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Editor says, what if the first Battle of Trenton had been a catastrophe for the Continental Army and George Washington had been killed? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1776, during a howling nor-easter Colonel Johann Rall and his Hessian mercenaries repelled a bold American attack on Trenton that left Commander George Washington and many of his troops from the decimated Continental Army dead or dying in the freezing Delaware River on this bitterest of Christmas Days.
One-way trip across the Delaware RiverSince the heady days of the summer, Washington had lost ninety percent of his command and had already admitted both to his diary and in confidence to his colleagues that "I think the game is pretty near up".
And yet his successors would carry the germ of an idea that Washington had conceived on the eve of Battle. That concept was a breakthrough in organisational planning for irregular forces, that "a people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove". In effect, Washington had blended the best ideas of the American revolution with the War of Independence. His advocacy of open councils in a proletariat army was his gift to the future, a Union of Socialist Republics in America that would have been unimaginable to Washington as a member of the landed gentry.
Sharing his dead comrade's "full persuasion of the Justice of our cause" Thomas Paine returned to Great Britain after the so-called "black times of '76". The War of Independence might have ended in defeat, at least for now, but the Revolution had not, and Paine would ensure that it spread across the fertile ground of his homeland, Great Britain itself.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© "The Black Times of '76", by David Hackett Fischer, published in Winter 2010 Edition of American Heritage MagazineStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Trenton, George Washington, 1776, Revolution, War of Independence.
~ Are you saying that the defeat of the Continental Army led to guerrilla warfare? I hadnt thought that actually but its interesting idea, how about Henry Knox leads the insurgency, is that possible?
~ The article seems to have its own answer already. But it doesnt consider the possibility that Britain would let up on the Colonials after a war Britain found unpopular anyway, and the Colonies would develop Dominion status.
~ Guerilla does not work in this setting. Absent a colonial field army the British can spread their forces into small garrisons that then serve as the basis around which a Tory militia is organized. Washington used a three level war - the regulars forced the British to concentrate, the militia kept the bulk of the population from seeking an accomodation with the Crown and the partisans made life difficult enough for Tories that they fled to the British lines, conceding the territory they formerly lived in. It was nasty and expensive but it worked. Think of it as an army in being like the Mahan fleet in being doctrines of the early 20th century. However the segue here to a Soviet US is simply silly. The wiff of class war with Shay's Rebellion scared the US ruling class silly and led to the Constitution. Given a choice of a US 1789 or reunion with the crown the patriot leadership- would have sworn allegience to George III.
~ George wouldn't have given them that choice--he'd have just hanged them.
~ People who would normally resist Dominion status and be guerrillas against the Crown, would just go west. If over the Appalachians weren't far enough, they'd go over the Mississippi River next. This raises some interesting possibilities for Spanish Louisiana.
~ Having read every book on the subject I have found, I must say that it is pretty much cut and dried that if Washington's desperate gamble at Trenton had failed then the American War of Independance would have died. It literally was Victory or Death for the American Cause. There are no other scenerios that form up. It is one of the very few occasions when the American war would have been won by Britain on a single throw of the cards.
On the other hand if we look at the previous conflict, the French and Indian war, there is one event that leads to many scenerios.
What if Thomas Hutchinson had gone sick and Ben Franklin was able to manage and succeed in creating a centralized colonial government for the British Americas during the Albany Congress?
For starts though the French would certainly not have got the good end of this for obvious reasons, The reason for this one having so many scenerios is that the English did not want a centralized colonial Alliance between its colonies.
The English military leaders, both Braddock and Lawdon were hardly model diplomats just as they were not very good at wilderness warfare.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
