel Banastre Tarleton, after Morgan. At Cowpens (Cowpens, Battle of) on January 17, 1781, Morgan destroyed practically all of Tarleton's column. Subsequently, on March 15, Greene and Cornwallis fought at Guilford Courthouse (Guilford Courthouse, Battle of), North Carolina. Cornwallis won but suffered heavy casualties. After withdrawing to Wilmington, he marched into Virginia to join British forces sent there by Clinton.

      Greene then moved back to South Carolina, where he was defeated by Lord Rawdon (Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st marquess of) at Hobkirk's Hill on April 25 and at Ninety-Six in June and by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart at Eutaw Springs (Eutaw Springs, Battle of) on September 8. In spite of this, the British, harassed by partisan leaders such as Francis Marion (Marion, Francis), Thomas Sumter (Sumter, Thomas), and Andrew Pickens, soon retired to the coast and remained locked up in Charleston and Savannah.

      Meanwhile, Cornwallis entered Virginia. Sending Tarleton on raids across the state, he started to build a base at Yorktown, at the same time fending off American forces under Wayne, Steuben, and the marquis de Lafayette (Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de).

      Learning that the comte de Grasse (Grasse, François-Joseph-Paul, comte de, marquis de Grasse-Tilly) had arrived in the Chesapeake with a large fleet and 3,000 French troops, Washington and Rochambeau moved south to Virginia. By mid-September the Franco-American forces had placed Yorktown (Yorktown, Siege of) under siege, and British rescue efforts proved fruitless. Cornwallis surrendered his army of more than 7,000 men on October 19. Thus, for the second time during the war the British had lost an entire army.

      Thereafter, land action in America died out, though the war persisted in other theatres and on the high seas. Eventually Clinton was replaced by Sir Guy Carleton. While the peace treaties were under consideration and afterward, Carleton evacuated thousands of loyalists from America, including many from Savannah on July 11, 1782, and others from Charleston on December 14. The last British forces finally left New York on November 25, 1783. Washington then reentered the city in triumph.

The war at sea
      Although the colonists ventured to challenge Britain's naval power from the outbreak of the conflict, the war at sea in its later stages was fought mainly between Britain and America's European allies, the American effort being reduced to privateering (privateer).

      The importance of sea power was recognized early. In October 1775 the Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Navy and established the Marine Corps (United States Marine Corps, The) in November. The navy, taking its direction from the naval and marine committees of the Congress, was only occasionally effective. In 1776 it had 27 ships against Britain's 270; by the end of the war, the British total had risen close to 500, and the American had dwindled to 20. Many of the best seamen available went off privateering, and both Continental Navy commanders and crews suffered from a lack of training and discipline.

      The first significant blow by the navy was struck by Commodore Esek Hopkins (Hopkins, Esek), who captured New Providence (Nassau) in the Bahamas in 1776.

      Other captains, such as Lambert Wickes, Gustavus Conyngham (Conyngham, Gustavus), and John Barry (Barry, John), also enjoyed successes, but the Scottish-born John Paul Jones (Jones, John Paul) was especially notable. As captain of the Ranger, Jones scourged the British coasts in 1778, capturing the man-of-war Drake. As captain of the Bonhomme Richard in 1779, he intercepted a timber convoy and captured the British frigate Serapis.

      More injurious to the British were the raids by American privateers on their shipping. American ships, furnished with letters of marque by the Congress or the states, swarmed about the British Isles. By the end of 1777 they had taken 560 British vessels, and by the end of the war they had probably seized 1,500. More than 12,000 British sailors also were captured. One result was that, by 1781, British merchants were clamouring for an end to hostilities.

      Most of the naval action occurred at sea. The significant exceptions were Arnold's battles against General Carleton's fleet on Lake Champlain at Valcour Island on October 11 and off Split Rock on October 13, 1776. Arnold lost both battles, but his construction of a fleet of tiny vessels, mostly gondolas (gundalows) and galleys, had forced the British to build a larger fleet and hence delayed their attack on Fort Ticonderoga until the following spring. This delay contributed significantly to Burgoyne's capitulation in October 1777.

      The entrance of France into the war, followed by that of Spain in 1779 and the Netherlands in 1780, effected important changes in the naval aspect of the war. The Spanish and Dutch were not particularly active, but their role in keeping British naval forces tied down in Europe was significant. The British navy could not maintain an effective blockade of both the American coast and the enemies' ports. Owing to years of economy and neglect, Britain's ships of the line were neither modern nor sufficiently numerous. An immediate result was that France's Toulon fleet under d'Estaing got safely away to America, where it appeared off New York and later assisted General Sullivan in the unsuccessful siege of Newport. A fierce battle off Ushant, France, in July 1778 between the Channel fleet under Admiral Augustus Keppel (Keppel, Augustus Keppel, Viscount, Baron Elden) and the Brest fleet under the comte d'Orvilliers proved inconclusive. Had Keppel won decisively, French aid to the Americans would have diminished and Rochambeau might never have been able to lead his expedition to America.

      In the following year England was in real danger. Not only did it have to face the privateers of the United States, France, and Spain off its coasts, as well as the raids of John Paul Jones, but it also lived in fear of invasion. The combined fleets of France and Spain had acquired command of the Channel, and a French army of 50,000 waited for the propitious moment to board their transports. Luckily for the British, storms, sickness among the allied crews, and changes of plans terminated the threat.

