The Commonwealth of North America: The Tale of the Second American Revolution

Chapter One: The First Revolution

Section Four: Washington’s War
Washington’s army emerged from Valley Forge a disheveled wreck. The Army was only a third of the size that it went in with. Many of the soldiers died from the harsh conditions, some deserted, and some even switched sides. The army was not uniform, not trained, and lacked professionalism. Many of them were sick from malnutrition, and many hadn’t obtained new shoes or other clothing since before winter. On top of all of this was the worst aspect of all; the soldiers that remained were angry and bitter with Washington, with Congress, and with the revolution. It looked as though Washington wouldn’t be able to hold on to his army in 1778. Luckily for Washington he had a very faithful companion by his side, Major General Benedict Arnold.

As in every spring war renewed, and Arnold was ready to fight. He was able to show and inspire enthusiasm that Washington wasn’t able to. His army was done to 4000 men from the 12000 he had back in December. They needed a victory in order to lift their spirits up and to inspire new recruits. Arnold and Washington began drawing up plans for a series of easy victories against the British. Their first target would be Fort Pitt on the Pennsylvania frontier.

Because the British had been focusing on a strategy of economically starving the colonies by cutting off trade through port occupation, defense of the frontier was left mostly to the Indians who sided with the British, and small contingents of British soldiers stationed at forts. Fort Pitt was no difference. The number of actual British soldiers manning the fort was only 700, but there were several thousand Indians in the area augmenting that force. Though the total number defending the fort would be overall less then the size of the American force, they would still have the advantage of position. Washington knew that he needed to remove the Indian factor from the equation.

He would send in an American with experience living with the Indians and who could speak their language. The man met with the Cayuga tribesmen who were in the area. He tried to persuade them to attack Fort Pitt with the Americans, but they declined, sighting their grievances against the colonists. The negotiator then came up with a new idea. The point of attacking Fort Pitt wasn’t to hold it as strategic territory, but instead to boost the morale of the men. He managed to convince the Cayuga tribe not to switch sides, but to instead simply ignore the British this one time. The Cayuga would camp further away from Fort Pitt for 2 weeks, giving the Americans a limited time to attack. On June 6th, 1778 Washington ordered the attack on Fort Pitt. When the British called for the Cayuga, they didn’t come. The British were overwhelmed, and Fort Pitt was taken by the Americans.

This did exactly what Washington and Arnold hoped it would do. The soldiers morale began to pick up. After leaving a small contingent to hold down the Fort, Washington’s army moved back east in order to find more easy victories for his army to devour. He would find several. They would have clashes with several small British forces along the frontier on their way back to eastern Pennsylvania. With each victory the confidence of the army grew. They even picked up volunteers as they headed east.

With this new confidence Washington began envisioning a new ambitious plan to turn the tide of the war. He would attempt a liberation of Philadelphia. This would not be an easy task, and Washington knew that it would take time to build up the strength and to coordinate the attack. It would take several months just to draw up plans, and then to execute them could extend the attack a year into the future. Still he knew that that would be a sign to the rest of the world that the Americans weren’t beat yet.

Another momentous battle for Washington’s new army was at a small settlement which consisted mostly of a tavern and a few small homes. This town sat on the Shippensburg-Baltimore, and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh crossroads. Here Washington engaged Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Carleton, the younger brother of Guy Carleton, in battle. Thomas Carleton has mostly mounted infantry. He and Washington battled over this small settlement for 3 hours before Carleton retreated. At the time the battle was called the Battle of Crossroads. However the battle would eventually be named for the town that eventually named it self Gettysburg, after the tavern owner.

Washington corresponded with generals in the area over his planned attack on Philadelphia. He knew it would take exact coordination to overwhelm and surprise Sir Henry Clinton who still occupied the city. He coordinated with General Gates in New Jersey, and Lafayette along the Virginia-Maryland border. This attack took months of planning. Eventually they set a time period for the attack, Spring of 1779. The exact date would be discussed more through correspondance, but they agreed that the attack needed to be made in spring of the next year. Washington would spend the summer and fall of moving between northern Pennsylvania and southern New York, winning small battles, recruiting small numbers of men, and slowly building up the confidence of his army.

