Okay, everybody. Last class we were talking about outbreak of the American Revolution. We say all this. Tension is building in the spring of 1775 in april, general thomas gage sends troops into the country side, fighting breaks out at lexington and concord. As night falls about 20,000 americans descend on boston, lay siege to the city in this war nobody wants, been brewing for 12, 13 years has started. So today were going to talk whats call anybody take french . Am i pronouncing it right . Probably. Okay. Close enough. This is april 1775, so right after lexington and concord through the declaration of independence. This is sometimes called the Popular Uprising phase, okay . This is the year of the revolution that probably more people supported the war than any other one. Why do you suppose theres so much support for the war this year . Any ideas . Go ahead, isabel . They havent really started fighting it. They dont know what war is going to mean. Anybody else . Any ideas . Okay. This is like fury. Ive got some images here to show you guys. Kind of a neat quote. Theres a historian teaches at lsu, he coined this phrase and it comes from an observer. Keep in mind its philadelphia not boston. The sentence is rage militaire, passion for arms has taken possession of the whole continent. Americans are literally fighting mad. Okay . Thats why theres so much support for the war. This wild passion. Even the word. Rage. Whats rage . Go ahead, ivan . Anger. Intense anger. The americans are just really furious. All this stuff has been building up, and it comes boiling out. Whats sort of interesting during this rage militaire phase americans are on the offensive. Americans are actively taking the war to the british. What were going to look at is rage mill teitaire in the south boston. What were going to see is whats going on here is partly about the war, partly about what is the american war aims, okay . Different people have different ideas of what those war aims are. The final thing i would say here, it starts april 1775, lexington and concord. Whats july 76 . What happens in july 76 . Go ahead. Declaration. Declaration of independence ends rage militaire. Popularity and support of the war begins to decline. Okay . That emotional edge doesnt last. The horrors of war kind of take the edge off of that. Its hard to maintain a really high emotional peak for extended periods. Maybe a bad analogy. When you meet somebody and fall in love, youre in love with them and cant stop thinking about them. At the 20th anniversary, i love you, too, could you pass the salt in its not the same thing. The intensity of the first year fades away. Also, not all americans support independence. Well look at somebody today who kind of fits that model. So were going to start with the north. Okay. Fighting breaks out at lexington concord in april. We talked about that. All right in the whats significant is fighting spreads to upstate new york. If we look at this map, we can see this is Lake Champlain. At the southern end of Lake Champlain theres a large british forward called fort t f tikonderoga. Benedict and seized the fort because its loaded with cannons, military equipment. This attack on the fort is not authorized by congress. Congress is meeting for the first time this day. Were going to pick this up later. Its authorized by Massachusetts Committee of safety and a bunch of angry guys in vermont. They are taking the war to the english. Okay . Theres no reason this should happen but it does. Over the next couple days, we see a map that extends on this, the american sees a second fort called crown point, which we really dont need to worry about. Benedict arnold actually raids canada. The americans are taking the war to the champlain valley, taking the war to the british. Okay . Thats rage militaire. The second place you see is boston. Whats going on in boston . We said these 20,000 americans descend on the city of boston and the city is under siege. This is the governor of massachusetts. Hes british commander in north america. His name is thomas gage. Gauge is an interesting guy. Gage is married to an american. May be a spy. He somewhat sympathizes with americans. He bloefts in liberty but not the american sense of what liberty is. Throughout the fall of 74 and the spring of 1775, gage keeps asking for reinforcements. Keeps send letters to linkengla its pretty bad, send reinforcements. Instead of reinforcements they send three more generals, a guy by the name of william howell. Well talk about him later today. Hell feature prompt naeinently clinton and another well talk about later in this course. What do you think the significance is gage asks for reinforcements and they send three generals. Whats the ramifications of that . A lot of conflicting views. Emily . British dont think manpower is necessary at this point. They might in the think manpower is necessary. Might not have faith in thomas gage. The bridge that brings these three generals, serabus is the ship, the threeheaded dogs that guard hell. One for each general. This is boston. You can see boston is on this peninsula sticking out here. You can see this very narrow called boston neck. Americans are at roxbury and cambridge and have the british bottled up in boston. Here you can see Boston Harbor. You see Castle William. We read about Castle William. Hes fled. Thats where Castle William is. Whats interesting, this shows american anger after lexington and concord, the americans dont just sit here, they dont try to storm the city, they could never get across the boston neck, what the americans do is they fortify this peninsula here. This is call the charlestown peninsula. The theory is americans control this high ground, they could put artillery up here and potentially shell the city and make Boston Harbor untenable. The americans occupy this land on the night of june 16th. They are supposed to go to this hill called bunker hill. Bunker hill is the back hill. Theres actually two hills. Bunker hill is 40 feet taller than breeds hill. In the darkness, the men get confused. They actually go to the forward hill called breeds hill. Its closer to boston. In some ways