The Iberian War

Lewis Breland

Virginian Infantry Corporal, 1853

General Pierre DuFont, the commanding general of the French Army in Spain, devised a strategy to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible.  His idea was that a French blockade of the main ports would weaken the Spanish economy; then the capture of the Madrid and Lisbon would split the peninsula.  General Saint Martin, the empire's military ruler, adopted the plan in terms of a blockade to squeeze to death the Iberian economy, but overruled DuFont's warnings that his new army was not ready for an offensive operation because public opinion demanded an immediate attack.

In April 1851, Saint Martin announced the French blockade of all Iberian ports; commercial ships could not get insurance and regular traffic ended.  The Iberian nations blundered in embargoing exports in 1851 before the blockade was effective; by the time they realized the mistake it was too late.  British and Virginian investors built small, fast blockade runners that traded arms and luxuries brought in from Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas in return for high-priced goods.  When the French Imperial Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were sold and the proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen were mostly Virginian and they were simply released.  The Spanish economy nearly collapsed during the war.  Shortages of food and supplies were caused by the blockade, the failure of Iberian railroads, the loss of control of the main ports, foraging by Imperial armies, and the impressment of crops by Allied armies. The standard of living fell even as large-scale printing of paper money caused inflation and distrust of the currency.  By 1854 the internal food distribution had broken down, leaving cities without enough food and causing bread riots across the peninsula.  

On March 8, 1852, the Virginian Navy waged a fight against the Imperial Navy when the warship Chesapeake attacked the blockade.  Against inferior ships, she seemed unstoppable.  The next day, however, she had to fight the new French warship Cheval in the Strait of Gibraltar.  Their battle ended in a draw.  The Allies lost the Chesapeake when the ship was scuttled to prevent capture, and the French built many copies of Cheval. Lacking the technology to build effective warships, the Spanish attempted to obtain warships from Britain and Virginia.

French technology achieved another breakthrough on April 10–11, 1852, when a joint Army-Navy expedition reduced a major masonry fortification at Lisbon. Employing the new rifle cannon made masonry coastal defenses obsolete overnight.  The Imperials left a small garrison, releasing troops and ships for other blockading operations.  The French victory over the British at Lisbon in January 1855 closed the last useful Iberian port and virtually ended blockade running.

The Virginians in Spain, 1851-1853

Virginian Infantry at the Battle of Toulouse, France, 1852

Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Spanish and Portuguese forces at Saragossa, Spain, in July 1851, a march by French troops under the command of Marshall d'Erlich on the Spanish forces there was halted, his troops were forced back over the Pyrenees by the forces under the command of General Jose De La Cruz. 

Marshall Georges Moiret took command of the French Army of the Pyrenees on July 26, and the war began in earnest in 1852.  Upon the strong urging of the French Supreme Leader to begin offensive operations, Moiret attacked Spain in the spring of 1852 by way of the northwestern coast. Although Moiret's army reached the gates of Madrid in the campaign, the Spanish militias halted his advance, then the Virginian General Lord Lee and top subordinates Sir Arthur Braithwaite defeated Moiret in the countryside around Madrid and forced his retreat. The Northern Spanish Campaign ended in yet another victory for the Allies.  Moiret resisted the Supreme Commander Saint Martin's orders to send reinforcements to General Antoine Duprix's Army of Spain, which made it easier for Lord Lee's Virginians to defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops.

Emboldened by the defense of Madrid, the Allies made their first invasion of France. Lord Lee led 45,000 men of the Virginian Army across the Pyrenees into southern France on October 5.  Saint Martin then restored Duprix's troops to Moiret.  Moiret and Lee fought at the Battle of Toulouse on October 17, 1852.  Lord Lee's Virginian army, checked at last, returned to Spain before Moiret could destroy it.  Toulouse is considered a French victory because it halted Lord Lee's invasion of France and provided an opportunity for Saint Martin to introduce his "Total War" strategy.

When the cautious Moiret failed to follow up on Toulouse, he was replaced by Marshall Jean Talard. Talard was soon defeated at the Battle of Valladolid on November 13, 1852, when over 12,000 French soldiers were killed or wounded during repeated futile frontal assaults against defended earthworks.  After the battle, Talard was replaced by Marshall Claude Oudenard.