In November of 1778 he would return his army to Valley Forge. This time he would try to accomplish what he couldn’t do in the prior winter, train his army. He would employ the few lessons he was able to learn from von Steuben the previous winter by having the camp set up the proper way from the very beginning, with the kitchens at one end of the camp, and latrines down hill at the other. Soldier’s tents were arranged by unit, with strict discipline enforced by both Washington and Arnold. Horatio Gates’ army would make winter quarters in southern New Jersey, east of Philadelphia. Lafayette’s army would make camp south of Philadelphia. This meant that Philadelphia was surrounded from the north, south, and east, which made the only escape route going west. Together they would drive them toward the frontier, where sir Henry Clinton was not accustomed to fighting.

Winter went by as most winters did, waiting for spring. But the correspondence between Washington, Gates, and Lafayette increased. The three of them would meet several times in person to discuss the attack. When spring came they all knew what they had to do. They would liberate Philadelphia from the British. If the attack succeeded, it could turn the revolution around. Not necessarily strategically, but morale would be boosted across all the colonies.

On May 4th, 1779 all three armies began to move on Philadelphia. The three American armies totaled 17000 between them. There were 10,000 British soldiers stationed in the city. Washington had no illusions of an easy victories. He has learned many times that numbers don’t win the battle. This time he had the city surrounded, and a confident, semi-professional army. Clinton had been suspecting an attack for quite some time. He had been preparing as well. Earth works were dug around the city during the late winter to early spring. On May 6th, the attack begun.

All three armies attacked Philadelphia simultaneously from the north, east, and south. They all fought with a fury that could only be conjured through either desperation, or brutal realization. Lafayette’s men are the first to engage British forces south of the city. It was brutal fighting, but Lafayette’s men were able to get up close to the earth works and trenches and fight the British hand to hand. Washington and Gate’s armies focused on artillery attacks before sending in infantry to mop up. The British were holding on for either the Americans to run out of steam, or for reinforcements to arrive from Burgoyne.

The battle lasted for 3 days. On May 9th Washington’s army broke the northern line of the city and were able to move closer to the city. Washington himself was leading the charge. The British readied bayonets and so did Washington’s men. Suddenly a sea of Blue Continental soldiers collided with a wall of red coats and the carnage began. It was chaos on the northern line of the city. Washington was evading bullets left and right, it seemed as though he couldn’t be shot.

But then trouble came from Gate’s line. Reinforcements from Burgoyne arrived and attacked Gate’s army from the north. At this point Gate’s begins to attempt a retreat. Washington is informed of this and rushes toward Gate’s army to stop the retreat. He arrives outside of eastern Philadelphia. He finds Gates and verbally rips him a new one. He shouts him down and strips him of command. Washington then takes control of Gates’ army and continues the attack, as he leads the men forward a shot is fired and hits Washington in the chest. He falls from his horse and his body hit’s the ground.

The men around him are demoralized. They begin to retreat. News of this spreads quickly through the three armies. Panic begins, and mass retreats are made without order. Benedict Arnold manages to keep his army in order, but he sees the other armies retreating. He knows that if he stays that the army would be destroyed.

In order to save the revolution, he must save the army. He orders a retreat. He tries to send somebody to get Washington’s body, but they are unsuccessful. This is considered the greatest tragedy of the revolution. Washington dies at the Battle of Philadelphia, May 9th, 1779.

Benedict Arnold retreats the army westward to areas that the British are not so likely to follow him. He eventually heads south toward Virginia. The body of George Washington is captured by the British. The body is hung from a noose from a gallow in Philadelphia for several days before it is embalmed and sent by ship to London. The King wanted Washington’s head on a pike in front of Buckingham palace.
 
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Section Five: Conquering the land of the Virgin Queen
By summer of 1779 Virginia was the only southern colony still under rebel control. It being the colony with the largest population and one of the most economically profitable colonies, it was necessary for both sides to take control of it.

