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    The Faults Of The Generals: How Great Britain Lost The War For America
    The Faults Of The Generals: How Great Britain Lost The War For America
    The Faults Of The Generals: How Great Britain Lost The War For America
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    The Faults Of The Generals: How Great Britain Lost The War For America

    By Kristoffer R. Barriteau

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    By 1778, the world’s most powerful Empire had failed, for almost four years, to decisively end an internal rebellion in its North American colonies. This failure resulted in the escalation to a world war and the British submitting to defeat in 1783. What is of interest is not the international community’s impact on the outcome of the American Revolution, rather how the British military continually missed the opportunity to end the rebellion in its nascent phase. Therefore, this research will explore the strategic interaction between the British military, the patriots and the American colonists to determine what British military commanders’ decisions contributed to these missed opportunities, and the ultimate loss of their War for America. To illuminate what went wrong, this research will import the McCormick Diamond paradigm to sift through this field of history, framing the strategic decisions, the conditions under which they were made and their effects on the overall British effort to quell the colonial rebels of North America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGolden Springs Publishing
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781782899518
    The Faults Of The Generals: How Great Britain Lost The War For America

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      Book preview

      The Faults Of The Generals - Kristoffer R. Barriteau

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 2011 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      THE FAULTS OF THE GENERALS: HOW GREAT BRITAIN LOST THE WAR FOR AMERICA

      Kristoffer R. Barriteau Major, United States Army B.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2000

      David W. Gunther Major, United States Army B.A., Stonehill College, 2000

      Clifton J. Lopez Major, United States Army B.S., University of Louisiana Lafayette, 2000

