120 Chapter 4 The American Revolution
Revolution when all was going well and lost their
enthusiasm in difficult hours.
The divisions cut across geographical, social,
and economic lines. A high proportion of those
holding royal appointments and many Anglican
clergymen remained loyal to King George, as did
numbers of merchants with close connections in
Britain. There were important pockets of Tory
strength in rural sections of New York, in the North
Carolina backcountry, and among persons of non-
English origin and other minority groups who
tended to count on London for protection against
the local majority (see the map titled Campaign in
the South, 1779–1781, p. 125).
Although the differences separating Patriots and
Loyalists were sometimes unclear, feelings were
nonetheless bitter. Individual Loyalists were often set
upon by mobs, tarred and feathered, and otherwise
abused. Some were thrown into jail for no legitimate
reason; others were exiled and their property confis-
cated. Battles between Tory units and the Continental
army were often exceptionally bloody. “Neighbor was
against neighbor, father against son and son against
father,” one Connecticut Tory reported. “He that
would not thrust his own blade through his brother’s
heart was called an infamous villain.”
The British Take New York City
General Howe’s campaign against New York brought
to light another American weakness—the lack of mili-
tary experience. Washington, expecting Howe to
attack New York, had moved south to meet the threat
immediately after Howe had abandoned Boston. But
both he and his men failed badly in this first major
test. Late in August Howe crossed from Staten Island
to Brooklyn. In the Battle of Long Island he easily
outflanked and defeated Washington’s army. Had he
acted decisively, he could probably have ended the
war on the spot, but Howe could not make up his
mind whether to be a peacemaker or a conqueror.
This hesitation in consolidating his
gains permitted Washington to with-
draw his troops to Manhattan Island.
Howe could still have trapped
Washington simply by using his fleet to
land troops on the northern end of
Manhattan; instead he attacked New York
City directly, leaving the Americans an
escape route to the North. Again Patriot
troops proved no match for British regu-
lars. Although Washington threw his hat
to the ground in a rage and threatened to
shoot cowardly Connecticut soldiers as
they fled the battlefield, he could not stop
the rout and had to fall back on Harlem
Heights in upper Manhattan. Yet once
more Howe failed to pursue his advan-
tage promptly.Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware(1851) is riddled with historical
inaccuracies, most obviously, the time of day: Washington’s face shines and the ice gleams
white, but the December 1776 crossing was actually made at night during a snowstorm.
These re-enactors were the first in three years to successfully cross
the sometimes treacherous Delaware River. Washington did it at
night, in the dead of winter.