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First Battle Of Ushant

First Battle of Ushant

The Battle of Ushant (or First Battle of Ushant) took place on 27 July 1778 during the American War of Independence, fought between French and British fleets 100 miles west of Ushant, a French island at the mouth of the English Channel off the north-westernmost point of France.

Origins

The British had 30 ships of the line commanded by Admiral the Honourable Augustus Keppel in HMS Victory. The French had 29 ships commanded by Admiral the Comte d'Orvilliers. Keppel put to sea from Spithead on July 9 1778, with a force of 30 ships of the line and, on July 23rd, sighted a French fleet of 29 sail 100 miles west of Ushant. The French Admiral, the Comte d'Orvilliers, who had orders to avoid battle, was cut off from Brest but retained the weather gage. Two of his ships to windward escaped into port leaving him with 27.

Battle

The two fleets manoeuvered during shifting winds and a heavy rain squall until a battle became inevitable with the British more or less in column and the French in some confusion. However, the French managed to pass along the British line to windward with their most advanced ships. At about a quarter to twelve HMS Victory opened fire on Bretagne, 110, followed by Ville de Paris, 90. The British van escaped with little loss but Sir Hugh Palliser's rear division suffered considerably. Keppel made the signal to wear and follow the French but Palliser did not conform and the action was not resumed.

Aftermath

Keppel was court-martialled but cleared of dereliction of duty charges, and Palliser criticised by an enquiry before the affair turned into a squabble of party politics. Ushant 1778 Category:1778 Ushant 1778

27 July

July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 157 days remaining.

Events


- 1214 - Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
- 1549 - Jesuit priest Francis Xavier's ship arrives in Kagoshima, Japan.
- 1663 - The British Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.
- 1689 - Glorious Revolution: Battle of Killiecrankie ends
- 1694 - A Royal Charter is granted to the Bank of England.
- 1778 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
- 1789 - The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, is established (later renamed Department of State).
- 1794 - French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution." (See 9 Thermidor.)
- 1865 - Welsh settlers arrive in Argentina at Chubut Valley.
- 1866 - The Atlantic Cable is successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.
- 1880 - British army defeated at Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan.
- 1914 - Felix Manalo establishes the modern-day Iglesia ni Cristo by registering it with the Filipino government.
- 1921 - Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
- 1928 - Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July.
- 1940 - Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare.
- 1941 - Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
- 1949 - Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.
- 1953 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
- 1955 - The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).
- 1964 - Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
- 1968 - Pink Floyd releases the album A Saucerful of Secrets in the USA.
- 1974 - Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon: obstruction of justice.
- 1976 - Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka is arrested on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and foreign trade laws in connection with the Lockheed scandal.
- 1981 - British television: On Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event, with massive viewer numbers earned for the show.
- 1990 - The Jamaat al Muslimeen stage a coup d'état attempt in Trinidad and Tobago, occupying Parliament and holding Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson and most of his Cabinet hostage for 6 days.
- 1995 - In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated.
- 1996 - Centennial Olympic Park bombing: In Atlanta, Georgia, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics, killing one and injuring 111.
- 1997 - Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria; about 50 people killed.
- 1999 - 21 die in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.
- 2002 - Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.
- 2005 - STS-114: NASA makes the decision to ground the Space shuttle pending an investigation of the external tank's continued foam shed problem. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery shed a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam did not strike the spacecraft.

Births


- 1452 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1508)
- 1667 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)
- 1733 - Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (d. 1779)
- 1768 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat who killed Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)
- 1781 - Mauro Giuliani, Italian composer (d. 1828)
- 1812 - Thomas Clingman, American Confederate general (d. 1897)
- 1824 - Alexandre Dumas fils, French author (d. 1895)
- 1833 - Thomas George Bonney, English geologist (d. 1923)
- 1835 - Giosue Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- 1853 - Vladimir Korolenko, Russian writer (d. 1921)
- 1857 - José Celso Barbosa, Puerto Rican political leader (d. 1921)
- 1867 - Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (d. 1916)
- 1870 - Hilaire Belloc, English writer (d. 1953)
- 1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian composer and conductor (d. 1960)
- 1881 - Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945)
- 1882 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (d. 1965)
- 1886 - Ernst May, German architect (d. 1970)
- 1901 - Rudy Vallee, American singer (d. 1986)
- 1903 - Nikolai Cherkasov, Russian actor (d. 1966)
- 1904 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish Yiddish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- 1905 - Leo Durocher, baseball player (d. 1991)
- 1908 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)
- 1915 - Mario Del Monaco, Italian tenor (d. 1982)
- 1916 - Keenan Wynn, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1917 - Bourvil, French actor (d. 1970)
- 1918 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
- 1922 - Norman Lear, American television writer and producer
- 1922 - Adolfo Celi, Italian actor (d. 1986)
- 1924 - Vincent Canby, American film critic (d. 2000)
- 1931 - Jerry Van Dyke, American actor
- 1938 - Isabelle Aubret, French singer
- 1938 - Gary Gygax, American computer game creator
- 1940 - Pina Bausch, German dancer
- 1942 - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
- 1944 - Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)
- 1947 - Betty Thomas, American actor and film director
- 1948 - Peggy Fleming, American figure skater
- 1949 - Maureen McGovern, American singer and Broadway actress
- 1957 - Bill Engvall, American comedian
- 1964 - Rex Brown, American bassist (Pantera)
- 1967 - Juliana Hatfield, American musician
- 1967 - Kellie Waymire, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1968 - Cliff Curtis, New Zealand actor
- 1969 - Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Italian actress
- 1969 - Triple H, American professional wrestler
- 1972 - Jill Arrington, American sports reporter
- 1974 - Eason Chan, Hong Kong singer
- 1975 - Shea Hillenbrand, baseball player
- 1975 - Alex Rodriguez, baseball player
- 1975 - Alessandro Pistone, Italian footballer
- 1977 - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Irish actor
- 1979 - Shannon Moore, American professional wrestler
- 1981 - Susan King Borchardt, American basketball player

