ARP311 Battle of the Saintes

 

Following the Franco-American victory at Yorktown in October 1781, General Washington pleaded with Admiral de Grasse to make use of the French naval fleet for a few other actions.  Washington believed that even a few weeks at Charleston, SC would allow Nathanael Greene’s southern army to take that town.

The French commander would not budge.  He had already spent longer than he had planned in Virginia.  The only reason he had removed his fleet from the West Indies in the first place was to avoid peak hurricane season.  His focus was on protecting French Islands in the West Indies, and capturing some British ones.  North America was just a sideshow.   

Almost as soon as he could, de Grasse sailed his fleet away from Virginia and back to the West Indies.  By November 26, his fleet was back at Martinique.

St. Eustatius

The same day the French fleet arrived in Martinique, another French squadron was capturing St. Eustatius.  The British had captured the tiny Dutch island colony only a few months earlier.  A fleet under Admiral George Rodney had captured the island in January 1781 before the Dutch governor there was even aware that the Dutch Republic was at war with Britain.  The Dutch had only about 60 militia on the 8 square mile island and could offer no resistance.

Admiral Rodney was pleased to take control of St. Eustatius, mostly because it offered him pay day.  Rodney had wracked up massive debt before the war. He even had to flee to France to avoid creditors.  When the Revolution began, he had to borrow money from a French officer to return to England.

As commander of the fleet, Rodney would be entitled to a pretty large share of any booty his fleet captured.  He spent weeks on the island, fleecing its population.  Of particular interest to Rodney was the small community of Jewish merchants on the island.  Rodney had the Jewish population moved to St. Kitts, while he pillaged their property, even cutting open their clothing and digging up the cemetery in search of hidden money.  

He did not stop there.  Anything of value on the island was subject to seizure.  Much of the property actually belonged to British merchants and should not have been seized.  Rodney did not seem very concerned and confiscated everything. For the next few weeks, Rodney kept the Dutch flag flying over the island, hoping to lure more merchant vessels into port where he captured and confiscated them.

St. Eustatius, 1781

Rodney remained at St. Eustatius with his fleet for about four months, even missing another major naval battle in the region due to his obsession with plundering the wealth of the island.

When the fleet left, the British Army left two regiments to hold the island.  The commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Cockburn, was not expecting an attack and did not seem to worry much about his defenses.

On the night of November 26, 1781, an invasion force of 1500 French soldiers under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé landed on St. Eustatius.  The British garrison did not even notice.  The following morning, Colonel Cockburn went out for a morning ride.  The French soldiers captured him and took him prisoner.

When the French attackers approached the fort, they found most of the garrison outside its walls on morning drill.  When the surprised British garrison saw the approach of the enemy, they rushed back into the fort.  The French simply followed through the open doors and forced an immediate surrender.  They managed to capture the island even without having the French fleet available. St. Eustatius had gone from Dutch, to British, to French occupation, all within a single year.

St. Kitts

With the arrival of French reinforcements under de Grasse, the French looked at some larger targets.  They first focused on the British held Bahamas near the end of 1781, but found the defenses there too strong to take.  

Instead, the fleet sailed north to St. Kitts, a larger island next to St. Eustatius.  They almost immediately took the nearby small island of Nevis, which they could use as a staging area. St. Kitts had a much larger defense.  Some estimates indicate as many as 12,000 British regulars and militia on the island.  I suspect the British numbers are greatly inflated by expectations of local militia who did not really materialize in the numbers expected.  The French managed to land about 8000 soldiers on St. Kitts on January 11, 1782.  Admiral de Grasse provided naval support while the marquis de Bouillé led the army.  

The French took the capital, Basseterre, without any resistance.  The British retreated into a defensive position in the hills about nine miles away.  With the British behind fortifications on Brimstone Hill, the French settled in for a siege.

Adm. Samuel Hood

Things looked bleak for the British defenders until another fleet entered the scene.  British Admiral Hood, after supporting the failed effort to relieve the British army at Yorktown, had also sailed back to the West Indies. Hood’s fleet of 21 ships of the line and nine frigates arrived at Antigua on January 21, where they took on supplies and about one thousand soldiers.  

Hood then sailed to relieve the siege on St. Kitts. The British fleet arrived about two weeks after the siege had begun.   Hood formed a line of battle and hoped to catch the French under de Grasse off guard.  The British managed to take a couple of frigates caught off guard by the newly arrived fleet, but the fighting with those frigates alerted the rest of the French fleet.  The larger French fleet included 29 ships of the line, which sailed out to sea to do battle.  De Grasse was also concerned that four additional French ships that were due to join the fleet would not be caught by the British before they could join with the rest.

The two fleets moved away from the island, with some firing, but not a full engagement.  One British frigate, the Solebay, was badly damaged.  The captain drove the ship ashore on Nevis, removed the crew and set the ship on fire in order to deny it to the enemy.

Admiral Hood took advantage of his position to sail into the anchorage at St. Kitts that the French fleet had just left.  The French line attacked the British rear, threatening to sink the last three ships in the British line.  Three other British ships were able to turn and support the ships that were at risk. They sailed directly for the French flagship the Ville de Paris and forced it to turn away.  

The French passed along the British line, exchanging broadsides, which did more damage to the French fleet than to the British.  By this time, it was evening and the French withdrew.

Repulse of French Fleet Jan. 1782

The British were in an awkward position.  Hood’s fleet was just off the shore of St. Kitts.  The ships had to remain far enough from shore to avoid the French shore batteries from the army on the island.  At the same time, they were aware that the French fleet would be back for another attack.  The French navy could not simply abandon the large French army on St. Kitts.

As expected, the following morning, the French fleet under de Grasse brought its line against the British to exchange a brutal series of broadsides that greatly damaged both fleets.  Witnesses claimed they began to lose sight of the nearby enemy due to all the smoke from near continuous cannon fire.

Badly damaged the French fleet withdrew.  Casualties on both sides were pretty even, with a little over 300 killed or wounded on each side.  

While the British now controlled the waters around St. Kitts, but the French army on the island continued the siege against the British garrison in the hills.  On February 13, about a month after the siege began, the British soldiers on the island surrendered.  

