thoughts on the FAILED SOUTHERN STRATEGY of the American Revolutionary War
The Revolution's story can hardly be told in terms of long-term strategy and its success or failure. Neither side ever had any consistent plan for the conduct of the war. Most of the time, the British, who retained the strategic initiative, failed to use it to great advantage. They were highly uncertain about their objective; they made plans from year to year and seldom coordinated them even for a single year. Blame for this hesitant approach falls in almost equal part on the administration in England and the British commanders in America. King George III; Lord North, his Principal Minister; and Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the American Department, were the three British officials mainly responsible for the war's conduct. In assessing blame in this fashion, one must keep in mind the difficulties of logistics and communications under which the British labored. These difficulties made it virtually impossible to coordinate plans over great distances or assemble men and materials in time to pursue one logical and consistent strategy. The British wanted to do an internal order. Internal order will be forced upon loyal colonies. Many loyalists were businessmen, wealthy landowners, Royal elitists, and appointees by the British Empire. Of course, they would take a pacifist standpoint in the Revolutionary War if the British decided to win them over politically versus using military might. The British assumed winning over loyal colonies by political power was a good strategy? I find that idea to be humorous. What dictatorship ever won over an entire country by only using political might? If the British decided on this tactic and this tactic alone, it would be a major miscalculation on their part. The Continental Army would not permit them to have any power within America's borders.
Problems the British faced have been either overlooked or rapidly dismissed. Still, the disadvantages from which the British commanders may have suffered do not entirely account for the British loss. The American strategy was primarily defensive and consequently had to be mainly shaped to counter British moves. ^([1]) Uncertainties as to the supply of both men and materials acted on the American side even more effectively to thwart developing a consistent plan for winning the war.
This is from my publication 1775 - Overlooked Heroines: Women Soldiers, Spies, and Humanitarians in the American Revolutionary War.
[1] Stewart, Richard W. “THE UNITED STATES ARMY AND THE FORGING OF A NATION, 1775-1917.” Chapter 3: American Military History, Volume I, Center of Military History United States Army, 2005, history.army.mil/books/AMH-V1/ch03.htm.