Deaths


- 1101 - Conrad, King of Germany and Italy (b. 1074)
- 1276 - King James I of Aragon (b. 1208)
- 1365 - Duke Rudolf IV of Austria (b. 1339)
- 1564 - Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1503)
- 1675 - Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal of France (b. 1611)
- 1759 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (b. 1698)
- 1770 - Robert Dinwiddie, British colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1693)
- 1841 - Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author (b. 1814)
- 1844 - John Dalton, English physicist and chemist (b. 1776)
- 1863 - William Lowndes Yancey, American Confederate leader (b. 1813)
- 1917 - Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1841)
- 1924 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1866)
- 1931 - Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss entomologist (b. [[1848]{

American war of independence

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known, especially internationally, as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen British colonies in North America. The war began largely as a colonial revolt against the economic policies of the British Empire, and eventually widened far beyond British North America, with France, Spain, and the Netherlands entering the war against Great Britain. Additionally, many American Indians fought on both sides of the conflict. Throughout the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture colonial coastal cities, but control of the countryside largely eluded them. French involvement proved decisive, with a naval victory in the Chesapeake leading to the surrender of a British army at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized the independence of the United States of America. Because a great number of colonists fled the thirteen colonies and settled in the north, the war also paved the way for the eventual creation of what would become Canada. The terms American Revolutionary War and American Revolution are often used interchangeably, though the American Revolution included political and social developments before and after the war itself. This article refers solely to the military campaign; for a broader perspective, including the origins and aftermath of the war, see the American Revolution.

Combatants

Colonists

Colonists were divided over which side to support in the war. About 40 to 45 percent of the colonial population supported the struggle for independence, and were known as "Patriots" (or "Whigs"). About 15 to 20 percent supported the British Crown during the war, and were known as "Loyalists" (or "Tories"). Loyalists fielded perhaps 50,000 men during the war years in support of the British Empire. In some areas, the American Revolutionary War was a civil war. When the war began, the American revolutionaries did not have a professional army (also known as a "regular" or "standing" army). Each colony had traditionally provided for its own defenses through the use of local militia. Militiamen served for only a few weeks or months at a time, were generally reluctant to go very far from home, and would often come and go as they saw fit. Militia typically lacked the training and discipline of regular troops, but could be effective when led by talented officers. Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army—the Continental Army—in June of 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington reluctantly augmented the regular troops with militia throughout the war. Although as many as 250,000 Patriots may have served as regulars or militiamen in the eight years of the war, there were never more than 90,000 total men under arms for the revolutionaries in any given year. Armies in North America were small by European standards of the era; the greatest number of men that Washington personally commanded in the field at any one time was fewer than 17,000.

European nations

commander-in-chief Early in 1775, the British army consisted of about 36,000 men worldwide, but wartime recruitment steadily increased this number. Additionally, over the course of the war the British hired about 30,000 German mercenaries, popularly known in the colonies as "Hessians" because many of them came from Hesse. Germans would make up about one-third of the British troop strength in North America. By 1779, the number of British and German troops stationed in North America was over 60,000, though these were spread from Canada to Florida. France, the Netherlands and Spain entered the war against Great Britain in an attempt to dilute Britain's emerging superpower status. Early on, all three countries quietly provided financial assistance to the American rebels. France officially entered the war in 1778 and soon sent troops, ships, and military equipment to fight against the British for the remainder of the war. Spain entered the war in 1779, officially as an ally of France, not the United States—Spain was not keen on encouraging similar rebellions in her own empire. The Netherlands entered the war late in 1780, but was soon overwhelmed by the British.

Blacks and Native Americans

African-Americans, slaves and free blacks, served on both sides during the war. Black soldiers served in northern militias from the outset, but this was forbidden in the South, where slaveowners feared arming slaves. Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, issued an emancipation proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to runaway slaves who fought for the British, and Sir Henry Clinton issued a similar edict in New York in 1779. Tens of thousands of slaves escaped to the British lines, although possibly as few as 1,000 served under arms. Many of the rest served as orderlies, mechanics, laborers, servants, scouts and guides, although more than half died in smallpox epidemics that swept the British forces, and a number were driven out of the British lines when food ran low. Despite Dunmore's promises, the majority were not given their freedom. In response, and because of manpower shortages, Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776. All-black units were formed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; many were slaves promised freedom for serving in lieu of their masters; another all-black unit came from Haiti with French forces. At least 5,000 black soldiers fought as Patriots. Most American Indian communities east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war, many divided over the question of which side to support. Most Native Americans who joined the fight fought against the United States, since native lands were threatened by ever expanding Anglo-American settlement. An estimated 13,000 warriors fought on the British side; the largest group, the Iroquois Confederacy, fielded about 1,500 warriors against the Patriots.

War in the North

Massachusetts, 1774 to 1776

Iroquois Confederacy In 1774, the British parliament effectively abolished the provincial government of Massachusetts. Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, already the commander-in-chief of British troops in North America, was also appointed governor of Massachusetts and was instructed by King George's government to enforce royal authority in the troublesome colony. However, popular resistance compelled the newly appointed royal officials in Massachusetts to resign or to seek refuge in Boston. Gage commanded four regiments of British regulars (about 4,000 men) from his headquarters in Boston, but the countryside was in the hands of the Patriots. On the night of 18 April 1775, General Gage sent 900 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord, Massachusetts. Several Patriot riders — including Paul Revere — alerted the countryside, and when the British troops entered Lexington on the morning of 19 April, they found 75 minutemen formed up on the village common. Shots were exchanged, and the British moved on to Concord, where there was more fighting. By the time the "redcoats" (as the British soldiers were called) began the return march, several thousand militiamen had gathered along the road. A running fight ensued, and the British detachment suffered heavily. With the Battle of Lexington and Concord — the "Shot heard 'round the world" — the war had begun. Afterwards, thousands of Patriot militiamen converged on Boston, bottling up the British in the city. Late in May, Gage received by sea about 4,500 reinforcements and a trio of generals who would play a vital role in the war: William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton. They formulated a plan to break out of the city. On June 17, 1775, British forces under General Howe seized the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The battle was technically a British victory, but losses were so heavy that the attack was not followed up. Thus the siege was not broken, and General Gage was soon replaced by Howe as commander-in-chief for the British. In July of 1775, newly appointed General Washington arrived outside Boston to take charge of the colonial forces. The standoff continued throughout the fall and winter. In early March of 1776, heavy cannons that had been captured by Patriots at Fort Ticonderoga were moved to Boston, a difficult feat engineered by Henry Knox. When the guns were placed upon Dorchester Heights, overlooking the British positions, Howe's situation became untenable. The British evacuated the city on March 17, 1776 and sailed for temporary refuge in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The colonial militia dispersed, and in April Washington took most of the Continental Army to fortify New York City.