Oudenard, too, proved unable to defeat Lord Lee's Virginian army; despite outnumbering the Allies by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Vitoria in August 1853.  General Sir Arthur Braithwaite was mortally wounded by a cannonball during the battle and subsequently died of complications. Marshall Oudenard was replaced by a Prussian general, Marshall von Geuban during Lord Lee's second invasion of France, in September.  Von Geuban defeated Lord Lee at the Battle of Bordeaux (October 12 to 16, 1853). This was the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, and has been called the war's turning point.  The Charge of the Virginian Grenadiers on October 16 is often considered the high-water mark of Spanish Independence because it signaled the collapse of serious Allied threats of victory.  Lord Lee's army suffered 47,000 casualties (versus Von Geuban's 43,000).  However, Saint Martin was angry that Von Geuban failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and after Von Geuban's inconclusive fall campaign, Saint Martin turned to the Western Theater for new leadership.  At the same time the Allied stronghold of Leon, Spain surrendered, giving the French control of the northwest, permanently isolating the area, and producing the new leader Saint Martin needed, Marshall Georges Auguste Jean Antoine Marie Joseph de Lyon (Lyon for short).

The British in Portugal, 1851-1853

British Troops in Lisbon, Portugal, 1852

While the Virginian forces had numerous successes in the Spanish Theater, the British were defeated many times in Portugal. They were driven from the country early in the war as a result of the Battle of Ponte do Lima.  Braga and Viseu fell to the Empire early in 1852, leading to attrition of local food supplies and livestock and a breakdown in social organization.

The coast was opened to French traffic to the north.  In April 1852, the French Navy captured Pombal without a major fight.  Only the fortress city of Lisbon prevented French control of the entire country.

General Sir Anthony Bard's Anglo-Portuguese invasion of northern Spain ended with a meaningless victory over Marshall de Vary at the Battle of Ourense, although Sir Anthony was forced to end his attempt at invading Spain and retreat due to lack of support from Britain in that state.  Bard was narrowly defeated by Marshall de Vary at the Battle of Braga in northern Portugal.

The one clear British victory in Portugal was the Battle of Castelo Blanco.  Sir Anthony, reinforced by Lt. Gen. John Seymour's corps (from Lee's army in the east), defeated de Vary.  De Vary retreated to Caceres, Spain, which Bard then besieged.

France's key strategist and tactician in Portugal was Marshall de Lyon, who won victories at Povoa de Varzim and Paredes (by which the French seized control of the Portuguese coastline); the Battle of Porto; and the Battle of Pombal, which cemented French control of the country and is considered one of the turning points of the war.  De Lyon marched to the relief of de Vary and defeated Bard at the Battle of Coimbra, driving British forces out of the northern half of the country altogether and opening a route to Lisbon and the heart of the nation.  The British army loaded their ships on April 16, 1853 and set sail for Portsmouth, abandoning the campaign against the French in Portugal.

The End of the War, 1854-1855

French at Toledo, Spain 1854

At the beginning of 1854, Saint Martin made Lyon commander of all French armies.  Lyon made his headquarters with the Army of the Pyrenees, and put Marshall von Gleuban in command of most of the Portuguese armies.  Lyon understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Saint Martin and the Prussian general, that only the utter defeat of Allied forces and their economic base would end the war.  This was total war not in terms of killing civilians but rather in terms of destroying homes, farms, and railroads.  Lyon devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the entire Iberian Peninsula from multiple directions.  Von Geuban was ordered to move against Lee near Madrid, General Francois Sieves was to attack the north of Spain, General Saint Roche was to capture Lisbon and march to Gibraltar, other contingents were to operate against railroad supply lines in the northwest, and a pro-French Spanish army under De los Trinos was to capture Barcelona.

French forces in the East attempted to maneuver past the Virginian army and fought several battles during that phase of the Eastern campaign.  Lyon's battles of attrition in the north resulted in heavy French losses, but forced Lord Lee's Virginians to fall back repeatedly.  An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Marshall Beuleur.  Lyon was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 75,000 casualties in ten weeks), kept pressing the Virginians back to Madrid.  He pinned down the Virginian army in the Siege of Siguenza, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over a month.

Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Lyon's.  French forces won a decisive victory at the Guadalajara on November 1, forcing Lee to evacuate Madrid.  The Spanish capital fell to the French army.  The remaining Virginian units fled south with the Spanish royal family and after a defeat at Toledo, it became clear to General Lord Lee that continued fighting against France was both tactically and logistically impossible.  He surrendered the Virginian Royal Army on 1 January, 1855, to Marshall Lyon.  

William III and the Spanish Match

Lewis Breland

William III's reign can be described as one of the least successful in Virginia's military history.  The man who inherited a vast empire soon overestimated himself as a military leader and overreached his grasp.

The young king was the grandson of William II.  His father, Prince William, had died in his infancy and his grandfather was stern about the young prince's upbringing.  The dislike that the young man had for the king grew to hatred as he grew older.  The prince viewed Virginia as a more aggressive force than the king did and saw greater opportunities for his kingdom than were being taken advantage of.

He had been in love with a noble Virginian woman in his youth but was denied marrying her by his grandfather.  In 1828, therefore, the prince decided not to marry until he was king.  Five years later, when he succeeded the throne, he had his wish, but did not yet make any matrimonial decisions.

