Cool article on US Revolutionary War marksmanship training of the militia.
I'm currently reading Patriot Battles: How the Revolutionary War Was Fought which is long on the specifics of the fighting, so this article really interested me.

The Battles of Saratoga - American Revolutionary War

	A tank bag sized guide to the battles with 16 pictures from the ride, a National Park Service map and a custom route map of the 152 mile ride from Stillwater, NY ( approximately 24 miles north of Albany, NY ).
USD $4.99 for electronic PDF	USD $9.99 for laminated hard copy by snail mail

Tim Abbott at Walking the Berkshires has a good post on the history of the Iroquois Indians and the American Revolution as part of the Military History Carnival.

I rode through this area in May 2007 and the area is not only historically intriguing, but one of the best riding areas I've experienced east of the Mississippi. I wrote one detailed ride on the subject around the Fort Bull area and have an Oriskany ride in the works. I really like the Don Troiani painting of the Oriskany battle that Tim posts.

Besides being a great place to ride with mountains, country roads, and seaside, North Carolina holds some of the coolest battlefield riding in such a compact area. Check out A Student of History's dissertaion summary on North Carolina and the Revolutionary War.
Battlefield Biker rides; Moore's Creek Bridge, Guilford Courthouse and nearby in South Carolina, Cowpens.
And for those of you who only think of the Civil War, Fort Fisher.

In the early morning hours of May 10th, 1775, a guerilla force from the New Hampshire Grants area (present day Vermont) with a vainglorious co-leader crossed Lake Champlain into New York and took the British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga whilst they slept.

Three weeks after Lexington and Concord and on the very day that the Second Continental Congress was to meet in Philadelphia, Ethan Allen (with his brother, Ira, and his cousin, Seth Warner) led the "Green Mountain Boys" from Hands Cove on the eastern side of Lake Champlain to a landing point near Fort Ticonderoga. They had a fellow traveller who tried to assert his control over the party, but seeing him commanding only his own person at the time, the rough Green Mountain Boys decided to only allow the poppinjay to travel as co-leader. His name was Benedict Arnold.

At the time, Ethan Allen was wanted by the New York authorities for offenses committed in the New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) against New York settlers. The NH Grants area was claimed by three colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York) and would soon become an independent Republic in 1777 before joining the United States as the fourteenth. Allen and his Boys had responded to an approach from concerned citizens about the safety of the Lake Champlain corridor from British penetration. The fort at Ticonderoga, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, was the obvious place to secure against this type of incursion, so the band of mountaineers set sights on Hands Cove as a jumping off point. Benedict Arnold was from Rhode Island, late of Connecticut, but applied to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to secure the fort as well. Given permission, but no men, the ever confident Arnold set out for Hands Cove as well.

After meeting in Hands Cove, Arnold (Mass. Committee of Safety papers in hand) presented himself as the new leader of the New Hampshire grantsmen. One can imagine the chuckles the mountain men suppressed as they listened to the city boy make his claim. Whether Arnold convinced them to let him become co-leader or if they tolerated him like the village idiot who claims to be Napoleon, no one will know (yes, I know Napoleoon was 5 at the time, but the analogy still works). Either way, the future traitor was on the boat to Ticonderoga that morning.

After landing, the force quietly made their way up to the fort and overtook the only sentry. They then proceeded to enter the fort which was really nothing more than a fortified hamlet of 2 officers, 48 men and 24 women and children. Finding all of the fort asleep, Allen announced his presence and his authority and demanded surrender which was quickly forthcoming. Allen sent Warner further north up the lake to take the fort at Crown Point as well. Arnold, not to be outdone, went all the way to Canada to occupy Fort Saint Johns at the intersection of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River. Perhaps, realising his invitation of a rout by British forces, Arnold thought twice and left the area. Allen took it anyway, but was run off soon thereafter.

As one can easily read, the action on 10 May 1775 was not really all that important tactically and its strategic importance geographically at the time was questionable. However, I have left out one important detail of strategic importance. Fort Ticonderoga, as frail as it was, housed a large cache of reasonably modern artillery consisting of 44 guns, 14 mortars and one howitzer. The infant Continental Army was woefully short of artillery and these pieces would begin to play a decisive role less than a year later at the Dorchester Heights above Boston when used to lay siege to the cooped up British Army and Navy.