Canada, 1775 to 1776

During the long standoff at Boston, the Continental Congress sought a way to seize the initiative elsewhere. Congress had initially invited French-Canadians to join them as the fourteenth colony, but when that failed to happen, an invasion of Canada was authorized in an attempt to drive the British from the Canadian provinces. Two expeditions were undertaken. On September 16, 1775, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery marched north from Fort Ticonderoga with about 1,700 militiamen, capturing Montreal on November 13. General Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, escaped to Quebec. The second expedition, led by Colonel Benedict Arnold, set out from Fort Western (present day Maine) on September 25. The expedition was a logistical nightmare, and many men succumbed to smallpox. By the time Arnold reached Quebec in early November, he had but 600 of his original 1,100 men. Nevertheless, Arnold demanded the surrender of the city, to no avail. Montgomery joined Arnold, and they attacked Quebec on December 31, but were soundly defeated by Carleton. Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, and many men were taken prisoner. The Patriots held on outside Quebec until the spring of 1776, and then withdrew. Another attempt was made by the Patriots to push back towards Quebec, but failed at Trois-Rivières on June 8, 1776. Carleton then launched his own invasion, and defeated Arnold in a naval battle on Lake Champlain (the Battle of Valcour Island) in October. Arnold fell back to Fort Ticonderoga, where the invasion of Canada had begun. The invasion of Canada ended as an embarrassing disaster for the Patriots, but Arnold's improvised navy on Lake Champlain managed to delay the fateful British counter thrust (the Saratoga Campaign) until 1777.

New York and New Jersey, 1776 to 1777

Having withdrawn from Boston, the British now focused on capturing New York City. General Howe, with the services of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, began amassing troops on Staten Island in July of 1776. General Washington, with a smaller army of about 20,000 men, unwittingly violated a cardinal rule of warfare, and divided his troops about equally between Long Island and Manhattan, thus allowing the Howes to engage only one half of the Continental Army at a time. In late August, the Howes transported about 22,000 men (including 9,000 "Hessians") to Long Island. In the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, the British expertly executed a surprise flanking maneuver, driving the Patriots back to the Brooklyn Heights fortifications. General Howe then laid siege to the works, but Washington skillfully managed a nighttime evacuation to Manhattan. Having taken Long Island, the Howes moved to seize Manhattan. On September 15, General Howe landed about 12,000 men on lower Manhattan, quickly taking control of New York City. The Patriots withdrew to Harlem Heights, where they skirmished the next day, but held their ground. When Howe moved to encircle Washington's army in October, the Patriots again fell back, and a battle at White Plains was fought on October 28, 1776. Once more Washington retreated, but Howe, instead of aggressively pursuing the withdrawal, returned to Manhattan and captured Fort Washington in mid November, taking almost 3,000 prisoners. Four days later, Fort Lee, across the Hudson River from Fort Washington, was also taken. Hudson River is an iconic image of American history.]] General Lord Cornwallis continued to chase Washington's army through New Jersey, until the Patriots withdrew across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in early December. With the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, the British entered winter quarters. Although Howe had missed several opportunities to crush the diminishing Patriot army, he had killed or captured over 5,000 of the rebels. He controlled much of New York and New Jersey, and was in a good position to resume operations in the spring, with the rebel capital of Philadelphia in striking distance. The outlook of the Continental Army — and thus the revolution itself — was bleak. "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine, who was with the army on the retreat. The army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men fit for duty, and would be reduced to 1,400 after enlistments expired at the end of the year. Spirits were low, popular support was wavering, and Congress had abandoned Philadelphia in despair. Washington reacted by taking the offensive, stealthily crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. Cornwallis marched to retake Trenton, but was outmaneuvered by Washington, who successfully attacked the British rearguard at Princeton on January 3, 1777. Washington then entered winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, having retaken much of New Jersey, and having secured two bold, morale-boosting victories in quick succession to reinvigorate the flagging revolution.

Saratoga Campaign, 1777

In the summer of 1777, the British launched a new expedition from Canada. Led by General Burgoyne, the intention was to seize the Lake Champlain and Hudson River corridor, effectively isolating New England from the rest of the American colonies. Burgoyne's invasion had two components: he would lead about 10,000 men along Lake Champlain towards Albany, New York, while a second column of about 2,000 men, led by Barry St. Leger, would move down the Mohawk River valley and link up with Burgoyne in Albany. Burgoyne set off in early July, recapturing Fort Ticonderoga from the retreating Patriots without firing a shot. He then proceeded overland towards Albany, but Patriots slowed his progress through the wilderness by destroying bridges and felling trees in his path. Running short on supplies, in August Burgoyne sent a detachment to raid nearby Bennington, Vermont. The raiders were decisively defeated by local Patriot militia, depriving Burgoyne of nearly 1,000 men and the much-needed supplies. decisively defeated commanded both American Indians and white Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War.]] Meanwhile, St. Leger—half of his force American Indians led by Joseph Brant—had laid siege to Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River. About 800 Patriot militiamen and their Indian allies marched to relieve the siege, but were ambushed and scattered by British and Indians on August 6 at the Battle of Oriskany. Iroquois warriors fought on both sides of the battle, marking the beginning of a civil war within the Six Nations. When a second relief expedition approached, this time led by Benedict Arnold, the siege was lifted, and St. Leger's expedition returned to Canada. Burgoyne was on his own. Burgoyne pushed on towards Albany, his forces now reduced to about 6,000 men. A Patriot army of about 8,000 men, commanded by the newly arrived General Horatio Gates, had entrenched about 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne sent 2,000 men to outflank the Patriot position, but was checked by Generals Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan in the first battle of Saratoga on September 19, 1777. After the battle, the two armies dug in. Burgoyne was in trouble now, but he hoped that help from the south might be on the way. All along, Burgoyne had suggested that his invasion from Canada might be supported by a British offensive up the Hudson River from Howe's location in New York City. However, British war planners did not coordinate their efforts. General Howe had instead sailed away from New York on an expedition to capture Philadelphia (see next section). British General Henry Clinton, left in command at New York, did indeed sail up the Hudson in October, capturing several forts and burning Kingston (at the time the Patriot capital of New York), but his efforts were not enough to affect the events at Saratoga. Patriot militiamen, many of them outraged by the reported murder of an American woman at the hands of Burgoyne's Indian allies, flocked to Gates's army, swelling his force to 11,000 by the beginning of October. Burgoyne, his position becoming desperate, launched a new offensive, the second battle of Saratoga on October 7. The attack was repelled, and General Arnold, though relieved of command by Gates, rushed to the battle and led a decisive counterattack. Badly beaten, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17. Saratoga was the turning point of the war. Patriot confidence and determination, suffering from Howe's successful occupation of Philadelphia, was renewed. Even more importantly, the victory encouraged France to enter the war against Great Britain. Spain and the Netherlands soon did the same. For the British, the war had now become much more complicated.

