The Lost Colony of Roanoke

           The smell of salt filled his nostrils and the months of travel across the open ocean had made him weary. Questions permeated his mind but were drowned by thoughts of fear, concern…dread. The fog descended slowly and lay flat across the earth blanketing it like snow. The dark in the new world was filled with more than the sounds of the English twilight. It was mysterious…almost magical. Whispers and echoes floated across the wind and were carried through the trees and the shadows revealed more than just reflections. With their packs heavy and the sun pushing up the sky they made their way through the woody country side. Where a small hamlet had been left, nothing remained. No people, no graves, no struggle. The bustle of the village diminished to silence. Two small clues left behind, “Croatoan…CRO,” were his family nearby or had the new world consumed them?

            The colony of Roanoke, largely dubbed the “Lost” colony of Roanoke was established in 1587 when three ships carrying 115 people traveled from Portsmouth (Portesmouth) England with a destination set for Virginia.[1] Sir Walter Raleigh had decided they would settle near the Chesapeake Bay area but they actually ended up a Roanoke and the captain of their ship made the choice for the colonists to stay. Modern day Roanoke is actually off the coast of North Carolina.

            Life was difficult for these colonist, in a new world, surrounded by a harsh environment. They struggled to keep their heads above water but their relationships with the Native American Aquascogocs tribe was already at a breaking point due to bad blood with the previous Roanoke settlement. Two years earlier another group of colonists traveled to Roanoke under Sir Walter Raleigh but turned around and headed home in a little under ten months. They were low on supplies and food to due to an entire ships rations being spoiled after it hit a shoal. After the colonist accused the Aquascogocs of stealing, they burned down their village and in retaliation the tribe attacked the Roanoke settlement. The colonist repelled them but fearing the worst took an offer from Sir Frances Drake to gather their things and head back home to England.

            The colonist that arrived in 1587 had no knowledge of the disagreements and it didn’t take long for the Aquascogocs to exact revenge on the new settlement. Almost as soon as they arrived the tribe killed George Howe while he was fishing for crabs. The colonists had become friends with the Croatoan tribe that settled on Croatoan island (modern day Hatteras island) and their Christian Chief Manteo. In an effort of revenge the colonist executed an attack on the Aquascogocs tribe but in the dark of night they mistakenly attacked their Croatoan friends instead. The colonist put themselves in an impossible situation and realized without supplies from England they were never going to survive the winter. John White, governor of the Roanoke settlement, reluctantly left for England in an effort to bring back supplies that would save the colony. Many scholars question why White himself had to leave the people in his care behind instead of some of the other men going back. It has been said that he was an unpopular leader, which might be why he had to head back himself, instead of sending someone else in his place.[2]

            White planned on getting the supplies and turning around to head back to the colonist he left behind at Roanoke but crisis after crisis stopped him. Weather played a large part in marine affairs during this time because many of the smaller ships White was able to acquire couldn’t withstand heavy storms. During this time the Anglo-Spanish war was going on and most of the larger naval ships were sent out to battle. Any ships that were deemed English were sunk by the Spanish no matter if they were military vessels or not so Queen Elizabeth I didn’t want to risk her ships making a trip across the Atlantic. On one occasion when he was able to acquire a ship he was boarded by the Spanish and all of his supplies were stolen so he had to return to England. It took him three years to get the ships and the supplies he needed to return to his family and the rest of the colony he left behind in 1587.

            August 18^th, 1590 is the date of one of Americas first great mysteries because when White returned to the site he had left behind those three years ago he didn’t find his family, he didn’t find his colonists, or their remains. He found nothing. As they searched what small debris had been left behind he discovered a few things, “as we entred up the sandy banke upon a tree, in the very browe thereof were curiously carved these fair Romane letters C R O.”[3] As they walked further, “one of the chiefe trees or postes at the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and 5 foote from the ground in fayre Capitall letters was graven CROATOAN.”[4] Among the left over debris they found what was mostly comprised of heavy iron and lead items. Most of the houses and dwellings had been dismantled. The settlement had been grown over and covered in weeds. White and his men found five chests, three of which were filled with Whites personal items. They had been dug up and most of the items had been destroyed or ruined by whoever found them (White proposed it was done by “savages”) as well as by their open contact with the elements.

