on August 1, 1759. After several hard charges,
the allies had penetrated the French center
and the prince ordered his cavalry forward to
clinch the victory. Sackville, commanding the
reserves, refused to advance on the grounds
that his orders were too vague, and the French
withdrew intact. This single act of defiance
forever stained Sackville as militarily incom-
petent, and he was removed from command
and publicly humiliated. In 1760, he demanded
and received a court-martial, which pro-
nounced him guilty of disobedience and “unfit
to serve His Majesty in any military capacity
whatsoever.” Sackville was then cashiered; to
underscore his displeasure, George II sum-
marily ordered the verdict written into every
orderly book in the English army! Stung by the
king’s vindictiveness, Sackville worked the
next 15 years trying to erase this blot from his
personal reputation.
By 1770, Sackville had made major gains in
rehabilitating his public standing when he in-
herited property from Lady Betty Germain—
on the grounds that he change his name ac-
cordingly. Thereafter, he was formally known
as Lord Germain. He also gained a political
respite following the accession of King
George III to the throne, and the two men be-
came close friends. The British Empire at this
time was being wracked by political dissent
arising over the issue of taxation, and the
American colonies were brewing with resent-
ment. The conservative Tories could not
fathom the depth of opposition to imperial
policies in America, and many statesmen in-
sisted upon coercive measures to enforce
them. Germain was among the most outspo-
ken and eloquent proponents of the hard line.
He allied himself with the faction supporting
Frederick, Lord North, another strong sup-
porter of imperial policies, and George III.
Germain finally achieved his dramatic vindi-
cation in November 1775. Previously despised
as a coward, he now succeeded Lord Dart-
mouth as secretary of state for the colonies,
then in revolt against the Crown. Thus Ger-
main, still reviled in some quarters for his be-
havior at Minden, now conducted military af-
fairs intended to bring America back into the
English fold.
Germain has long been vilified for his role
in directing the war against America and—be-
cause England lost—was commonly regarded
as incompetent. In truth, despite profound
shortcomings in terms of tact and personal
diplomacy, Germain functioned efficiently in
his appointed role. He certainly displayed
more tenacity and conviction in his opinions
than did Lord North, another vilified figure,
who displayed caution and indecision when
confronting major decisions in the war. Over
the next six years Germain, more than any
other individual, bore responsibility for rais-
ing 65,000 soldiers, shipping them to the New
World, and overseeing their logistics. This
would have taxed the abilities of any minister
operating in Europe, but in this instance
British forces were operating at the end of a
3,000-mile supply line. The system Germain
worked out was by no means perfect, and
there were occasional lapses, but overall
Crown forces in America were well supplied
and adequately manned. Major problems
arose, unfortunately, in exactly how to em-
ploy them.
Germain’s shortcomings as a war leader
were legion. His principal failure was in
strategic conception, a trait shared by virtu-
ally all senior British commanders assigned to
America. To the very end he refused to accept
that the colonists were unfaithful to England.
In fact, he believed that the majority of Ameri-
can’s citizens were Loyalists by nature and
only cowed by the lack of a visible British mil-
itary presence. Neither was Germain above
personal politics. He openly despised several
senior leaders, among them William Howe,
Guy Carleton, and Henry Clinton, either
from their previous service in Germany or be-
cause of disagreements over strategy. For this
reason, Germain appointed the tractable but
inexperienced John Burgoyneto command
the decisive 1777 campaign (which came to
grief at Saratoga, New York) over the more
experienced Carleton. More important, his in-
structions to other commanders were vagueGERMAIN, GEORGESACKVILLE