Philadelphia Campaign, 1777 to 1778

Having secured New York City in his 1776 campaign, in 1777 General Howe concentrated on capturing the capital of Philadelphia. He moved slowly, landing 15,000 troops in late August at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay, about 55 miles (90 km) southwest of Philadelphia. Washington positioned his 11,000 men between Howe and Philadelphia, but was outflanked and driven back at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The Continental Congress once again abandoned the city. British and Patriot forces maneuvered around each other for the next several days, clashing in minor encounters such as the so-called "Paoli Massacre." On September 26, Howe finally outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into Philadelphia unopposed. After taking the city, the British garrisoned about 9,000 troops in Germantown, five miles (8 km) above Philadelphia. Washington unsuccessfully attacked Germantown in early October, and then retreated to watch and wait. Meanwhile, the British secured the Delaware River by taking (with difficulty) forts Mifflin and Mercer in November. General Washington's problems at this time were not just with the British. In the so-called Conway Cabal, some politicians and officers unhappy with Washington's recent performance as commander-in-chief secretively discussed his removal. Washington, offended by the behind-the-scenes maneuvering, laid the whole matter openly before Congress. His supporters rallied behind him, and the episode abated. Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in December of 1777, about 20 miles (32 km) from Philadelphia, where they would stay for the next six months. Over the winter, 2,500 men (out of 10,000) died from disease and exposure. However, the army eventually emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a training program supervised by Baron von Steuben. Meanwhile, there was a shakeup in the British command, with General Clinton replacing Howe as commander-in-chief. French entry into the war had changed British war strategy, and Clinton was ordered by the government to go on the defensive in the North. He abandoned Philadelphia and marched back towards New York City. Washington's army shadowed Clinton on his withdrawal, and forced a battle at Monmouth on June 28, 1778, the last major battle in the North. Washington's second-in-command, General Charles Lee, ordered a controversial retreat during the battle, angering Washington and allowing Clinton's army to escape. By July, Clinton was in New York City, and Washington was again at White Plains. Both armies were back where they had been two years earlier. With the exception of scattered minor actions in the North, like the Battle of Stony Point, the focus of the war now shifted elsewhere.

War in the West

Main article: Frontier warfare during the American Revolution Frontier warfare during the American Revolution in the dead of winter led to the capture of General Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor of Canada.]] West of the Appalachian Mountains, the American Revolutionary War was an "Indian War." The British and the Continental Congress both courted American Indians as allies (or urged them to remain neutral), and many Native American communities became divided over what path to take. Like the Iroquois Confederacy, tribes such as the Cherokees and the Shawnees split into factions. Delawares under White Eyes signed the first Indian treaty with the United States, but other Delawares joined the British. The British supplied their Indian allies from forts along the Great Lakes, and tribesmen staged raids on Patriot settlements in New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Joint Iroquois-Loyalist attacks in the Wyoming Valley and at Cherry Valley in 1778 helped provoke the scorched earth Sullivan Expedition into western New York during the summer of 1779. On the brutal western front, every man, woman, and child — regardless of race — was a potential casualty. In the Ohio Country, the Virginia frontiersman George Rogers Clark attempted to neutralize British influence among the Ohio tribes by capturing the outposts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes in the summer of 1778. When General Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, retook Vincennes, Clark returned in a surprise march in February of 1779 and captured Hamilton himself. However, a decisive victory in the West eluded the United States even as their fortunes had risen in the East. The low point on the frontier came in 1782 with the Gnadenhütten massacre, when Pennsylvania militiamen, unable to track down enemy warriors, executed nearly 100 Christian Delaware noncombatants, mostly women and children. Later that year, in the last major encounter of the war, a party of Kentuckians was soundly defeated by a superior force of British regulars and Native Americans. For generations in the United States, the exploits of George Rogers Clark were practically the only stories told about the Revolution in the West; other parts of the tale were apparently best left unremembered.

War in the South

During the first three years of the American Revolutionary War, the primary military encounters were in the North. One notable exception was in June of 1776, when General Henry Clinton sailed south to attack Charleston, South Carolina. This ended in humiliating defeat for the British, and the revolutionaries remained in control of the southern colonies for the next three years. Starting in 1778, the British once again turned their attention to the colonies of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, where they hoped to regain control with the assistance of southern Loyalists. On December 29, 1778, an expeditionary corps of 3,500 men from Clinton's army in New York captured Savannah, Georgia. A joint Franco-Patriot attempt to retake Savannah failed on October 9, 1779. In this assault Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish commander of Patriot cavalry, was mortally wounded. With Savannah secured, Clinton could now launch a new assault on Charleston, South Carolina, where he had failed so miserably in 1776.

