Thanks for the welcome Dan, great to be here. I’m really glad you enjoyed my site and my post about the Iroqouis. I am close to posting a follow up which will be about Joseph Brant and the fall Iroqouis during the Revolution, the effects of the Sullivan Expedition, which I think you’ll like. I’ll let you know when I put it up and put a link to it here.
Offhand I can only think of a few things that I think are singular from a British perspective.
The biggest is probably how poorly prepared the regular garrison of the 13 colonies were to deal with such a large scale insurrection, hence the poor show at Lexington and Concord. And also the clash of cultures that occurred whenever the issue of crowd control came into the question. In Britain it was understood that the army were essentially the police and that they would be called in whenever popular unrest occurred, in America the use of regular troops to control, mobs and demonstrations backfired badly.
I always find it interesting how both sides underestimated and overestimated one another. In the beginning the British underestimated the Americans and suffered and L&C. They still underestimated them at Breed’s Hill, yet here buoyed by their previous success the Americans thought that they could hold a fortified position indefinitely without sea or artillery support, and indeed best regular troops in open battle. Then Boston fell and a huge morale and ego boost seemed to strike the new Continental Army, again they felt more than a match for whatever the British could throw at them. This overconfidence evaporated in the New York Campaign, which gave the British the upper hand until British hubris once again came back to bite them at Saratoga. Etc etc. You get the idea!
Perhaps the best British view is the challenge to the traditional legend of American sharpshooter vs British redcoat. In reality the British didn’t always just stand and take it, light infantry batallions were formed and effective skirmishers deployed to combat the Americans, rangers and “Legions” also decry the traditional, old boys own image of the Yankee volunteer and Thomas Lobster.
The War is also interesting from the point of view that it divided so many loyalties. In Britain the country was split in opinion though the opposing parties didn’t end up shooting each other as the Loyalist and Patriot’s did. I’ve always wondered what effect the experiences of American officers that had served in the British army had. European influence on the American army was decisive after all.
All in all were gonna have some fun here.
Josh.