Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of by John Ferling

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Such steps were too radical for this assembly. ” He believed that most congressmen prayed that their resolute stand would cause Britain to beat a retreat. But if war came, Adams had some idea of what it might mean. Once begun, he predicted, an Anglo-American war would “light up . . flames . . ”32 The Coming of the War 27 Following Congress’s lead, the colonies prepared for war that fall and winter. Massachusetts, the epicenter of the imperial troubles, had launched its preparations even before the Continental Congress met.

33 Some units were training before the end of the year, and by early 1775 militiamen were also on muddy drill fields in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. 34 The most conservative colonists, many of whom would remain loyal to Britain throughout the coming war, were shocked at what was occurring. Many decried military preparedness, warning that the colonists would be no match for the regulars and that defeat would be followed by a punitive peace. The only hope of success, they cautioned, would be with the assistance of France, but that would be worse than defeat, for America would fall under the shadow of the autocratic Catholic monarch in Versailles.

Fireworks illuminated city skies and joyous concerts were hastily arranged. Many colonists, caught up in the euphoria, wore their patriotism on their sleeve. “I am a BRITON,” Benjamin Franklin proudly exclaimed, and many shared his exuberance. 14 22 g o i n g t o wa r , 1 7 7 5 – 1 7 7 6 France—hated France, despised Roman Catholic France—was finished in North America. In the Treaty of Paris it lost everything that it had once claimed on the North American continent, and Spain, which had joined France late in the war, was stripped of Florida.