Petite Guerre

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.

Plotting

After creating a preliminary list of my characters’ inner and outer quests, I decided that a simple breakdown of each act would be the most useful. Making this too detailed would waste time since plots tend to morph quite a bit as the story develops. So I stuck to a brief outline that includes the inciting incident that sends the characters on their quest in Act 1, the main crisis points in Act 2, and the denouement and setup for the next volume in Act 3. Here, with the spoilers removed, is a very rough plot breakdown for Crucible of War.

Act 1: Beginning the Quest

• Battle of Trenton and return to camp.
• Encounters between Carleton and Elizabeth, Andrews and Blue Sky

Act 2: Crisis Points
1. Battle of Princeton

• Elizabeth returns to New York.
• Washington and army block British at Princeton, then withdraw to Morristown.

2. Build-up to New Campaign
New York

• Elizabeth and Tess renew relationship with Howe and his officers.
• Pieter returns to NY to court Elizabeth.

Morristown

• Reconstituting the army and planning campaign 1777.
• Carleton rebuilds his Rangers from renegades.
• Red Fox and/or Spotted Pony return to the Shawnee to seek reinforcements.
• Carleton decides to refit several of his merchantmen in France as warships to engage in the naval war.

New York

• Complications with Pieter and Howe.
• Elizabeth carries intelligence to Congress, meeting with John Adams and others.
• Progress of negotiations with France and Spain.

3. 1st Crisis and Turning Point

• Pieter learns the truth.

4. 2nd Turning Point—Campaign 1777

• Red Fox and/or Spotted Pony return to Morristown with a mixed party from the tribes.
• Battles of Bennington, Brandywine, Germantown.
• Elizabeth’s covert activities increasingly put her in danger.
• Elizabeth learns her parents and Abby are returning to Boston.

5. Main Crisis and Turning Point—Saratoga

• Carleton and his Rangers join General Gates at Saratoga.
• Americans defeat Burgoyne, ending the British quest to split the colonies along the Hudson.

Act 3—Denouement

• Tess leaves for Boston to prepare for the Howards’ return.
• Howe prepares to move against Philadelphia.
• Andrews and Blue Sky face a painful decision
• Carleton and Elizabeth take leave of each other and Elizabeth returns to NY.
• Setup for vol. 5.

As you can see, this is very sketchy, but for now I don’t want anything more detailed. All I need is something to help me keep the overall sequence of events straight. BTW, I did remove a number of important details in order to avoid spilling some major plot points, especially the ending. For now you’ll just have to guess what those might be! All I can say is that they involve Carleton and Elizabeth’s relationship and also Andrews and Blue Sky. There are yet more major changes in their lives coming up.

Right now I’m focusing on getting all my notes and existing scenes in correct chronological order. Things are kinda scattered, and it’ll be a lot easier to move forward after I sort everything out. Once that’s done, I’ll start fleshing out the sections of notes into full-fledged scenes and create transitions. I can’t wait until I have the rough draft finished! This process is like trying to extract your brain through a pinhole in your forehead with tweezers! For me the real fun begins when I have something I can edit. But it’s going to be a while yet before I get to that point, so I’d better get to it!

Book Signing Alert!

Life has been unusually crazy ever since the first of the year. I keep hoping things will slow down so I can spend more time writing, but so far things have gone in the other direction!

To catch up, Daughter of Liberty and Native Son did go live on Kindle shortly after my last post. I guess I was just too impatient—not that that’s typical of me!

I have another book signing coming up, this one at the Barnes and Noble at The Streets of Indian Lake, 300 Indian Lake Blvd, Hendersonville, Tennessee, on March 6. I’ll be signing copies of Wind of the Spirit from 2 to 4 p.m. with authors Jen Stephens and Carol S. Batey (yes, her name is spelled wrong on the sign!). Jen will sign copies of her new release from Sheaf House, The Heart’s Journey Home, and Carol will sign her release Poise for the Runway of Your Life. I also plan to have copies of Daughter of Liberty and Native Son on hand for readers who aren’t familiar with the series yet.

It’s always enjoyable when you can share a signing with other authors, and I’m looking forward to this event. We may just get a little wild and crazy! If you happen to be in the area, please drop by and join us for a bit of fun!

Series Update. I’m getting to the point where I really need to bear down on finishing the manuscript for Crucible of War. If we’re going to make the fall 2011 pub date, I'll have to have it finished by the end of the year. The battles of Trenton and Princeton are taking up my time right now. Writing battles is always intense, and these battles, which took place between Christmas 1776 and January 3, 1777, were particularly complex. The action starts off with Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware.

In this volume I’m also going to have to include Saratoga, which was actually a series of battles, pivotal confrontations between the British and Americans that ultimately turned the tide of the war. Native Americans were involved at Saratoga, so Carleton, as White Eagle, is going to bring some members of his Shawnee clan along to join in the fight.

I’d like to get the military developments out of the way so I can focus on the juicy details of Carleton and Elizabeth’s and Andrews and Blue Sky’s lives. Naturally there’s going to be a lot of passion, politics, and peril too as Elizabeth faces off against British General William Howe. There will be more than a few twists along the way. I’ll share additional details on those later.

I’m going to try to be much more faithful about updating this blog in 2010, but then I’ve said that before. Life has a way of hijacking my time, and I suspect you all have the same experience!

The History of Thanksgiving in America

The earliest attested Thanksgiving Day on American soil actually took place at what is now St. Augustine, Florida, on September 8, 1565. Most Americans, however, consider our first Thanksgiving to be the three-day celebration at Plymouth Plantation after the colonists’ first harvest in the fall of 1621, in which native peoples from the area joined. The first Thanksgiving observance recorded in this country took place on June 29, 1671, at Charlestown, Massachusetts, by proclamation of the town’s governing council.

During the 1700s, it was common practice for individual colonies to observe days of Thanksgiving at different times during the year. Two hundred years ago a day for thanksgiving would be set aside as a time for prayer and fasting, not for indulging in an abundance of food and drink, as is our custom today. Each of the states periodically designated a Thanksgiving Day in honor of the adoption of a state constitution, an exceptionally bountiful harvest, or a military victory—such as that celebrated on December 18, 1777, in gratitude for the surrender of British General Burgoyne to American forces at Saratoga, when, according to the Continental Congress:

“. . . at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express their grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole.” (Quoted in World magazine [November 15-22, 2008, p. 9])

On October 3, 1789, George Washington designated the first official national Thanksgiving Day during his first year as President. The decree set aside Thursday, November 26, as “a Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer.” The text of the decree appears below.

In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states followed suit by celebrating a Thanksgiving Day. Finally, on October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the observance of the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving. The text appears below. Since then every president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November in order to boost the economy by extending the Christmas shopping season. After a storm of protest, he changed the holiday again in 1941 to the fourth Thursday in November, where it remains today.

First National Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;—for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;—and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;—to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed) G. Washington

Source: The Massachusetts Centinel, Wednesday, October 14, 1789

Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Source: Thanksgiving (United States), Wikipedia

(Cross posted on Lamp of History)