Worchester County Convention Quotes

Milosevic had been rejected at the polls, but the question was whether of not he would give up power. He finally did.

After the Revolutionary War, the army expected to be compensated and made provision for. But Massachusetts did very little for the Massachusetts line (the state troops were referred to as the “line”.) Shaw and many others looked to the new national government for a solution but a constitution had not even been discussed in convention in 1783 and would not for another 4 years. The Continental Congress could do almost nothing as they had few resources of their own and no power to require the states to do anything.

There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}.

Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices. These suggestions were discussed but never passed as regulations. They are fascinating insights into the problems of the general officers of the time who were generally selected for their socioeconomic status rather than other qualifications. Note the drunkenness limitation for a commanding general was proposed to be limited to only 1 allowed bout of drunkenness every 24 hours. It was, he thought, totally unrealistic to require generals to be always sober when on duty. With the mediocre quality of senior officers, Washington had to depend on foreigners like Lafayette, Von Steuben and others. And Generals who were leading attacks out in front of their men like Benedict Arnold immediately became heroes and one of the reasons he ended up as a traitor was that he thought that he was badly treated relative to the “society” Generals who would not accept him and denigrated his exploits when they themselves had never been close to a battle front.

Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.

We are so accustomed to thinking about George Washington as a great military leader that it is surprising to see contemporary comparisons where Washington was found wanting or second. Actually Horatio Gates was a brilliant tactical general and a great leader of men—many think far better than Washington, but the genius of Washington was his strategic and political grasp of the situation. Essentially, with exceptions like the Battle of Trenton, Washington lost almost all the battles he fought as a tactical general. He realized early on that he did not have to win battles; he just had to prevent losing them so badly that he could not continue the fight. The insurgent wins as long as he can still fight. The British could not win unless they eliminated the ability of the revolutionists to fight. But Washington won the last battle at Yorktown, and that is the one that counted. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.

General Howe was the Commander of British Troops in the American Revolution. The early American Army was neither professional, experienced, or well officered. Execution as a means of punishment was much more common than in the larger, professional British army. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.

This is an aspect of the American Revolution that is rarely described in American history books. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.

This quotation shows that the dissent leading to the American Revolution did not emerge suddenly in 1776 after the Battle of Bunker Hill. Dissent, sedition and even violence was documented here in 1774. Salem at the time was the second largest port in the colony and the customs tax collectors—Loyalist Americans—were run out of Salem.

The New England and Middle Atlantic States had recruited and allowed Negroes to serve in their divisions with excellent results. These two Southern states were suffering badly as a result of the British Military dominance and atrocities. Almost all whites who were patriots were already under arms. Hence the recommendation. Despite their precarious position, the Southern States would not follow the recommendation. Many were convinced that the Blacks would never make good soldiers, and the those Southerners who disagreed were terrified that once armed, the Blacks would never submit to slavery and would support slave insurrections of the Black slaves who were not in the military.

Washington took advantage of the new technology of explosives that had been developed and created an innovative new unit under the command of David Bushnell (1740–1824) the Yale University student who had invented the first time bomb and the Turtle submarine.

Mechanics was a general term for people who made things, or fixed things. Ramsay was the first major historian of the American Revolution.

This is a very important quotation because it and {641522} show the great difficulty that Washington was under and the fact that he repeatedly asked Congress for assistance very little of which was provided. Washington began to be disillusioned about the militias at this time; see {641525} for the conclusions he reached about the state militias.

Washington and Green won very few battles as the strategy was, like many revolutionary movements, simply to avoid losing and being wiped out—the strategy that finally won the war.

He had no authority to do this. He just took it upon himself. This was one of the incidents which caused later Congresses to pass very strict laws limiting the authority of all Federal Military and other intelligence and police forces so that they have little or no authority within the United States. President Lincoln did not allow the order to stand, although he repudiated it very delicately and as privately as possible. Many in his own party strongly favored this proclamation as it cracked down on the Southern Rebels and emancipated slaves—both objectives of many Republicans. In addition, Fremont was very popular with the people and had strong political connections. (He would later run for President.) See {635739}.

1776 at the Battle of Bunker Hill This was the first formal battle of the American Revolution. The British officers perceived the American colonials as a rag-tag collection of men with no experience or skill at arms. Looking for glory they led from the front and if nothing else the Colonials were superb marksmen who picked the officers off easily. After that battle, British officers were more prudent and respectful of the revolutionaries.

Several years before the Battle of Bunker Hill, revolutionary activity had already broken out in the American colonies—See {634132} for an example. This law gave the British authorities much more “clout” in dealing with the “seditious” American activities. It protected English law enforcement officials from being tried in local Colonial courts for murder or assault in putting down insurrections. George Washington and other Patriots were outraged over this law. See {634131}.

This is another example of the preparation that the American patriots were making before 1776 for the coming Revolutionary War. In this case they were urging the arming of ships. There were plenty of ships, and it was a matter of building or buying cannon and mounting them on the decks of the ships. While these were no match for a British Warship in a one-to-one duel, they could be effective against British Smaller Ships that could navigate the shoals, coasts and inlets where the large vessels dared not navigate. This foresight gave George Washington a small navy which he made very good use of. He had 8 schooners ranging from 40-80 tons, each armed with 4-10 cannon and manned by overly large crews (for sailing and firing the guns at the same time) of volunteer expert seamen from Marblehead and Beverly. Of the 35 supply ships the British sent to Boston in 1775, only 8 got through Washington’s Navy. Also note the form of the Continental Congress Resolutions. In effect they mandated nothing as there really was no federal government. Each colony was sovereign, so resolutions were suggestive only with the important decisions all left to the individual colonies and their various governments as some of the colonies had very strong local governments which made all the important decisions.

loyalty oath to the King of England His “Ethiopian Regiment” was the first Black military regiment in North America. Soon after, Rhode Island organized a Black military unit—see {613949}.