Carolinas, 1780 to 1781

cavalry in 1782.]] Clinton finally moved against Charleston in 1780, blockading the harbor in March, and building up about 10,000 troops in the area. Inside the city, General Benjamin Lincoln commanded about 2,650 Continentals and 2,500 militiamen. When British Colonel Banastre Tarleton cut off the city's supply lines in victories at Monck’s Corner in April and Lenud’s Ferry in early May, Charleston was surrounded. The besiegers dug trenches closer and closer to the city until, on May 12, 1780, General Lincoln surrendered his 5,000 men—the largest surrender of U.S. troops until the American Civil War. With relatively few casualties, Clinton had seized the South’s biggest city and seaport, winning perhaps the greatest British victory of the war, and paving the way for what seemed like certain conquest of the South. The regiment of the southern Continental Army on their way to aid Charleston turned back after to North Carolina after their destination city fell. Colonel Tarleton pursued them and caught up to them on May 29, 1780. The affair that followed is the subject of much debate. Tarleton claims to have soundly defeated the Americans, but the common American verision says that Tarleton's forces either ignored the American attempt to surrender or fired upon them as they were in the process of doing so. The event became known as the Waxhaw massacre. The American verision of the story quickly spread through the colonies. “Bloody Tarleton” became a hated name among the rebels, and “Tarleton’s quarter”—referring to his reputed lack of mercy (or “quarter”)—soon became a Patriot rallying cry. With these events, organized Patriot resistance in the South had collapsed, though the war was carried on by partisans such as Francis Marion. General Clinton turned over British operations in the South to Lord Cornwallis. The Continental Congress dispatched the "hero of Saratoga," General Horatio Gates, to the rescue with a new army. But Gates promptly suffered one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780, setting the stage for Cornwallis to invade North Carolina. The tables were quickly turned on Cornwallis, however. One wing of his army was utterly defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, delaying his move into North Carolina. Kings Mountain was noteworthy because it was not a battle between British redcoats and Patriot troops: It was a battle between American Loyalists and American Patriots. The Revolutionary War was in many ways a civil war; this was especially true in the South. Gates was replaced by George Washington's most dependable subordinate, General Nathanael Greene. Greene assigned about 1,000 men to General Daniel Morgan, a superb tactician who crushed Tarleton’s troops at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. Greene proceeded to wear down his opponents in a series of battles (Guilford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety Six and Eutaw Springs), each of them tactically a victory for the British, but giving no strategic advantage to the victors. Greene summed up his approach in a motto that would become famous: "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Unable to capture or destroy Greene's army, Cornwallis turned his attention to Virginia.

Virginia, 1775 to 1781

Virginia had been under revolutionary control since Loyalist forces (including runaway slaves) under Governor Dunmore had been defeated at the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775. After the defeat Dunmore and his troops took refuge on British ships off of Norfolk, which Dunmore bombarded and burned on January 1, 1776. He was driven from an island in Chesapeake Bay that summer, never to return. British forces raided Virginia sporadically during the war. In January 1781, the rebel capital of Richmond was put to the torch by none other than Benedict Arnold, who had sold his services to the other side and was now a British general. In March 1781, General Washington dispatched Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops in the colony, now reinforced and commanded by Cornwallis, totaled 7,200. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. "The boy cannot escape me," Cornwallis is supposed to have said. However, Cornwallis was unable to trap Lafayette, and so he moved his forces to Yorktown, Virginia in July in order to link up with the British navy. As fate would have it, the navy that eventually met Cornwallis at Yorktown was not British.

War at sea

Main article: Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War Meanwhile the co-operation of the French became active. In July Count Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island. That place had been occupied by the British from 1776 to the close of 1779. An unsuccessful attempt was made to drive them out in 1778 by the Patriots assisted by the French admiral d'Estaing and a French corps.
- First Battle of Ushant - July 27, 1778
- John Paul Jones
- Continental Navy
- Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780)
- Second Battle of Ushant - December 12, 1781

Gulf Coast

After Spain declared war against Great Britain in June of 1779, Count Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Louisiana, seized three British Mississippi River outposts: Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Gálvez then captured Mobile on March 14, 1780, and in May of 1781 forced the surrender of the British outpost at Pensacola, Florida. On May 8, 1782, Gálvez captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas.

Caribbean


- Battle of the Saintes

India

The Franco-British war spilled over into India in 1780, in the form of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. The two chief combatants were Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and a key French ally, and the British government of Madras. The Anglo-Mysore conflict was bloody but inconclusive, and ended in a draw at the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784.

Netherlands

Also in 1780, the British struck against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War to preempt Dutch involvement in the League of Armed Neutrality, directed primarily against the British Navy during the war. Agitation by Dutch radicals, and a friendly attitude towards the United States by the Dutch government, influenced by the American Revolution also encouraged the British to attack. The war lasted into 1784 and was disastrous to the Dutch mercantile economy.

Mediterranean

On 5 February 1782 Spanish and French forces captured Minorca, which had been under British control since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. A further Franco-Spanish effort to recover Gibraltar was unsuccessful. Minorca was ceded to Spain in the peace treaty.

Whitehaven

An interesting footnote to this war was the actual landing on Britain itself by a ship from the Continental Navy. This occurred in 1778 when the port of Whitehaven in Cumberland was raided by John Paul Jones. The landing was a surprise attack, taken as an action of revenge by Jones, and was never intended as an invasion. Nevertheless, it caused hysteria in England, with the attack showing a weakness that could be exploited by other states such as France or Spain. Its result was an intense period of fortification in British ports.

War's end

The northern, southern, and naval theaters of the war converged at Yorktown in 1781. On September 5, 1781, French naval forces defeated the British Royal Navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake, cutting off Cornwallis's supplies and transport. Washington hurriedly moved his troops from New York, and a combined Franco-American force of 17,000 troops commenced the Battle of Yorktown on October 6, 1781. Cornwallis's position quickly became untenable, and on October 19 his army surrendered. The war was all but over. October 19 is on horseback in the right background; because the British commander was absent, military protocol dictated that Washington have a subordinate—in this case Benjamin Lincoln—accept the surrender.]] British Prime Minister Lord North resigned soon after hearing the news from Yorktown. In April 1782, the British House of Commons voted to end the war with the Patriots. On November 30, 1782 preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris; the formal end of the war did not occur until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 and the United States Congress ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784. The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783. The reasons for Great Britain's misfortunes and defeat may be summarized as follows: Misconception by the home government of the temper and reserve strength of her colonists; disbelief at the outset in the probability of a protracted struggle covering the immense territory in America; consequent failure of the British to use their more efficient military strength effectively; the safe and Fabian generalship of Washington; and perhaps most significantly, the French alliance and European combinations by which at the close of the conflict left Great Britain without a friend or ally on the continent. Decisive victory eluded the United States on the western frontier. However, Great Britain negotiated the Paris peace treaty without consulting her Indian allies, and ceded much American Indian territory to the United States. Full of resentment, Native Americans reluctantly confirmed these land cessions with the United States in a series of treaties, but the result was essentially an armed truce—the fighting would be renewed in conflicts along the frontier, the largest being the Northwest Indian War.