            Under the impression the colonist had  taken up their settlement and headed toward the refuge they had left in the new world, the Croatoan tribe, White and his men headed back to their boats with haste. They put toward a plan to make their way to the Island to find their people but when bad weather struck the captain  decided it was best to head back to England. White never returned to the new world and never found out what happened to his family or the rest of the Roanoke Colonists. White was not alone. There is no definitive answer for what happened to the colonist at Roanoke. Even today scholars, researchers, and archeologist are still trying to unravel the mysteries that the colonists left behind. There are many theories as to what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke. Some of them rely on what evidence has been able to unearth, some are merely educated guesses, and some are as magical and mysterious as the disappearance itself.

            Many scholars do believe that violence could have been an option for the disappearance of the colonists. Any of the local Native American tribes could have killed them and buried the bodies somewhere else. Some researchers say Spaniards could have killed them on their way up from Florida. It doesn’t really account for how neatly the camp was disassembled though, or the notes left behind (unless it was a strategy to throw them off the truth of what actually happened). Another theory is that disease wiped them out. There are many microbes that the colonists have never encountered so many did get sick in the new world. If something tragic did happen there is a good chance the group split up and went separate ways with the Governor of the town out of the picture. Eric Klingelhofer, a historian at Mercer University stated that, “No single Indian tribe or village could have supported them. They would be even larger than some villages.”  Some scholars say they built a boat and tried to sail back to the new world and were lost at sea.

            The most popular theory is that the colonist assimilated into the Croatoan tribe.[5] If the colonist left under duress they were supposed to carve a maltese cross and leave it behind somewhere for White to find but no cross was ever discovered. This leads some researchers to believe that when they realized White was going to take some time to return they packed their bags and made way to the one group of people they had the best chance with and left behind two clues to show White where they had gone (CRO, CROAOAN). Some Evidence from settlers in the 17^th and 18^th century has supported this claim noting they had met Native Americans who lived near the Hatteras islands that had blue and grey eyes and even blond hair.[6] The Lumbee tribe are supposedly descendants of the Croatoan Tribe (which died out in the 17^th century). The Lumbee possess many European attributes which could be evidence of the Roanoke colonists settling down with the Croatoan tribe.[7] However, many scholars suggest that a few different 17^th or 18^th century migration theories could be behind the Lumbee’s European attributes and there is no imperial evidence to suggest this is a full proof theory of the colonists settlement.

            When John Smith settled Jamestown he was tasked with finding information on the lost colonists and when he questioned the Powhatan tribe (his geographical neighbors), their Chief told Smith that he killed them all because they had settled with the Native Americans near the Chesapeake area (the area which they were going to originally settle in the first place) and the tribe that lived their refused to join the Powhatans, so he killed them all, including the colonists.[8] This theory has been somewhat debunked by most historians because there is little physical or historical evidence to support it.

                        Archaeologists from East Carolina University found a 16^th century 10-carat gold signet ring in 1998 that sparked Mark Horton, an archaeologist from Bristol University, to lead excavations on Hatteras every year since 2009. Their main goal was to discover any evidence that linked the colonist to the island. They have since found, “a small piece of slate that seems to have been used as a writing tablet and part of the hilt of an iron rapier, [and] a light sword similar to those used in England in the late 16th century.”[9] On top of that the archaeologists found some copper ingots and iron bars dating back to he late 1500’s similar to the ones that White found left behind at Roanoke. This evidence could suggest two things. They assimilated to the area and took their belongings or their belongings somehow ended up there anyway.

            A second area was searched by archaeologist known as “Site X” which is about 50 miles inland in modern day Edenton, NC (in Whites notes it was dictated that they would move here if they decided to leave Roanoke). Researchers were clued into this area because of a map drawn by White himself that revealed a small X over Edenton. [10] The archaeologists have found pieces of pottery that date back to the Roanoke settlers time period based on research that shows the style of pottery is Border Ware that was used at Roanoke and Jamestown. They also found, “a food-storage jar known as a baluster, pieces of early gun flintlocks, a metal hook of the sort used to stretch animal hides or tents and an aglet, [and] a small copper tube used to secure wool fibers before the advent of the hook and eye in the 17th century.”[11] This site offers similar insight to the Cape Creek site. They may have moved inland or at least some of their belongings did over time.

