He has won many awards for his work. Navy war won a medal from the 20 12th George Pendleton prize. It was selected for the navys reading list. The forging of the american 2008 Samuel Alito Marston award. In 2018 he received the Samuel Eliot Marston award from the Constitutional Museum for his body of work. For this evening, george will speak to us for about 30 minutes. Then we will invite numbers of the audience to ask questions. Please note that cspan is your taping our author event, so speak into the microphone clearly. They will take this presentation as well as the q and a. We invite everybody to come on up. If you have a book, george will sign it for you. We have some of his back lists here as well. We have to 1812 book that i spoke about, as well as the fic book. Please join me and welcoming author george daughan. [applause] george thank you for posting this event. Thank you to all these wonderful people who have come here. Revolut is entitled ion on the hudson. New york city and the Hudson River Valley in the American Revolution. Its objective is to explain the role of the Hudson River Valley in the entire revolution. So its also a book about the whole revolution. Have a different view of the role of the Hudson River Valley in the revolution, the book is a different view of the entire revolution. So let me start by explaining what my view of the hudson is and why its different from other views. If you look at a map, and you are in london, king george the third, who was the chief policymaker for the english author of the revolution if you look at a map, and youre in london, and have never been to isrica, it looks like there a landsea corridor that stretches from Manhattan Island to canada. If you look at the map, you can see the hudson river going all the way up nearly to lake george. There is a small bit of land 23 miles that connects the hudson to lake george. Lake george then flows into Lake Champlain. Lake champlain flows into the recently river. That river flows into the st. Lawrence. The st. Lawrence eventually goes to the elegant the atlantic ocean. It look like to the king that if he could if his military, naval and land forces, could capture this wonderful natural corridor, that he could cut off new england from the rest of the colonies. Solve or defeat the revolution. Because new england was the place where the revolution started. It seemed to him this is where the radicals were concentrated. And if he could cut them off from the colonies to the south, which in his mind were much friendlier to him, then that would solve the whole problem of the revolution. By kings idea was shared everybody else. Everybody in the english government. Tell one spoke against it or said, oh, you cant do that. And it was shared by every leader in america as well. George washington thought that if the british were able to do that, they would indeed cut off of england and win the war. Men in themilitary American Service fault the same thing. Every leading politician in america believed the same thing. Thomas jefferson thought that. John adams thought that. Using it, there wasnt a single voice that said well, that is a big undertaking to do Something Like that. We are not sure that this is going to actually do what you think its going to do. Of course nobody spoke that way to the king anyway. But everybody really and truly agreed with him. This is the plan that he put in operation in 1776. Military invaded manhattan in 1776. The number of troops that landed or in the neighborhood of 32,000. Every time you mention a particular number connected with the war, its always more or less. None of it is exact. This army was to capture manhattan, move of the hudson , and meet another army coming down from canada at albany. Now the army coming down from canada would have a fairly easy time of it because the british already had canada. They were given canada by the french as a result of the french and indian war, which ended in 1763. The british were already wellestablished in canada. The king put an army of 10,000 whena to march down i say march, i mean some of it marched, the most of it came by way of the riverway. If you add third 2000, this army was to meet in albany. That this inght itself would cut off new england and end the war. But he wasnt going to rest just with that. He also wanted to establish a blockade of new england, a take naval blockade of new england between manhattan and the canadian border. In addition he sent a small force to the south and under the supposition that the south would be much easier to cope with. If we had an army in the south e,d we were successful ther then this would contribute to the whole revolution collapsing in new england. New englanders would see that not only they were cut off, but that the king was succeeding and the south. This was his grand scheme and the centerpiece was the hudson champagne corridor. It did not work. British in 1776 never succeeded in establishing a real blockade of new england. They did win the battle of long island. They did take manhattan. They had control of the whole area around manhattan. But they never got to albany. The army coming down from canada never got to albany either. Scheme in work, this 1776. And, guess what . Everybody, the king, George Washington, all the leaders in england and United States said there was nothing wrong with the strategy, the problem with how it was carried out. This is how all of that ended. Here for king decided to employ the same strategy to next year. 1777, when she did. We had the army that was already established in new york. It did not immediately go up the hudson, it went to philadelphia. What is the logic of this . If the scheme did not work in 1776 and you are adding philadelphia to it, is and thats going to be a problem . No, his majesty said. We can do that easily. And the army coming down from increased ande put under the command of general bourgoin. 