Memorial Day is the day we honor our war dead, the men and women who gave their lives in combat to protect our nation. This is a lineage that goes back to the American Revolution.
Imagine you were a Colonial man who was approached with this proposition: “Would you join a rebellion against the most powerful King, the English King, who possesses the most powerful army and navy in the world?”
Would you have joined that rebellion and conducted a revolution against the King?
The Brits had the Colonials grossly outgunned and outmanned during the entire period of the American Revolution from April 1775 to September 1783.
The Brits
The Brits were a global power with a powerful, professional, well-bloolded army of 50-60,000 men in the Colonies including 15,000 Hessians. The Hessians were extraordinarily fine soldiers.
In addition, the Brits had Loyalists — Colonials who sided with the English in the war — numbering as many as 20,000 men. These Loyalists were extraordinarily useful as they knew the territory and road network, a key advantage of the Colonial forces.
The Brits had a global supply chain and could make up personnel losses, resupply their arms and cannons, and had professionally trained, experienced officers.
The King’s navy was the most powerful in the world with more than 300 ships of which more than half were “ships of the line” meaning warships. During the American Revolution more than 100 British warships would serve in the American theater blockading ports and preying on Colonial shipping.
The Colonials
The rebels had a small Continental Army, a handful of volunteers, and the state militias of the 13 Colonies. At its height, George Washington commanded no more than 35,000 troops of widely varying quality. In addition, after 1778, the French added 12,000 troops and even more in armaments.
In that same time period, after 1778, the French provided naval support and it was critical French naval support that boxed the Brits in a Yorktown their final surrender in the war.
The Colonial navy was a smallish force with 50 small frigates and sloops. In addition, the Congress issued up to 1,000 letters of marque commissioning private shipowners to make war on English merchant shipping as privateers.
After 1778, the French added naval forces as much as 50 ships including ships of the line that were critical at battles like Yorktown.
We barely won, dear reader. If the French hadn’t interceded on our side, we might not have won.
One of the reasons we did win was because George NMI Washington was an extremely shrewd general and never, ever allowed his army to become decisively engaged.
“Decisive engagement” means betting the entire army on the outcome of a single battle. This was true both in victory and defeat.
Washington developed his officer corps relying initially upon former British officers and foreigners and by developing talent on the battlefield. This is one of the most overlooked elements of Washington’s genius.
The reason we won is because we were fighting for our homeland and because we had men who were not intimidated. Men dropped their plows and picked up their rifles and went to war to create our country.
We suffered 8,000 men killed in action (KIA). These are the men we honor and celebrate today, Memorial Day. We honor their sacrifice and we celebrate that such men lived.
Total Colonial casualties:
KIA — killed in action — 8,000 amongst the Continental Army and the state militias
WIA — wounded in action — 25,000 man of whom more than half were incapacitated for the rest of their lives
NCD — non-combat deaths — 17,000 mostly disease and harsh conditions in the field
POW — prisoners of war — 20,000 captured of whom 10,000 died on British prison ships in New York
The Colonies had a population of approximately 2,000,000 with approximately 500,000 of them being free white men of military service age. So the total casualties are quite significant.
Our freedom, our Nation, was born of the blood of these good men.
We are a great nation born at the tip of a bloody bayonet wielded by brave men who rebelled against a harsh King who commanded the largest army and navy in the world. We won because men sacrificed their lives for our not-yet-created country.
Today, we honor those men and all our war dead. Remember who we are. Remember what it takes to be a free nation. Godspeed to our war dead and God bless America. May we always be worthy of their sacrifice.
Today take a moment to say a prayer for our war dead and their families.
