Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 4 The American Revolution,
• 1775-1783, Part of a Larger Struggle

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Learning Objectives

• The student will comprehend the American
  Revolution in the context of European politics
  and the regeneration of the struggle between
  Great Britain and France.
• The student will know (identify) the causes of
  the American Revolution
• Comprehend the uses of sea power in the American
  Revolution by the British and Americans.

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Learning Objectives

• The student will know the course of the war and
  representative campaigns.
• The student will comprehend the relationship of
  military and naval policy, diplomacy, and
  strategy as demonstrated during the war.

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The State of the Navies

• Great Britain
• Permanent Fighting Instructions -- Formal Tactics
• Limits ability of Admirals to concentrate fleets
  firepower.
• French Navy is rebuilt.
• Superior construction, numbers, tactics, and
  training.
• Defensive tactics of a land power versus a sea
  power.
• Decline in number and condition of ships.
• Desire lee gage.
• Targeting of British sails and masts.

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The Colonies Revolt

• American maritime heritage result of colonial
  status
• Resources Ships, crews, raw materials, British
  merchant fleet.
• Advantages Protection, Ready market for goods,
  benefit of imperial trade.
• Disadvantages All trade supported Britain,
  different national interests, no voice in policy,
  no trade outside of empire.
• Causes resentment of empire policies, taxation
  to pay British debt, curtailment of W. expansion,
  no representation.

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Naval Strategies

• British
• Command of the Sea
• Blockade American ports.
• Transport troops to areas of rebellion.
• Hudson River Valley
• Cut off New England from middle and southern
  colonies.
• American
• War of Attrition
• Wear down British forces.
• Diplomacy
• Gain European allies with large navies - France.
• Commerce Raiding
• Privateering

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Continental Navy

• Inferior naval power.
• Unable to build enough ships to challenge British
  command of the sea.
• Had to rely on French Navy for command of the
  sea.
• Commerce Raiding against British shipping.
• Effectiveness improved after French Navy forced
  Royal Navy to concentrate their ships into fleets.

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The Need for an American Navy

• British control of sea lines of communication.
• Americans unable to oppose British troop
  movements.
• British blockades of American ports restricts
  commerce.
• States authorize navies
• Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
• Privateering commences against British shipping
  and commerce.
• Definition of Privateering Privately-owned
  vessels sanctioned by a government to seize enemy
  ships.
• Washingtons Navy
• Seizure of gunpowder on British supply ships
  enroute to Boston.
• Ships commanded by Army officers with maritime
  experience.

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Early Military Operations

• American Siege of Boston - 1775
• George Washington commands Americas Continental
  Army.
• Battle of Bunker Hill
• Royal Navy evacuates British forces to Halifax in
  1776.
• American Invasion of Canada - 1775
• Ethan Allen takes Fort Ticonderoga on Lake
  Champlain May 1775.
• Siege of Quebec fails Dec 1775.
• General Benedict Arnold retreats to Lake
  Champlain - 1776.
• Small fleet of shallow-draft vessels built to
  stop British counter-attack.

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American Raid on the Bahamas

• Esek Hopkins
• Commander in Chief of the Fleet -- converted
  merchantmen.
• Eventually dismissed in 1777.
• Ordered to break British blockade of the Virginia
  coast.
• Discretionary clause in orders allows Hopkins to
  change plans.
• Raid on New Providence Island, Bahamas - March
  1776
• Storage area for British supplies of gunpowder
  and cannon.
• Sailors and Marines under Samuel Nicholas capture
  supplies and transport back to colonies.

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Battle of Valcour Island

• British counter-attack across Lake Champlain to
  reach New York.
• British required to construct a fleet to counter
  Benedict Arnolds fleet and secure lines of
  communication on the lake.
• Benedict Arnold loses all 15 of his ships.
• Tactical Failure
• Battle delays British invasion - forces their
  withdrawal to Canada for winter months.
• Strategic Victory

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General Washington - 1776

• Defense of New York from British invasion.
• Prevent British from dividing the colonies.
• Continental Army defeated and forced to retreat
  toward Philadelphia.
• Washington crosses the Delaware.
• Trenton
• Princeton
• Continental Army remains a threat to the British.

