Howe America Won The Revolutionary War

[BlueStateSaint]

Yes, that's a deliberate misspelling.  Read on and you'll see why.

Guns & Politics: Howe America Won The Revolutionary War

Susan Smith  Columnist  11:11 AM 07/16/2017

Families.  You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.  We are in the middle of a family drama right now in the U.S.A., and have yet to see how that will turn out.  We all hope for the best, I am sure, and in the meantime, I am reminded of a family drama that played out in a quite different, though equally dramatic fashion, in the 18th Century while this nation was being formed.

In the early 18th Century in London, England, four sons were born to Emanuel Howe, 2nd Viscount Howe, and his wife, Charlotte, who was the illegitimate half-sister of King George I.  These remarkable four fellows, George, Richard, Thomas and William, all went on to become highly capable officers, serving their country proudly and honorably in various military capacities during their lifetimes.   The two who would have an impact on American lives would be Admiral Richard Howe, and General William Howe.

William joined the British Army when he was 17, and fought brilliantly in various European conflicts until, at the rank of Major General, was sent to military service in America.  For years before this assignment, he had made it very clear in Parliament and other venues that he was “generally sympathetic to the American colonies” and asserted that “the entire British army could not conquer America.”    When King George called on him to serve, Howe accepted, claiming that “if he did not, he would suffer the odious name of backwardness to serve my country in distress.”

The General sailed for America in March, 1775, accompanied by fellow Major Generals Henry Clinton and John Burgoyne, and upon arriving in Boston in May of that year, discovered that war had in fact broken out.   Howe was assigned to serve as second in command under General Thomas Gage, who immediately assigned Howe to lead the operation against the colonists in what became known as The Battle of Bunker Hill.  Howe himself bravely led his troops in the first two charges against the Americans, with the third assault finally “gaining the objective, but the cost of the day’s battle was appallingly heavy.”  Howe himself described the battle as a “success…too dearly bought.”

When General Gage returned to England, in October of that year, Howe took over as Commander in Chief of the British Army in America.  General Howe was called upon by the powers that be in London to implement the abandonment of “Boston and the establishment of bases in New York and Newport, Rhode Island in an attempt to isolate the rebellion to New England.”  Howe thus made the hugely significant decision to remain in Boston for the winter, and to resume his campaign against the colonists in the spring of 1776.  What this meant was that Howe never attempted to engage the Continental Army, which gave it and its highly capable leader, General George Washington, time to regroup, train and begin the formation of what was to become the formidable fighting force that eventually defeated the British in the Revolutionary War.

I never knew that the Howes were Colonist sympathizers.  Makes sense, though.  "Do your duty--just don't do it too well."

The rest of the piece is here:  http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/16/guns-politics-howe-america-won-the-revolutionary-war/