Inglourious Basterds Moment, American Revolution

Light Horse Harry Lee and William Washington were assigned to slow the British advance so Washington’s army could re-group. Lee’s unarmed teenage bugler was murdered in cold blood. Thirsty for revenge, Lee charged a British force, captured a British captain and several of his dragoons. They cut “him on the face, neck, and shoulders with their sabers.”

Washington’s Immortals has completely changed self’s view of the American Revolution. The Colonists did not win ‘pretty.’ They fought like savages.

Stay tuned.

Reconaissance, the Green River, Georgia

A few weeks — or was it months — ago, self waxed lyrical over James D. Hornfischer’s ability to evoke landscape (completely redundant in a book about battles, some might think). Well, here she is at a major engagement of the American Revolutionary War (How does self know it’s a major engagement of the American Revolutionary War? Because it’s taken chapters and chapters to get to this point, ARRRGH!) Patrick K. O’Donnell matches Hornfischer in his description of the Green River in Georgia.

It is just before dawn on January 17, 1781. Sergeant Lawrence Everhart and twelve men have “trotted down the Green River Road into the predawn darkness on a special reconaissance operation, three miles beyond American outposts . . . For more than a mile, the cavalrymen rode silently through frostbitten trees dotting barren fields, when suddenly they collided head-on with” the British army.

Everhart and his men “wheeled their horses and bolted in the opposite direction, with the British advance in hot pursuit.” The British rode the “fleetest race horses which (they) had impressed from their owners . . . and which enabled them to take Sergeant Everhard and one of his men . . . After shooting Everhart’s horse out from under him . . . a Loyalist quartermaster took him prisoner and brought him before” the British commander.

“Do you expect Mr. Washington will fight this day?” asked the officer.

Everhart: “Yes, if they can keep together only two hundred men.”

Washington’s Immortals, p. 285

Fighting words! The British had over 1000 men.

The British attacked, advancing over a frozen field. “Two three-pound grasshoppers fired into the American line. The British infantry broke into a jog, crossing nearly the length of two football fields in three minutes.”

Postscript: As the British were forced to leave the field, they shot their prisoners, one of whom was Everhart. They shot him “in the head at point-blank range . . . Remarkably, the Marylander survived the traumatic wound and remained lucid enough to talk to Washington . . . ” Washington asked “Everhart who had attempted to execute him. Everhart pointed to the man who shot him . . . and just Retaliation was exercised.” The Redcoat was “instantly shot.”

Savage! Washington did not want a single Redcoat to escape. He set out furiously after them. “Despite their casualties, the American foot soldiers set out immediately on a forced march, a feat they repeated several times in the coming months.”

Stay tuned.

General Daniel Morgan of Washington’s Flying Army

The mission of the Flying Army was to conduct raids all across the south. Pursued by the British in South Carolina, General Morgan decided to make a stand in Georgia, near present-day Spartanburg. Patrick K. O’Donnell describes the man he calls “Washington’s greatest general.”

His personal battle history was etched deeply across his body. On his left cheek, he bore an angry scar from a ball that entered his neck, passed through his mouth, took out most of his rear teeth, and exited his upper lip. It was at that moment, the night of January 16, 1780, according to legend, one of Morgan’s aides lifted the general’s shirt, exposing the leather-like scars on his back.

Washington’s Immortals, p. 279

Morgan’s strategy in Spartanburg: “defense in depth.”

The general’s first line consisted of skirmishers, handpicked from men who were crack shots. They would position themselves about 150 yards in front of the militia. He told the riflemen to aim for the officers to soften up the British as they came forward: “Aim for the men with the epaulets.”

Washington’s Immortals, p. 284

General Morgan told his militia men, the second line of defense, 150 yards behind the skirmishers, that he needed them to fire just three shots and then withdraw behind the Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia Continentals, the third and final line of defense.

This plan, as it turned out, worked beautifully. It led the British to think the Colonials were being routed, and they gave chase, straight into the waiting arms of the Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia Continentals.

Really an incredible experience to be reading about the American Revolution while Ukraine gets crushed.

Stay tuned.

Unlikely Heroes: Still Chapter 26 of Washington’s Immortals

Francis Marion, aka Swamp Fox, “was an early pioneer of guerrilla warfare, leading the local militia in numerous quick, violent attacks on Loyalists and Redcoats. He was (unlike the character portrayed by Mel Gibson in The Patriot) “physically underwhelming: a frail, stubby fifty-year-old, hobbled by deformed knees and ankles.”

The British sent one of their most ruthless fighters after him, Banastre Tarleton, famous for what was known as “Tarleton’s quarter” — after a small force in South Carolina surrendered, Tarleton failed to honor the white flag (he claimed he didn’t see it because he was thrown from his horse) and slaughtered the surrendering men. “It was Tarleton who gave Marion his nickname: after pursuing the Patriot through twenty-six miles of Carolina swampland,” Tarleton was forced to give up the chase.

Washington’s Immortals, p. 241

Washington’s Army in the South spent the winter and spring barefoot, starving, and . . . the men were attacked by “tens of thousands of ticks and fleas.”