The French now controlled the island.  The French navy under de Grasse had received reinforcements and was ready to renew the battle with the British fleet.  Hood had been expecting the arrival of reinforcements of his fleet with twelve ships of  the line under Admiral Rodney, but Rodney was still at St. Eustatius, looking for more treasure.  On the night of February 14, the British fleet at St. Kitts quietly sailed away, leaving lights on floating rafts to give the illusion that the fleet remained at anchor.  At dawn the following morning, the French looked out to see that the British fleet had vanished.

With French control of St. Kitts secured, the French fleet returned to base at Fort Royal in Martinique while the British retreated to St. Lucia. Both fleets had to make considerable repairs before the next inevitable naval confrontation.

The Saintes

By spring of 1782, the French fleet had consolidated at Martinique with 33 ships of the line.  The British fleet under Admiral Rodney finally joined with the fleet under Admiral Hood giving the British a total of 36 ships of the line.  Since Rodney outranked Hood, he took command of the combined fleet.

France coordinated with Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies; and Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana to develop a plan to take all of the British islands in the West Indies.  For the European powers, these islands were far more valuable than North America.  The sugar plantations on these islands were the source of most colonial wealth.

In early April, the Comte de Grasse sailed the French fleet out of Martinique.  He hoped to join with a Spanish invasion force of twelve additional ships of the line.  The Spanish had also assembled an army of 24,000 men, who would combine with another 10,000 French soldiers who had arrived in the West Indies from France and another 5000 French soldiers under de Grasse, and who had recently fought at Yorktown.  

This was a combined huge army and navy for the time: a total of 60 warships and 40,000 soldiers.  For French and Spanish military planners, the West Indies had become the priority of the war, more important than North America, more important than Gibraltar.  Control of the West Indies would break Britain economically and greatly enrich France and Spain. 

When de Grasse left Martinique, he had a total of about 150 ships in the fleet.  Only 34 of these were ships of the line.  A few more were smaller frigates, but most of the smaller vessels were slow moving troop carriers that would only be a burden in a sea battle.  De Grasse hoped to avoid a sea battle and bring the fight directly to Jamaica.  Jamaica was one of the largest and most valuable colonies still under British control

Rodney, however, received intelligence that the French fleet had left port.  He set sail with his own fleet, hoping to catch the enemy at sea, before it could combine with the Spanish fleet. The British fleet divided into three commands.  Admiral Rodney directly commanded one squadron, Admiral Hood commanded a second squadron.  Vice Admiral Samuel Francis Drake commanded a third squadron.  Although the French fleet was larger, the British ships were faster and better equipped.

The French fleet had left port on the morning of April 8.  British intelligence had been on top of French activities and was well aware of the movement.  That same afternoon, Admiral Hood’s squadron spotted the French fleet.  It was too late in the day, and not enough wind for the fleets to engage then, but battle would begin the following morning.  Even after Admiral Rodney’s squadron caught up, the French ships outnumbered the British by 2-1.  

The two fleets engaged on the morning of April 9th.  Hood’s squadron took considerable damage that day, but the fighting was inconclusive.  Overnight, Drake’s ships had arrived and took a position in the front of the British fleet, while Hood’s damaged ships fell to the rear where the men could work on repairs.

The French still hoped to avoid a major engagement at sea before joining with the Spanish.  They simply sailed away.  De Grasse continued on his original course after the engagement, separating the distance with the British fleet overnight.  The British would have to pursue them.  The French managed to keep a distance until the night of the 11th, when two of the French ships of the line collided with each other.  One of the ships was very badly damaged and began drifting back toward the enemy fleet. Rodney, seeing an opportunity, sailed his fleet at the two damaged ships. De Grasse had to turn his fleet around to protect them.  During the night rescue, de Grasse’s flagship the Ville de Paris also collided with one of the damaged ships causing more damage to both ships.  

De Grasse tried to move his fleet toward Guadeloupe, while the British gave chase.  The following day, April 12, Drake’s squadron moved into a line of battle to engage the French fleet.  At that point, de Grasse had no choice but to engage.  The ships exchanged broadsides  Right behind Drake’s line was Rodney’s squadron, which fired additional broadsides into the enemy fleet.

Ville de Paris attacked

The French line faltered leaving gaps between the ships. Rodney ordered the British to sail into the gaps, allowing the British to fire on the French from both sides of their ships at the same time, essentially doubling the amount of lead they could throw at the enemy at once - and giving the enemy limited opportunity to fire back.  Hood’s squadron brought up the rear, inflicting even more damage on the French fleet.  The slow moving French ships began throwing their dead and badly wounded into the water to lighten their loads.  Sailors reported seeing large numbers of sharks gathering behind the ships to feast on the dead.

The British had the advantage, and began to focus on several isolated French ships.  A few French captains lowered their colors and surrendered.  Admiral de Grasse, aboard the Ville de Paris continued to fight even after his flagship was badly damaged and surrounded by the enemy.  Many of the French ships who were able to do so, sailed away, leaving their comrades aboard damaged ships no choice but to surrender.  At around 6:00 PM, the Ville de Paris lowered her colors and Admiral de Grasse surrendered.  

The next few days saw very little wind.  The British fleet remained near Guadalupe, trying to effect repairs on both its own ships and several captured prizes.  After about a week, the wind returned.  Admiral Hood took ten ships in search of French stragglers.  He came across five ships, managing to capture four of them.

Adm George Rodney

Admiral de Grasse survived the battle without being wounded, but all of the other officers and all but three sailors aboard the Ville de Paris were dead or wounded after the battle.  On that one ship alone, the French suffered 400 killed and 700 wounded.  There are some widely disparate estimates of total French casualties among the entire fleet, ranging from 3000 to 9000 killed and wounded, including the deaths of six ship’s captains.  There were also between 5000 and 6000 French soldiers and sailors captured.  Nine French ships of the line were either captured or sunk.  By contrast, the British lost about 1000 casualties, about one-quarter of whom were killed.  Total British casualties across the entire fleet were less than the casualties of a single French ship, the Ville de Paris.  Among the British casualties were 50 sailors who were aboard a captured French ship that blew up after its surrender.

Admiral de Grasse became the first French admiral to be captured during a sea battle.  Command of the remainder of the French fleet in the West Indies fell to another admiral, the Comte de Vaudreuil.  He eventually joined up with the Spanish fleet. But the decimation of the French fleet and the loss of much of the Spanish army to disease meant that they called off the planned invasion of Jamaica before they even got to the island.

