American Military Challenges

The cost of the war in both men and dollars was great to England. About 10,000 British troops were needed for the defense of North America after the war, costing approximately thirty-five hundred thousand pounds a year (Hafstadter 76). Many colonials were not welcoming the change, and voiced their opinions as such. Officials in New Jersey stated that America could

The British military was considered the strongest in the world at the outreach of fighting between England and the American colonies in 1775. Britain had just defeated France and the Indians in the Seven Years War and had attained its prominence as a world’s superpower. Yet despite Britain’s overpowering military dominance, the British found themselves unable to subdue General Washington and the American colonies. The American’s success in achieving independence during the American Revolution was not due to General Washington’s strategic skill but by numerous British blunders. The British mistakes during

As the war began, it seemed that the British possessed a greater advantage over the unprepared American rebels. The population odds alone were about three British to every one American rebel with around 7.5 million British soldiers against around 2.5 million American colonists. When it came to wealth and military power, the British were in favor. In addition to having a much greater amount of soldiers, the British soldiers were professional trained when compared to the minute amount of poorly trained American militia. While numerous and highly trained, the British also had the necessary money to equip their soldiers with the necessary ammunition, clothes, training, etc. The American soldiers, on the other hand, suffered from lack of supplies, lack of money, no leadership, and the difficult weather conditions. Recruiting, supplying, training, equipping, and paying soldiers were monumental challenges, especially for a nation that was barely forming its first governments. Due to the lack of money, there was a lack of supplies for the soldiers who rarely received their pay

The war seemed to separate the colonists into three separate groups. Ones that were loyal to Britain, which were called “loyalists”. Most loyalists had “business ties” with Britain and saw being on Britain’s side of the war as being “defenders”. While other loyalists despised those that rebelled and assumed their reason to rebel was to obtain more money from the empire. The second group was with George Washington called the “Patriots”, who were fighting for the freedom from Britain, and the third group were people that were trying to go about their lives and not get involved in the war. Though slaves were asked to participate in the war, most went to Britain’s side in exchange for freedom. In 1775, Washington and his army win the battle at Saratoga and this ultimately wins over France as an

For many African Americans, the war offered an opportunity to get out of the cycle of crushing rural poverty. Black joined the military in large numbers, escaping a decade of Depression and tenant farming in the South and Midwest. Yet, like the rest of America in the 1940s, the armed forces were segregated. The Army accepted black enlistees but created separate black infantry regiments and assigned white commanders to them. Of the more than 2.5 million African Americans who registered for the draft in WWII, about 900,000 served in the Army. But about only 50,000 African Americans were allowed to serve in combat.

According to the Declaration of Independence, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.” Compared to the world renowned British naval/army, the colonists had ill trained soldiers and poorly trained generals who did not have much experience in combat. The colonists would have lost their battle for independence without aid/support from other countries. France was an ally to the colonists and secretly supplied guns, ammunition, gun powder,

This, however, was no simple task. The British were superior in many aspects, so how exactly did the colonists win the war? Firstly, Britain was extremely overconfident in themselves. They didn’t expect the colonists to put up much of a fight, and though that taking Boston would halt their efforts and end the rebellion. However, once that strategy failed, they were forced to take a new approach and decided to try to isolate Boston and New England by conquering the surrounding colonies including New York. Yet again, the British failed to do this, and during that time, the colonists received help from European countries like France. After defeat they tried one more strategy which was to take the South and use the loyalists who lived there. The colonists then fought them using guerilla tactics, in which they launched small hit and run attacks, and targeted the weak points in the British army. This strategy ultimately led to the colonial victory. Besides just the military tactics used by the rebels, there were some other factors that helped in their victory. Firstly, the British mostly ignored the loyalists who could have been very useful to them in battles. Secondly, although it may not seem like much, the United States generals, including George Washington were good at keeping the soldiers’ morale high, despite even a series of losses. Because of this, the army never gave up until they were victorious. Lastly, because the British were fighting in unfamiliar land which was separated from their home country by an ocean, they were faced with many disadvantages. They also had to hold control of a colony when they overtook it, meaning that some troops would have to be left behind. Overall, even though the British were much better equipped than the Americans, the colonists played to their strengths and Britain’s weakness, which proved to be

After coming out of the Great Depression the United States could not afford to be in anymore debt. From purchasing guns, ammunitions, aircrafts, and warships, the debt was rising dramatically. While the American public supported the troops, the cost of the war would affect America for years to come.

