british naval armada during the american revolution

At the same time, the history of the Lake Champlain campaign raises fundamental issues that remain at the heart of American naval policy and strategy in the 21st century. Kelly’s book helps readers remember that the American War for Independence was a naval war. The Americans there had to struggle - against disease, a lack of time, a dearth of resources, and a formidable foe - to halt an invasion that would have cut the colonies in two. Jack Kelly’s new book Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty examines that pivotal campaign on a northern lake. And the French monarch had only been lured into an alliance because the Continental Army won the 1777 Battle of Saratoga, which had itself depended on an American strategic victory in a months-long naval campaign on Lake Champlain the year before. For George Washington’s army to survive the disaster on Long Island, a miraculous amphibious withdrawal had to succeed under the noses of the “redcoats.” For the Americans to win at Yorktown, the French navy had to defeat the British fleet at the Battle of the Virginia Capes. The Royal Navy was integral to nearly every element of the British effort to bring the American colonies back into the empire. The British regulars and Hessian hired guns who fought the rebels had to cross an ocean.

And yet, British forces saw the whole thing in a fundamentally different way.įor the British military, the American Revolution was first and foremost a maritime conflict. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson sang about them, and they dominate how many citizens think about the War for Independence. They were fights on shore for the control of territory and populations. Many Americans know the battles of the Revolutionary War as land engagements between armies. Martin’s, 2021)īrooklyn Heights, Saratoga, Yorktown. Jack Kelly, Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty (St.

British naval armada during the american revolution