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By Root 1602 0

to the west of the American colonies, and Canada would be a threat to the north if the rebellion were successful. How could the Americans be sure of protecting themselves and maintaining their trading relationships? In fact, they could not have been certain of maintaining their freedom or their trade, but freedom was more important than potential problems. Perhaps it came down to good propaganda from American radicals who wanted to be free from England. The distinction between the attitude in America and the other colonies is the critical part. Why the attitudes were so different is hard to say.

With extremists in the American colonies making trouble and some moderates joining in, England decided to get tough and suppress these rumblings of discontent. The English Parliament did not do well in deciding how to handle the problem. Soon, the Parliament turned a problem into a crisis and then a crisis into a shooting war. Propaganda turned out by a rather well-to-do group of men in America made each English move a hammer blow against liberty and another insult to the colonists. In 1774, Britain passed the “Intolerable Acts”[87] to punish American colonists for the Boston Tea Party.[88] Soon thereafter British troops occupied Boston. The mood in the American colonies grew incredibly sour, and as the British Army stepped up its efforts to make sure no revolution occurred it accomplished the opposite.[89]

Lexington and Concord—the War begins

1775

The American Revolution became a shooting war on April 19, 1775, when a group of British soldiers set out to capture and destroy rebel rifles and gunpowder stored at Concord, Massachusetts. As the British advanced on Lexington, a small village along the way to Concord, a group of farmers turned riflemen entitled “Minute Men” barred the way at a small bridge. The English commander called for the men to disperse, but they stayed. Someone, no one knows who, fired off a rifle and the Red Coats then leveled a blast at the Minute Men.[90] Those who gathered to stop the English advance suffered several casualties, and the unharmed English marched on to Concord. The word of the confrontation spread across the countryside, and the surrounding farmers grabbed their rifles and ran to fight the British troops who had shot down their neighbors.

As the English were returning from Concord through the rolling hills and lightly forested area making up the countryside, the Americans gathered in small concealed groups and began to shoot the British column to pieces. Britain’s troops had learned to fight on the broad plains of Europe, where armies smartly lined up about one hundred yards from each other and fired away. As the British troops in their red coats marched in line back to Boston the Americans used low stone walls, trees, and bushes to hide behind while they fired at the soldiers. The British tried to handle the incoming rifle fire by turning squads toward the Americans and firing off a large volley, but the Americans were behind faraway barriers making the English musket fire ineffective. As long as the attackers stayed away from the English column, and behind walls, they could inflict casualties while losing almost none of their own.[91] The British march back to base was a nightmare for the troops, and even though they arrived back at the city of Boston intact they lost many men. The American Revolution had commenced.

The Continental Congress assembled and appointed General George Washington to lead the American cause. George Washington was the indispensable man for America and the Revolution. Washington was the heart and soul of the revolution. Without George Washington there would be no United States of America and no worthwhile constitution. He was a man who did not obsess over power or glory. When offered the office of king after the revolution he turned it down, and he left the office of president after two terms when he could have stayed for 10 if he wanted. Washington was a giant of virtue among men. With all this said, he was human. He made errors, and his army paid dearly for them;