The first sign that William III had other ambitions was his devotion to increasing the size of his military.  However, the House of Burgesses had trouble funding an increased military without knowing its intended use.  Louisiana, now under the leadership of the able Louis III, viewed his eastern neighbor with great suspicion, fearing the Virginians had ambitions which might threaten his own realm.  William's response to his parliament was simply that he felt the realm was in need of a strong military force to protect its homefront from aggressors at home as well as to expand its empire abroad - namely in southern Africa, where the Dutch were having problems with the native population.  Other proposals involved Mexico's growing Empire in South America and in the far west.

Parliament granted the king's wish for increased spending on his army and navy and set about drawing up plans to reorganize the army into a well-oiled, modern military machine.  New rifled muskets were imported from Great Britain and Prussia to be studied, replicated and improved while a new system of flying artillery (mobile guns drawn by horses) was studied to improve battlefield efficiency and mobility.  A huge army fortress was erected at Arlington, Virginia, and two Military Universities were opened in 1847 to train all officers of the service in "the Military Arts."  The naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, was doubled in size and Charleston, South Carolina became a secondary (Southern) naval base.  Rail-lines were further improved using a new electro-magnetic system which allowed for speedy, cheap transportation of goods from all over the empire and by 1850, had nearly doubled the Virginian trade revenue.

The king had been keen on European politics during his upbringing and had set his sights on the Infanta of Spain, Maria, for years.  In 1849, he agreed to marry the young princess, though a Catholic, if she agreed to convert to Anglican Protestantism on their marriage.  With an increasingly imperialistic France to the north threatening invasion, the princess had little choice but to accept the marriage proposal and the apostasy required of her if the Virginian king would agree to use military force to halt any French invasion of Spanish territory.  Parliament and the King's council highly approved, imagining that the threat of war with France would be enough to deter French aggression against Spain.  Against popular opinion, however, William and Maria were married on June 14, 1850 in a grand ceremony which looked more like a week-long party of balls and banquets than any traditionally quiet royal marriage ceremony in Virginia's past.

Almost exactly a year later, in June 1851, the French under General Jean Claude de Saint Martin invaded Spain with a force of 150,000 men.  Virginia mobilized and responded with a declaration of war against Imperial France and deployed its army of 100,000 under the 43-year-old General Lord William Henry Lee to Gibraltar.  A British contingent of 75,000 men under General Lord Raglan arrived in Portugal to secure that nation from French aggression in May 1851 and planned its own operations in Spain.  The Iberian War began in earnest.

Brave New World

Lewis Breland



William II succeeded his father as King in 1806.  The new monarch inherited a state of immense economic and military power.  At the beginning of his reign, the population of his country was exploding and moving westward towards the Mississippi.  There was irrigable land and possible industry.  Furthermore, under his leadership – he had been raised in the military style – the Royal Army became the most disciplined force on the continent.  In 1810, in order to increase Virginia’s economic security, the king sent an expeditionary force to the Caribbean in order to secure from Republican France the islands which produced so much revenue – and to use slave labor to produce it.  The Caribbean War lasted for three years, but Jourdan, now Supreme General of France, gave up sending so many troops to such a far away place and focused his attention on India and the Middle East.  The increased revenue from these islands added infinitely to Virginia’s economic growth.

The “Warrior King” as his subjects began to call him, was just as unsupportive of the French regime to his west as he was to totalitarian France in Europe.  However, he realized that maintaining good relations was beneficial to the economy as it was to the well-being of his subjects.  Tobacco remained the chief source of income, though many of the gentry now found new lives in the Caribbean.  Virginia had officially become an empire, exporting sugar, rice, coffee, tobacco and cotton.

In 1817, Louis XVI (Louis I of Louisiana), died of natural causes, leaving the throne to his son, Louis II.  King Louis II had also been trained in the military, his father well-aware of his own short-comings.  This king had very high aspirations for Louisianan military activity against the newly independent Mexican Republic.  It was modeled on France's military-state and therefore was an immediate menace to royalty.  In Georgia, the Director of that nation set his own sights on rebellious Florida.  William II promised to support both nations in their endeavors in order to provide his army and navy with experience and glory.  However, William also wanted to send his own forces to Cuba, plucking that cherry from France’s tree.  By 1824, the entire enterprise had been a success for Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia.  Georgia, which encompassed the former Carolinian colonies as well, voted overwhelmingly for a union with Virginia in 1826, doubling the territory of William II.

As the Industrial Revolution took off in England, the Virginians followed suit.  Factories using slave labor provided a new aristocracy and merchant shops selling newly manufactured goods created a middle class, increasing leisure.  The locomotive, invented in 1827, enabled shipment speed to greatly increase.  William II was on the right side of history by embracing these innovations while many of the landed gentry shouted him down.  However, as their wealth increased, they eventually quieted down.

