Q&A: Challenges of the American Revolution
We are grateful to General George Washington (Dan Shippey), Alexander Hamilton (Eben Kuhns) and Marquis de Lafayette (Mark Schneider) for answering additional questions for students about their lives and their experiences in the Revolutionary War. Thank you to the many students who submitted questions during our program.
ABOUT FAMILY
Q: Did your wife, Martha, participate in the war effort?
A: Indeed, she worked to organize the ladies to raise money for the war effort, to repair clothes and even make shirts for the men. She visited and volunteered with the sick in camp. She organized the Headquarters household and made sure all was prepared when visitors came. There was never a time in all eight years of the war that we did not have a constant parade of visitors.
Q: Did you ever have children?
A: Unfortunately, my dear Patsy and I never have had any children of our own. I was fortunate enough to be stepfather to my good wife’s daughter and son from her first marriage.
ABOUT THE WAR
Q: What was it like when General Lee called a retreat instead of fighting?
A: I was at first in utter disbelief. I accused the soldier who first told me of lying, as the idea was so inconceivable to my mind. When I realized General Lee had in truth called for retreat I am embarrassed to admit my anger overwhelmed my customary disposition.
Q: How did you feel when you found out about Benedict Arnold being a turncoat?
A: It was one of the darkest days I can recollect in the entirety of the war. That a man who had hazarded all for our cause so often, had dared when others would have run and had suffered grievous injury only to recover and return to the field, that he for a foreign purse would turn traitor? It is still beyond my understanding. He was, at the time, the officer I would have trusted in the field above all others.
Q: What happened to Benedict Arnold?
A: It is my understanding that he is residing in London.
Q: Did you ever fight on the front lines or did you command only?
A: My Military Family and my dear Wife have often expressed a desire that I might take more care of my own safety in field. It is my belief however that leadership requires that one leads from the front.
ABOUT THE WAR
Q: How old were you when you stole the cannon off the Asia?
A: If memory serve, I was but around 18 years of age, a mere stripling of a boy and, as young as I was, this was indeed my very first military encounter while serving in the Company of Militia known as the Corsicans, or the Hearts of Oak. We actually stole the cannon from the Grand Battery in New York City while under fire by the Asia. It was a harrowing experience, but I found it thrilling. At one point, in order to aid in removing the cannon, I had to leave my musket with my dear friend, Hercules Mulligan. Upon seeing him again and asking where my musket was, he replied that he had left it behind! It was no matter, I gladly went back for it. Still under fire, mind you. Ah, what fun it was!
Q: How long were you Washington’s right-hand man?
A: Ah, well, that will require some degree of calculation. I officially met with General Washington to serve as his Aide de Camp in February of 1777, officially starting in March of that year. I served in this capacity for some four years until April of 1781, when we decided to part ways on that front. That was not the last time that I would serve under His Excellency, for on the 11th of September, 1789, I was appointed to serve under him in a wholly different capacity: as the Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. This was a task I took to with vigor and served under him until my finances dictated that I remove myself from that position at the end of January of 1795 to spend more time in the support and enjoyment of my family. So, officially, you could say that I served as the General’s “right-hand man” for roughly nine-and-one-half years. Almost a decade! It should be noted that, while I was not always directly working under him, we wrote each other quite often, sharing our goals for the Nation’s growth and prosperity, and developing strategies on how to obtain them. So, depending on how you count it, at least a decade, and very probably more.
Q: What attacks did you lead? Did you help plan more than you fought in?
A: Once I was awarded the rank of Captain of Artillery, I led men in every battle I was in, the Battle of White Plains, Battle for Trenton, and the Battle for Princeton. That last is one in which I feel particular pride, as it was my cannonade which ultimately led to the capture of Nassau Hall, bringing an end to their occupation. As an aside, I’ve heard your contemporaries say that I am responsible for the “beheading” of the portrait of King George in that Hall. While I’ve never laid claim to that achievement, I am indeed honored by this. In joining the General’s Military Family, I had little opportunity to lead troops, and it was only after I left that I was given command of the infantry. I would lead them to great success in the dark, ammunition-less, ten-minute storming of Redoubt 10, at Yorktown. While short, it was this taking of the Redoubt which gave me the greatest military glory of all the battles, and just in time too, for the War had just about ended.
Q: What kinds of weapons were used in the war?
A: Early in the war, I mostly dealt with cannon, of which you ideally needed at least 6 people to operate. These were valuable artifacts, and required intense training to operate, as they were both dangerous and quite difficult to move about. Indeed, one of my cannons once exploded, perhaps due to the age of the weapon or due to improper use by its handlers. Of course, we used muskets, but during my storming of Redoubt 10 at Yorktown, we took the ammunition out of our guns. If one of our guns went off accidentally, our position would have been given away and all would have been lost. So, we relied specifically on the bayonets affixed to our guns, trusting that once we were over the parapets, the closeness of the action would tip the battle in our favor.