Admiral de Grasse did reach Jamaica, but only as a British prisoner.  Admiral Rodney returned to Jamaica with his fleet, along with his prizes and prisoners.  From Jamaica, a British ship of the line under Vice Admiral Peter Parker would carry De Grasse back to England.  There, de Grasse eventually would be granted parole and returned to France to face the consequences of his loss.  

Admiral Rodney would discover that officials in London had removed him from command because of accusations of his actions on St. Eustatius.  Admiral Hugh Pigot arrived in Jamaica to take command of the British fleet.  Pigot had been kept out of the war because of political disputes with the North Government. When the Rockingham Government took control, Pigot received this command.

The British victory became known as the Battle of the Saintes, a reference to all the nearby islands named after various saints.  The result was that the Spanish and French gave up on any new major offensives in the West Indies.

Bahamas

The Spanish fleet never arrived to assist the French fleet.  As the Battle of the Saintes was coming to an end, the Spanish commander Juan Manuel Cagigal y Monserrate left Havana aboard transport ships with 2500 soldiers.  Cagigal did not have his own ships.  Instead, he hired American privateers to carry his army.  He ignored orders to join the planned invasion of Jamaica and instead carried his army to the British-held Bahamas.

Bernardo de Galvez

On May 6, the Spanish fleet arrived outside Nassau.  Cagigal managed to convince the British commander there, Vice Admiral John Maxwell, to surrender without firing a shot. Spain took the 600 man British garrison prisoner and captured a frigate and a bunch of smaller ships, as well as 77 merchant ships..

Despite the success, Galvez was upset that Cagigal had disobeyed orders and had not joined the planned invasion of Jamaica.  The attack on Jamaica had not happened anyway because of the defeat of the French fleet.  Even so, Galvez had Cagigal arrested and imprisoned.  Spain ended up crediting Galvez with the capture of the Bahamas, even though Galvez had not approved the operation and in fact resisted it every step of the way.

The Bahamas would remain under Spanish control as the war in the West Indies came to an end.

Next week, we head back to North America as British and American leaders tangle over the Huddy-Asgill Affair.

- - -

Next Episode 310 Gnadenhutten Massacre (Available May 5, 2024)

Previous Episode 308 Congress After Yorktown

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Further Reading

Websites

The Capture of St. Eustatius: https://morethannelson.com/capture-st-eustatius-3-february-1781

Battle of St. Kitts: https://morethannelson.com/battle-st-kitts-2526-january-1782

St. Kitts, Captured By The French https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/st-kitts-captured-french

Monk, Will “Battle of the Saintes” Journal of the American Revolution, Sept. 17, 2020. https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/09/battle-of-the-saintes

Battle of the Saintes: https://morethannelson.com/battle-saintes-12-april-1782

American Revolution: Battle of the Saintes https://www.thoughtco.com/battle-of-the-saintes-2361162

Beerman, Eric. “The Last Battle of the American Revolution: Yorktown. No, the Bahamas!. (The Spanish-American Expedition to Nassau in 1782).” The Americas, vol. 45, no. 1, 1988, pp. 79–95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1007328

Beerman, Eric “Old Navy: The 1782 American-Spanish Expedition” Proceedings, Dec. 1978: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1978/december/old-navy-1782-american-spanish-expedition

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Balch, Thomas The French in America During the War of Independence of the United States, 1777-1783, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1891. 

Mundy, Godfrey B. The Life and Correspondence of the Late Admiral Lord Rodney, Vol. 2 London: John Murray, 1830. 

Shea, John Gilmary The Operations of the French Fleet under the Count De Grasse in 1782-82, New York: Bradford Club, 1864. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Lewis, James A. The Final Campaign of the American Revolution: Rise and fall of the Spanish Bahamas, Univ of S.C. Press, 1991 (borrow on archive.org). 

Rogozinski, Jan A Brief History of the Caribbean, Facts on File, 1999 (borrow on archive.org). 

Shachtman, Tom How the French saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI, and the Success of a Revolution, St. Martin’s Press, 2017. 

Trew, Peter Rodney and the Breaking of the Line, Pen and Sword Maritime, 2006.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP310 Gnadenhutten Massacre

Following Yorktown the British maintained their occupied cities in New York, Charleston, and Savannah, as well the territories that today make up Canada and Florida.  They no longer planned to go on the offensive.  London made clear they would not provide more soldiers for any offensive.  Britain did, however, provide support to any Indian tribes who wanted to continue to fight the Americans.  

One region that was still under contention was what we know today as the state of Ohio.  Britain occupied a stronghold at Detroit. The Continentals held Fort Pitt.  The area in between was almost entirely Indian tribes.  No settlers dared try to occupy that land.  When a group of French speaking frontiersmen entered the territory in 1780, with hopes of taking Detroit from the British, they were massacred by Miami Indians led by Chief Little Turtle.  Those frontiersmen not killed in battle suffered slow torturous deaths and the hand of their captors (see, Episode 271).

The massacre was meant to send a message to stay out of Ohio, and for the most part, it worked.  White settlers largely stayed out of Ohio.

Moravians

One exception to this were the Moravians.  The religious group that traces its origins back to 1400s in what is today the Czech Republic.  They came to America in the early 1700’s first trying to set up communities in Georgia and the West Indies, but eventually giving up on that and focusing on Pennsylvania.  They named their first two communities in Pennsylvania after the biblical town of Bethlehem and Nazareth.  From there, the members spread out across several colonies.

Moravian Worship

Although the Moravian name came from the region in Europe where they originated, members of the church called themselves the Unity of the Brethren.  This pacifist sect hoped to avoid doctrinal fights and simply called on members to live their lives as Jesus did.  The members held strong evangelical passions, hoping to convert others to join their communities.  They set up missions among Native Americans

One of their leading  clergymen was David Zeisberger.  Born in Moravia, in 1721, Zeisberger came to Georgia with his family at the age of six.  By age 18, he was a leading force in establishing the Moravian settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Several years later, the young man went to live among the Mohawk and learn their language.  He learned several native languages and began to focus on a life as a missionary to the Native Americans.  He received ordination as a Moravian minister in 1749 and began working and living among the Lenape (also known as the Delaware) in Pennsylvania.