      Despite allied supremacy in the Channel in 1779, the threat of invasion, and the loss of islands in the West Indies, the British maintained control of the North American seaboard for most of 1779 and 1780, which made possible their southern land campaigns. They also reinforced Gibraltar, which the Spaniards had brought under siege in the fall of 1779, and sent a fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney (Rodney, George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron) to the West Indies in early 1780. After fruitless maneuvering against the comte de Guichen, who had replaced d'Estaing, Rodney sailed for New York.

      While Rodney had been in the West Indies, a French squadron slipped out of Brest and sailed to Newport with Rochambeau's army. Rodney, instead of trying to block the approach to Newport, returned to the West Indies, where, upon receiving instructions to attack Dutch possessions, he seized Sint Eustatius, the Dutch island that served as the principal depot for war materials shipped from Europe and transshipped into American vessels. He became so involved in the disposal of the enormous booty that he dallied at the island for six months.

      In the meantime, a powerful British fleet relieved Gibraltar in 1781, but the price was the departure of the French fleet at Brest, part of it to India, the larger part under Admiral de Grasse to the West Indies. After maneuvering indecisively against Rodney, de Grasse received a request from Washington and Rochambeau to come to New York or the Chesapeake.

      Earlier, in March, a French squadron had tried to bring troops from Newport to the Chesapeake but was forced to return by Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, who had succeeded Lord Howe. Soon afterward Arbuthnot was replaced by Thomas Graves, a conventional-minded admiral.

      Informed that a French squadron would shortly leave the West Indies, Rodney sent Samuel Hood (Hood, Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount) north with a powerful force while he sailed for England, taking with him several formidable ships that might better have been left with Hood.

      Soon after Hood dropped anchor in New York, de Grasse appeared in the Chesapeake, where he landed troops to help Lafayette contain Cornwallis until Washington and Rochambeau could arrive. Fearful that the comte de Barras, who was carrying Rochambeau's artillery train from Newport, might join de Grasse, and hoping to intercept him, Graves sailed with Hood to the Chesapeake. Graves had 19 ships of the line against de Grasse's 24. Though the battle that began on September 5 off the Virginia capes (Virginia Capes, Battle of) was not a skillfully managed affair, Graves had the worst of it and retired to New York. He ventured out again on October 17 with a strong contingent of troops and 25 ships of the line, while de Grasse, reinforced by Barras, now had 36 ships of the line. No battle occurred, however, when Graves learned that Cornwallis had surrendered.

      Although Britain subsequently recouped some of its fortunes, by Rodney defeating and capturing de Grasse in the Battle of the Saints off Dominica in 1782 and British land and sea forces inflicting defeats in India, the turn of events did not significantly alter the situation in America as it existed after Yorktown. A new government under Lord Shelburne tried to get the American commissioners to agree to a separate peace, but, ultimately, the treaty negotiated with the Americans was not to go into effect until the formal conclusion of a peace with their European allies.

Aftermath
      The Peace of Paris (Paris, Peace of) (September 3, 1783) ended the U.S. War of Independence. Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States (with western boundaries to the Mississippi River) and ceded Florida to Spain. Other provisions called for payment of U.S. private debts to British citizens, American use of the Newfoundland fisheries, and fair treatment for American colonials loyal to Britain.

      In explaining the outcome of the war, scholars have pointed out that the British never contrived an overall general strategy for winning it. Also, even if the war could have been terminated by British power in the early stages, the generals during that period, notably Howe, declined to make a prompt, vigorous, intelligent application of that power. They acted, to be sure, within the conventions of their age, but in choosing to take minimal risks (for example, Carleton at Ticonderoga and Howe at Brooklyn Heights and later in New Jersey and Pennsylvania) they lost the opportunity to deal potentially mortal blows to the rebellion. There was also a grave lack of understanding and cooperation at crucial moments (as with Burgoyne and Howe in 1777). Finally, the British counted too strongly on loyalist support they did not receive.

      But British mistakes alone could not account for the success of the United States. Feeble as their war effort occasionally became, the Americans were able generally to take advantage of their enemies' mistakes. The Continental Army, moreover, was by no means an inept force even before Steuben's reforms. The militias, while usually unreliable, could perform admirably under the leadership of men who understood them, like Arnold, Greene, and Morgan, and often reinforced the Continentals in crises. Furthermore, Washington, a rock in adversity, learned slowly but reasonably well the art of generalship. The supplies and funds furnished by France from 1776 to 1778 were invaluable, while French military and naval support after 1778 was essential. The outcome, therefore, resulted from a combination of British blunders, American efforts, and French assistance.

Willard M. Wallace

Additional Reading
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, enlarged ed. (1992), examines the transmission of English republican ideology and its American reception. John Richard Alden, The American Revolution, 1775–1783 (1954, reissued 1987), is distinguished for its political and military analyses. Jack P. Greene (ed.), The American Revolution: Its Character and Limits (1987), contains a valuable collection of essays. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (1982, reprinted 1985), examines the revolution from a somewhat older point of view than is now fashionable. Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–1783 (1964, reissued 1993), explains the British side of the war. J.G.A. Pocock (ed.), Three British Revolutions: 1641, 1688, 1776 (1980), sets the American Revolution in the historical context of British experience. Military histories include John Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution (1965), on the British army in America; Don Higginbotham, The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789 (1971, reprinted 1983), which shows the interrelationship of military and political developments; Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775–1783 (1979, reissued 1986); and William M. Fowler, Jr., Rebels Under Sail (1976), on the American navy.Willard M. Wallace

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