For Want of Real Estate: An Alternate American Revolution

For Want of Real Estate: An Alternate American Revolution

The Battle of Germantown was a battle that might have been a decisive victory for the Continental Army had bad luck and bad coordination not scrapped Washington's plans.

So what if the battle had gone differently? What if the Continental Army had won?



October 4th, 1777: At the battle of Germantown, the Cliveden House is abandoned by Colonel Musgrave of the British Army before the battle, due to its position, which is perceived to be indefensible. Without a bulwark to slow down the Continentals, Washington's troops smash into General William Howe's army and score a major victory. Howe and Charles Cornwallis are killed during the disorganized British rout. General James Agnew, who narrowly escapes death at the hands of a Patriot sniper, is placed in total command of the greatly weakened army.


October 6-8, 1777: A long, bloody siege of Philadelphia begins, with the Continental Army surrounding the demoralized remnants of General Agnew's force. There is sporadic fighting in and around Philadelphia, at places such as Camden and Woodbury Heights. No battles are decisive, and the siege degenerates into a stalemate. Within a few days, nearly 1500 casualties on both sides have accumulated.


October 7, 1777: At the Battle of Walnut Hill, Agnew sends 2,000 Hessians and Loyalists under the command of Hessian General Wilhelm von Knyphausen to attempt to break the siege of Philadelphia. Knyphausen's troops, after a flanking cavalry charge forces the American militia to abandon their positions atop the hill, storm the redoubt at the crest and capture ten American cannons. Despite this, Agnew fails to exploit his momentary advantage before the Continental Army rallies and halts Knyphausen's second attack. Nevertheless, the British have control of Walnut Hill and turn back several American attempts to retake it.


October 7th, 1777: Benedict Arnold, while leading the charge on the Breymann redoubt at the Battle of Bemis Heights (Saratoga), is shot in the kneecap. While not fatal, the musket ball shatters it and his leg is amputated above the knee. His bravery inspires the Continentals to win the battle. However, American General Horatio Gates falls during the battle as a Loyalist marksman puts a bullet in his head. Ten days later, General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne surrenders to Benjamin Lincoln, Gates's replacement. The now one-legged Arnold receives an honorable discharge and goes home.

Febuary 20, 1778: The ship carrying Continental Congress member John Adams to France is attacked off the coast of Spain by a British merchantman, the Martha. After a pitched battle, Adams's ship goes down with all hands. His body is never found. His son, John Q, is captured by the British navy.

February 23, 1778: Following pressure from his subordinates, especially General "Mad Anthony" Wayne of Pennsylvania, Washington decides to order an offensive into Philadelphia to save the city from utter destruction.

1:00 AM, Feb. 23, 1778: Under cover of darkness, Washington does a repeat of his brilliant Trenton assault. 5,000 infantry, 700 cavalry and 50 guns are ferried across the Delaware River, while a smaller diversionary force attacks Knyphausen's troops on Walnut Hill. Unable to "crack the Walnut," the Continentals under the command of Nathaniel Greene push southeast past the hill to the Schuylkill River. This severs Knyphausen's supply line, and he is forced to retreat north to Conshohochen.

3:00 AM, Feb. 23, 1778: Elements of the Maryland Continental Regiment are the first to set foot in Philadelphia. After 2 hours, 2,500 troops are ashore, including Mad Anthony Wayne and Washington himself. Advancing into the city, Washington finds to his dismay that the veteran British forces under General Agnew are more suited to urban warfare than his unruly army. After six hours of fighting, the Continentals have only advanced five blocks.

9:45 AM, February 23, 1778
General Knox finally deploys his artillery on the other side of the Delaware. The cannon immediately begin to shell Agnew's makeshift fortifications in the city, aiding the struggling Continental infantry.

10:25 AM, Feb. 23, 1778
Anthony Wayne's troops, veterans of Paoli and other battles, lead a costly charge on the British left flank. This allows two regiments to come around behind the British troops and roll up the left flank in a pincer maneuver.

2: 30 PM, Feb. 23, 1778
After hours of fighting and hundreds of casualties, Continental troops finally raise the Rebel flag over Independence Hall. General Agnew orders a general retreat to the Schuykill River to prepare for evacuation.

Feb. 25, 1778
The British troops left in Philadelphia are evacuated by Admiral Howe, brother of the late General William Howe. Nathaniel Greene's cannons on the west bank of the Schuykill sink two of the nine British ships as they flee upriver. The Continentals have control over the damaged city of Philadelphia. General von Knyphausen escapes unnoticed into the forests around Conshohochen.