The map of the Americas was beginning to take on a new shape.  In the North, Canada was an unstable, independent colony without a mother country, racked by revolution, civil war and freezing disparity.  The New England Republic was finding itself out-produced and inferior to its southern counterparts, but showed signs of industrial economic progress, refusing to join with the slave-based systems in the south.  Overall, New England held a reputation for a more egalitarian society with wealth more evenly distributed throughout individual households than in their contemporary American neighbors.  Puritan ideology had accounted for a more thorough theocracy based on hard labor for all citizens in New England, whereas Anglicanism had provided a basis for usury and slavery in the Kingdom of Virginia.   

William II's reign ended abruptly in 1833 when he fell from his horse in a cavalry drill at which he was practicing as a corporal.  Trampled under foot by numerous horses, the king died three days after his wounds had been inflicted, his internal organs having been smashed and battered.  His grandson, William III, came to the throne on 18 March 1833 at the age of 24.  Strangely enough, the King was not married and had no heir.  The first order of business, then, was to find a wife.  It was to prove a never-ending struggle for the king.

William of Orange

Lewis Breland

William of Orange was born in 1748, the only son of William IV, who had the year before been restored as stadtholder of the United Provinces.  He was only 3 years old when his father died in 1751, and a long regency began.  William assumed the position of stadtholder (chief executive) and Captain-General of the Dutch States Army in 1766.  On 4 October 1767 in Berlin, Prince William married Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, the daughter of Augustus William of Prussia, niece of Frederick the Great and a cousin of George III.

William was cold, but not personally cruel.  He wasted no time on minor revenges.  His sole quarrel was with Louis XV.  For all his experience from a youth spent at the head of banquet halls and some time in the field of battle, and for all his dauntless heart, he was never a great commander.  He had not a trace of that second-sight of the battlefield which is the mark of military genius.  He was no more than a resolute man of good common sense whom the accident of birth had carried to the conduct of war.  His inspiration lay in the sphere of diplomacy.  He has rarely been surpassed in the sagacity, patience, and discretion of his statescraft.  The combinations he made, the difficulties he surmounted, the adroitness with which he used the time factor or played upon the weakness of others, his unerring sense of proportion and power of assigning to objectives their true priorities, all mark him for the highest repute. 

His paramount interest was in the great war now begun throughout Europe, and in the immense confederacy he had seen brought into being in the New World.  He had regarded the American adventure as a miracle for Protestantism and which would serve a larger, European, purpose.  He was fond of America, and was very interested in her domestic affairs.  He admired the wilderness, wealth and power of America by land and sea.  And now, the Virginian State had come in person to enlist his assistance.  

In May of 1779, Mason met with the Dutch monarch and laid out a broad proposal.  If the prince could provide Virginia with military and economic assistance as well as trade, Virginia would seat an electorate of the prince’s choice on a new Virginian throne.  Popular support for the newly independent American nations in Holland persuaded the prince to accept the proposal.  However, the 31 year-old had an idea of his own.  Perhaps he, himself, should be permitted to assume the throne of Virginia.  This, he attested, he would do if the Virginians could acquire lands to the west, reaching to the Mississippi and could unite with Maryland and Delaware.  Mason wrote the Secret Assembly on 13 June, 1779, and waited for a response.  The Virginians agreed to the arrangement if the prince would give up his claims to the Dutch Republic and would come with a military force to oppose General Washington, the officers of which would be promised land and a seat in the new government.  The deal was officially signed in October 1780. 

In March of 1781, the newly appointed General Henry Lee began training his Virginian militias (numbering 1,200 men) to fight the Republican forces and Indian tribes within the current year and to posses as much territory to the east of the Mississippi as possible.  The Secret Assembly intended to make good on their promise to Prince William and so offered overtures of union to Maryland and Delaware, significantly increasing the economic benefit for the citizens of all three countries.  Maryland and Delaware, increasingly tired of Washington's dictatorship and longing for legitimacy among the European nations, agreed to the union only if they would receive equal representation in the new government.  The Act of Union Between Virginia, Maryland and Delaware was signed into law by the President of the newly christened House of Burgesses on 21 August 1782.  By then, General Lee was in control of the lands due west of Maryland and Virginia and was camped on the Mississippi.  Washington, in New York, fumed about his own Virginian State, saying, "William shall be king!  How did this pass beneath our noses?"  

As he boarded the flagship Rhine on 1 May 1783, he passed his throne to his sister, Princess Carolina of Orange and Nassau-Dietz, Princess of Nassau-Weilburg, who supplied the Dutch force for his crossing and security.  The royal convoy arrived at Yorktown, Virginia, on 18 November, 1783 to “cannon fire, fireworks and music of the most regal caliber.”  General Washington was there to meet him with an army of 500 hastily-gathered soldiers “clothed in homespun articles none too impressive upon the Prince.”  Washington had since allowed the Congress to reopen in Albany and was throwing himself at the foot of the new Virginian king for mercy.