After the Battle of Philadelphia both Benedict Arnold and the Marquee de Lafayette fled south through Maryland and into Virginia. The two armies retreated south non-stop until they reached Alexandria, Virginia. Here they were allowed to rest and re-supply. They stayed there for 2 weeks and then continued further south into central Virginia. The two continued together until they reached Fredericksburg. At this point the two went their separate ways. Lafayette’s army headed southwest toward Charlottesville, and Arnold headed southeast toward Richmond.

In July of 1779 General Charles Cornwallis was given orders to move into Virginia. He and 5000 of his soldiers moved north into Virginia. He would encounter resistance from local militias in the country side. By the end of July Cornwallis had reached Petersburg, Virginia. When there he received intelligence about the locations of Arnold and Lafayette. He was encountered with the decision of which to go after. To capture Lafayette would be to catch a French nobleman who had become known as “The Boy”. It would become a propaganda and psychological victory. However Benedict Arnold is leading the larger of the two armies, and Arnold is the de facto leader of the rebellion. He decided it would be more beneficial to capture Arnold then to go after Lafayette.

From Petersburg Cornwallis headed north east toward Richmond. Arnold also gained intelligence of Cornwallis’ movement towards him. Arnold decided to move north west toward Charlottesville. Lafayette also learns of Cornwallis’ movement and he is faced with a decision of whether to meet up with Arnold, or go west into the mountains. Lafayette remembered what he learned from his mentor and adopted father, George Washington. This lesson was that in order to win, the army must survive. He knew that engaging Cornwallis’ army, even combined with Arnold’s forces would not be enough to win. With this knowledge he decided to move west into the mountains in order to preserve in his army. This of course would mean that he would be forced into guerilla warfare, but he was willing to make that decision.

Cornwallis reached Richmond in mid August and found that Arnold had fled northwest. He shifted his army northwest and headed toward Charlottesville. Once again, Arnold shifted his army south west toward Lynchburg. This was against Arnold’s usual strategy, but he was waiting for the right moment. Cornwallis before he reached Charlottesville learned that Arnold headed south. He turned his army south west.

Finally, in mid September, after chasing Arnold all summer he finally caught up to him at Lynchburg. Arnold’s army was at Lynchburg re-supplying when he was alerted that Cornwallis was only 1 day away. Arnold decided that it was time to stop running and face Cornwallis head on. He and his army of 1500 spent what little time they had left and prepared. On September 11, 1779 General Charles Cornwallis and his army of just over 5000 engaged Arnold and his continental forces at Lynchburg. Arnold knew that he could not retreat. His continental forces fought ardently against the British, causing many casualties. By the end of the day the British had taken over 1000 casualties while the Americans took 500 casualties. The remainder of the army was captured, including General Benedict Arnold.

When Lafayette learned of Arnold’s capture, he knew that the war was all but over. He decided that he would continue the fight in the mountains. He would never see his home again. He would never see his son, George Washington Lafayette, or his wife ever again.

Cornwallis would have the captured rebels disarmed and held in a small camp outside Williamsburg. Benedict Arnold himself was taken to New York City where other high profile rebels had been taken. Cornwallis would spend the rest of the year pacifying Virginia of all remaining standing armies.
 
Section Six: The Final Nails
After the Battle of Philadelphia Benedict Arnold, Lafayette, and Horatio Gates retreated after the death of George Washington. Arnold and Lafayette retreated south into Virginia while Gates retreated into New Jersey. Gates would surrender to British forces in Camden, New Jersey in June of 1779. Other rebel generals across the colonies would surrender to the British, while others stood and fought to the last man, while some armies disintegrated into the wilderness and continued to fight a guerilla war.

Politicians in the colonies were also rounded up. When Sir Henry Clinton captured the continental congress in Baltimore, the members were taken to New York City to await either a mass trial or mass hanging. The rebel governors and the state legislators were rounded up in their respective colonies and put on trial by a British military tribunals. The governors were hung in front of their capital buildings.

The legislators were given different fates dependent upon how active or how supportive they were in the revolution. Those that were found to be less supportive or even subversive to the rebel cause would be given a more lenient sentence. The average politician shown lenience would merely be barred from public office. The politicians shown to be active supporters of the revolution would also have several different fates. These punishments ranged from forced service in the British Navy to execution.

