rmers and farm hands, doctors and teachers, as well as merchants and shop-keepers.
Yet, the raw ‘troops’ were willing to risk their lives for the beliefs and values that focused upon the fight for freedom from British tyranny. After serious battles at Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill, the Americans captured Dorchester Heights and installed captured British cannon upon the hills overlooking Boston Harbor. A
fter a successful siege of several months, it was an experienced General Howe who evacuated Boston by mid-March of 1776. Washington allowed Howe to safely accomplish this, but the retreating British forces simply sailed to Nova Scotia, then mounted a counter attack. It would prove to be a long war.
To deal with the problem in the colonies, the British government deployed 32,000 regular soldiers and 171,000 seamen, the largest deployment in their history, as well as approximately 30,000 Hessian mercenaries, and utilized 13,000 American Indian allies. The British military also boasted truly professional soldiers and perhaps the most disciplined, best equipped, and strongest force on earth at that time.
On the other hand, it is reported that at any given point in time, Washington did not have more than 8,000 troops in his direct command. This was a major military mismatch, but perhaps the deeper problem George Washington faced was the inherent weakness of Congress. Eventually, the Congress, operating provisionally under the Articles of Confederation, was not able to provide the support that the colonial “troops” needed.
Many Americans may be aware of the long winter in 1777-78 at Valley Forge, but many are not aware of the sever hardships faced by the troops due to the lack of supplies. During that cold and bitter time, Washington wrote of his men: “Naked and starving as they are, we cannot insufficiently admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiers.”
Washington was forced to plead with the Congress time and again for the money or supplies needed to maintain the fight against the British forces. In 1780, he wrote:
We have been half our time without provision, and are likely to continue so. We have no magazines, nor money to form them, and in a little time we shall have no men, if we had money to pay them. We have lived upon expedients till we can no longer. In a word, the history of the war is a history of false hopes and temporary devices…”
General Washington was forced to fight two wars: one against the British, and one against the lack of resources. He made the best use of what little he had, and he developed a real closeness to his men, which ensured that a core of the army held together despite such discouragement and so many desertions. It must be understood that George Washington was a true believer in the cause for which he was willing to risk his life on a regular basis, and he inspired others to do the same. Washington and his troops ultimately put into play events which altered the course of human history in a powerfully positive way.
George Washington understood “the momentous duty” of his command, and truly “exerted every power in their service… for the support of their glorious cause.” Yet, Washington and his men risked their lives for no nation, fought for no nation, but for a cause centered upon the ideals and values of Freedom.
This was a cause that Thomas Paine referred to as the “cause of all mankind.” They fought for a cause that Thomas Jefferson articulated in the Declaration of Independence, and in the end, created a nation centered on the ideals and values of Freedom.