About 180,000 African American people comprised 163 units that served in the Union Army, during the time of the Civil War, and many more African American people had served in the Union Navy. Both the free African-Americans and the runaway slaves had joined the fight. On the date of July 17, in the year of 1862, the U. S. Congress had passed two very important acts that would allow the enlistment of many African Americans, but the official enrollment had occurred only after the September, 1862, issuance of the, Emancipation Proclamation. In general, most white soldiers and officers, had believed that most of the black men, who had served in the Civil War, lacked the courage, and the will to fight

Now, this may or may not be true, we can't go back in time to see what would've been if the revolution hadn't occurred, but I will note that Canada, a country in much the same situation as America-being massive, far from Britain, etc. lived peacefully under British rule for decades. Also, Paine denied that there was any chance for reconciliation, stated that no valid arguments for reconciliation were presented, and that anyone who was loyalist, or even neutral on the subject were either weak men, or economically biased. As to the first and second points, both were completely false; at this point in the war, reconciliation wouldn't have been an impossible option; and as to the second, many strong arguments against the war had been presented already. On the final point I wouldn't call a man weak for not jumping into a war without good reason to, and maybe the reasons for rebellion weren't enough for the neutrals to invest years, and risk their lives in a war. The argument that I believe to be the most illogical and falsely presented, was in the final section on a speech from the King.

The colonists would probably have kept African Americans out of the military during the war if not for the proclamation by the John Murray, Earl of Dumore. He stated “I do hereby further declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others, free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty’s Troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty, to His Majesty’s crown and dignity.'; This brought chaos to the colonies, the fear of slaves turning against their masters, and

The British had very few, but significant disadvantages/weaknesses. Since America was large and unfamiliar territory for them, it was troublesome to conquer and to hold territory. The British were 3,000 miles from home so it often took months for military orders, troops, and supplies to arrive from Britain after it was is sent out. And also due to distance, they couldn’t communicate with their leaders, reinforcements, and supply lines. They didn’t send their top military leaders, which caused problems. Their Red Coats and militant style made them easy targets to identify in the wilderness or on open fields. Their soldiers were fighting for a King, not for their own cause. They lacked motivation to crush the opposition from the onset of the war. They were also over-confident and cocky. Their goal was persuade the Americans to give up their claims of independence, which was an extremely rigorous objective. Also, the country had been at war for years and citizens were tired of war and war taxes.

This became the biggest downfall that the British could have had. If they wanted to stop the rebellion they should have done so and not done so many parties and galas. Fighting till the very end with every man you can is how you win not being gentlemanly cordial and nice. At the end if their is the ability you fix how the people see you but the british showed a weakness in this book and the rebels capitalized on it. They would not and did not stop until the Americas and Canada was free. It seemed that when they were fighting the Rebels the British just did not think that this was a real effort so they forgot all the things that they usually did. This seems that there was no one to really blame but themselves. When they seemed to finally understand that this was a real war it was to late for them and the French were already joining the war against the British and it was to late for the British to kick it into high gear. If the British understood that this was a battle and just crushed it instead of run around chasing things that were hard to capture. It seemed like in the end they were just chasing behind instead of trying to tactically cut off so they could win and bring the colonies back into the empire. Though they had good generals and commanders who could win battle but they did not do anything unless their regiments had everything they wanted but this was war and not everything is easy. In the end it was a lack of strategy and the want for a more gentlemanly fighting style seemed to be what made the British lose America. Though they did lose the colonies trade did start back up with them in place of the East India Trade Company which sent supplies both ways and both the colonies and Britain

The American’s strategy for the war was that of winning small battles, and mostly avoiding large war. They knew that their army was not capable of defeating the British in a large war. They were outnumbered and out supplied, but they knew they could defeat them by wearing them down little by little. The British army relied on resources from overseas, thus allowing them to weaken over time without those resources readily being available and plentiful.

Using the priniciples of war, Burgoyne’s and Howe operations in 1777 was a success as well a failure. Burgoyne’s overconfidence led to several key tactical errors, which led a promising campaign to almost certain failure. “Several Factors led to Burgoyne’s Failure and subsequent surrender. First, inadequate supplies and troops put the British at a sever disadvantage. On top of that, Burgoyne critically underestimated both the American fighting capacity and their means of warfare. In addition, Burgoyne had a poor understanding of the environment in which he was campaigning. Finally, a lack of communication between Burgoyne, General William Howe and Lord Germain would prove fatal to the campaign” (n.d., 2016).