Initial British Strategy Essay

The initial British strategy was the “annihilation by strategic offensive” to break the power of the minority with military operations, divide the political unity, blockade economic trade with ships and ultimately force the loyalists to reinforce their allegiance to the crown. (Crapenter, lecture) The thought process behind this strategy was to treat it as a typical rebellion and end it by brutal force and force allegiance. The British did not understand the true nature of the war which revolved around constitutional independence, religious concepts and economic theory. It was not as simple as an unruly rebellion that they were used to.
The New York campaign in 1777, the strategy was to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies, beat them into submission and the other colonies will return to their alliance. The idea being to separate the far-reaching rebels of New England from the other colonies will aid …show more content…
Sir, William Howe was fixated on occupying major cities and winning over the allegiance of the remaining loyalists. The thought process was the loyalists would spread like “ink” and streams of loyalists would spread through the land. (Weigley, pp. 24-25) Sir William Howe devised a plan execute this strategy but failed to follow through. The Hudson Valley plan was to isolate and starve out New England, it depended on General Howe and thousands of soldiers heading up the Hudson River bank to rendezvous with Major General John Burgoyne coming down the Hudson from Canada and Colonel St. Leger from Lake Ontario. At the time the assumption was that the rebel center of gravity was Philadelphia. (Carpenter, lecture) General Howe decided to detach the majority of his troops that were on their way to Albany, and head to Philadelphia and leave only a few hundred troops heading north up the Hudson. This allowed militia from New York and New Hampshire defeat the British and take Saratoga. The failure of this campaign