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Battle of Saratoga

• Americans defeat and capture General Gentleman
  Johnny Burgoyne in upstate New York.
• Turning point of the war.
• French enter the war as Americas ally.
• French Navy 80 ships of the line.
• Small American rebellion becomes a major world
  war.
• Great Britain faces multiple enemies
• 1775 American Colonies
• 1778 France and Spain
• 1780 Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Austria,
  and Portugal form an Armed Neutrality.

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Fleet Actions

• General Chase melee tactics used unsuccessfully
  by Royal Navy against the French.
• Battle of Ushant
• Battle of Grenada
• Moonlight Battle off Cape St Vincent
• New view of some British admirals
• No need to strictly adhere to the formal tactics
  found in the Permanent Fighting Instructions.
• Admirals now allowed more freedom of action.
• Franco-Spanish invasion of Britain planned.

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Commerce Raiding

• Capture enemy shipping using Navy ships or
  Privateers.
• Privateering very profitable - easy to find
  sailors.
• Difficult to man Continental Navy ships.
• Gustavus Conyngham - Irish American
• Captured, burned or sank 60 British vessels in 18
  months.
• Successfully dug way out of prison on 3rd attempt
  after capture in 1779.
• Lambert Wickes and Reprisal
• 1st American ship in European Waters (1777)
  captures 23 ships.
• Transports Benjamin Franklin to France.
• John Paul Jones
• Receives first salute to an American ship from
  French Navy.

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Yorktown Campaign

• August-October
• 1781

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Battle of the Virginia Capes

• Initially poor cooperation between Continental
  Army and French Navy.
• General Washington - need a combined operation
  for victory.
• 1781 Lord Cornwallis leads British Army to
  Yorktown.
• Washington marches south with Continental and
  French troops.
• French West Indies fleet sails north under de
  Grasse.
• British fleet under Graves Reinforce or
  evacuate Cornwallis.
• de Grasse anchors inside the Chesapeake then
  sorties and defeats British fleet.
• Hood rigidly adheres to Permanent Fighting
  Instructions.
• Lord Cornwallis forced to surrender forces at
  Yorktown.

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British Naval Policy

• Superiority over Continental Navy.
• Royal Navy used to transport Army troops in
  America.
• Blockade of American ports established.
• Challenged by French Navy after 1778.
• Improvements in gunnery made after defeat at the
  Battle of the Virginia Capes.
• Permanent Fighting Instructions finally
  abandoned.
• New system of signals allows more freedom for
  admirals to maneuver fleet to concentrate
  firepower.
• Change in tactics from Formal to Melee.
• Maintained naval power at the end of the war.

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Colonial Naval Policy

• Sectionalism
• Continental Navy
• State Navies
• Privateers
• New Providence Expedition
• Penobscot expedition
• Commerce Raiders
• French Contribution

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Conclusion of the War

• Combined French/Spanish attack on Gibraltar
  defeated in 1782.
• French and British fleets battle for control of
  India.
• Treaty of Paris - 1783
• Independence of American colonies.
• France restores most of Great Britains West
  Indian colonies.

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Learning Objectives

• The student will comprehend the American
  Revolution in the context of European politics
  and the regeneration of the struggle between
  Great Britain and France.
• The student will know (identify) the causes of
  the American Revolution
• Comprehend the uses of sea power in the American
  Revolution by the British and Americans.

23
Learning Objectives

• The student will know the course of the war and
  representative campaigns.
• The student will comprehend the relationship of
  military and naval policy, diplomacy, and
  strategy as demonstrated during the war.

24
Discussion
Next timeThe U.S. Navy in the Napoleonic Era,
1783-1815