William was given the Governor’s Mansion in Williamsburg as his residence and was attended by over 100 servants and slaves.  The army was moved to Arlington, Virginia, and the navy was docked in Norfolk.  William I was crowned king on 1 January, 1784, the official birthday of the Virginian Kingdom.  The world looked on in astonishment.  

Almost immediately,Virginia had problems.  The French, taking advantage of the failed republic, were encroaching on the sovereign lands of Pennsylvania and New England and Virginian assistance was needed.  In 1785, William ordered a sizeable army of 4,500 Virginians regulars under General Lee, 1,500 Virginia Volunteer Militia and Native Indians under General Washington and 1,400 Dutch under General Wilhelm Ludwig to move north and join with the militias of Pennsylvania and New England to “suppress the French advance.”  

French Generals Montcalm and Rochambeau were moving into the Ohio with a force of about 7,000 French, Canadian and Indian troops.  The American Allies' strategy would be to defeat the French and to establish outposts and forts to prevent them from returning.  The Franco-American War began when, on 17 August 1775, the American forces encountered the French under Rochambeau along the Monongahela River at Fort Duquesne, close to where General Washington had seen his first taste of battle in the Seven Years' War.  The siege was brief.  Washington and Ludwig unloaded superior artillery fire upon their midnight arrival and stormed the palisades around 4:00 AM.  The French surrendered, having lost over 700 men while the American-Dutch forces lost only 87.  The victory resulted in the treaty of Albany which was signed between Governor Montcalm of New France and King William I of Virginia.  The Indian parties, however, continued to harass the victors for months.  

Furthermore, French encroachments on American merchant vessels was being checked by the Dutch fleet and American privateers stationed out of Norfolk, Virginia.  Other Virginian ships were being constructed in Portsmouth and were to be added to the fleet by the following year.  After a sea-battle in which the French lost 32 warships, France’s newly crowned Louis XVI declared an end to hostilities and forbade his forces from marching into sovereign American territories.  By now, George III’s British Royal Navy was of sufficient strength to begin protecting its own trade to and from the Americas and added spiteful assistance to the Americans against “Papal Versailles.”

  

Throughout the 1780s and 1790s, King William oversaw the increased tobacco, cotton and fishing trade of Virginia while constructing highways and roads for improved shipping by land of all agricultural products.  The economy of the Kingdom exploded in his reign; his military was unchallenged on land or at sea.  He is perhaps one of the most popular sovereigns in Virginian history.

In 1792, however, France’s failed military campaigns on the continent and abroad caused the economy to collapse.  The incompetent Louis XVI was fumbling his resources and increasing the national debt by his mere existence.  The corrupt French government and foreign offices were straining the people further.  A rebellion in Quebec led the way for the entire empire to collapse in on itself.  France fell into Civil War between Royalists and Republicans and came to a head when Louis XVI and the royal family boarded British ships and removed themselves to Louisiana with the majority of the French court.  Royalist supporters soon followed with the assistance of the British, Spanish, Austrians and Dutch.  In 1796, France declared itself a republic while Louisiana, home to the king and his royalist subjects, became a new and independent nation: Louisiana.  

Here, slave labor was provided by warring Indian tribes and was imported from Africa and the Caribbean to build a society not unlike that of its eastern neighbors, though on a much larger scale and much more authoritarian.  Though William and the other American governments were quick to establish either an alliance with or neutrality to the new French state, the idea of a giant Catholic neighbor to the west of the Mississippi was a frightening one.

Therefore, William I called for a meeting of the heads of state from all across the continent to take place at La Nouvelle Orleans (now Nouvelle Versailles), in which a treaty would be reached guaranteeing the respect for borders.  No nation wanted North America to continue the wars of the past nor did they want to play a repeat of Europe’s bloody history.  The French King was “gracious and understanding,” and promised his “complete indebtedness to the kind people of this continent.”  

By 1800, lower Louisiana was one of the fastest growing economic powerhouses on the continent.  To their west and south, they would be contending with a fast expanding Spanish empire in Mexico.  In the interior of the country, Louis was dealing with the Indian uprisings.  There would be little concern from his east, for which he was greatly appreciative.  

With an accomplished and revolutionary reign, William I died on 8 April, 1806.  In 1809, the French Republic in Europe was at war with Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Britain as a new, military-state emerged and took hold of the country headed by a young general named Jean-Baptiste Jourdan.