1777, armies did not fight during the winter, the new year began with spring. Plan was put this into operation. T too failed. Goin got as far as saratoga and was defeated, his army was captured. It was a disaster. The british did take philadelphia, but that is all. In army did not succeed getting to albany. Something changed also in 1777. The french came into the war because of saratoga. The americans now have this great power as an ally. The case decided to change his strategy. He would basis operations in new onk, but now he had to focus the caribbean, because the friend had an army of 8000. The british had only 1000. The king thought the french would take all of the English Island and everybody elses islands. He had to put a big fleet in the caribbean. That fleet also had responsibility for the american coast. There was a small fleet on the american coast, but the defense and operations on the atlantic were dependent still on the fleet in the west indies. The king is also part of this new strategy to concentrate on the south. He saw he thought the south would be easy, so the plans to invade charleston and take south carolina. Floridaeady had half of. Than they would move north and take the carolinas, virginia. They expected, if all of his work, that the revolution would collapse. Thenof this happened, fastforward to 1780. 1780, iny, in sides in we have both what amounts to a stalemate. Either side is winning the war. The war is still dragging on. The french are still in the war. The americans are still fighting and the british are as well. In september 1780, we had a remarkable event. The british were sure they would wrap up the war. The general in charge was in new york at the time. Within american traitor that nobody knew about named Benedict Arnold who was going to give him west point. Clinton had never given up on the hudson river, Lake Champlain strategy. He still thought that is what they should have been doing all along. They never should have changed changed strategy. They could have wrapped up the revolution if they had just let him continue with the strategy on the hudson. Here general arnold was going to give him west point. He thought if he could take west point, thats all he had to do. Shockedicans would be at this point and the revolution would collapse. In new york the troop transports and army to take west point when general Arnold Gibson the signal. We know what happened. The americans discovered arnold, arnold just missed being captured. He got himself to new york city and he thinks when he arrived in new york city that hes going to join up with clinton and take new york. The naval part of the task force was already ready. Changed, lets go. And here is another big element. The admiral in charge in the west indies all of a sudden appears in new york with a big fleet. 10 battleships. Clinton, who thought that he already had enough, now has all of this plus this admiral. He is englands leading admiral will leaveone man we aside. Wow, hes going to be the hero that wins the American Revolution with clinton. He loves the whole idea and becomes very close with arnold. Dont forget arnold was a great fighter and a great general before he became a trader. Here we have arnold and ronnie already planning their grand entrance into london, being aborted as great errors. And clinton decides we are not going to do it. Run the cant believe it and neither can arnold. They do everything they can to convince clinton to go ahead. Time hadon all of this been a part of the work since the beginning. He had been saying, lets concentrate in new york on the hudson. And he has the perfect opportunity to do it, and he is saying no,. Rodney has to go back to the caribbean. He goes back thinking that the british have thrown away this golden opportunity. Fastforward the following year in 1781 in the battle of yorktown. The battle of yorktown stretches between september and october of 1781. The first part of the battle is september 5 1781. A Great British fleet and a great flash great french fleet meet off the mouth of the chesapeake bay. The french fleet is led by admiral degrasse who has come up from the caribbean with a big fleet. The American Fleet should have been led by admiral rodney who is englands premier admiral. He is in fact much superior to the french admiral. The french admiral is charming but not the fighter that rodney is. Even though the french fleet is quite a bit bigger than the is leadingf rodney the british fleet, it looks like hes going to win. But it was somebody else names grace, who isnt in run easily. Neyso isnt even in rod league. And he loses that naval battle on september 5. Which means that the british army in yorktown under lord cornwallis is now in very bad straits. Where is rodney . What happened to rodney was she knew all of this was going to happen. Heater there was going to be a showdown with the french. Ordinarily he would have loved that. Instead he gets permission from the first lord of the admiralty to go home because he is ill. And i say that he was ill all right. Did not want to get mixed up with clinton and be responsible for finally losing the war because he never understood why clinton did not do what he did and take west point in the previous year. So ronnie is in england when this major battle is being fought. When he finds out that the british lost, he is apoplectic. When he finds out the tactics the british admiral used to lose the battle, he is even more apoplectic. I maintain that the british fixation with the hudson river strong that they lost the battle of saratoga, and was so strong they lost the battle of yorktown because on clintonso soured because you did not do what he would think would win the war, which is take the hudson valley. Rodney was completely sold on. That is the heart of my book. That the whole hudson strategy could never have worked. Saying this contradicts both leaders on both sides of the revolution. They all thought it would work, and still thought so, except for those who are trying to carry it out. And every historian who has hasten about the war believed the same thing. Every history of the American Revolution that is been