The task facing the American patriots in fighting Great Britain was daunting, to say the least. Despite having fought a series of colonial and territorial wars in Europe and around the world, the British were still an extremely powerful and wealthy nation. And although England was complacent regarding its ability to defeat the rebels, the objective of the British would prove to be challenging. The British had to fight an offensive war and defeat the colonies in detail in order to stamp out the rebellion. The colonists, conversely, only had to keep the fight going long enough to wear out the British. In the end, that's what they did, but it took seven years.
To meet challenge, the British sent an enormous force to North America, the largest overseas deployment they had ever conducted. The British had a powerful and skillful navy, a well-trained standing army, and resources enough to hire foreign mercenaries. British sea power gave its commanders the flexibility to attack the Americans in different locations— they could call the shots. In sheer numbers the British outnumbered the Americans by a substantial margin of about two to one, but British soldiers were also better equipped and trained. Despite their numerical superiority, the British strategy was essentially one of "divide and conquer." The Americans were on the defensive from the beginning. General Gage was commander in chief at the outset; under him were Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne—all in all a less than impressive group.19
The British also had the assistance of a significant number of active loyalists, who comprised approximately one fifth of the total colonial population. Scattered among their patriot neighbors, however, the loyalists were not well organized, and the British did not exploit them fully, nor did they trust them. Nevertheless, thousands of loyalists participated at least passively on the British side, sometimes acting as informants or outright spies. Especially in the southern colonies, where loyalist strength was strong, their presence was particularly sharply felt, and some of the most bitter fighting of the Revolution was conducted in the southern areas, where Americans were often fighting against Americans.
American advantages were perhaps less concrete, but no less real. First, they were fighting for a cause in which many of them believed passionately. Second, the fighting was on their home turf; America had a vast interior, and resources could be assembled rapidly from local populations in case of emergency. Americans officers and soldiers had gained valuable experience during the colonial wars. The American navy was small, but privateers (privately owned vessels authorized to harass enemy shipping) did well—American seamen were experienced and skillful. John Paul Jones became the most famous naval hero, but there were others.
The Americans received substantial aid from foreign powers, especially France, and Congress received a flood of offers from foreign "soldiers of fortune," many of them bogus. But foreign officers such as the Marquis de Lafayette made valuable contributions. Most important, perhaps, the Americans had George Washington, the right man for the job, whose participation in the creation of the United States has made him in the eyes of one biographer "the indispensable man."
World History
