3. For reasons lost to history, Mr. Nelson omitted from his report on the great victories Colonels Arnold and Allen achieved at Ticonderoga and Crown Point were over garrisons totaling fewer than fifty British troops. Also unmentioned was the bickering between Arnold and Allen over who should get the credit for the conquests. Perhaps that’s because including either fact would have diminished the propaganda value for the Patriot cause.

4. Unfortunately, Lord Dunmore was not yet done with Virginia. Throughout the remainder of 1775 he ordered dozens of mixed raiding parties consisting of Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Tories ashore to plunder and burn “rebel” plantations, homes, fishing boats, and businesses along the James, York, and Potomac rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay. In nearly every case the raiders stole horses, cattle, even hogs—and killed the livestock they could not ride or carry back to their Royal Navy ships.

The depredations continued unabated until December 1775 when Patriot Militiamen defending Norfolk soundly defeated a Dunmore raid force. The battle cost the former governor the loss of four Royal Marines and a dozen Tories with no Patriot losses. On New Year’s Day 1776, as Captain Daniel Morgan was being taken prisoner in Quebec, Lord Dunmore finally set sail for England.

5. Now called Shepherdstown, WV.

6. Now called Thurmont, MD.

Chapter Eight: 1775: The Continental Army—From Defense to Offense

Chapter Eight

1775: The Continental Army—
From Defense to Offense

Captain Morgan’s determination to be the first of the Rifle Companies Congress raised to arrive at General Washington’s Headquarters here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has served us well. Our Captain was able to choose undisturbed terrain in defilade from British naval cannons in the waters below us, yet a short walk to overlook the British redoubts at Roxbury, just outside Boston. The site he chose here on the heights has trees for shade, forage for our draft horses, a spring for water, our “field sanitation station” is downhill and downwind, and our Company Assembly Area is on dry, level ground. But all that may be about to change.

Roxbury Heights, overlooking Boston

Friday, August 11th, 1775

Before dawn each day since we arrived, Captain Morgan has sent out at least three two-man sniper teams to engage British troops—preferably officers wearing epaulets on their shoulders. Our Riflemen fire from 50 to 100 yards behind Patriot lines. Every morning, at least one Redcoat was felled—often followed by loud cheers from the New England militiamen manning the American trenches, usually less than seventy-five yards from the British entrenchments.

This morning, it was immediately evident that overnight the British have abandoned their forward Roxbury and Dorchester redoubts and re-built them further from the Continentals’ front lines. While we regarded this as consequence of our long-range rifle accuracy, it also means new American fortifications dug, closer to the new British entrenchments.