Ordinary Soldiers - Taking on the British

By Bruce D. Clark

This Ebook is the first of two Ebooks that present the print book, Ordinary Soldiers - Extraordinary Task. 

 

The print book traces the sons of two ordinary colonial families in their Revolutionary War efforts against the British.

Soldiers from far off Connecticut responded to the alarm that Paul Revere began. They helped lay siege to British occupied Boston. Their placement of canon on Dorchester Heights in a single night, resulted in Howe's abandonment of Boston. 

 

Washington raced to New York, knowing Howe would strike there next. One son joined forces against the British on Long Island. The British fleet was the largest invasion force since the Spanish Armada. General Howe suffered a humiliating loss of men at the Battle of Bunker Hill because he directly assaulted the American lines. Howe would not repeat that mistake.

 

At the Battle of Long Island, Howe's astonishing flanking maneuver nearly surrounded the greatly outnumbered patriot soldiers facing the British outside of the American's fortified line. In an act unmatched bravery, the Maryland 400 gave their lives to allow the bulk of the American forces and one of the sons to escape back to the American fortified lines.

 

The British captured a horde of American soldiers with the fall of New York City. American prisoners endured extreme hardship in the overcrowded British prisons around New York City. Held by sadistic jailers in horrific conditions they died by the tens of thousands. 

 

The British planned an attack down the Hudson River in order to split the colonies and cause the rebellion to collapse. In an attempt to lure Washington away from the Hudson River, the British carried out a series of attacks against civilian targets along the Connecticut coast in a campaign called Tryon's Raid. One son died defending these civilians against British and Hessian attacks.

 

Privateers acted as a proxy where the American Navy fell short. A group of New Jersey patriots brought havoc to British merchant shipping in the midst of an ongoing civil war in Monmouth County. 

 

A heinous Loyalist scheme began with an attack on a small blockhouse at Toms River.  The capture of the blockhouse survivors resulted in one son's imprisonment in the infamous Provost in New York City. The Loyalists later murdered the American Captain (and privateer) "Jack" Huddy while their prisoner. Enraged at an officer's murder while a prisoner or war, General Washington selected a British officer to hang in retaliation. Congress specifically approved the action. The British court martial failed to hold anyone accountable and they let the murderers go free. The murder triggered an international incident which eventually involved the highest levels of military and government in England, France and America.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bruce Clark
• Release date: Mar 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781386431015

Bruce D. Clark

I was born in state far away in the early 1950s while my father was getting his masters degree in geology. I spent my formative years in Indian and Spanish uranium boom towns in New Mexico. I went to high school in Oklahoma. I worked my way up in the oil field to be a supervisor of offshore operations on international assignment. I saved enough to pay for law school. I obtained two law degrees. I managed a policy unit for the State of California and provided guidance and instructions on compliance with federal and state healthcare initiatives. Retirement from that position allows me to pursue more enjoyable writing projects. I have a Facebook page where I can post high quality, color images. The email button works. If you see something you like and want to see a better version, I can post full size pictures to an album or send it by other means. https://www.facebook.com/2BruceClark/ I'm willing to discuss professional grade photo papers or Giclée.  Thanks for looking. 

Book preview

Chapter 1

THE JOURNEY

Our break with Mother England didn’t take place suddenly. The change took place over many decades. 

Today we think nothing of grabbing our dinner from the refrigerator and watching the latest world events on the evening news. Colonists faced a very difficult life. 

The early immigrants faced a deplorable passage in making their way to America.  Few countries allowed people to travel freely. The voyage would take more than 5 months, beginning in early May until the end of October. For example, they would make their way to Switzerland which freely permitted people to leave. Leaving Switzerland, they passed down the Rhine where clearing the 36 German customs houses took 4 to 6 weeks. They would then be detained in Holland for 5 or 6 weeks to clear Dutch customs. While waiting, the passengers would have to spend nearly all their savings for basic necessities. Many ships would cram 400-600 persons aboard, along with cargo. Depending on favorable winds, the trip from Holland to Portsmouth on the south coast of England could take from 8 days to 4 weeks. They would wait there for another week or two filling the ship with cargo. By now the passengers spent the last of the meager savings and ate what little provisions they brought for the journey. 

The voyage to Philadelphia took another 8 to 12 weeks. Many would suffer greatly on the voyage from hunger. 

During the voyage they underwent terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, and also from very bad and foul water. Many died a miserable death. Lice multiplied frightfully, especially on sick people, which could be scraped off their body. They cast the multitude that died during the voyage into the sea. The crying and lamenting continued night and day, weighing heavily on the even the hardest hearts.

Few woman survived childbirth onboard. They threw the mother and the living child overboard. Children under the age of 7 did not survive. Many parents watched their children suffer miserably and die from hunger, thirst and sickness. Parents then watched as the crew threw the children into the water. Previously unexposed children caught measles and small pox onboard and died. 

They served warm food three times a week. The poor and meager rations could hardly be eaten, on account of the filth. The water served out on the ships consisted of a black liquid, thick and full of worms. You drank, filled with loathing and disgust, even with the greatest thirst. Toward the end the ship's long journey, spoiled biscuits scarcely contained a quarter sized piece not filled with red worms and spiders' nests. 

At long last, they reached port. Those that landed barely crept from the ship and fell into hysterical prayers of joy as they clutched the land. Sadly, only those that paid for their passage could leave. The others were sold into servitude to the highest bidder. If a parent died, the children would be sold into 15 years of servitude to pay for their parent’s voyage. 

Every day, Englishmen, Dutchmen and High-German colonists journeyed up to 40 hours away to reach the dock. They boarded the newly arrived ship and selected such healthy persons as they deemed suitable for their business. They haggled over the length of indentured servitude needed to pay their passage money. Children might be traded away from parents without seeing them again. 

Yet, they willingly endured these conditions to find America. What drove them gives us an understanding of their extreme independence. 

The Black Death killed perhaps 30% to 60% of Europe's population. It took 200 years for the world population to recover to its previous level. While peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351, the plague recurred as outbreaks in Europe until the 19th century. The disease created an exodus of movement within Europe as people sought to escape the consequences of the plague. 

The apostles did not all go to Rome. Protestantism, one of the major branches of Christianity, stemmed from the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation began in Europe in the early 16th century by Christians who opposed many of the unbiblical beliefs, practices, and abuses taking place within the Roman Catholic Church. 

Although reformers listed many complaints about the