thats good, in some ways bad. Over the course of the night they dig a fortification. Okay . When the british wake up on the morning of june 17th, they can hear shoveling, they dont know whats going on. When they hear the shoveling, they find somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 to 3,000 americans have dug fortifications on bunkers hiller breeds hill technically and overlooking the city of boston. Okay. Thomas gage decides that this is a threat. You cant let those troops stay overlooking the city, and youve got to drive them back. And the man who gage puts in tactical command, the guy who will command on the battlefield is sir william howe, commander on the ground. Now, if youre the british and you see these americans are up there on this hill, what would you guys do . How would you attack them . What ideas . Go ahead. [ inaudible ] either here or here . Look down upon them. Okay. In a sense, you control the water, thats very doable. Also cut off their retreat route. Okay. Anybody else . Use british navy to encircle that. Okay. Use the british navy to encircle the whole peninsula, shell the heck out of those guys. That would be a pretty good strategy. Anybody else . Those are all pretty good. Thats not what britain decides to do. Thats not what sir william howe decides to do. Instead he lines up 2200 british soldiers shoulder to shoulder and sends them straight up the hill. Okay. Its kind of interesting, british soldiers, and you can see this here, this is a relatively accurate painting, probably a second assault. We can see dead guys here and ill explain why we know its not the third. They wear lots of belts. They crisscross. Natural target points. British officers wear a shiny metal disk around their throat. Its a symbol of authority. British officers rub it so it will shine in the sun. Any bad things about having a shiny metal thing around your throat . They know exactly where to shoot. Same with crisscrossing belts. The famous quote from bunker hill is dont fire until you see the whites of their eyes. Thats probably actually said. The british march up bunker hill and americans fire their first volley at under 150 feet. The british go down in waves. They are literally blasted down the hill and they reform. William howe puts them in line and sends them back up a hill the second time. This is very hacksaw ridgesque, every time they crawl up the ridge they get wiped out. Crawling over the guys in the first wave. Why do you suppose howe adopted this tactic . Why not swing around with the navy, shell them, isolate, line up and go up the hill. Yeah. Its always how they have been fighting. Who have they been fighting. Militia. Americans. They arent going to stand up against british regulars. They are way underestimating american ability, way overestimating british ability. The british march up the hill a second time and get palaced down the hill a second time. The way we know this is the third assault, the third assault howe calls for reinforcements, bring over more soldiers, third assault he lets them take off their backpacks. British soldiers carry 60 to 80 points of equipment. First assault carrying equipment. Third time dont need to carry equipment up the hill. The third time up the hill the americans have run out of gunpowder. The british overrun bunker hill. The british capture bunker hill. Okay . Bunker hill is technically a british victory. They seize charlestown peninsula. Up breeds hill. Breeds hill. Thats a good point of its technically the battle of breeds hill but remembered as bunker hill. Bunker hill is the hill americans meant to be on and in the darkness they picked the wrong hill. British win the battle of breeds hill or bunker hill and occupied charlestown peninsula. Okay . Bunker hill is tremendously important because it has lots of ramifications. It feeds in with this idea of rage militaire. Were going to pick that up in a minute. One of the legacies of bunker hill is the casualties. British soldiers take horrible losses at bunker hill. 268 british soldiers are killed, 828 are wounded out of about 22 or 2400. Casualty rate of somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 to 50 . William howe is personally on the field. Almost all of William Howes staff is killed. Howe miraculously unhurt. Bullets whizzing around, kill everybody around him but never hit him. Two british regiments are completely wrecked. The british in boston are just horrified by this. You have to think bhow small boston is. Dying men. Its summertime, hot. The british army is horrified by what exactly has happened here. Whats striking and well pick this up a little later today, british army is innered for the next nine months. They dont try anything after this. They have just been pummeled by bunker hill. American loss alt bunkers hill 115 dead and 305 wounded. Okay. A second result of bunker hill is even though the americans have lost this hill, the americans are greatly encouraged by this. It Shows Americans will fight. Americans will fight like crazy. As the british ultimately sees the hill and enters this american earth where american soldiers fight them with rocks, butts of gunsz, they dont have bayonets. They comment they stand up like this. Normal soldiers will run. These angry americans dont do that. Another legacy of bunker hill is tremendously heavy officer casualties. Very hard to put precise numbers on anything, any war, especially the American Revolution. Its estimated somewhere in the neighborhood of 12, 13 of all british officers killed in American Revolutionary war are killed at bunkers hill. Americans are targeting officers. They are shooting these guys down like crazy. Okay. Whats interesting is William Howes response. He says not william howe, but thomas gages response, he said americans are spirited up by rage and enthusiasm. Ranl, anger, rage and enthusiasm as great as ever people were possessed of. You must proceed in earnest or give the business up. Lets look at that quote. The americans are now spirited up by a rage and an enthusiasm as great as ever people were possessed of. What does that mean . Whats howe or gage literally saying here . He said