As for the main players, Allen was later captured by the British in Quebec and sent to a Cornish prison. The British army were to run into Seth Warner and the Green Mountain Boys again near Bennington, Vermont in 1777 and lose again. Fort Ticonderoga was still to play a major role in the war as British General Burgoyne took it back in 1777 and used it as a base to attack further south in his disastrous New York campaign. As for Benedict Arnold... after a vain, but generally well-regarded stint as an American commander, he became the one name that all American school children learn when being taught about loyalty to the nation.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Lake Champlain is really quite striking and it is easy to travel its length largely in eye-shot of it. Its importance to the founding wars of the USA cannot be understated.
Start at the Hands Cove Road in Vermont to see the launch area and go to the Larrabees Point ferry for a short ride across the lake with Fort Ticonderoga in view. Visit the Fort, then head north on NY Route 9N to Crown Point Historical Park and across the bridge into Vermont and the Chimney Point Historical Park. From there head north following Lake Champlain from the Vermont side and through the Grand Isle and Hero Islands, across the Canadian border into Quebec to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (site of the former Fort St Johns). Google Map of the route.

Book Recommendation: The Glorious Cause from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: New York Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

In early 1776, the American colonists were trying hard to limit the area in which British forces, based in Boston, could operate. As long as the British could retreat to the safety of Boston and its harbor, General George Washington would not be able to control the eastern end of Massachusetts. From Boston, British General Howe could re-supply from the sea and conduct operations with Boston as a base. In fact, Howe had taken nearby Bunker Hill (albeit with heavy losses) and was planning more of these types of operations in early March 1776.

Washington knew bold, unexpected and decisive action was needed to disrupt Howe's plans. In Late 1775, Washington had dispatched Artillery Colonel Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga, a captured British garrsion, to bring the impressive array of artillery to Boston as soon as possible. Washington had probably expected it in late Spring, but the big man Knox drove his oxen and men hard over the lakes, rivers and frozen terrain of New England to get the 44 guns, 14 mortars and one howitzer to the outskirts of Boston by early February 1776. Knowing good fortune when he saw it, Washington wanted to take aggressive action immediately. Washington wanted to conduct a daring cross Charles River attack from Cambridge, but his council of war thought it too risky. Washington's leaders agreed on the decisive action, but wanted to do it without significant risks to their small and largely untested militias. The compromise was to take aggressive action on Dorchester Heights which overlook Boston from the southeast.

On 2 and 3 March 1776, the Patriots fired the Knox artillery on the British in Boston and the Brits returned the favor. Washington had prepared a river crossing unit to the west of Boston to provide relief, if Howe tried to break out and disrupt the Dorchester Heights plan, although it seemed as if he had no idea what was going on. Whilst the artillery duelled, heavy, but transportable, fortifications were being fabricated down the hill. On the night of 4 March 1776, General Artemas Ward's forces used an old ploy of Washington's and put straw on the wheels of his wagons' wheels to move quietly and began occupying Dorchester Heights from neighboring Roxbury. With a mammoth effort and 300 ox carts of material moved up the hill, the rebels had constructed 4 works on the heights and the flanks. By daylight on the 5 March, General Howe awoke to incomplete, but substantial works on the southeastern hills overlooking the harbor and the city. Howe was reported as saying, "The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month."

The British Admiral Molyneaux Shulddown informed Howe that he could not maintain his ships in the harbor with such a threat. In the following days, Howe planned a quick counter-attack, but bad weather or a bout of under confidence or both made him quit Boston. By 17 March, in agreement with Washington not to destroy Boston if allowed to leave unmolested, the British had left Boston on ships for Halifax, Nova Scotia. They would be back, but for now Boston was in the Patriots hands and the radicals of the American colonies had a lot to crow about.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Try Massachusetts state route 3A (MA-SR-3A) from Dorchester Heights down to Plymouth where the colony began.