By 1772, Zeisberger had established a Moravian community made up of Delaware and Munsey families. They founded a town in Ohio along the Tuscarawas River which they called New Schoenbrunn (Fine Spring).  Shortly thereafter, following more immigration from Delaware families from Pennsylvania, as well as more Delaware converts from tribes already in Ohio, the Moravians established a nearby town just downriver named Gnadenhutten.

By the time the Revolution began, Zeisberger, in his fifties, was well established in Ohio Country.  In early 1776 he helped to establish a third community in Ohio called Lichtenau.  Zeisberger and several other missionaries established new homes there. Zeisberger and his fellow clergy, as well as the natives with whom they lived, tried to live as pacifists who would not take sides in the war.  They found this increasingly hard to do as both sides demanded they become an ally or be considered an enemy.

British in Detroit

In the early part of the war, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, among other things, served as an Indian agent in Detroit.  He convinced many of the tribes around him to support the king against the American rebels.  These tribes engaged in raiding parties in Western Pennsylvania and further south in what is today Kentucky.  

Arent DePeyster

As I described in an earlier episode, Virginia militia under George Rogers Clark captured Hamilton and carried him back to Virginia as a prisoner of war in 1779.  After more than a year, Hamilton was paroled to British occupied New York. Once he was exchanged in 1781, he sailed for London. Although he returned to Quebec in 1782, he did not go back to take command of Detroit.

Instead, command in Detroit went to Arent Schuyler DePeyster, a loyalist from a Dutch New York family.  DePeyster was a distant cousin of General Philip Schuyler, but the two men had gone in very different directions.  DePeyster had received a commission the British army in 1755.  During the French and Indian War he was taken prisoner and sent to France.  After being exchanged, he continued to serve the British Army in Germany for the remainder of the Seven Years War.  He remained a British regular, and returned to America only when his regiment was transferred to Canada.  Just before the Revolution began, DePeyster became Commandant of Fort Michillmackinac in what is today Michigan.  After Hamilton’s capture, Major DePeyster took command at Detroit..

As was the policy of his predecessors, DePeyster provided aid to tribes around the region of Detroit and encouraged them to attack rebel settlements to the south and east.  He was known to buy prisoners from the Indians, which not only encouraged more attacks, it also encouraged the Indians to bring the prisoners back alive rather than simply killing them.

By late 1781, Detroit was holding hundreds of American prisoners.  Given the poor state of Detroit’s defenses, DePeyster knew that his primary defense was primarily the hostile and active Native warriors between Detroit and the Americans in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Americans at Fort Pitt

The closest American base to this theater was the Continental garrison at Fort Pitt, at modern day Pittsburgh.  When we last looked at Fort Pitt, Colonel Daniel Brodhead was commanding.  You may recall that Brodhead grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. He was a committed patriot who received a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army in 1776.  He fought in the New York Campaign with distinction.  After his regimental commander was killed, became colonel and led the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment through the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777.  Following the winter at Valley Forge, Brodhead and his regiment were assigned to Fort Pitt in the summer of 1778.  There, he served under several commanders.  When General Lachlan McIntosh led a failed attack into the Ohio Territory in 1779, Brodhead was one of his regimental commanders.  After McIntosh was recalled, Colonel Brodhead took command of Fort Pitt.

Zeisberger preaching

Broadhead led several campaigns into Ohio Territory as well as into New York to battle various tribes that were allied with the British.  In the spring of 1781, Brodhead led an expedition against the Delaware in central Ohio.  His expeditionary force, which included both Continentals and militia, wiped out the Indian town of Coshocton, about 100 miles west of Fort Pitt.  It forced many of the local tribes to flee eastern Ohio and move toward Detroit.  It also put many of them decidedly out of the neutral camp and into the British camp.

Shortly after his return from this campaign, Brodhead learned he was being replaced as commander of Fort Pitt.  He had been accused of misuse of funds and he had to travel to Philadelphia to resolve the issue.  After the matter was resolved in his favor, Brodhead returned to Fort Pitt in August.  His second in command, Colonel John Gibson, had not received orders to return command to Brodhead and refused to do so.  Brodhead had Gibson arrested.  After a time, General Washington wrote to make clear that Brodhead did not have authority to retake command of Fort Pitt, and ordered him to return command to Gibson.  At that point, Gibson had Brodhead arrested. Apparently nothing came of those charges since shortly afterward, Broadhead returned east and receive a brevet to brigadier general from General Washington

William Irvine

Gibson did not remain in command long either.  In the fall of 1781, shortly after Washington recalled Brodhead, General William Irvine received orders from Congress to take command of the entire western theater, headquartered at Fort Pitt.

Irvine had grown up in what is today central Pennsylvania.  He began the war as a colonel and regimental commander.  His first mission was part of the Quebec campaign in early 1776.  He was wounded and taken prisoner. He received parole and returned to his home in Carlisle. He would not be exchanged until the spring of 1778.  He returned to service under General Anthony Wayne, and led his regiment at Monmouth.  As an aside, Irvine commanded the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, which included Sergeant John Hays.  Sergeant Hays’ wife was Mary Ludwig Hays, more commonly remembered as Molly Pitcher.

The following spring, Irvine received promotion to brigadier following the resignation of another Pennsylvania General, Thomas Mifflin.  Irvine continued to serve on the Pennsylvania Line under General Wayne, but appears to have remained in New Jersey when General Wayne took much of the Pennsylvania Line to Virginia in 1781.  It was around this time that Irvine received orders to go to Fort Pitt and take command of the Western Department.

So during the time of the events I’m about to discuss, Continental leadership in the west was in flux.  We have the command fight between Colonels Brodhead and Gibson, then orders that Irvine is to take command, but Irvine doesn’t actually arrive at the fort until the end of this story.  As a result, there was no active and unified Continental command.

The Neutral Threat

In between the British in Detroit and the Americans at Fort Pitt, the Moravians did what they could to maintain their neutrality and to let everyone know that their pacifism rendered them of no threat to anyone.  Moravian leaders gladly signed agreements with the Americans that they would remain neutral.  The British would not be content with their neutrality, but since they were much closer to the Americans, they hoped it would be enough.