The Governor General

Lewis Breland

The monarchy had gone; the governors had gone; of the Congress there remained but the few survivors contemptuously named "the Nub."  The Nub sat high in its own estimation.  It was the surviving embodiment of the Parliamentary cause.  Its members felt that the country would need their guidance for many a long year.  While Washington was fighting the Indians in the Wilderness, these grandees through their chosen Council of State ruled with efficiency.  Though they expatiated with fervor upon religion they shaped a practical policy which, if it incurred odium, did not lack strength.  They were an oligarchy born of war and still warring.  The money must be found.  It came mainly from an excise and property tax which would not have gone well had Jefferson and his "Freemen" been around to challenge it.  The religious wheel begins to turn, now, as the Anglican (renamed American) Church was voted supreme authority.  The other religiouns were obvious sources of revenue.  Heavy fines were imposed on them.  They could only preserve a portion of their estates by paying the rest in ransom.  There were large sales of land.

It was a nationalistic Nub, at once protectionist and bellicose.  Their Navigation Act forbade all imports not carried either by American ships or in those of the country of origin.  Their rivalry with the English, who controlled most of the sea-lanes still after much defeat in the Seven Years' War, provoked against a sister Protestant republic the first war in American history which was fought primarily for economic reasons.  John Paul Jones, a Scotsman, was appointed admiral.  He was the first and most famous of the "generals at sea," who proved that naval war is only the same tune played on different instruments.  The American Navy more than held its own against the British and the numerous Caribbean privateers.  Jones soon learned how to give the sea captains orders, taught the Fleet discipline and unity, and in his final campaign against the Caribbean pirates proved that land batteries, then deemed unassailable, could be silenced by broadsides from ships afloat.

The Nub prospered only so long as their General Washington was at war in the west.  When he returned victorious he was struck by their unpopularity.  He was also shocked at their unrepresentative character.  Above all, he observed that the army, hitherto occupied about God's business in other directions, looked sourly on their civilian masters and paymasters.  He labored to mediate between the shrunken Congress and its gigantic sword, but even he could not withhold his criticism.  He loathed the war against the Protestant British.  he deprecated Licensing Acts and Treason Acts, which overrode customary liberties.  Finally he convinced himself of the "pride, ambition, and self-seeking" of the remaining members of Congress.  He foresaw sad dangers should they succeed in what he now feared was their design of perpetuating their rule.  He looked upon them with a disparaging glance.  The oligarchs, dwelling under the impression that Congressional supremacy had been forever established by the independence of the colonies, and heedless of their tottering foundations, remained obdurate.  The General's outlook was clear and his language plain.  "These men," George said, "will never leave till the army pull them down by the ears."

He accordingly arrived at Congress on April 20, 1773, accompanied by thirty guards.  He took his seat and for a time listened to the debate.  Then, rising in his place, he made a speech which grew in anger as it proceeded.  "Come, now," he concluded, "I will put an end to your arguments.  This is no Congress!"  He called in his guards to clear the house and lock the doors.  While the indignant politicians were being hustled into the street the General's eye fell on the Congressional flag.  "What shall we do with this bauble?" he asked.  "Take it away and burn it."  That night a countryman scribbled on the doors of the building, "For Auction by the General of the Army."  One man's will now ruled.  One puzzled, self-questioning, but explosive spirit became for a spell the guardian of the slowly gathered work of ages, and of the continuity of the American message.

Washington, although crafty and ruthless as occasion claimed, was at all times a reluctant and apologetic dictator.  He recognized and deplored the arbitrary character of his own rule, but he had no difficulty in persuading himself that his authority sprang both from Above and below.  Was he not the new Moses, the chosen protector of the people of God, commanded to lead them into the Promised Land, if that could indeed be found?  Was he not also the only available constable to safeguard "the several forms of godliness in this nation," and especially in the civil sphere the property of God's servants who had been on the right side, against newly emerging Royalist conspirators or crazy, ravening extremists of anarchy?  Was he not the Commander-in-Chief set up by Congress, now defunct, captain of all the armed forces, the surviving holder of the whole authority of the State, and, as he said, "a person having power over thirteen nations without bound or limit set"?

Washington only desired personal power in order to have things settled in accord with his own vision, not of himself or his fame but of the America of his youthful dreams.  He was a giant laggard from the colonial age, a "rustic Virginian gentleman, born out of due time," who wished to see the other colonies brought to their due allegiance to the greatness of Virginia, and Virginia "the awe of the American continent, adorned and defended with stout planters, honorable magistrates, learned ministers, flourishing universities, invincible fleets."  In foreign policy he was British, still fighting the Catholic French and Spanish, ever ardent to lead his Virginian infantry against the stakes and torture chambers of some Grand Inquisitor, or the idolatrous superstitions of an Italian Pope.  Were these not now ripe for the sickle: aye, for the same sickle which had shorn down the malignant Louis XIV at Blenheim and Philip II's Armada in the English Channel?