The members of the continental congress would be tried in New York City by a military tribunal with Commander in Chief of North America, William Howe, serving as the judge. They were all sentenced to death by hanging, including major military leaders such as Benedict Arnold. Horatio Gates would not be given a death sentence and instead would pay for his crimes by serving the British Army in India. The families of the members of the congress would forcibly be relocated to the capital city of each colony with British soldiers monitoring their residences.

The executions of the rebel government were purposely held up till July 4th of 1780 just so they could add insult to injury. On the way to being hung, Benedict Arnold was able to escape with the assistance of sympathetic British soldiers. He would later escape to the northwest territory where he would lead a resistance movement along the frontier.

Over seas in Europe there were American diplomats who had been attempting to gain national recognition of the United States. However the only country they got to recognize their new country was the Kingdom of Morocco. The three prizes overseas were John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The French had been contributing small amounts of weapons and money to the rebel cause. Not enough to break the bank, but enough to get the British attention. The British diplomat in Paris spoke with the French foreign minister Charles Gravier about the issue of France assisting the rebellion in the colonies. The British diplomat was given the authority to offer France a pardon or to simply ignore what happened in exchange for all the American diplomats to be handed over to Great Britain, in particular Benjamin Franklin.

This was a contentious issue. To hand the Americans over to the British would mean to succumb to British blackmail. On the other hand France couldn’t afford another excuse to go to war, regardless of how unlikely it was. Gravier would agree to hand them over. On March 4th of 1780 French soldiers invaded Benjamin Franklin’s Paris apartment and dragged him to the British diplomats ship. The same would happen to John Adams. Thomas Jefferson would be warned of this event before it happened. He would manage to escape Paris before being captured. Jefferson would escape to the Netherlands, safe from British capture. He would remain in the Netherlands for most of the rest of his life, while his wife would be forcibly relocated to Williamsburg and be monitored by the British.

In April of 1780 Benjamin Franklin was taken before Parliament in London. He was stripped of his possessions and was given nothing decent to wear, being forced to wear the garments of a prisoner. He would face trial in London with Parliament serving as jury and King George III serving as judge. The trial lasted several days. Tickets were sold. Everyone knew that it was a show trial, but they didn’t care. On April 10th Parliament found him guilty of treason and he was sentenced to death. Before he was executed he was allowed final words. These would become his most famous and ominous words ever spoken.

“The boot of tyranny once again stands on the throat of freedom. We are to live as past generations have before us in a world without liberty. I warn you now, you cannot keep these people subjugated indefinitely. You have crushed a rebellion, but the revolution lives on. In the mind each family who had a loved one killed by your soldiers, or who’s business was ruined by your economic ruins. This was not an inexpensive war. If you think you can pay your debts by taxing the guilty colonies alone you are sadly mistaken. You will be forced to tax all of your colonies, the misbehaven and the loyall. But when you do, you will anger them as you did the colonies of this rebellion. This is not the last rebellion you will face in the Americas. There will be another, and when it does happen it will be greater then the one before, and most likely at the most inopportune time”.

He would be executed by hanging the next day.
 
 
Awesome start! I know you say that he ends up living almost the rest of his life in the Netherlands, but I would love to see Jefferson able to get back to North America and team up with Lafayette for round 2.
 
ah I was really hoping the French wouldn't hand them three over they would have been great figures for rebellion come next time but very good speech
 
Bold words from Franklin. Very prophetic. So since tha major leaders of this revolution are now gone, it will ne interesting to see who it is who leads the next revolution.
 
Bold words from Franklin. Very prophetic. So since tha major leaders of this revolution are now gone, it will ne interesting to see who it is who leads the next revolution.

Well, they didn't get Thomas Jefferson because he escaped to the netherlands.
Here's a list of major figures from the revolution that survived and where they after:
Horatio Gates: India
Benedict Arnold: Northwest Territory
Lafayette: Blue Ridge Mountains/Cumberland Gap
Thomas Jefferson: the Netherlands
James Madison: Alive in Virginia
Alexander Hamilton: Alive in New York
 
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