That is been brewing for 12 or 13 years has started. So today we will talk about what is called am i pronouncing it right . Probably close enough. This is april, 1775. Right after lexington and concord. This is sometimes called the Popular Uprising phase, okay . This is the year of the revolution where probably more people supported the war than any other time. Why do you think so many people supported the war during this year . Any ideas . Go ahead, isabel. Everybody started fighting and they dont really know what the war will mean. Anyone else any ideas . I have some images here to show you guys. Kind of a neat quote. There is a historian who coined this phrase, rage militaire. He is in philadelphia, not boston. He says the rage militaire, as the french call a passion for arms, has taken possession of the whole continent. Americans are literally fighting mad, literally fighting mad, okay. And that is why there is so much support for the war. The wild passion. Rage. It is rage. Anger. Intense anger. The americans are furious. All of this stuff has been building up and boiling out. What is sort of interesting during this rage militaire phase, is the americans are on the defensive. The americans are actively taking the war to the british. We will look at the rage militaire in the north, the south, and specifically boston. What we will see is what is actually going on here is partly about the war and partly about the american war aim. Different people have different ideas of what those war aims are. The final thing i would say here, april, 1775, lexington and concord. What is july, 1776. Go ahead. The declaration of independence. The popularity and support for the war begins to decline. That emotional edge doesnt last. The horrors of war take the edge. It is hard to make a change of a really high emotional peak for an extended period. When you meet someone and fall in love you are in love with them and you cant stop thinking about them. It might be a bad example. Its not the same thing, okay. The intensity fades away. Also, not american support independence. We will look at some of that today that fits that model. We are going to start with the north. Fighting breaks out in concord in april. We talked about that. What is significant is fighting spreads to upstate new york. We can see on the map this is Lake Champlain. On the southern end there is a large british fort called for ticonderoga. And may 10, 1775, a group of militia led by eastern allen from vermont. Benedict arnold, we will talk about Benedict Arnold later today. They storm fort ticonderoga, because it is loaded with cannons and military equipment. This attack is not authorized by congress. They are just meeting for the first time. We will put that up a little later. It is authorized to a bunch of angry guys in vermont. They are taking the war to the english. There is no reason this should happen, but it does. Over the next couple of days, and we will see a map in a minute that expands on this. They sees a second fort called crown point, that we dont need to worry about. And Benedict Arnold actually raids canada. They are taking the war to the british. Okay. That is rage militaire. The second place you see is boston. What is going on in boston . 20,000 americans descend on the city of boston and the city is under siege. Well, this is the governor of massachusetts. Also british commander in north america. His name is thomas gage. He is an interesting guy. He is married to an american. His wife is an american and maybe even a spy. For female spies, his wife is someone to maybe look at. He has been in america since the french and indian war. He somewhat sympathizes with the americans. He believes in liberty, but not what the american sense of liberty is. In the fall of 1774 in spring of 1775, gage keeps asking for reinforcements. He keeps sending letters to england, the situation is pretty bad, you should send more reinforcements. Instead of sending gage reinforcements, the british sent three more generals. A guy by the name of William Howell. Well talk about him later. He will feature prominently in your book, Washingtons Crossing. A guy by the name of Henry Clinton and a guy named john burgoyne. All of these guys we will talk about later in this course. What you think the significance is that he asked for reinforcement and britain sends three generals . What are the ramifications of that . Any ideas . Yeah. A lot of conflicting views. Anyone else. Yeah, emily. Okay, you might not think manpower is necessary. They might not have a lot of faith in thomas gage. When you ask for reinforcements and they sent three more generals, thats not a huge vote of support. Interestingly, the british ship that brings these three generals is hms erebus. Service is the three headed dog that guards kind of interesting. This is boston. You see boston is on this peninsula sticking out here. It is very narrow. The americans are here in cambridge and they have the british bottled up in boston. Here you can see Boston Harbor. Remember that document about the boston riots and the governor, he fled. That is where williams is. What is interesting here is this shows the american anger after lexington and concord. They dont just sit there. They dont try to storm the city, they could never get across the neck, but what they do is fortify this peninsula here. The charlestown peninsula. The theory here is that americans control the high ground, they could put artillery up here and eventually shall the city and make Boston Harbor untenable. The americans occupy this plan on the night of june 16. They are supposed to go to this hill called bunker hill. It is actually two hills. Bunker hill is about 30 feet taller, but in the darkness the men get confused and go to this forward hill. It is closer to boston. In some ways that is good and some ways it is bad. And overnight they do the fortification. Okay. And when the british wake up on the morning of june 17, they could hear some shoveling, they dont know what is going on. When