Q: Were soldiers paid? If so, how much?
A: As a private, you could stand to earn about $6 per month, and a captain could make some $20 every month. In order to encourage men to join, bounties of money or land were also promised to some. Bear in mind, that was not an inconsequential amount in those days, but it was not enough. Soldiers had to buy their own weapons and uniforms, which would cut severely into a young man’s wages. Pay was not even always guaranteed, and we saw quite a few soldiers leave the army because they were not seeing the salary they were promised. I hold that if a job is worth doing, it is worth a wage commensurate with its value, for realistically, if the one doing the job feels cheated, then they will look elsewhere for enumeration. Just look at Benedict Arnold.
Q: Were you frightened to fight the most powerful army and navy in the world?
A: Of course. How could it be any other way? Indeed, after we evacuated from New York City in 1776, the War seemed lost. Certainly, we were able to win victories here and there, and morale did improve greatly after Trenton and Princeton, but even so, our soldiers were dying of disease and deserting. It was not until France, whose Army and Navy rivaled Great Britain, that victory truly felt achievable. Throughout, our fear of losing everything was very real, but we did what we did because the fight was a righteous one, and if we failed, we failed for the greatest of causes.
Q: What exactly were you fighting for?
A: What I think everyone needs to understand is that the war was not fought over taxes. Or rather, the war was not fought over excessive taxes. Indeed, three pence per pound tax upon tea was certainly not particularly injurious, but it was a symptom of the greater disease. It was not the tax, but the Principle upon which the tax was implemented. The fact was that Great Britain was taxing these peoples without representing them in Parliament. As I once penned: “The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists in this: In the former state, a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person, or by his representative: In the latter, he is governed by the will of another.” It mattered not what the price of those taxes were, but that those of this continent had, quite simply, not consented to those taxes. That was the principle which founded all of those discontents which led to us raising arms against our mother country. It should be noted that, upon the foundation of a strong, centralized, and most of all, representative government, such armed rebellion is indeed much diminished in its justification. Taxes are not intrinsically bad; lack of consent is.
ABOUT FAMILY
Q: How many children did you have?
A: Over the course of my life, I have had eight children: Philip, Angelica, Alexander, James, John, William, Eliza, and Little Phil. Whenever I had given up governmental positions, it was entirely for their benefit, and mine, for they are my greatest joys in this life.
Q: Where did you and your family live?
A: We have lived in New York City and Philadelphia at various points in our lives, but the only home that I have ever outright owned stands in upper Manhattan, a building which I had built and named after my old Scottish family’s estate: The Grange. It is a small house for such a large family, but truly I am proud of my sweet project. It is more of a country home than I have ever lived and, while I am not much of a gardener, I do like to try my hand at it, and indeed, succeed at growing grass. It was here that we were able to find some measure of the peace that I had so actively avoided for most of my life.
About Family
Q: How did you feel about getting married so young?
A: Believe it or not, it was the custom or tradition of the French aristocracy (nobility,) to get married at a young age. The parents of the two people getting married would arrange it when the children were very young. Why? Well because a “union” of the two families could be advantageous to both families either financially or socially. To answer your great question more specifically, at 16 there is a great deal going on in your life as you are growing up, so marriage certainly was a difficult challenge to get used to.
About the War
Q: How long did your journey from France to America take? How many miles was the journey?
A: The first journey that I took to the United States took me 8 weeks at sea! I was seasick much of the time! The distance is 4,300 miles!
Q: Why did you want to join the American Cause/Army?
A: I wanted to join the American Army because I believed in what they were fighting for. It was a war like no other. They were fighting for people’s rights, liberties, representation in government and a equality of mankind. I wanted to be part of that. Also, as a Frenchman, our main enemy was Britain, and my father was killed by the British. Another reason to fight. I also always wanted to be a soldier and find adventure, glory and honor.
Q: How long did it take for the French to agree to the Treaty with America?
A: The Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States would not be official until February 6th 1778. The Americans had really been fighting since April of 1775, so it took a long time.
About the Return to France
Q: When you returned to France, why were you placed under house arrest? How did that feel?
A: When I returned back to France for the first time and was placed under house arrest, I felt horrible! I really thought that I had ruined the reputation of my family. My family and ancestors had always been soldiers of France and I thought I had now perhaps tarnished that great lineage. Fortunately, after a short time, the King would forgive me and everything would be ok.