Book Recommendation: The Glorious Cause from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Massachusetts Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Boston area

On 27 February 1776, British Loyalists, made up predominantly of Scottish Highlanders, decided to take on a known Patriot force near Currie, North Carolina. The Loyalists were handed their hats at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in an action that destined North Carolina to be one of the first colonies to push for a declaration of independence from the Crown.

In early 1776, the British were preparing to put down a full scale rebellion in the north of the North American colonies. At the urging of the North Carolina governor, they saw an opportunity to put the fledgling rebellion in the south to rest early and secure a good base for northern operations. A Scottish clan leader, named Donald MacDonald (no freedom fries jokes, please) was apppointed Brigadier General and raised a Scottish Higlander militia of 1,600 from the interior of North Carolina to fight for the Loyalist cause. They were marching to the North Carolina port town of Brunswick, south of present day Wilmington, to meet the British forces of Cornwallis and Clinton in late February 1776. On route, they received word that local Patriot forces were gathering around Moores Creek, but the Highlanders figured they could take them and proceeded to battle.

The Patriots in three separate forces, led by Colonels Alexander Lillington, Richard Caswell and James Moore, arrived from 25 February 1776 and began earthen works on the east and west sides of the bridge. By the morning of the 27th, they had consolidated behind the eastern works with two cannons known as "Old Mother Covington and her Daughter."

MacDonald led his force from the west and decided to charge headlong across the bridge with a lead element of Highlanders, screaming "King George and broad swords." Behind the works, the Patriots waited until the lead Scots crossed the deliberately slippery and rickety bridge, then let loose with a volley of musket, followed by the limbering up of the elderly mum and her hot progeny. One could imagine the Patriot reply of "General George and redneck hordes." The Patriot rifles and gunners put such a world of hurt on the bagpipe serenaded Loyalists that the whole offensive failed immediately. The losses to the lead element were horrendous, but the longer term damage was from the rounding up of 850 prisoners that had been dispersed by the action.

The British plans to subdue the south and then on the north were superceded by one determined force of North Carolina militia. The Brits were not to focus on the south again until 1780.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Here's a ride to show you part of North Carolina, much like it was in colonial times. Start in Wilmington, North Carolina and head down to the Orton Plantation, which is near the historical site of Brunswick, to which the Loyalists were heading to meet with British Regulars and more Loyalists on that fateful day. Then cut up through the Green Swamp and finally down to the Moores Creek National Battlefield.

Book Recommendation: Decisive Battles of the American Revolution from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Wilmington area

An enduring idea the British had about the American colonists during the Revolutionary War was that many of them were actually Loyalists to the Crown. The British had spent considerable effort trying to round up these Loyalists and get them in the fight. After several years of being disappointed by the lack of Loyalist fervor in the North, the British became sure that there were more Loyalists to be found in the backwoods of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In early 1779, a Loyalist named James Boyd was dispatched by the British with a open Colonel commission from Savannah to recruit more Loyalists in the Georgia interior. He had done this and even fought a few skirmishes with Patriots when he arrived at Kettle Creek, in Wilkes County, Georgia on 14 February 1779. His 600 men set up camp on the creek and many of them set off to forage for food.
Colonel Andrew Pickens was a Patriot commander in the area and he had heard of Boyd's expedition. Pickens decided to tail Boyd and put a Georgia whupping on him for stirring up the area. Pickens had with him Colonel John Dooly, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke and 340 Patriots.
Pickens caught up with Boyd at Kettle Creek and planned to surprise the camp. Pickens took a little over half the force and went straight at the camp. Dooly and Clarke each took half of the rest and went around the swampy ground on either side of the camp. Pickens's men, however, were spotted by Boyd's pickets. Boyd was able to get his men behind rocks and trees and fend off Pickens for several hours. Things were looking pretty grim for Pickens, because Dooly and Clarke were delayed in the swamps. Boyd must have been feeling confident that he could see off this group of traitors. Confident right up to the point that a musket ball got him. Seeing their leader fall put the panic in the Loyalists and they all ran for their camp.
About this time, Dooly and Clarke emerged from the swamps and converged on the camp from opposite sides. The rout was now on and the battle swung wildly in favor of the Patriots.
Although a small battle of volunteers in the backwoods of Georgia, Kettle Creek was important. It disabused the British of the notion that the backwoods of Georgia could be held for the Crown. It effectively ended the Loyalist cause in Georgia.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Try this ride through some of East Georgia best country and end up at the Kettle Creek Battleground Memorial.