they hear the shoveling, they find somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 to 3000 americans have dug fortifications on bunker hill, on breeds hill technically, overlooking the city of boston. Thomas gage decides this is a threat. You cant let those troops stay overlooking the city and youve got to drive them back. And the man gage puts in charge of the attack on the battlefield is William Howell. Gage is in overall command and William Howell is tactical, the commander on the ground. Okay. Now if you are the british, and you see these americans are up here on this hill, what would you do . Would you attack them, leave them there, what would you do . Any ideas . Go ahead. Okay, so either here or here. Okay. And since you control the water, that is very doable. You would also cut off the retreat route. Anybody else . [ inaudible ] you could use the british navy to encircle the peninsula. Anybody else . These are all pretty good. Thats not what they decide to do. Thats not what sir William Howell decides to do. Instead he lines up 2200 british soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, and sends them up the hill. Kind of interesting. British soldiers, and you can see them here. This is relatively accurate. This is probably the second assault. I will tell you why we know its not the third. They were lots of belts and the belts crisscross. In actual target point. British officers where a shiny metal disk around their throat. It shines in the sun. Any bad things about having a shiny metal thing around your throat . Yeah, they know exactly where to shoot. Same with the crisscrossing belt and the same famous quote from bunker hill is dont fire until you see the whites of their eyes. That was probably actually said. The british charge up bunker hill and the americans fire their first volley under 160 feet and the british go down in waves. They are literally blasted down the hill. When they reform, William Howell puts them in line and sends them back up the hill a second time. [ inaudible ] oh yeah. And crawling over their own guys who went down in the first wave. Why do you think howell adopted this tactic . Why not swing around with the navy wide church straight up the hill . Yeah. [ inaudible ] who are they fighting . The americans, yeah. They are not going to stand up to the british regulars. They are way underestimating american ability, way underestimating british ability. They march up the hill a second time and get blasted down the hill a second time. The way we know this is the third assault is the third assault, howell calls for reinforcements. They bring over more soldiers from boston and the third assault, he lets them take off their backpack. British soldiers carry about 60 to 80 pounds of equipment. The first was salts they were carrying their equipment. The third time he says maybe we dont need to carry the equipment up the hill. The third time up the hill, the americans have run out of gunpowder and the british over on bunker hill. So bunker hill is technically a british victory. They sees the peninsula. [ inaudible ] thats a good point. It is technically the battle of breeds hill, but it is remembered as the battle of bunker hill. Because hunker hill is the hill they meant to be on and in the darkness they picked the wrong hill. So the british when the battle of breeds hill or bunker hill and they occupy the charlestown peninsula. Okay . But bunker hill is tremendously important because as lots of ramifications. Because of this idea of rage militaire. We will pick that up in a minute. One of the ideas of bunker hill is the casualties. 260 british soldiers are killed, 828 are wanted, out of about 2200. Casualty rate is somewhere around 15 . William howell was on the field. He was miraculously unkilled. Bullets are whizzing around and hit everyone, but not him. The british in boston are horrified by this. You have to think about how small boston is and boston is now filled with wounded guys, dying men. It is summertime, it is hot. The british army is horrified by what is happened here. What is striking, and we will pick this up later today, the british army in boston is there for the next nine months. They dont try anything again after this. They have been pummeled by bunker hill. American losses at bunker hill are 115 dead and 305 wounded. Okay . A second result of bunker hill, even though the americans of lost this hill, they are greatly encouraged by this. It Shows Americans will fight and fight like crazy. As the british ultimately sees the hill and enter the earthwork, american soldiers stay and fight them with rocks, the butts of guns. They dont have bayonets and british officers say theyve never seen soldiers stand up like that. Normal european troops would 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 in anymore, especially the american revolution, but it is documented that somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 13 of all the officers killed in the revolution were killed at bunker hill. Americans are targeting officers and shooting these guys down like crazy. Okay . What is interesting is William Howells response. Not William Howell, thomas gages response. He says the americans are now experiencing a rage and enthusiasm is great as people were ever possessed of and you must proceed in earnest or give the business up. The americans are now spirited up by a rage and enthusiasm as great as ever people were possessed of. What does that mean . What is how or gage, saying here . He said never in my entire career have i seen anyone so angry. The americans are unbelievably angry. This next quote is very interesting. You must proceed in earnest, or give the business up. What does that mean . Go ahead, gabe. [ inaudible ] yeah, telling parliament, you need to send the army. This is fullblown war. If youre not going to commit the entire empire, dont even bother. This is wildly out of control, okay . Then you go back to that quote. The rage militaire has swept the continent. We will talk