Casualties

The total loss of life resulting from the American Revolutionary War is unknown. As was typical in the wars of the era, disease claimed more lives than battle. It is often overlooked that the war took place in the context of a massive smallpox epidemic in North America that probably killed more than 130,000 people. Historian Joseph J. Ellis suggests that Washington's decision to have his troops inoculated may have been the commander-in-chief's most important strategic decision. Casualty figures for the Patriots have varied over the years; a recent scholarly estimate lists 6,824 killed and 8,445 wounded in action. The number of Patriot troop deaths from disease and other non-combat causes is estimated at about 18,500. Approximately 1,200 Germans were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accident. About 16,000 of the remaining German troops returned home, but roughly 5,500 remained in the United States after the war for various reasons, many becoming American citizens. No reliable statistics exist for the number of casualties among other groups, including American Loyalists, British regulars, American Indians, French and Spanish troops, and civilians.

See also


- List of important people in the era of the American Revolution
- Battles of the American Revolutionary War
- Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
- American Revolution prisoners of war
- France in the American Revolutionary War
- The Society of the Cincinnati
- Daughters of the American Revolution
- Timeline of United States revolutionary history (1760-1789)
- Newburgh conspiracy
- List of British Forces in the American Revolutionary War
- List of Continental Forces in the American Revolutionary War
- Last surviving United States war veterans

Notes

# Percentage of Loyalists and Patriots: Robert M. Calhoon, "Loyalism and Neutrality" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 247; number of Loyalist troops: Boatner, p. 663. # Size of Patriot armies: Boatner, p. 264. # British troop strength: Black, pp. 27-29. Number of Germans hired: Boatner, pp. 424-26. # British usage of escaped slaves: Kaplan & Kaplan, pp. 71-89. # Patriot all-black units: Kaplan & Kaplan, pp. 64-69. # Total number of warriors: James H. Merrell, "Indians and the new republic" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 393. Number of Iroquois warriors: Boatner, p. 545. # Smallpox epidemic: Fenn, p. 275. A great number of these smallpox deaths occurred outside the theater of war — in Mexico or among American Indians west of the Mississippi River. Washington and inoculation: Ellis, p. 87. # Patriot dead and wounded: Chambers, p. 849.

References


- Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783. St. Martin's Press (New York) and Sutton Publishing (UK), 1991. ISBN 0312067135 (1991), ISBN 0312123469 (1994 paperback), ISBN 0750928085 (2001 paperpack).
- Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0811705781.
- Chambers, John Whiteclay II, ed. in chief. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195071980.
- Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004. ISBN 1400040310.
- Fenn, Elizabeth Anne. Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. ISBN 0809078201.
- Greene, Jack P. and J.R. Pole, eds. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1991; reprint 1999. ISBN 1557865477.
- Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. ISBN 0870236636.
- Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775-1781. Originally published Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin, 1990; reprinted by Da Capo Press, 1995. ISBN 0306806177 (paperback); ISBN 0306813297 (2003 paperback reprint).

External links


- [http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american%20revolution/american%20revolution%20index.htm Battlefield atlas of the American Revolution]
- [http://users.snowcrest.net/jmike/amrevmil.html American Revolutionary War History Resources]
- [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/revbib/revwar.htm Entry to US Army Center for Military History, a huge bibliography]
- [http://www.americanrevolution.org/hispanic.html Spain's role in the American Revolution from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean]
- [http://www.americanrevolution.com/AfricanAmericansInTheRevolution.htm African-American soldiers in the Revolution]
- [http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_Independence.shtml American Revolution & Independence] Category:American Revolutionary War Category:Rebellion Category:National liberation movements ko:미국 독립전쟁 ja:アメリカ独立戦争

Ship of the line

In the age of sail, after the development of the line of battle tactic in the mid 17th century, and up to the mid 19th century, a ship of the line (of battle) was a warship powerful enough to take a place in the battle line. Another term, line of battle ship, was shortened to become "battleship", but this is a later usage and is not appropriate for the age of sail. The fact that a ship would have to stand and fight its opposite number in the enemy line, whatever the size of the enemy ship, put a lower limit on the size of vessel which could be allowed into the line. Generally, this meant a third-rate or larger ship, with guns on two or three (or in rare cases, four) decks. Before 1700, the minimum size for a ship of the line would be around fifty guns, steadily climbing to seventy-four during the late Napoleonic period. European navies in particular used ships of the line to fight fleet actions which might last several days and involve over 100 ships. Ships too small to stand in the line were used for convoy escorts, scouting, patrolling, raiding, blockading, and as flagships on foreign stations. Frigates, which mostly carried all their guns on a single deck, were the most successful all-round design for those purposes.

In fiction

Isaac Asimov adapted the term ship of the line to apply to the armed spaceships which served a similar role to the old naval vessels for the Galactic Empire of his Foundation trilogy, as mainstays of the space fleet. In a similar vein is David Weber's use of the term ship of the wall. Also, his Starfire novels use the terms battle-line or line-of-battle in a sense similar to the United States Navy's surface warfare concept.

See also


- French Navy ships of the line
- Royal Navy ships of the line
- Spanish Navy ships of the line
- United States Navy ships of the line
- Regalskeppet Vasa

External links


- [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/sailship.htm Ship of the Line] from battleships-cruisers.co.uk - History of the Ship of the Line of the Royal Navy from the galleons of 1650 to the First Rate 120 gun Ship of the Line of 1845, including Caledonia Class, Queen Charlotte, Trafalgar, Victory, Leviathan, Royal Sovereign, Vengeur and Black Prince Class. - ship listing, historic information, pictures Category:Ship types ja:戦列艦

HMS Victory

:This article is about the late 18th century ship of the line HMS Victory. For other ships of the same name see HMS Victory (disambiguation). HMS Victory is a 104 gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built in the 1760s. She is the oldest ship still in commission in the world and sits in dry dock in Portsmouth as a museum ship.