That is all.

Washington’s Immortals, Chapter 26: The March South (to Charleston)

They left Morristown on April 16, 1780, becoming part of a campaign that kept them in the South for several years. Hundreds of the men did not leave to return home. Captain Bob Kirkwood kept a daily journal of their odyssey and every day they recorded the miles the Immortals marched. The majority within the Maryland and Delaware regiments traversed a breathtaking 4,656 miles — often barefoot — between the spring of 1780 and the spring of 1782. The state did not compensate them until 1783 — and then paid only if they were lucky enough to have survived and to have jumped through the right administrative and judicial loops. Wages ceased for most men in 1780. Officers advanced some of the men money, but after the war men had to swear under oath and convince a Maryland judge that they were owed back pay.

What Is It to Lead?

This post might make Washington out to be the most bloodthirsty sort, ever. It’s yet another one about Washington meting out swift — and final — justice.

In the hard winter of 1779- 1780, Washington finds himself with mutinies to suppress.

First, a mutiny on the Pennsylvania line, which was quelled by the New Jersey line.

Then, a mutiny of the New Jersey line, despite Washington having approved the execution of the Pennsylvania mutineers as a warning (the Pennsylvanians were tapped to carry out the executions, to rub it in more. Washington was absolutely savage in his messaging).

Despite . . . Washington’s efforts, two hundred men from the Jersey line mutinied shortly after the Pennsylvanians. Without hesitating, Washington assembled the ringleaders and executed most of them. The contagion was contained.

Washington’s Immortals, p. 228

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

The Siege of the Fort at Stony Point (Chapter 24, Washington’s Immortals)

The British fort at Stony Point, NY was “one of the most heavily-defended fortresses in North America.” The attackers had to somehow make it through the “abatis — pointed, blade-like, wooden stakes that were waiting for them, poised to tear into the flesh and lacerate the limbs of any man who attempted to penetrate the British defenses. Until the abatis was removed, the rest of the assault force would be unable to enter the fort.”

The force Washington sent to accomplish this task consisted of twenty men. The name of the group was “Forlorn Hope.” The Forlorn Hope “would use the axes to slowly hack their way through the timbers while under constant fire from the enemy. If they made it through alive, they would have to begin the process again and chop through yet another row of thick abatis, which guarded a fortification bristling with guns.” The leader of this group was a Marylander, Major Jack Steward.

This book is absolutely enthralling. Which is why she’s reading at such a crawl. (She wonders why they chose ‘Forlorn Hope’ as the group’s name? She would have given the group a name with more positive vibes: ‘Forever Hope’ or ‘Always Hope’)

Stay tuned.

Washington’s War of Attrition, Part II

Self has now reached a little less than halfway through Washington’s Immortals. At this rate, it’ll be another week . . .

What she’s gleaned so far is that Washington was an excellent guerrilla fighter. He cut his teeth in the woods and forests, and he had managed to get one Indian tribe, the Stockbridge Mohicans, on his side. Ranged against him were the British, American Loyalists, and five of the six nations that made up the Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.

Washington’s opponent was Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, the son of a Royal Navy Captain, graduate of Eton and Oxford. Simcoe commanded a light infantry unit called the Queen’s Rangers which “participated in many brutal engagements.”

Washington was ambushed by Simcoe on August 31, 1778. Simcoe took the day, but the colonial officers escaped, “thanks to the courage of dozens of Mohicans.” The Stockbridge Mohicans were almost entirely wiped out. They lost their land, too. “Discharged by Washington’s orders in September 1778, the tribe received a paltry thousand dollars.”

In the fall of 1778, Washington moved the American army to White Plains, New York to keep the British pinned down in New York. He “ordered the creation of light infantry units, which had more flexibility and the ability to mount raids . . . they would counter the British light infantry operating in the area, harass their supply lines along the road network in today’s Bronx and southern Westchester County, and hamper their attempts to forage.”

Washington’s war of attrition worked, mostly because the British never got reinforcements. After 1777, they only received 4,700 troops, nowhere near the 19,200 that were lost.

Stay tuned.

Why Books Are Life

June 28, 1778: The British and the colonists square off at a site near present-day Freehold, New Jersey. The colonists are led by Gen. Charles Lee, the British by Gen. Henry Clinton.

“Lee planned to surround Clinton’s forces, but the strength of the opposition took him by surprise. After only an hour” the Rebels began a disorganized retreat. Washington was leading the bulk of his army towards the battleground when he began to encounter fleeing groups of soldiers. When he eventually met up with Lee, “Washington simply looked Lee in the eye and asked, whence arises this disorder and confusion, to which Lee had no real reply.” Washington then unleashed “a terrific eloquence of unprintable scorn . . . dismissed Lee and took charge of the battle . . . His presence stopped the retreat . . . His stately appearance on horseback, his calm, dignified courage . . . provoked a wave of enthusiasm among the troops.”

Washington to Lieut. Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay of the 3rd Maryland Regiment: “If you can stop the British for ten minutes, till I form, you will save my army!”

Ramsay’s response: “I will stop them or fall.”

Washington’s Immortals, pp. 184 – 185