Washington's success and failures in foreign policy bore consequences throughout the future of American history.  He sought to advance the world-interests of anti-monarchy and the particular needs of American commerce and shipping.  In 1774 he ended the sea war against the British which had begun two years earlier.  He made ardent proposals for an alliance between the republics of Great Britain and America, which should form the basis of an anti-Catholic league, capable not only of self-defense but of attacking the Catholic powers.  The British leaders were content to wind up with the least cost to their trading prospects a war in which they knew they were beaten.

Conflict between France and Holland was meanwhile proceeding.  Washington could choose his side.  In spite of grave arguments to the contrary urged by the Council, he sent a naval expedition to the Mediterranean Sea in 1774, and Gibraltar was occupied.  This act of aggression led slowly but inevitably to war between America and Spain.  In June 1778 six thousand veteran American soldiers in Florida under General Washington defeated the Spaniards at the Battle of St. Augustine and helped to capture the port Canaveral.  The blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar disclosed the strength of the American navy, and one of Admiral Jones's captains destroyed a treasure fleet off Teneriffe.

As Washington sat astride his personal reign, other Americans had different plans for the future of their nation.


The Virginian delegate, George Mason, was ordered by the Secret Virginian Assembly to solicit assistance from the Dutch prince, William V of Orange, in overthrowing the American dictator.  In Virginia, the Assembly was moving toward writing a constitution which would solidify their independence from the American Republic and their intention to establish a system of government equally balanced between a head of state and the elected assembly.  Therefore, Mason’s task was manifold.  He was secretly instructed to require not only monetary and military assistance from the Netherlands, but also to importune for a potential future Virginian monarch.

The American Republic

Lewis Breland

Throughout the remainder of the 1760s, British colonial governors struggled to maintain order as militias roamed the countryside, defending their homes and plantations against probing Indians and skirmishing with French forces, moving into New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Pennsylvania.  Economic crisis hit the colonies in 1766 due to Britain’s inability to maintain protection of trade.  Louis XV of France soon saw his opportunity to knock Britain out of the race for empire altogether and massed an army at Cherbourg for an invasion of Ireland.

American statesman Benjamin Franklin and others assembled again in Albany, New York, to discuss these circumstances and, in June 1767, a delegation of three Americans, including Franklin, were on their way to London to convince the government to allow the colonies to control their own affairs and to raise their own taxes.  On April 16, 1768, the King put his signature to the Albany Plan of Union, granted that American merchant shipping to Britain could be protected by American ships and that they could raise armies by their own funds to protect themselves against the French.  For the delegation, this would require support from all of the colonies, now the equivalents of independent nations.

The American Republic had come into existence even before King George III signed the Plan of Albany.  On January 4, 1769, the handful of members of the Albany Congress who served the purposes of George Washington and the army resolved that "the people are, under God, the original of all just power...that the Congress of Colonies assembles, being chosen and representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation."  On the 9th it was voted that the name of a single person should no longer be mentioned in legal transactions under the "American Seal."  A new seal was presented, bearing on one side a map of the colonies and on the other a picture of the assembly building in Albany, with the inscription "In the first year of the freedom, by God's blessing restored."  A statue of George III was thrown down in New York City, and on the pedestal were inscribed the words "Exit the tyrant, the last of the Kings."  On February 5 it was declared that the colonial governors and the rule of Britain altogether "is useless and dangerous and ought to be abolished."  Thereafter, Britain being powerless in the face of an aggressive France, the Royal governors were sent packing.  Vengeance was wrought upon a number of lawyers and businessmen.

The former colonies were now to be governed by a Council of State chosen annually by Congress.  Its forty-one members included landowners, judges, and lawyers, among them most of the principle enlightenment thinkers.  It was found to be fearless, diligent, and incorruptible.  The judiciary hung for a time in the balance.  Six of the twelve judges refused to continue, but the rest, their oath of allegiance being formally abrogated, agreed to serve the State.  The highly conservative elements at the head of the army held firmly to the maintenance of the English Common Law and the unbroken administration of justice in all non-political issues. The accession of the lawyers to the new regime was deemed essential for the defense of privilege and property against the assaults of extremists.  This had now become the crucial issue.  Fierce and furious as was the effort of the extremists, there was no hesitation among the men in power to put them down.

It was essential to divide and disperse the army, and George Washington was willing to lead the larger part of it to a war of retribution in the name of the Lord God against the idolatrous and bloodstained savage Indians.  It was thought that an enterprise of this character would enlist the fanaticism of the rank and file.  Lots were drawn which regiments should go to the wilderness, and were drawn again until only the regiments in which the extremists were strongest were cast.  A pamphlet on America's Chains spread through the army.  Mutinies broke out.  Many hundreds of veteran soldiers appeared in bands in support of "the people," manhood suffrage, and annual Congresses.  This mood was not confined to the soldiers.  Behind these broad principles the idea of equal rights in property as well as in citizenship was broadly announced by a group led by Thomas Jefferson, which came to be known as "the Freemen."