Construction

In December 1758, the commissioner of Chatham dockyard was instructed to prepare a dry dock for the construction of a new 100-gun first-rate ship. This was an unusual occurrence at the time; during the whole of the 18th century only ten were constructed - the Royal Navy preferred smaller and more manoeuvrable ships and it was unusual for more than two to be in commission simultaneously. The outline plans arrived in June 1759 and were based on HMS Royal George which had been launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1756. The keel was laid on 23 July 1759 in the Old Single Dock (now No. 2 Dock), and the name was finally chosen in October 1760. It was to commemorate the Annus Mirabilis or Year of Victories, of 1759. In that year of the Seven Years' War, land victories had been won at Quebec, Minden and naval battles had been won at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. There were some doubts as whether this was a suitable name since the previous first-rate Victory had been lost with all on board in 1744. Victory Once the frame had been constructed it was normal to cover the ship up and leave it for several months to season. However, the end of the Seven Years' War meant that she remained in this condition for nearly three years, which helped her subsequent longevity. Work restarted in autumn 1763 and she was finally launched on 7 May 1765 having cost £63,176 and 3 shillings and used around 6000 trees, 90% of which were oak and the remainder elm, pine and fir. There being no immediate use for her she was placed in ordinary— in reserve having been roofed over, demasted and placed under general maintenance—moored in the River Medway for 13 years until France joined the American War of Independence. She was commissioned in 1778 under the command of Rear Admiral John Campbell (1st Captain) and Captain Jonathan Faulknor (2nd Captain), with the flag of Admiral the Honorable Augustus Keppel. She was armed with smooth bore, cast iron cannon 30 x 32 and 42 pounders (15 and 19 kg), 30 x 24 pounders (11 kg), and 40 x 12 pounders (5 kg). Later she also carried two carronades, firing 68 lb (31 kg) round shot.

In service

Keppel put to sea from Spithead on July 9 1778, with a force of 30 ships of the line and, on July 23rd, sighted a French fleet of 29 sail 100 miles (160 km) west of Ushant. The French Admiral, the Comte d'Orvilliers, who had orders to avoid battle, was cut off from Brest but retained the weather gage. Two of his ships to windward escaped into port leaving him with 27. The two fleets manoeuvred during shifting winds and a heavy rain squall until a battle became inevitable with the British more or less in column and the French in some confusion. However, the French managed to pass along the British line to windward with their most advanced ships. At about a quarter to twelve Victory opened fire on the Bretagne, 110, followed by the Ville de Paris, 90. The British van escaped with little loss but Sir Hugh Palliser's rear division suffered considerably. Keppel made the signal to wear and follow the French but Palliser did not conform and the action was not resumed. Keppel was court martialled and cleared and Palliser criticised by an inquiry before the affair turned into a party political squabble. In March 1780 the hull below the waterline was sheathed with 3,923 sheets of copper to protect it against shipworm. On December 2 1781, Victory, now commanded by Captain Henry Cromwell and bearing the flag of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, sailed with 11 other ships of the line, a 50 and five frigates, to intercept a convoy that sailed from Brest on December 10. Ignorant of the fact that the French Comte de Guichen had 21 ships of the line, Kempenfelt ordered a chase when they were sighted on December 12 and began the Second Battle of Ushant. When he noted the French superiority he contented himself with capturing 15 sail of the convoy. The French were dispersed in a gale and forced to return home. In 1796 Captain Robert Calder (First Captain) and Captain George Grey (Second Captain) commanded Victory under Admiral Sir John Jervis's flag. Sir John Jervis sailed from the Tagus on January 18, 1797, and after being reinforced on February 6 by five ships from England, his fleet consisted of 15 sail of the line and six frigates. On February 14, the Portuguese frigate Carlotta, commanded by a Scotsman named Campbell with a Portuguese commission, brought news that a Spanish fleet was close. Jervis manoeuvred to intercept, and the Battle of Cape St Vincent was joined. Principe de Asturias, leading the Spanish lee division, tried to break through the British line ahead or astern of Victory but that ship poured such a tremendous fire into her, followed by several raking broadsides, that the whole Spanish division wore round and bore up. Horatio Nelson, in HMS Captain (primarily), also played a decisive role in this action.

Reconstruction

In February 1798, Victory was stationed at Chatham under the command of Lieutenant J. Rickman. On 8 December, unfit for service as a warship, she was ordered to be converted to a hospital ship to hold wounded French and Spanish prisoners of war. In 1799, Rickman was relieved by Lieutenant J. Busbridge. However on 8 October 1799 HMS Impregnable was lost off Chichester, having run aground on her way back to Portsmouth after escorting a convoy to Lisbon. She could not be refloated and so was stripped and dismantled. Consequently, now short of a first rate, the Admiralty decided to recondition Victory. Work started in 1800 but as it proceeded an increasing number of defects were found and the repairs developed into a very extensive reconstruction. The original estimate was £23,500 but the final cost was £70,933. Extra gun ports were added, taking her from 100 guns to 104, and her magazine lined with copper. Her figurehead was replaced along with her masts and the paint scheme changed from red to the black and yellow seen today. Her gun ports were originally yellow to match the hull but later repainted black, giving a pattern later called the "Nelson chequer" and which was subsequently adopted by all Royal Navy ships after the Battle of Trafalgar. The work was completed on 11 April 1803 and the ship left for Portsmouth on 14 May under her new captain, Samuel Sutton.