written, and they started right after the war to the present day, has said if the british had done that, they would have won the war. Was betterded generals and admirals to carry up the strategy. Thatsay in contradiction this whole thing was illusory. The whole strategy was an illusion. It never could have worked. Consider this. One in order thing, for one thing, in order for this to work, you would need a little control all over this route. A large the british had wasle of loyalists that based instead i went. The british that was based in staten island. They had a lot of support around manhattan, in new jersey, in long island. And it extended but did not include Westchester County. Westchester county was deeply divided between loyalists and rebels. There was a constant civil war going on in Westchester County throughout the war. That, asu get about you go along the hudson, the british had less and less political support. Go all theue as you way to the canadian border. Most of the canadians were french. The french did not like them either. The french had a brilliant governor that kept the lid on them. But the french were not crazy about them either. When general burgoyne was coming down from canada in 1777, he was expecting loyalists to fill out his army. Superior,home to his where are they . Wrote back home to his superior, where are they . And less than half even want to fight. At the same time he said there are thousands of american militiamen coming from everywhere to strengthen my opponent. Theh got to saratogae, American Army was about 15,000. His army was shrinking down to 5000. Why . Conditions. Olitical the king never thought about political conditions except to think, this whole territory is full of loyalist, they love me. They didnt, as a matter of fact. In order to carry out the strategy, you would have to blockade new england. During 1776, the very best british admiral was in charge. Howe. Me was general trafalgar, oneof of the greatest of the french admirals said that howe was the brush the best british general that ever lived. And indeed he was. Guess what howe thought about the idea of establishing a blockade in new england . He laughed. There was no way that he had the resources to do that. Had 72 warships to do everything. And to conduct that with part of his force, was simply impossible. I told the reader in my book how and ships were assigned shows how hopeless that was. That could never have worked. He had a fragment of his 72 blockade. G this the americans at the same time had hundreds of private volunteers, coming in and out all the time. The british could not begin to cope with that. Howe accepted that and knew it was going to happen. Job wasr job, his prime to support the ground forces. This was an Amphibious Force invading new york in 1776. His brother was leaving the Amphibious Force. Howe. Had to have maybe 30 of his ship supporting the invasion of manhattan. Tasks,a number of other as well, including providing including stopping all of the munitions that were coming from all over europe by entrepreneurs wanting to sell ammunition and arms to the. Merican army we didnt produce any munitions here, but they were flooding in, even from england. Howe had all of these duties. How was he going to go up the hudson . Shipss he going to supply for Lake Champlain . What did howe think of the strategy . He thought it was crazy. The only one. He and his brother were very close. He was the overall commander, and he had to keep his mouth shut. I cant believe he thought it was viable at all. That is my story. Thats the essence of the book. I want to make one other point. George washington thought one of taking over the hudson could never be done. He said, we could not supply food for the army if it was on the eastern side of the hudson. Whether or not that was true, i would debate that. The americans never had any trouble going backandforth across the hudson. Washington himself never had any trouble going back and forth across the hudson. He was never even inconvenienced except once. I will and here and answer whatever questions you would like to ask. [applause] thank you, george. We appreciate you coming out tonight to speak at our store, and we would like to open up the floor for questions. I would like to ask you a question. Im always curious when we have authors at our store, what are you working on next . Book is the fifth book in a series i started 20 years ago. 0 years and only five books its about American History from 1763 through the war of 1812. Why did i concentrate on this . This is an area that has been written about extensively. The naval aspects of this early history have been given short shrift, and they are very important. Guess who loves me . The navy. Becaused of interesting my duty, when i served during the vietnam war, i was in the air force. When i was giving a talk on my first book at the National Archives in washington, i was introduced by an admiral, a wonderful fellow, and he says to me before hand, what is an air force guy doing writing about the navy . This is why i write about the navy. My next book is lexington and concord, retelling that story with a naval evidence elements that have been left out. When can you expect to see that book . You can expect to see it, no buts, bys, or christmas of next year. Thank you, george. Would anyone else like to ask a question . Im going to bring over the microphone. What is the explanation for why clinton abandoned the hudson river strategy when he was so desirous at seeing it put into effect so many years ago . This is a wonderful question. Many hours, you how days, and weeks it took me. The answer is, we dont know. William smith, a new york loyalist, got very close to clinton. He was a very odd character. Clinton told smith, and smith was actually quite courageous to even asking this how come you didnt do this . Clinton said, we didnt have enough of a margin to do it. A margin of superiority wasnt enough. What would that be . Two, which is nonsense if you know anything about military strateg