Many other tribes were taking sides and expected their neighbors to stand by them in battle.  By 1777, Moravian villages learned that many of the tribes who had allied themselves with the British would not accept neutrality.  Failure to promise loyalty to Britain made one an enemy.  Over the course of 1778 and 1778, most moravian communities abandoned their eastern communities and moved to the newer one further west at Lichtenau.  This was farther away from either of the combatants, but much deeper into the central area of Delaware control.

In 1777 a group of Wyandot warriors came to Lichtenau with the intent of killing or kidnapping the Moaravian missionaries, in hopes of getting the Moravian Indians to join the war.  The Moravian responded by providing a feast for the Wyandot.  This seemed to appease the warriors who ended up leaving the community intact.

The Delaware chiefs signed a treaty with the Americans that promised continued neutrality, but even within the Delaware, many subgroups opposed this measure and wanted to pick a side.  Many Wyandot and Mingo warriors marched through this area on the way to attack American frontier settlements.  While the Moravians did not join them, they did nothing to stop them either. In fact, they regularly supplied war parties with food, shelter, and supplies, thus indirectly aiding attacks on settlements.  In some instances the Moravians warned Americans of approaching war parties, but did nothing further to get involved.

Over the course of the war, many Moravians returned to their original communities at New Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten, where they had homes and fields.  Staying away from their farms created the risk of starvation.  The larger Delaware rift grew more distinct.  Many Delaware moved closer to Fort Pitt in hopes of receiving American protection from pro-British war parties. Some of these warriors even joined the Continental Army.

David Zeisberger

The growing divisions among the Delaware led to the increasing isolation of the Moravians.  In the spring of 1781, Colonel Brodhead, still in command at Fort Pitt, led a raiding party into Ohio, primarily to appease militia from the area whose families had been the victims of Indian raids.

While clearing out hostile Indians, the Brodhead party marched to the Moravian community at Salem.  Knowing they were pacifists, Brodhead sent a messenger asking the Moravian leaders to come to his camp.  When one of the missionaries did so, Brodhead discussed his operations and asked for the locations of Moravians so he could avoid attacking them.  The missionary complied.  Brodhead managed to lead a successful raid against the Delaware town of Coshocton.  He also managed to steer clear of the Moravian.  Some of his militia, however, were not so concerned about which Indians were a threat and which were not.  Colonel Broadhead had to place his Continentals in between several Moravian villages and militia who were bent on destroying them.  Thanks to Brodhead’s firm action, the militia passed over the communities.

Later that summer, a rather large war party made up of Delaware and a few other western tribes came through the region under the direction of a British officer.  The group tried to force the Moravian to move to Detroit, and sought to take the missionaries by force.  They managed to Capture Zeiseberger, and at least one other missionary who were taken to Detroit.  These warriors did what they could to encourage the Moravian Indians to leave, They destroyed crops, livestock and looted their homes.  The pacifist Indians refused to fight back.  Eventually most agreed to move further west into British territory.

Since they were removed in the fall, they had no opportunity to harvest crops.  Many were on the verge of starvation.  Although the British had promised to provide supplies, once they got their, they found that the British only wanted to provide supplies to the families of warriors willing to join British led war parties.

A short time after the British removal, American militia under Colonel David Williamson also raided the Moravian communities, with the intent of removing them back to Fort Pitt.  The Americans were surprised to find the communities largely abandoned, and only captured a handful who had avoided the British dragnet. Over the course of the winter, many hungry Moravian Indians returned to their homes, hoping to harvest and store the corn that remained ungathered in their fields.  They lived in the woods near town rather than in their homes in order to avoid being captured and removed again.

The Massacre

Also during the winter months, particularly in February, the British backed warriors conducted a great many raids on the frontier settlements and houses around Fort Pitt.  They would often hit isolated farmhouses, murdering families and taking scalps.  In an effort to intimidate, the raiding parties would often mutilate bodies.  One war party returning from a raid passed through Gnadenhutten on their return.  They informed some of the Moravian Indians that they had captured a woman and a child from a farm and impaled the two on stakes on the western side of the Ohio River. They gave this information to warn the Moravians that militia would likely be headed after them in a retaliatory raid.

Gnadenhutten Massacre

Retaliation was exactly what the militia had in mind.  They knew the Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten were storing corn, which could be used to feed these reading parties that were killing their families.

On March 4, 1782, a militia force of about 160 men under the command of Colonel Williamson mustered with the intent of eliminating the Moravian villages.  Fort Pitt at this time was in a state of disarray from the change in commanders.  It did not approve the raid, and did not send any soldiers.  The fort commander tried to send a warning to the Moravian communities, but also did nothing to stop the militia or control them.

My March 6 6h4 militia had surrounded a Moravian communities and attacked from multiple sides.  The Moravian villagers did not resist, and did not run either.  They believed they were neutrals and would not be harmed.

That was not the case.  The first Moravian they came across was Joseph Shabosh, a man of European descent.  They murdered and scalped him.  Next, they came upon a group of Indians working in the cornfields.  They escorted them to town, saying that they would be taken to Fort Pitt as prisoners.

The militia killed several more individuals whom they encountered, but took the larger groups into the town of Gnaddenhutten where they took away any items that could be used as weapons, bound their prisoners, and put them in two houses: one for men, the other for women and children.

The militia also took the nearby town of Salem, capturing the Indians there, and removing those prisoners back to GnadenHutten as well.  The militia continued to round up Moravian families, who seemed cooperative and still being told they were being removed to Fort Pitt.  The indians who remained tied up inside the two houses remained compliant, sitting bound, praying and singing Christian hymns as the militia collected more work parties still out in distant fields.

As the militia secured the Moravians, they talked among themselves about the property they had confiscated from them, including farm equipment, cooking utensils, farm implements, horses, etc.  Many of the militia were convinced that the only way they could have these things would be if they had participated in raids against the settlements.

The militia held some sort of sham trial where the Moravian Indians protested their innocence and made clear they had purchased what they owned just like any other people would over many years of working and farming.

The militia determined that all of their prisoners needed to die.  The men voted, only 16 or 18 voted not to kill. Realizing they were in the minority, these men left.

The remainder then got to work.  The first separated out a group of prisoners they believed to be warriors.  These were marched out of town and executed. 

The remaining prisoners, mostly women and children had their skulls bashed in with a mallet one by one.  After they were killed each body was scalped.  In all 96 men women and children were executed.  The militia then burned the two houses with the bodies still in them.

