I recently finished working on a section in Crucible of War set during the terrible
winter of 1777, when the Continental Army was camped at Morristown, NJ, and Washington
settled on a strategy of petite guerre, or
little war. Quickly seeing the potential of the New Jersey militias’ hit and
run raids on British patrols and foraging parties after Trenton and Princeton,
Washington seized on what turned out to be a brilliant strategy for demoralizing
and wearing down the enemy.
The American Revolution was a war of attrition, and in the
winter of 1777 it success depended most heavily on the highly effective efforts
of these New Jersey militia units. During the late fall of 1776 the inhabitants
of the state had endured incredible suffering under the heel of the British
boot, and especially because of the depredations of the Hessians, who boldly
plundered, raped, murdered, and otherwise abused the citizenry whether they had
avowed allegiance to the king or not. The result was to win rabidly loyal
adherents to the Glorious Cause as the offended populace rose up to exact
vengeance on their tormentors.
The petite guerre accomplished
a number of goals for the Americans: It ruined the Howe brothers’ strategy to
end the Revolution by pacifying the people and gathering them back into the
British fold. It denied the enemy much-needed supplies to continue the war,
while providing captured goods and materiel for American use. British casualties
rose, while the Americans suffered few wounded and dead. British morale
plummeted, while American morale soared. The petite guerre sapped the will of the British people at home by
driving up the cost of the war and the subsequent burden of taxation. At the
same time it convinced many British officers and regular soldiers that England
could not ultimately win the war.
Equally important, these limited and tightly focused
military actions provided invaluable on-the-ground training for the American
forces, increasing confidence in their ability to plan successful strategies
and carry out tactics to win against a larger professional force, their
boldness in action, their resolve to cast out the invaders, and their belief
that they would win this war. The success of the petite guerre also strengthened
the confidence of the American people in the army, and thus their adherence to
the Glorious Cause.
I’m currently working on the section of Crucible of War that covers what was going on in Congress and the
Philadelpia area in the summer of 1777 and the Battle of Saratoga in upstate
New York, with their aftermath. After enjoying a close proximity for some
months, Elizabeth and Carleton will temporarily be separated again. Carlton’s
Raiders are reassigned to join General Gates at Saratoga as the Northern Department
of the army clashes with General Burgoyne’s force moving south from Canada in
the effort to divide New England from the rest of the states. Meanwhile
Elizabeth is drawn into the series of unsuccessful battles to stop General Howe
from taking the United States capital, Philadelphia, starting with Brandywine
and ending with Germantown.
There’s so much going on during the period from July through
October, not only militarily, but also in Congress, that I’m going to have to
do a lot of switching back and forth between the Philadelphia area and the
Saratoga area. Trying to plot all the action out is really confusing. So to
keep the narrative firmly linear and give readers a clear and vivid portrayal,
to make sure my fictional storyline dovetails with what was really going on,
and to keep myself at least reasonably sane, I’m relying heavily on the monthly
calendars I create for each one of the series’ volumes. I’ll talk more about how
I create and use those in my next post.
