was to dominate the story of war on the waters of the world for at least 200 years. 13. WHY THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION SUCCEEDED Top I When the troubles began in Boston in 1775, the Secretary of State for Colonies was Lord George Germain. He was a gay dog of an AngloIrishman, haughty and domineering, who had taken up the army as a career, and remained in it till the Battle of Minden in 1759, where he commanded the cavalry. When a charge of English foot broke the French line, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who led the AngloPrussian forces, three times ordered Lord George to charge to turn the victory into a rout, and he three times refused to do anything of the kind. For this he was pronounced "unfit to serve His Majesty in any military capacity whatsoever." The order was entered in every regimental book, and a black cloak of cowardice was draped round him—somewhat unjustly, for there seems to have been nothing wrong with his personal courage; he had fought in battles before and been wounded. He was simply in a bad mood that day. Still, he was cordially hated in the army, and in addition he knew nothing of its problems in the woods and vast reaches of America, nor cared to know. Whatever energies, whatever abilities he possessed flowed into politics, society, and the gaming table. It was vitally important to cry banco! and to maintain that balance among the forces represented by the king, the city, and the ruling gentry, on whom the administration rested. The conduct of affairs in the revolting colonies fell into his department, but he began by regarding it as a kind of police operation against mere rioters, and neglected everything he could possibly put aside. There was thus no mobilization of energies into great thunderclouds that discharged destructive bolts of lightning, as with Pitt, no call to the national spirit. A good half of the soldiers for the police operation were rented from the minor princes of Germany. Lord George never learned that General Sir William Howe, his leading commander in America, had suffered a psychic block as the result of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
That celebrated action was correctly counted a British victory, but Howe lost nearly half the storming party that participated, and he never again dared attack American sharpshooters in position. At Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, he might easily have destroyed the Continental forces opposed to him by bold assault; instead he maneuvered, and George Washington’s little army survived to slash back hard at Trenton. Top
To Germain, Trenton was merely an "unhappy affair." He had little concept of the king of man