(Special thanks to Joseph F. Stoltz III, Ph.D., Director of Leadership Programs at Mount Vernon for providing additional information on these questions.)
Q: How was New York retaken?
A: New York was retaken by ending the war everywhere else. The American government didn’t retake possession of New York until November 1783 when the last British troops left for home. Washington came to realize that rather than needing to retake New York to end the war he could retake New York by ending the war.
Q: What kinds of weapons were used?
A: There were a wide variety of weapons used, but they can be roughly broken down into two groups: muskets and cannons. Muskets were used by infantry soldiers the way modern soldiers use rifles. Cannons from the American Revolution evolved into the type of cannon modern artillery soldiers use today, but in George Washington’s time cannon were really nothing more than massive versions of the muskets the infantry used.
Q: Were soldiers paid? If so, how much?
A: That question is more complicated than it maybe seems. Almost all soldiers expected to be paid. At various points throughout the war, some American states allowed owners of enslaved people to enlist an enslaved person into the army. Some states allowed those people to be paid, others paid the enslaver. Many times United States soldiers weren’t paid at all, either because Congress or their home state had no money or because the Continental Army just wasn’t that good at figuring out who it still needed to pay. Also, the rate of pay changed from the beginning to the end of the war. So, as an example: in 1783 at the end of the war, a Continental Army infantry private (the lowest ranking soldier in [usually] his unit) was entitled to $6.67 per month, but a private serving in the cavalry or artillery should have gotten $8.33 per month because their jobs required more training. Their bosses (officers) could make as much as $40 per month for a captain and $75 per month for a colonel. British soldiers and officers were paid slightly more. There was a wide variety in the pay of the German soldiers that came to fight alongside the British. The French soldiers that fought alongside the Americans made slightly more than the Americans because French money was worth more than American money.
Q: How many people fought in the war? Died? From which nations?
A: Like the question about soldier pay, this one is also harder to answer than it seems partly because historians can only go off of the records that survive. Sometimes the record keeping at the time wasn’t great to begin with and other times damage to archives destroys information historians would like to have. Also, the war grew from being just something the United States and Great Britain fought over to a global conflict involving most of the major European empires. The last battle of the war was actually fought in the Indian Ocean by the British and Dutch navies.
As far as which nations, on the side of the United States or just fighting the British empire you had: the United States, the Oneida and Tuscarora nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
On the side of Great Britain, you had: The empire of Great Britain (which included Great Britain, Ireland, and the British-American loyalists), the other five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, and a variety of sovereign German principalities including but not limited to Hesse-Kassel, Waldek, and Hanover. The Germans are especially confusing because there was no nation called Germany yet, and just as many German-speaking soldiers served in the French Army under George Washington’s command at the Battle of Yorktown as served with the British Army at the same battle.
About 200,000 Americans fought in the Continental Army or with the state militias throughout the war. On average there were about 40,000 serving at any given time. The French Army based about 4,000 soldiers in the United States to assist George Washington, more arrived for specific activities and then left.
About 121,000 soldiers served in the British Army throughout the war, but the British army directly fighting the Continental Army never had more than 48,000 soldiers in its ranks. About 25,000 British-Americans signed up to fight for the British empire. Britain paid for roughly 30,000 German soldiers to join them in North America and received assistance from about 13,000 fighters from the Iroquois Confederacy.
About the War
Q: How was New York retaken?
A: New York was actually never retaken during the American Revolution. The British held it until after the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the war in September 1783. After that, they were forced to evacuate as per the conditions of the treaty.
Q: What kinds of weapons were used?
A: Many weapons were used during the American Revolution. The most common weapon used by all sides was the musket. This was a smooth bored, flint-lock weapon that had a bayonet attached to the end. Other weapons included pistols, swords, pikes, lances, cannons, mortars and howitzers.
Q: Were soldiers paid? If so, how much?
A: Soldiers in the army were paid. They would be paid $6.25 each month and would receive an increase in pay as they would get promotion in rank. The problem in the American army was that the government did not have much money and as a result, many soldiers would not be paid.
Q: Were you frightened to fight the most powerful army and navy in the world?
A: Every soldier is frightened no matter who the enemy might be. How to deal with that fear is called courage. A good definition of courage is to do what is right, or is asked of you, despite the presence of fear. The British army was formidable, but the American soldiers knew what they must do in order to succeed and achieve independence.
Q: What exactly were you fighting for?
A: Many people were fighting for many things. For some it was representation in government, for others to not have to pay higher taxes. In the end, most were fighting for their rights and liberties. Still others for glory and adventure as well as their families and property.