about him later, Richard Montgomery, hes in new york city. We have philadelphia, boston and new york city. This is what Richard Montgomery says. He says see what the enthusiasm of liberty and the indignant sense of injury is capable of doing. Enthusiasm. Tremendous anger, okay. He says every friend of old england wishes this contest speedily concluded. If it lasts many months, she has done with us forever. What does that last line mean . Every friend of old england wishes this contest speedily ended. What is he saying here . Anybody . Go ahead, isabel. That Everyone Wants this to be over fast okay, this war is wildly violent and if this lasts very long, there will be reconciliation. There will be too much blood spilled and it shows you, some people are still hoping for reconciliation. Richard montgomery is one of them. We will get back to him in a little bit. Okay, so this is rage militaire. The final result of the battle of bunker hill, parliamentary leaves thomas gage. They see he failed. Okay. One of the things we are going to see, we talked about the coming revolution, britain kept going through prime ministers. When the revolution breaks out, they kept going through commanders in america. That is a bad sign that things arent going well, because you cant pick someone to stay. Thomas gage is relieved and sent back to england. The new commander is william howe, the guy who fought at bunker hill. He will show up prominently in you are Washingtons Crossing book. Some historians have argued, and i dont want to give away too much of that book, but william howe sympathizes with the americans. He is a member of parliament and told his constituency wouldnt fight against americans. He changes his mind when they offered him the command. Some historians have argued that he is compromised by bunker hill. He has gun shy and after bunker hill he will never put his men in for a major assault. Today we would probably say he had ptsd. He has scarred having seen so much of his men shut down around him. [ inaudible ] he is. The guy in charge is the guy who is messing up and of those three generals, howe was senior, so he is now the commander in north america. Makes no sense, but thats the way it was. That is rage militaire. We have another man in this and this is the invasion of canada. We talked a little about canada. Canada is new to the british empire. 70,000 british canadians there. Okay. And we said Parliament Just passed the quebec act. The quebec act extended the province of quebec into the ohio river. The quebec act allowed catholicism. The quebec act allowed for an appointed assembly and the use of french law in the province of quebec. What is interesting is the americans think the French Canadians might want to join them and maybe the americans would be welcome in canada. Why do you think they might think that . Any ideas . [ inaudible ] maybe the French Canadians havent been assimilated into the empire and joined this rebellion is there any downside to that thinking . They 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 . Youre shaking your head no, okay, why . [ inaudible ] they certainly did and the americans helped the british. The americans pretty much started the war okay, thats part of it. The americans arent noted for being fond of catholicism. So whether they will be welcome in canada is a bit of an open question, but congress thinks they might be. One of the Things Congress is thinking about and this is where the whole situation in canada gets complicated as there are like 70,000 French Canadians. These people are called the new subjects, because they are new to england. But after the british conquered canada, about 3000 american and british merchants settle in canada. These people were called the old subjects. They were traditionally english. Turns out the old subjects dont like the quebec act, because they dont like the elected assembly, they dont like french law. They want commonlaw and elected assembly. So in 1775, before lexington and concord, america is sending spies into canada and canada is sending spies out charles lee, we will talk about him later. Richard montgomery enters the army when he is 18 years old. He sees extensive service. He is at ticonderoga, catches a very bad case of yellow fever or malaria at the caribbean. He will later write that he loses most of his hair at the caribbean. He fights in pontiacs rebellion, and exclusive duty in north america. On the way in 1665, his ship runs aground and he meets a wealthy American Family called the livingstons, who we will come back to later. He meets the oldest daughter. She remembers when the regiment comes back he is not there and he is going to marry her at a future point. Following service in america, montgomery goes back to england and seemingly sympathizes with the american position. He seems to be a political liberal for his time and montgomery grows disillusioned, partly because he cant get promoted. This is something they bring up a little bit. At this point in history, british officers are partly promoted by merit, but it is also a purchase system. If you have enough money you can buy a commission. There is a scale so was i going tenant is like 500 pounds, a captaincy is 1600 pounds so, montgomerys dad buys him a commission and he slowly earns his way up. He serves as a captain. But multiple times after the french and indian war, remember we talked about the british army is cut in size. Montgomery gets passed over. He has the money, the experience, but never can get promoted. He gets disgusted and comes to america. He writes an interesting letter to his cousin and says, i cast my eyes on america, where my pride and poverty will be much more acceptable. He is pretty wealthy, but by british standards he is poor. He settles in new york city. Near new york city in cambridge. In 1772, marries the eldest daughter of this wealthy American Family called the livingstons. Okay. What is interesting is montgomery sees the coming of the revolution. He sees Boston Tea Party doesnt se