The primary witnesses of events were two boys who survived the massacre.  One had been scalped and left for dead, but managed to hide under a pile of bodies before escaping the house after dark, and before it was set on fire.  Another boy managed to hide in a cellar of the home, then escaped through a window after the house was set on fire.

Aftermath

Word spread quickly of the massacre and many returned to the village to see the remains for themselves.  Zeisberger was already on his way back to Detroit by the time he received word. He hoped that most of his people had been taken back to Fort Pitt, only to learn later that all of them had been killed.

The militia returned to Pennsylvania, along with the scalps and items they had looted from their victims.  At Fort Pitt, there were no consequences. General Irvine appears not to have arrived at Fort Pitt to take command until late march of 1782, several weeks after the massacre.  He seemed displeased with the massacre, but did nothing about it.  He needed to rely on the militia for the defense of the fort.  He noted that many of the militia wanted to kill Colonel Gibson, his predecessor, for being too friendly with the Indians.

Even after the militia killed two more friendly Delaware who had sought refuge near the fort, Irving did nothing.  He simply reported the matter to General Washington without any recommendation for further action.  For the Continental Army, the matter was best forgotten.

Next week, we head to the West Indies where British and French fleets once again pick up the fight over island colonies.

- - -

Next Episode 310 Gnadenhutten Massacre (Available May 5, 2024)

Previous Episode 308 Congress After Yorktown

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Further Reading

Websites

Sterner, Eric “Moravians in the Middle: The Gnadenhutten Massacre” Journal of the American Revolution, Feb. 6, 2018. https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/02/moravians-middle-gnadenhutten-massacre

“To George Washington from William Irvine, 20 April 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-08209

Journal of Moravian History: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jmorahist.12.2.issue-2

Atwood, Craig d. “The Jesus Indians of Ohio” Plough Quarterly, June 1, 2016. https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/jesus-indians-of-ohio

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

A true history of the massacre of ninety-six Christian Indians, at Gnadenhuetten, Ohio, March 8th, 1782, New Philadelphia: Ohio Democrat, 1870.  

De Schweinitz, Edmund The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1870. 

Fisher, Kyle David Zeisberger and the Moravian Indian Mission in the old Northwest, 1782-1808, A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Church History, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2016. 

Howells, William D. Three Villages, Boston: James R. Good and Co. 1884. 

Martin, Harry E. The Tents of Grace: A Tragedy, Cincinatti: Jennings and Graham, 1910.

Rau, Robert Sketch of the History of the Moravian Congregation  at Gnadenhutten on the Mahoning, Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, 1886. 

Rice, William H. David Zeisberger and his Brown Brethren, Bethlehem, PA: Moravian Publication Concern, 1908. 

Stocker, Harry E. A History of the Moravian Mission Among the Indians on the White River in Indiana, Bethlehem, PA: Times Publishing Co. 1917. 

Zeisberger, David Diary of David Zeisberger, a Moravian Missionary Among the Indians of Ohio, Vol. 1,  Vol 2, Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. 1885.

Zeisberger, David Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, Philadelphia: James Kay 1827. 

Zeisberger, David Zeisberger’s Indian Dictionary, Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1887. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Brusman, Denver and Joel Stone (eds) Revolutionary Detroit: Portraits in Political and Cultural Change, 1760-1805, Detroit Historical Society, 2009 (borrow on Archive.org).

Glickstein, Don After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence, Westholme Publishing, 2015. 

Olmstead, Earl P. David Zeisberger: A Life Among the Indians, Kent State Univ. Press, 1997 (borrow on Archive.org). 

Olmstead, Earl P. Blackcoats Among the Delaware: David Zeisberger on the Ohio Frontier, Kent State Univ. Press, 2002.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP309 North Government Falls

This week we’re going to look at the British Reaction to hearing the news of the surrender at Yorktown.

The first word of the loss of the army under General Cornwallis came from a ship that heard about the news in France.  On November 25, 1781, a packet ship sailing from Calais to Falmouth arrived with word that officials were celebrating in Paris over a great victory in Virginia.  

Frederick North

A messenger carried the news to Lord Germain, the American Secretary.  Although it was a Sunday, he sent word to the king and met with several other top officials. They personally carried the news to Prime Minister, Lord North, who exclaimed “Oh God, oh God, it is all over!”

That day, word of the loss was still really a rumor. That night, however, the navy ship Rattlesnake arrived carrying Admiral Thomas Graves’ report of the surrender.  For most of the government, officials seemed to share Lord North’s reaction, if not his emotional outburst.  The loss of the army under Cornwallis probably meant that it was time to end the war in North America.

One man who did not share that opinion was George III.  The king had long been the leading advocate for continuing the war, and was largely responsible for maintaining a government that had supported this position.  

Two days after word arrived, the King was due to give a speech before the opening of a new session in Parliament.  The speech had been written well before the news arrived, but called for continued efforts to defend and preserve the empire.  The King, however, addressed the news of Yorktown:  “The events of war have been unfortunate to my army in Virginia, having ended in the loss of my forces in that province.  But I retain the perfect conviction of the justice of my cause.”  Despite the setback, the king wished to continue the war in America.  

The King believed that North America was vital to the British empire.  Giving up there would only mean that other colonies around the world would also push for independence.  For him, the fight for the colonies in North America was a fight for the continuation of the British Empire itself.

The King’s speech helped to rally the Tories, but opposition to the war had been growing long before news of Yorktown.  This loss only strengthened the position of the opposition.

Revised War Plans

George III asked Germain to develop a new plan for the war.  The American Secretary’s response was a proposal that Britain should retain its occupation of New York, Charleston, and Savannah.  The two southern cities were particularly important as support bases for the war in the West Indies.  The recapture of Newport, Rhode Island and establishment of a base in Delaware to block trade to and from Philadelphia could provide valuable bases.

The British Navy would continue efforts to blockade or attack rebel ports, cutting off outside trade and assistance.  Loyalists and Indian tribes would continue to receive military aid that would be used to harass the rebels

Britain would give up on trying to control entire colonies or even large portions of land.  It would simply hold a few port cities, block most trade, and wait for the misery in the colonies to get the enemy to return to their senses and rejoin the British.  

George Germain

Germain’s memo also noted that the rebel governments had essentially put themselves under French control. When the colonists realized their choice would be between serving France or Britain, they would inevitably want a return of British rule. The King reviewed this plan and gave it his support.