Nelson

Lord Nelson hoisted his flag in Victory on 16 May 1803 with Samuel Sutton as his flag captain and sailed to assume command in the Mediterranean on May 20. Nelson transferred to the faster frigate Amphion on 23 May. On May 28th Captain Sutton captured the French Embuscade 32, bound for Rochefort from San Domingo. Victory rejoined Lord Nelson off Toulon on July 30 when Captain Sutton exchanged commands with the captain of the Amphion Thomas Masterman Hardy. Victory was passing the island of Toro on April 4, 1805, when HMS Phoebe brought the news that the French fleet under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve was entering Cádiz to link up with the Spanish fleet. On 7 May Nelson reached Gibraltar and received his first definite news. The British fleet completed their stores in Lagos Bay, Portugal, on May 10 and two days later sailed westward with ten ships and three frigates in pursuit of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 17 ships. They arrived in the West Indies to find that the enemy was sailing back to Europe where Napoleon Bonaparte was waiting for them with his invasion forces at Boulogne. The combined fleet were involved in an indecisive action in fog off Ferrol with Admiral Sir Robert Calder's squadron on 22 July before taking refuge in Vigo and Ferrol to land wounded and abandon three damaged ships. Calder on 14 August and Nelson on 15 August joined Admiral Cornwallis's Channel Fleet off Ushant. Nelson continued to England in Victory leaving his Mediterranean fleet with Cornwallis who detached 20 of his 33 ships of the line and sent them under Calder to find the combined fleet at Ferrol. On 19 August came the worrying news that the enemy had sailed from there, followed by relief when they arrived in Cádiz two days later. On the evening of Saturday, 28 September, Lord Nelson joined Lord Collingwood's fleet off Cádiz, quietly, so that his presence would not be known. When Admiral Villeneuve learned that he was to be removed from command he took his ships to sea on the morning of October 19, first sailing south towards the Mediterranean but then turning north towards the British fleet, beginning the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson had already made his plans: to break the enemy line some two or three ships ahead of their Commander in Chief in the centre and achieve victory before the van could come to their aid. In the event fitful winds made it a slow business. For five hours after Nelson's last manoeuvring signal the two columns of British ships slowly approached the French line before Royal Sovereign, leading the lee column, was able to open fire on Fougueux. Twenty five minutes later Victory broke the line between Bucentaure and Redoutable firing a double shotted broadside into the stern of the former from a range of a few yards. At 25 minutes past one Nelson was shot, the fatal ball entering his left shoulder and lodging in his spine. He died at half past four. Such killing had taken place on Victory's quarter deck that Redoutable attempted to board her, but the marines and small arms men repelled them. Nelson's last order was for the fleet to anchor but this was rejected by Vice Admiral Collingwood. Victory lost 57 killed and 102 wounded.

After Trafalgar

Redoutable Victory took Nelson's body to England where, after lying in state at Greenwich, the burial took place in St. Paul's Cathedral on January 6, 1806. Victory bore many Admiral's flags after Trafalgar, and sailed on numerous expeditions, including two Baltic campaigns under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. Her active career ended on November 7 1812, when she was moored in Portsmouth Harbour off Gosport and used as a depot ship. It is said that when Thomas Hardy was First Sea Lord, he told his wife on returning home, that he had just signed an order for Victory to be broken up and she sent him straight back to his office to rip it up, though this story is most likely apocryphal. Over the next century, Victory slowly deteriorated at her moorings. A campaign to save her was started in 1921 with the Save the Victory Fund under the aegis of the Society for Nautical Research, by which time she was in very poor condition. The outcome of the campaign was that British Government agreed to restore and preserve her to commemorate Nelson, the Battle of Trafalgar and the Royal Navy's supremacy during and after the Napoleonic period. On 12 January 1922 she was moved into the oldest drydock in the world: No. 2 dock at Portsmouth for restoration. In 1928 King George V was able to unveil a tablet celebrating the completion of the work, although restoration and maintenance still continued under the supervision of the Society for Nautical Research. Over the last few years the ship has undergone another very extensive restoration to bring her appearance to as close as possible to that which she had at Trafalgar for the bicentenary of the battle in October 2005. HMS Victory is still in commission as the flagship of the admiral for the time being acting as Second Sea Lord in his role as Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy's Home Command (CINCNAVHOME). She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world, although the USS Constitution, launched 30 years later, is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. Victory attracts around 350,000 visitors per year in her role as a museum ship. The name is also used to refer to the western-most entrance (Victory Gate) to the Royal Navy's facility in Portsmouth, HMS Nelson.

Admirals who have hoisted flags in Victory

External links


- [http://www.hms-victory.com/ HMS Victory Royal Navy Web Site]
- [http://y2u.co.uk/&002_Images/Victory%20Nelson%2001.htm Pictures of HMS Victory]
- [http://www.nelsonsvictory.co.uk Nelson's Victory]
- [http://www.hmsvictory.ngfl.gov.uk/ Life onboard HMS Victory]

References


-
- Victory Category:Visitor attractions in Hampshire Victory Victory Victory simple:HMS Victory

Spithead

Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire shore for 3 miles; and it is 14 miles long by about 4 miles in average breadth. The "Spithead Review of the Royal Navy" is famous, where the Monarch of the United Kingdom reviews a large fleet of warships. In 1797 there was a mutiny in the Royal Navy fleet at anchor at Spithead. Spithead has been strongly defended since 1864 by fortifications completing those of Portsmouth.

1778

1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events


- The term thoroughbred was first used in the United States in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.
- January 18 - Third Pacific expedition of Capt. James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first view O'ahu then Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands."
- February 5 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- February 6 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
- February 23 - American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and begins to train the Continental Army.
- July 10 - American Revolutionary War: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- July 27 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
- August 26 - Triglav, at 2,864 metres above sea level the highest peak of Slovenia, was ascended for the first time by four brave men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič and Lovrenc Willomitzer on Sigismund Zois's initiative.
- September - The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
- November 26 - In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
- France introduced the first state-controlled brothel.
- The first settlement was made in the area of what is now Louisville, Kentucky by 13 families under Col. George Rogers Clark.
- Phillips Academy, the most prestigious secondary boarding school in the United States, was founded by Samuel Phillips Jr.

Births


- January 3 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)
- February 22 - Rembrandt Peale, American artist (d. 1860)
- March 19 - Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)
- April 10 - William Hazlitt, English essayist (d. 1830)
- May 18 - Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British politician (d. 1854)
- August 11 - Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German patriot (d. 1852)
- September 8 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
- September 19 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1868)
- November 1 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (d. 1837)
- December 17 - Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)

Deaths


- January 10 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
- February 18 - Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
- February 20 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
- March 5 - Thomas Augustine Arne, English compoer (b.