Book Recommendation: From Crown to Glory: The Journey of a Carolina Family from Loyalty to the King to Revolution 1730-1780 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Georgia Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the East Georgia area

On 10 January 1776, the English pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, anonymously released Common Sense, a 50 page pamphlet that outlined Paine's belief that "...there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island." Paine thereby stated, "It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things to all examples from former ages, to suppose, that this continent can longer remain subject to any external power." It sold a half a million copies. It was so influential that Washington had it read to the troops to encourage re-enlistment when the Continental Army's fortunes were flagging. If "no taxtion without representation" was the rally cry to rebellion, then Common Sense was the intellectual underpinning.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

check out the circular route to the sotheast of Thetford, Norfolk, Paine's birthplace, where you can find a statue in the town.

Maps

After the decisive British victories in New Jersey, Washington had to be cunning, daring and lucky. He'd been lucky to get away from the advancing British earlier in the war with a reasonable force left. He had already made his daring crossing of the Delaware over Christmas, but those types of raids would be hard to re-create. Therefore, on 3 January 1777, George Washington evaded a decisive engagement with Cornwallis near Trenton, but cunningly managed to cut off the British rearguard in several surprising engagements around Princeton , New Jersey. Cornwallis and his Hessians around Ternton regrouped and took off in pursuit, but the damage had been done.
The British were to leave New Jersey soon thereafter to focus on the more straegically important northeast coast. Washington had proven to the British that neither he nor his ragtag troops could be taken easily.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Check out New Jersey County Route 518 from Lambertville on the Delaware River to New Brunswick, NJ. This route passes just north of Princeton, where Washington stayed (Rockingham State Historical Site)later in the war.

Maps

On December 19th 1777, Washington's Revolutionary Army occupied Valley Forge for the Winter. Things may have been bad at this point, but they were only going to get worse as the harsh winter set in. No other act of the Revolutionary era proved the will of Washington and the few men he had to accomplish the impossible better than the winter at Valley Forge.
As the Spring came, so did hope, better provisions and strong training in the form of the Prussian Baron Friedrich von Steuben.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Try Pennsylvania State Route 345 west of Valley Forge for a run through the forests of French Creek State Park. Also consider Pennsylvania State Route 841 from Doe Run to the Maryland line.

Maps

">Example

Between 1775 and 1781, the American colonies of Britain fought to secure their independence from the crown. The war was fought along the east coast of the present day USA from Massachusetts to Georgia.

• Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense 10 January 1776
• Battle of Moores Creek Bridge North Carolina 27-February 1776
• Patriots Occupy Dorchester Heights Overlooking Boston 4-5 March 1776
• 8 December 1776 Washington Retreats Across the Delaware River
• George Washington Defeats Cornwallis at Battle of Princeton 3 January 1777
• 19 December 1777 Continental Army Winter Quarters at Valley Forge Begins
• The Battle of Kettle Creek, Georgia 14 February 1779
• British General Benedict Arnold Burns Richmond, Virginia 5 January 1781
• Battle of Cowpens South Carolina 17 January 1781
• Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina 15 March 1781





Technorati Tags: 13-Colonies 1700s 1770s 1776 American Revolution American Revolutionary War Britiain Canada CT DE East-Coast Founding GA MA MD NC NH NJ NY PA Quebec RI SC USA USA VA VT motorcycle motorcycle-touring motorcycle touring military history military-history battlefields

On 8 December, after a long retreat through New Jersey, George Washington crossed the Delaware River from NJ to Pennsylvania, completing one of the most successful retreats in history. Washington's retreat enabled him to preserve his small force and launch surprise attacks later in the month.

Try PA SR 32 from Kintnersville to Washington's Crossing. Or, if you are in NJ, try NJ State Route 29 from Frenchtown, NJ to Trenton, NJ to follow the river, get in some nice twisties and get a good idea of the task that faced Washington.

There are two state parks commemorating Washington's crossings of the Delaware River. One in NJ and one in PA.