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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Gregory Urwin reviews "The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New York"


In 2009, Norman Desmarais, a librarian at Providence College and editor of the Brigade Dispatch, launched an ambitious effort to identify every spot of ground on which hostile shots were exchanged during the American War of Independence. After reading Desmarais’ first volume, The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in Canada and New England, this reviewer hailed the project as “what promises to be the closest thing we will ever see to a comprehensive catalog of the sites touched by the War of Independence.” In this second installment of the series, The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New York, Desmarais lives up to those high expectations.

Desmarais describes this book as part of a “multi-volume geographic history of the American War for Independence.” Desmarais has done much more than merely compile a catalog of the locations and summaries of battles and skirmishes. He breaks new ground by revealing that the Revolutionary War was a much broader and sustained struggle than even accomplished scholars of that period realize. Howard Henry Peckham’s standard reference, The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (1974), numbers the conflict’s land engagements at 1,330 and those at sea at 220. Before Desmarais finishes with this series, he expects to more than double Peckham’s figures.
As can be seen in The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New York many of those clashes occurred within the borders of what later became known as the Empire State. The war did not begin in New York, but several key factors turned it into a magnet for the opposing forces. This large state linked New England with the Middle Colonies. It shared a long border with Canada, which made it a threat to British holdings to the north and also a vulnerable target. Finally, New York possessed a major Atlantic port that offered the British strategic advantages if they could seize and hold it.
Desmarais adopts a regional approach to reconstructing the war that raged in New York between1775 and 1783. Separate chapters treat Upstate New York, Downstate New York and the Hudson River Valley, Eastern Long Island, Western Long Island, and finally Manhattan and Staten Island. The book amply covers General William Howe’s New York Campaign of 1776, Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s Saratoga Campaign of 1777, Major General John Sullivan’s punitive expedition against the Iroquois in 1779, and the sharp actions that occurred at Forts Montgomery and Clinton, Stony Point, and other places. Desmarais devotes even more pages to the incessant raiding and skirmishing that filled and often ended the opposing soldiers’ lives between the bigger battles.
Twenty-first-century Americans who read Desmarais’ work cannot help but be struck by the insurgent nature of their ancestors’ struggle for independence. Both Continentals and militiamen often operated in small bodies, pecking away at their British, German, and Loyalist enemies. The fury that the King’s troops demonstrated in combat must have stemmed in large part from the fact that they could never feel completely safe in most parts of North America. The Crown’s forces also engaged in considerable raiding – along coastal waters and rivers, and perhaps even more terrifyingly, on the frontier, where they made free use of their Indian allies and vengeful Loyalists. It is clear that many supporters of the Patriot cause – civilians included – faced their share of perils before independence could be won.
In addition to regaling the reader with familiar and forgotten history, Desmarais also provides a useful travel guide, profiling the forts, museums, and other sites related to the Revolution in New York. The book provides the web sites to these establishments, which will allow interested readers to check on their hours of operation and other information.
The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New York stands as a worthy companion to the first volume in Desmarais’ monumental series. It also demonstrates that the high quality that marked the launch of this series has not slackened. The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New York is an important reference work. A copy of it should sit in every academic and public library in the Empire State, as well as the collection of any individual with a serious interest in the American War of Independence.

Gregory J. W. Urwin
Colonel’s Company
Royal Welch Fusiliers in America

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GREGORY J. W. URWIN (Ph.D.)
http://astro.temple.edu/~gurwin/
Professor of History, Temple University
Vice President-Elect, Society for Military History
General Editor, Campaigns and Commanders, University of Oklahoma Press
2011 Earhart Foundation Fellow on American History, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
2011 Tyree Lamb Fellow, Society of the Cincinnati
Academic Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Fellow, Company of Military Historians