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ABSTRACT 5

      LIST OF FIGURES 5

      LIST OF TABLES 5

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5

      I. INTRODUCTION 6

      A. SCOPE 6

      B.—RESEARCH QUESTION 6

      C.—PURPOSE 6

      D. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8

      E. ROADMAP 12

      II. POLARIZING EFFECTS OF DISPARITY 13

      A. INTRODUCTION 13

      B. CITADEL WEAKENED 13

      C. CATALYSTS TOWARDS CONFLICT 15

      D. FAILED STRATEGIES 17

      E. POPULAR PREFERENCES 19

      III. THE GENERAL GAGE CHRONICLES 21

      A. THE PROPHET RETURNS 21

      B. POLITICAL PROVIDENCE: ONE DOOR CLOSES, TWELVE OPEN 22

      1.—The State Opts for Coercion 22

      2.—The Counter-State Seeks to Mobilize 22

      3. Gage Acts against the Political Union 23

      C. POWDER-LESS IS POWERLESS 24

      1. Gage Builds, then Mounts Forays into the Countryside 24

      2. The Counter-State Terrorizes and Propagandizes: Gage Capitulates 24

      3. The Counter-State Submits a Petition and Boycotts: Gage Recovers Nerves 26

      4. Gage Prompted and Chooses to Raid into Hell 26

      D. THE WOES OF ISOLATION 27

      1. Gage Consolidates 27

      2.—Gage Searches for a Lifeline and Finds Trouble 27

      3.—The Continental Army Introduces Itself 27

      E. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN PLAN UNDERMINED 29

      1. The Scramble for Friends 29

      2. Friends Without Benefits 30

      F. THE PROPHET RECALLED 30

      IV. GENERAL HOWE CHRONICLES 33

      A. GAGE OUT, HOWE IN 33

      B. ONE DECISIVE BLOW[UP] 34

      1. Howe Targets the Continental Army 34

      2. Washington's Failed War of Posts 35

      3. Weakened, the Continental Army Runs 36

      4.—Howe Gives Chase 37

      5.—The Strike to the Empire 37

      C. THE CARROTS: HOWE TRIES CONCILIATION 38

      1. An Offer They Did Refuse 38

      2. An Offer They Did Not Refuse 39

      D. CLEAR—BUILD—OH, MERDE! 40

      1. Howe: Army New York to Rebel Capital—Philadelphia 40

      2.—Washington Attempts to Check British Army 41

      3.—Congress on the Lam; Hears News from Afar 42

      4. Howe Takes Philadelphia, and All Its Problems 42

      5. Saratoga's Pivotal Results Prompts a Bid Adieux 43

      E. HOWE OUT, FRENCH IN 43

      V. FAULTS OF THE GENERALS 48

      A. DYNAMIC SHIFT 48

      B. ONE STEP BEHIND: UNDERESTIMATION 48

      C. UNINTENDED MESSAGES AND OVER-FOCUS: PERCEPTION MISMANAGEMENT 49

      D. LATERAL AND HIERARCHICAL PROBLEMS: EXPECTATION MISMANAGEMENT 51

      E. CONSOLIDATE: FORCE MISMANAGEMENT 52

      F. AVERSION: RISK MISMANAGEMENT 53

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 55

      LIST OF REFERENCES 56

      ABSTRACT

      By 1778, the world's most powerful Empire had failed, for almost four years, to decisively end an internal rebellion in its North American colonies. This failure resulted in the escalation to a world war and the British submitting to defeat in 1783. What is of interest is not the international community's impact on the outcome of the American Revolution, rather how the British military continually missed the opportunity to end the rebellion in its nascent phase. Therefore, this research will explore the strategic interaction between the British military, the patriots and the American colonists to determine what British military commanders' decisions contributed to these missed opportunities, and the ultimate loss of their War for America. To illuminate what went wrong, this research will import the McCormick Diamond paradigm to sift through this field of history, framing the strategic decisions, the conditions under which they were made and their effects on the overall British effort to quell the colonial rebels of North America.

      LIST OF FIGURES

      Figure 1.—McCormick's Diamond Model

      Figure 2.—British North America circa 1775

      Figure 3.—Rebel Handbill circa September 1774

      Figure 4.—Boston Map circa 1775

      Figure 5.—New York-New Jersey Map circa 1776

      Figure 6.—New Jersey-Pennsylvania-Maryland Map circa 1777

       LIST OF TABLES

      Table 1. COIN Theory Contributions

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      We are very grateful to the Naval Postgraduate School for providing us an opportunity to carry out research we feel is important to current and future generations of military practitioners. We owe a special thanks to our thesis advisors for their support, encouragement and understanding. We acknowledge the help of Professor McCormick in the development of the idea behind this research and for the Defense Analysis Department providing the funding for our trip to the Boston area. We also owe Professor Andrew Bacevich a special thank you for providing his insight on what qualities and characteristics General Officers should possess.

      Finally, we thank our families, particularly our wives, for their support and patience throughout the writing of this thesis. They provided unwavering encouragement and unquestioning support at every turn.

      I. INTRODUCTION

      Never let any Government imagine that it can choose perfectly safe courses; rather let it expect to have to take very doubtful ones, because it is found in ordinary affairs that one never seeks to avoid one trouble without running into another; but prudence consists in knowing how to distinguish the character of troubles, and for choice to take the lesser evil. — -Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince{1}

      A. SCOPE

      One of the longest and most economically and socially taxing forms of war is the insurgency. History proves that small groups can mobilize support from the masses to challenge an incumbent government. These small groups establish new governments by violently ousting the incumbent, and bankrupting strong governments by engaging in multi-year conflicts. The beginning of the United States of America is no exception.

      The 1783 Treaty of Paris formally secured the end of the American Revolution, but not before Britain lost thousands of lives and a considerable amount of national treasure. The 19 April 1775 British mission to the town of Concord, an eventual catastrophic British failure, initiated the American Revolution. Yet, the incumbent British military commander in North America, as early 1774, was warning members of the British Parliament that discontent within the colonies would lead to violence. Ironically, not only did General Gage prophesize colonial violence, but he ordered the Concord mission serving to inflame the masses to support a revolutionary response. The second major British effort occurred in June 1775, with

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