In January, Germain began implementation of new plans.  He wrote to General Clinton in New York, telling him that he would not be getting significant numbers of reinforcements, but that he should continue to hold all current areas that were under British control. Those towns would support naval actions along the American coast.

Germain also sent instructions to General Frederick Haldimand in Quebec to continue providing support to loyalists and Indians who wanted to continue the fight with the Americans along the northern border and western frontier.  Haldimand should also work on a diplomatic effort to draw Vermont back into British control.

Despite putting the onus for North American on the navy, the leadership was not prepared to provide more resources for that effort. Instead, the focus was on other parts of the empire. Lord Sandwich, the first Lord of the Admiralty, sent instructions to Admiral Digby in New York to take the bulk of his fleet down to the West Indies to protect British interests there.

Sandwich also deployed a fleet to India, carrying several more regiments of infantry and cavalry.  As I discussed a few weeks ago, the French fleet under Admiral Suffren was attacking British interests in India, with the cooperation of Hyder Ali and the Mysore Kingdom.  Britain had to protect its interests there.

At the ministry’s request, a member of Parliament named David Hartley wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin.  Hartley and Franklin were friends from when Franklin was living in London before the War.  Hartley broached the idea of trying to enter into separate negotiations with the American Peace Commissioners with the idea of calling a ten year truce between Britain and America.  

Franklin’s response shut down that option pretty quickly.  For starters, the Americans were not permitted to seek a separate peace from France.  Their treaty with France obligated them to remain in the war until France also secured peace with Britain.  Further, it didn’t take a diplomatic genius to see how bad an idea a ten year truce would be.  That would only give time for Britain to defeat France and Spain, then rebuild its military, then renew its war in America.  Franklin made clear that the US was not quitting until the war with France ended, and that any conclusion of that war would recognize permanent US independence.

What is clear from these communications, however, is that the North government realized that continued fighting in America at this time would only cause more problems.  The focus was on the rest of the empire, with the hope of keeping the war in America on hold for as long as possible.

British Opposition

Meanwhile, the opposition was moving in a different direction.  On December 12, Sir James Lowther introduced a motion that determined that the British war in North America had “proved ineffectual” and that the government should abandon its attempts to compel obedience in America.  The motion ignored trigger words like “independence” but the intent was clear.  Britain should give up on America, end the war there, and focus on France, Spain, and the Netherlands.  Debate on the bill was heated, but in the end, it failed 220 to 179 - a decisive win for Lord North’s government.

Charles James Fox

One of the opposition leaders at this time was Charles James Fox.  This leader in Parliament had begun his political career at age 19, when his father purchased a seat for him in the House of commons in 1768.  In his early years, Fox was pretty closely aligned with the king on many issues.  He had been one of the leaders seeking to punish John Wilkes.  His break with the king began in 1770 when he opposed the Royal Marriages Act, which gave the king the authority to veto any marriage choice by the royal family.  George III considered this very important and took any opposition as a personal rejection.  Several additional issues, having nothing to do with America drove the two men apart over the next few years.

By 1774 Fox was engaging more with Edmund Burke, another member of parliament and a firm Whig who focused on restricting the king’s authority in government.  Burke became a staunch opponent of government policy in America, supporting instead a negotiated peace that respected American rights.  Over the course of the war, both Fox and Burke recognized the need to accept American independence and led much of the opposition against the government’s war in America.

Burke had also started his political career as secretary to Charles Watson-Wentworth, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham.  Lord Rockingham had been close to George II, holding the title of Lord of the Bedchamber.  After the death of George II, Rockingham became an early opponent of George III and was removed from most of his government positions.  Rockingham briefly served as Prime Minister in 1765-1766, during which time he repealed the Stamp Tax in America.  The king viewed this as the cause of all the troubles, since it rewarded the rioters in America and gave them the idea that they could win more concessions through violence.  In the king’s view, Rockingham’s accommodationist policies were a disaster.

Throughout the war, Rockingham led opposition to the North Government in the House of Lords.  He had long been a supporter of accommodation, and as early as 1779 believed that the war in America could not be won and that refusing to recognize that fact only created further harm to Britain.

Germain Leaves 

The vote on the Lowther motion to end the war took place at 2AM on the last day of the legislative session before Parliament left for Christmas.  More than 100 members were already gone and did not vote on that matter.  Both sides knew they would have to revisit the issue when Parliament returned in January, so both the North government and the opposition spent Christmas break lobbying for their side.

When I say the North government lobbied, I mean officials in the government led by Lord North. The Prime Minister himself did not do much talking at all.  After Parliament adjourned in December, North met with the King and told him that he believed it was time to recognize American independence. The King insisted that North remain publicly silent on the matter, only discussing it with Lord Stormont and Lord Hillsborough, two of the most pro-war leaders still in the government.  The King likely hoped these two men could bring North back to supporting the war.  In the meantime, he did not want North talking independence with anyone else.

As a way of placating the opposition, the North Ministry decided there needed to be a human sacrifice.  Lord Germain was the most outspoken supporter of continuing the war in America.  The king, North, and others decided he would have to go.  Simply firing Germain or having him quit over the failures in America would not do since that would only highlight the British failures in America.  Instead, they came up with a way to push Germain out quietly.

General Clinton had wanted to resign as commander of North America and return home.  This became more compelling when General Cornwallis returned in January and began blaming Clinton for Yorktown.  

The ministry decided to replace Clinton with General Guy Carleton. You may recall from earlier episodes that Carleton had managed to defend Quebec from rebel occupation at the beginning of the war.  He had been recalled after the loss at Saratoga, but was not blamed for that.  In fact, that loss highlighted the more conservative approach that Carleton had advocated.

Carleton’s main problem was Lord Germain.  Carleton had served on the court martial during the Seven Years War that got Germain kicked out the Army.  Germain never forgave him for that and made it his mission to damage Carleton’s career whenever he could.  So the decision to appoint Carleton as the new commander of North America would almost certainly result in Germain’s resignation as the American Secretary.

The parties discussed this maneuver ahead of time to make sure it had a minimal impact on the war effort.  Germain set the price for his resignation as a new title and a seat in the House of Lords.  After some debate, he received a title as viscount, which entitled him to sit in the House of Lords.