March 7, 1778
Flushed by their recent victories, the Continental Army marches north towards New York. However, the vanguard of the Continental Army is ambushed by an unknown Hessian force. The detatchment under attack, commanded by Henry Lee, is scattered and broken. Washington's army is split in two, perfect prey for any large British force. The Hessian force, belived to be the division commanded by Knyphausen, vanishes into the forest.
 
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I'm interested to see where this goes. So far, though, it looks like the British forces are giving up oddly easily...
 
Some nice thoughts, looking forward to the next installment.

. Nathaniel Greene's cannons on the west bank of the Schuykill sink two of the nine British ships as they flee upriver.

Given that British ships had been 25 and 105 guns (depending on the rating of the ship we are talking about) how likely is this? In OTL I have never heard of a ship loosing out to land based artillary except when the artillary is in a coastal defence installation (i.e. designed to fight ships).
 
Ships almost never sank except due to storms - which is why naval actions always came down to surrender or boarding. The only advantage in this regard land-based fortifications had was the possibility of using heated shot to set the ships on fire, but this was extremely difficult and dangerous to do, and required facilities and tools specifically designed to make that possible.
 
Ships almost never sank except due to storms - which is why naval actions always came down to surrender or boarding. The only advantage in this regard land-based fortifications had was the possibility of using heated shot to set the ships on fire, but this was extremely difficult and dangerous to do, and required facilities and tools specifically designed to make that possible.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Well, would the death of Adams still be plausible?
 
Ships almost never sank except due to storms - which is why naval actions always came down to surrender or boarding. The only advantage in this regard land-based fortifications had was the possibility of using heated shot to set the ships on fire, but this was extremely difficult and dangerous to do, and required facilities and tools specifically designed to make that possible.

It wasn't that uncommon. The real reasons boarding actions were so de rigeur was that they were a quicker method with less chance of a stalemate, and because captured ships had the dual advantages of either being put to use in the navy which captured them, or being sold off, an action which every member of the victorious crew would financially profit from - a ship-of-the-line could be worth one or two years' wages for a regular sailor, and could make a captain instantly wealthy, which is why crewmen and officers alike tended to favour any chance they could take to board vessels, and why they were willing to face certain death to take the ship they were attacking.

Just to put some numbers on this, take the Battle of Trafalgar (I happen to have a poster up with the fates of each ship, so I can recite this ;)). At Trafalgar, the French and Spanish had 33 ships, of which the following happened:

5 ships destroyed in the battle (1 ship exploded when magazine was hit)
1 ship ended up run aground
8 ships were captured, but were so damaged that they had to be destroyed by their captors (due to the abovementioned financial reimbursement for captured ships, this was NOT something crews did willingly)
2 ships were captured but were consumed by fires from the battle
2 ships were dismasted but managed to escape somehow (probably towed by other escaping ships)
11 escaped (one listed as heavily damaged)
A mere 4 ships were captured and survived the journey back to port.

If you look at those figures you can see that in battle, extensive damage did cause the destruction of ships fairly often.

You're right though, that this only happened in ship-to-ship battles. I'm not sure I can recall a single time that a coastal battery ever managed to sink or even incapacitate a ship. Generally speaking, this is because a coastal battery lacked the close-up firepower of a ship, so it took a long time to sink one. A ship could fire broadsides at the battery, occasionally knocking out a gun, while the protected sides of the ship were generally enough to stop cannonballs which would have lost a lot of momentum over the distance fired. If a ship ever looked like it was losing a fight with a coastal battery, all it had to do was turn and sail away. The battery wouldn't be able to sink it quick enough while it was fleeing. A battery trying to take potshots at ships which were retreating, and thus not even hanging around to have a long-distance volley fight, would never be able to do enough damage before those ships were out of range.
 
Oh, I didn't know that.

Well, would the death of Adams still be plausible?

Yes the death of Adams is a strong possibility in a ship to ship fight. The majority of people were killed by splinters as the cannonball smashed into the ship.

There are very few places on a ship which were safe from this and from what I know of Adams he was not someone to hide in the deepest hold if a fight was happening.

If he was on the main desk then he could have been hit by a sniper (as Nelson was), killed by a spinter, killed by rigging falling from above, or killed by enemy fire, a canaster of rifle bullets shot from a cannon was frequently used to sweep a desk of enemy sailors before a ship was boarded.
 
@Falastur: You're entirely correct. You're forgetting the enormous storm the night after the battle, though, which was what I was referencing! Ships didn't sink by themselves through being holed and such alone - so I didn't mean that damage did not cause the destruction of the ships, just that there generally had to be some extra factor assuming the magazine didn't go up.
 
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