The British Are Coming

I just finished The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson.  It was published earlier this year and covers the first two years of the American Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the winter of 1976-77 when Washington and the troops camped in Morristown, New Jersey.  The text is about 560 pages long; another 100 or so pages consists of footnotes and bibliography.

It is military history.  Atkinson does not discuss the politics of the Continental Congress, doesn’t get into the writing of the Declaration, doesn’t discuss too much of the home front.  He does detail the battles, including maps.  He also explains what the British troops and generals were doing.

I finally understand what happened, at least in the first two years.  (Atkinson is planning two more volumes.)  I never realized how close the colonies were to capturing Canada.  I never realized how close we came to losing the war on a number of occasions.  I never realized the vicious treatment the British meted out to rebels or the Revolutionaries to loyalists.

I also have a new respect for Washington.  He was a rather bad general at first, but he was a quick study.  He also listened to his other generals, who occasionally prevented major mistakes.  

I knew that many slaves fought for the British, who promised them freedom.  What I did not know was that Washington, always short of troops, also welcomed free blacks into the army.  Atkinson writes that the Revolutionary Army was the most integrated American force for almost 200 years.  

The war was also incredibly bloody and brutal  Hessian troops were known for their cruelty to the wounded.  Grape shot was used in cannons, turning them into huge shotguns.  And if you were wounded you were probably going to die.  If you were captured by the British, you were also probably going to die.  Smallpox, typhus, dysentery, and lice were common.  So was lack of food, lack of clothing, lack of shelter.  

Where are the French?  I'm sure they will show up in Vol. 2.