Germain’s replacement, Wellbore Ellis, was a longtime member of Parliament.  He was pushing 70 and was selected primarily because he would be a nonentity who would sit quietly and not rock the boat.  Ellis’ only demand in taking the job was the promise of a pension.

Votes to end the War

Several weeks after Parliament returned, a moderate member of Parliament, former General Henry Conway, put forward another resolution that called for an end to the offensive war in America.  This was a bit less aggressive. Ending the war only meant things went on hold.  It did not mean recognizing American independence. This motion also failed by only a single vote, 194-193.  A week later, Conway tried again with a slightly revised resolution.  North proposed an amendment to have the government “treat with America on the footing of independence.” By introducing the “i” word to the debate, North hoped to increase opposition to the measure.  When that failed, North called for a delay on the vote for a few weeks.

Henry Seymour Conway

The members rejected all these efforts.  The members knew that North was simply maneuvering in an effort to avoid losing the vote.  Parliament remained in session, finally voting in favor of the motion at 2:00 AM on February 28 by a vote of 234-215.  Later that day, the General Advertiser hit the streets with the headline PEACE WITH AMERICA.

This headline may have been premature.  The Crown was not ready to concede.  The following day, the King received the leaders of the House of Commons to discuss the matter. Standing next to the King during this discussion was General Benedict Arnold.  A few days later, the King gave a vague and evasive reply which seemed to indicate that he was not ready to concede the war.

In response, Conway proposed another resolution that said “the House of Commons would consider as enemies to His Majesty and this country” anyone who “advised or attempted to prosecute an offensive war in America.”  This resolution passed as well.

A few days later, things got even worse when news arrived that the British outpost at Menorca had fallen to the Spanish.  The opposition was confident enough by this point that they prepared to call for a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister.  Such a vote would remove Lord North from office and put a peace candidate in charge of the government.  North began a counteroffensive, reminding members of all the other things the opposition might do once they were in charge.  This went well beyond ending the war. There were a whole bunch of other issues the opposition supported to which many members objected. He managed to defeat the motion by 10 votes, but in doing so, North knew his days in office were numbered.

Opposition coalesced around Lord Rockingham as its leader.  Burke insisted that if he did take office, Rockingham could not let the king veto American independence.  That was the critical change that needed to happen.   Burke was also interested in purging the civil list, that is terminating jobs for a great many government workers, something the King used to reward his friends and manipulate votes in Parliament.

When the King heard all this, he drafted a speech abdicating the crown, turning his office over to his son, the Prince of Wales, and that George III would move back to Hanover and no longer reign over Britain.  Lord North managed to talk the king out of giving the speech and remaining on the throne.  But this gives some idea of where the King's head was.

Still, the king absolutely hated Lord Rockingham.  Although the king normally meets with a would-be prime minister who is seeking to form a new government, in this case, the king refused such a meeting.  George could not stand to be in the same room with Rockingham.

On March 20, the House of Commons prepared to move a vote of no confidence against Lord North.  Before they could do so, North demanded the floor.  Lord Surrey was scheduled to take the floor, to call for the vote of no confidence. So when north demanded the floor, everyone expected him to resign.  The opposition wanted to embarrass the ministry by forcing a no confidence vote rather than a resignation, so Parliament got into a heated argument about who was allowed to speak first.  During the arguing, North just blurted out that they were wasting their time since the entire government had already resigned.  North then moved for an adjournment and went home.

The Rockingham Government

Lord Rockingham already had majority support lined up.  The king still refused to meet with him, instead agreeing to meet with Lord Shelburne.  Rockingham had Shelburne provide the king with a list of new government officials, none of whom the king liked.  Even so, the king had no choice but to approve.  Edmund Burke became the new paymaster of the forces.  Lord Shelburne would be secretary of state for home and colonial affairs. Charles James Fox would be secretary of state for foreign affairs.  The position of the American secretary was abolished.

Lord Rockingham

Most of the new ministers wanted an immediate recognition of American independence.  Shelburne was an exception to this.  He was still hoping the government might negotiate some sort of reconciliation by making other concessions to the colonies.   For this reason, Fox demanded a role on the team that would negotiate with the Americans, preventing Shelburne from dragging out the negotiations.  Burke, even before the new government was created, had written to Benjamin Franklin in France, informing the Americans that Parliament now supported American independence and that it was just a matter of working out the details.

On April 1, the Rockingham Government purged the government of North loyalists, replacing government officials with their own people.  That same month, the ministry sent Richard Oswald to France to open up peace negotiations with the American Commissioners.  It would take months for the negotiations to begin, but the process of ending the war had begun.

We’ll get to those negotiations in an upcoming episode.  In the meantime, we turn to America next week as disputes with native Americans result in the Gnadenhutten Massacre.

- - -

Next Episode 310 Gnadenhutten Massacre

Previous Episode 308 Congress After Yorktown

 Contact me via email at mtroy.history@gmail.com

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Further Reading

Websites

Solomon M. Lutnick, and Soloman M. Lutnick. “The Defeat at Yorktown: A View from the British Press.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 72, no. 4, 1964, pp. 471–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4247059. 

Lord Frederick North: https://history.blog.gov.uk/2015/08/12/lord-frederick-north

Frederick North: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-North-Lord-North-of-Kirtling

Lord Rockingham: https://www.britannica.com/event/Stamp-Act-Great-Britain-1765

Charles James Fox: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-James-Fox/The-Fox-North-coalition-1783

Edmund Burke: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/burke

Rockingham's Second Ministry: https://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/ministry/rocky2s.htm

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Donne, W. Bodham The Correspondence of King George the Third with Lord North, Vol. 2, London: John Murray, 1867. 

Keppel, George Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and His Contemporaries, Vol. 2, London: Richard Bentley, 1852

Lucas, Reginald Lord North, Second Earl of Guilford, London: A.L. Humphreys, 1913. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Fleming, Thomas The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown, Harper Collins, 2007.  

Hoffman, Ross The Marquis: A Study of Lord Rockingham, 1730-1782. Fordham Univ. Press, 1973 (borrow on Archive.org). 

Mitchell, L.G. Charles James Fox, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.  

Pemberton, W. Barring Lord North, Longmans, Green and Co. 1938 (borrow on Archive.org). 

Roberts, Andrew The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III, Viking, 2021. 

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.