Numbers of people appeared on the common lands in French-owned Ohio and prepared to cultivate them on a communal basis.  These "Freemen" did not molest the enclosed lands, leaving them to be settled by whoever had the power to take them; but they claimed that the whole earth was a "common treasury" and that the common land should be for all.  They argued further that the former British colonies traced their founding back to Christopher Columbus, with whom a crowd of settlers and adventurers had come to America, robbing by force the mass of the Indians of their ancient rights.  Historically the claim was overlaid by centuries of custom and was itself highly disputable; but this was what they said.  The rulers of the new republic regarded all this as dangerous and subversive nonsense.

No one was more shocked that Washington.  He cared almost as much for private property as for Jefferson, but he cared more about the security of the new nation, which with the Jeffersonian settlements in Ohio, was threatening French attacks.  "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman," Washington said, "that is a good interest to the land and a great one."  The Council of State chased the would-be cultivators out of Ohio, and hunted the mutinous officers and soldiers to death without mercy.  Washington again quelled a mutiny in person, and by his orders, had Thomas Jefferson shot along the Ohio River.  His opinions and his constancy have led some to crown him as "the first martyr of democracy."  Washington also discharged from the army, without their arrears of pay, all men who would not volunteer for the Wilderness War.  Nominated by the Council as Commander, he invested his mission not only with a martial but with a priestly aspect.  He joined the Anglican divines in preaching a holy war upon the Indians, and made a religious progress to Winchester Episcopal in a coach drawn by six Flemish horses.  All this was done as part of a profound calculated policy in the face of military and social dangers which, if not strangled, would have opened a new ferocious and measureless social war in America.

The Seven Years' War

Lewis Breland

Throughout the history of North America, Britain and France had been jockeying for dominance on the continent.  Thirteen British colonies arrayed themselves along the eastern seaboard of the continent while France possessed most of the western frontier (Louisiana) and Canada (Quebec).  In 1754, when the infamous Seven Years’ War began, the French colonists numbered about 65 thousand while the British colonists to the south numbered roughly 2 million.

The Seven Years’ War began in America between colonial factors and ended on the fields of India.  Fur traders from Pennsylvania and Virginia were eager to trade with Indians in the Ohio River valley.  Leading Virginia planters, who were interested in developing the region, had formed the Ohio Company, and with support of London merchants, had received a royal grant of 200,000 acres in the Ohio River valley in 1749.
The French, determined to secure the territory against encroaching British and American traders and land speculators, built a chain of forts along Pennsylvania's Allegheny River.  The British ministry ordered colonial governors to repel the French advance, "by force" if necessary.

In 1753, Virginia's Governor Robert Dinwiddie, an investor in the Ohio Company, sent George Washington, a 21-year old major in the Virginia militia, to Pennsylvania to demand a French withdrawal from the forts.  The French refused and in the Spring of 1754, Washington returned to Pennsylvania with about 160 men.  The French defeated Washington at Fort Necessity, the first battle of the war.

Meanwhile, representatives of seven colonies met in Albany, New York, with representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The goal of the Albany Congress was to solidify friendship with the Iroquois in light of the approaching war with France and to discuss the possibility of an inter-colonial union.  Benjamin Franklin presented a "plan of union" at the conference which would establish a Grand Council which would be able to levy taxes, raise troops, and regulate trade with the Indians.  The delegates at the congress approved the plan, but the colonies refused to ratify it, since it threatened their power of taxation.

Following the surrender of Fort Necessity, Britain ordered 60-year-old Major General Edward Braddock and a combined force of 3000 redcoats and colonial militia to attack the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne at the site of present-day Pittsburgh.  French and Indian forces ambushed the expedition eight miles from the fort, killing Braddock and leaving two-thirds of his soldiers dead or wounded.

In 1756, William Pitt became the king's new chief minister.  Viewing America as the place "where England and Europe are to be fought for," Pitt let Prussia bear the brunt of the Seven Years' War in Europe, while concentrating British military resources in America.  This was to become a major mistake.
He united the previously divided colonies by guaranteeing payment for military services and supplies.  He also installed younger and what he hoped were more capable officers.

Pitt's strategy at first worked.  In 1758, the British, with colonial forces assisting, seized Louisbourg – a French fortress guarding the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.  However, in 1759, British forces under General Wolfe sailed up the river, laid siege to the city of Québec for three months, but were defeated in September.  Wolfe was killed and his tattered army surrendered. The next year, Louisbourg also surrendered to the French, ending the fighting in America.

The war came to an official end in 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.  The treaty gave France all British land in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.  The treaty also gave France all of Britain's holdings northwest of the Ohio river, which now became the boundary between the British colonies and Louisiana.  In effect, triumphant France now was the strongest nation on the continent; Britain was left militarily powerless.