ive never in my entire career seen anybody so angry. The americans are like unbelievable angry. The next quote is very interesting. You must proceed in earnest or give the business up. Whats that mean . Proceed in earnest or give the business up. Go ahead, gabe. Yeah, telling parliament, telling british war, you need to send the whole army. This is full blown war. This is not a little rebellion. If youre in the going to commit the entire empire, dont even bother. This is wildly out of control, okay . You go back to the quote, rage militaire has swept the continent. Theres another guy, well talk about him later, Richard Montgomery, hes in new york city. Weve got philadelphia, boston, new york city. This is what Richard Montgomery says about bunker hill. He says, see what the enthusiasm of liberty and indignant sense of injury is capable of doing. Okay. Enthusiasm. Tremendous anger, okay . He says every friend of old england wishes this contest speedily concluded. If it lasts many months, she is done with us forever. Whats that last part of the line mean . Every friend of old england wishes this contest speedily ended. If it lasts many months, it will go on forever. Whats that mean . Whats this guy, Richard Montgomery, saying here . Anybody . Go ahead, isabel. Everyone who is a supporter of england wants this to be over fast. If its not, they are just going to give up. Okay. This war is wildly violent. If this lasts very long, theres never going to be reconciliation. Theres going to be too much blood spilled. It shows you some people are still hoping for reconciliation. Richard montgomery is one of them. Well get back to him in a little bit. Okay . This is rage militaire. The final thing to say here, final result of battle of bunker hill, is parliament relieves thomas gage. They see hes failed, okay . One of the things were going to see, we talked about how the coming of the revolution britain kept going through prime ministers. Once war breaks out britain keeps going through commanders in america. When you keep changing commanders, thats a bad sign. Thats a sign the war is not going well. You cant pick somebody to stay. Thomas gage is relieved of command he sent back to england. The new commander is william howe, he was at bunker hill. Hell show up prominently in your book. Some historians have argued and i dont want to give away too much of that book, one of the problems with william howe he was sympathetic to americans, a member of parliament and told constituents he wouldnt fight against americans, changes his mind when they offer him the command. The other effect, some historians have argued william howe is traumatized by bunker hill. Hes gunshy. After bunker hill hell never commit his men in a major assault. Probably today youd say hes ptsd. Horribly scarred by seeing his men thomas gage hes overall command. The guy in charge is the man messing up. Of the three generals who arrived, howe was senior so howe is the commander in north america. Makes no sense. Thats what happens. Thats rage militaire. Okay . Weve got another manifestation of rage militaire in the north. This is invasion of canada. We talked a little about canada. Canada is new to the british empire, treaty of paris. We said theres like 70,000 French Canadians there. Okay . We said parliament has just passed quebec act to try to appease canadians. Quebec act extended providence to the ohio river. Quebec act allowed catholicism, allowed appointed assembly in the use of french law in the province of quebec. Whats interesting is the americans think the French Canadians might want to join them. And maybe the americans would be welcomed in canada. Why do you suppose they might think that . Any ideas . Yeah. Still sour from still sour. Maybe French Canadians havent been assimilated into the empire, maybe they would join this french rebellion. Is there any down sides to that thinking . It might be more interested in france taking back that area. Okay. They might want the french back. Do you suppose the French Canadians have great love for americans . Shaking your head no, gabe. Why . I assume they helped the french in the frenchindian war. They did. Americans helped the british. The americans who pretty much started the war to begin with in the ohio river valley. Okay. Thats part of it. The americans arent noted for being fond of catholicism. They call quebec act part of intolerable acts. Why the americans are going to be welcomed in canada is an open question but congress thinks they might be. One of the Things Congress is thinking about. This is where the whole situation in canada gets really, really complicated. Theres 70,000 French Canadians. They are generically called the new subjects because they are new to england. But after the british congreque canada, 3,000 english merchants settled in canada. These are called old subjects. They were out the old subjects dont like the quebec act because they dont like theres no elected assembly, and they dont like french law. They want common law and elected assembly. Throughout the spring of 1775 before lexington and concord, americans are sending spies into canada, and canada is sending spies out saying the new subjects are indifferent, but the old subjects would welcome an american invasion. Congress believes theres going to be support for an invasion of canada. They also want canada because if they would take canada, they would get the british off their back door. This is the traditional invasion route into the interior and new england. Thats why that seized trikond row ga. Congress believes and this is an interesting idea. If they could take canada, it would Show Parliament they were serious. And there was some talk maybe you could use canada as a bargaining chip. Well give you canada back if you repeal this act. Something like that. Okay . Once again the americans capture ticondaroga in may, but congress doesnt know what to do. Congress actually for a while considers inventorying all the captured cannons and moving them to a safe place so they can give them back to england when the war is over because congress believes reconciliation is going to happen. But throughout th