Many believe you have a critical shortage of qualified officers. Won’t your lack of experience make it nearly impossible to defeat the world’s best trained and most successful army?
It would be a mistake to consider us inexperienced. Many of our officers fought in the French and Indian wars. It would also be a mistake to underestimate our determination. Our country is being invaded. We have much to lose in this conflict, much more than our adversary.
Thank you, General Washington, for your time and your comments.
You’re most welcome.
REBELS INVADE CANADA!
Schuyler Commands Expedition
The Canadian peasants began to shew a disposition little to be expected from a conquered people ... The agents and friends of the (rebel) Congress had not been idle - by word and by writing they had poisoned their minds - they were brought to believe that the (British) Minister had laid down a plan to enslave them ... that they would be continually at war, far removed from their wives and families.
Excerpt from the Journal of
Thomas Ainslee
Schuyler
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July 11, 1775. Rumors of a British attack on New York City and the sighting of British troops along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain prompted the rebel Congress in Philadelphia to initiate an armed expedition into the Canadian territories early this week.
One thousand Continental troops under the command of Major General Philip Schuyler will march from Cambridge to re-enforce the rebel held Fort Ticonderoga, located on Lake Champlain, approximately 200 miles northeast of Cambridge. The expedition is expected to continue north toward British occupied Montreal and Quebec.
Announcement of the expedition came on the heels of rebel intelligence reports suggesting that British Commander Gage is planning to re-enforce his garrisons at St. Johns and Quebec. General Gage has approximately 1,000 troops scattered throughout the territory under the command of Lt. General Sir Guy Carleton, British Governor of Canada.
Rebel leaders believe that control of the Hudson River from Lake Champlain is crucial to a successful New York campaign. The Hudson flows south from Lake Champlain to New York, and divides the northern colonies in two. It could serve as a vital supply line for an attacking army.
The majority of General Schuyler’s army is made up of militia from the New England colonies. The Provincial Congress of New York has yet to raise a regiment in their colony.
General Schuyler was ordered to, as much as possible, obtain approval of the colonists in Canada before he launches a major offensive. Though it is believed the Canadian settlers are sympathetic to their southern neighbors, Congress has concerns about adverse reaction to turning Canada into a battlefield in the event of an all out war.
Another concern for the rebels is the wording of several treaties the British have with the Iroquois Indian nation in Canada. If the treaties obligate these Native Americans into a war against Schuyler’s forces, local colonial support would seem imperative to his success.
CONGRESS CREATES WAR DEPARTMENT
Franklin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Aug. 14, 1775. Members of rebel Congress packed their bags and headed home for advice from their constituents this week, after voting for a War Department and then engaging themselves in an intense round of debates on exactly how they were to pay for the army their department is supposed to run.
The debates also revealed concerns many delegates have about their authority to run the war and engage in foreign affairs without the unanimous consent of the colonies. In an attempt to urge consensus among themselves, Pennsylvania delegate Dr. Benjamin Franklin presented Congress a draft entitled “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.” His draft was rejected, but most of the delegates admitted that the colonies have to consider the idea of Confederacy. Before it adjourned, the rebel Congress established a Continental post office, naming Benjamin Franklin Postmaster General.
Congress also named Dr. Benjamin Church Surgeon General of the Continental Army. Dr. Church, a delegate from Massachusetts, was instrumental in the formation of the Massachusetts Sons of Liberty. He is also credited with organizing the rebel alerts at Lexington and Concord.
A CONVERSATION WITH MR. ANONYMOUS
George III
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July, 1775. The London Coffee House, on Front Street in Philadelphia, overlooks a row of wharves and warehouses built along the Delaware River, where the coffee house receives a good portion of its business. Merchants, traders, dockworkers, captains and crews of the great ships lying at anchor frequent the London, where under a thick cloud of tobacco smoke and over the sweet and pungent smells of spilt rum and Madeira wine, they might be served a dinner of pork with a party of friends at one of the large tables near the center of the establishment’s main room.
More patrons are crowded around smaller tables along the London’s walls, where they indulge in heated conversations about independence and the war about to happen. Still other groups are huddled together behind doors of the London’s upstairs rooms. They are recent guests in Philadelphia. Every afternoon around 3 o’clock they walk from the State House and make their way to several of the city’s taverns where they eat and converse more urgently than the other patrons, because as delegates to the rebel Congress they are responsible for the war that’s about to happen.
Mr. A, or Anonymous, may be found in any of these rooms. We might also see him with the British in Boston or at rebel headquarters at Cambridge. His comments are the reflections of men who agree and who disagree with each other about the war and independence, many for motives not likely to be discussed in public or put down in print.
Mr. A., the British and their American colonies got along fairly well for a century and a half. How did this recent conflict come about?
It began years ago when the royal governors began losing control over here and Parliament paid no attention to them. The Provincial legislatures pretty much ran things for themselves until George Grenville was named Prime Minister by George III in 1763. Grenville better understood how much England depended on the colonies than his predecessors did.
We understand it is the other way around.
Maybe a hundred years ago it was. Today, the colonies provide England with roughly 20 percent of her imports and they purchase 40 percent of her exports. Grenville realized if England lost control of her trade over here, it could cripple her financially. Grenville wants England to reinforce her sovereignty over these people. This contest isn’t as much about taxes or representation, as it is about power and authority.
Is that why Grenville persuaded Parliament to pass the Stamp Act?
Parliament wants to maintain a large army west of the colonies to hold the French at bay and keep the settlers off Indian lands that are set out by treaties. England’s war chest is pretty thin. Grenville argued that the colonies should