            The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research is a non-profit organization that was created in 1999 to research the mysteries of Roanoke. They have set up the Lost Colony DNA project wherein Americans who can date their history back to eastern NC in the 1700s with surnames, “of the colonists and families associated through historical documents with local Native American heritage.”[12] They also have some scholarly research on local Native American tribes, maps, and practices used to find archaeological evidence at Native American sites.

            From 1937 to 1940 a series of rocks documenting what happened to the Roanoke colonists were found. The first stone was found by Louis Hammond, a man from California, who said he found the stone of the coast of Edenton, NC. The stone states, “Ananias Dare &- Virginia Went Hence- Unto Heaven 1591- Anye Englishman Shew- John White Govr Via.”[13] The back side of the stone mentions that after White left for England the colonist moved inland (toward Edenton, NC) and were ravaged by both disease and war with the local tribes. The stone was signed EWD Eleanor White Dare (John Whites daughter and mother of the first child born to the colony Virginia Dare). Dr. Haywood Pearce Jr. of the University of Atlanta thought the authenticity of the stone was real and offered a reward to find a second stone. Bill Eberhardt (a stone cutter) claimed to have found the second stone in 1939. Eventually Eberhardt claimed to have found a total of 42 stones. They were all deemed forgeries. The hoax left a stain on the story and all intellectual parties involved steered clear of it. However, the first stone is very different from the rest of the stones found. It is a different type of rock, different carvings, textual style, verbal usage, and had nothing to do with Eberhardt. Most scholarly parties didn’t want anything to do with it based on how badly Pearce’s career had been tarnished by his association to the hoax stones. The origin of the first stone, also called the Chowan River stone, and the story that lies behind the words is still a mystery.

            With so little conclusive evidence able to be found, some people believe a much more deviant plot was at work in the disappearance of the colonists. Why did John White never return to find his family? The information on John White is all but nonexistent after his return to England. He moved to what is modern day Kilmore, Country Cork in Ireland on one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s estates and stayed there. His exact date of death is not even known, but is expected to be around 1593 (he would have been in his mid-50s by that time). Some theorists think the picture of the world when White returned was far from mysterious. They suspect that he found a settlement full of dead bodies, his family included. They had died of disease or violence but to protect the “dream” of the new world the men covered up the truth to protect England’s interest in expanding to the new nation. They say that’s why he never bothered to go back, because he knew he would never find his family. He wrote in 1593 that he left the fate of the colonist in god’s hands, “Thus committing the relief of my discomfortable company…to the merciful help of the Almighty, whom I most humbly beseech to help and comfort them, according to his most Holy will and their good desire.”[14] It could be a gesture for good will and hope to his lost family, or another layer to add to the guise, closure for a broken man.

            The word Croatoan has been littered throughout the lore of North America turning up in a plethora of places in history. It was said that Edgar Allan Poe whispered the word on his death bed before he died. The word was also scribbled into Amelia Earhart’s journal that was found after she disappeared in 1937. It was found inscribed on a bed post that Ambrose Bierce slept in before he disappeared in 1913. It was scratched on the walls of Black Bart’s prison cell before he disappeared in 1888. In 1921 it was found on the last page of the ship Carroll A. Deering’s logbook before it ran aground on Cape Hatteras with no one aboard.[15] Each of these is as much of a mystery as the disappearance of the colonist in 1590.

            The Croatoan tribe believed that the Roanoke Island had a spirit. That spirit was outraged when people dug up the earth, cut down trees, burned fires, or drank from its water. The Croatoan people themselves used lived on the island but moved to what is now the modern day Hatteras Island. They said that when the spirit was angered it would turn the accused into whatever had been tainted.  

            Popular culture has not shied away from propagating the mystery behind the Lost Colony. American Horror Story had an entire season based on Roanoke. Many other shows have made episodes and story arcs that involve the lost colonists. Supernatural and Sleepy hollow alluded the colonists had a virus or plague. Authors have also delved into the Roanoke mystery using the word Croatoan to describe something that needed to be discovered, that was still lost, still a mystery (Stephen Kings Storm of the Century, Stephen Kings Haven,  Mind Hunters, The Croatoans from DC comics, The Last American Vampire, Tomb Raider, and Croatoan by Harlan Ellison to name a small few).

            The shroud of mystery still looms over the Lost Colony of Roanoke but there is no shortage of theories and no shortage of people willing to ask the questions that deserve answers. Through the technology being implemented and the researchers and archaeologists still committed to giving a voice to the lost families who gave up their lives in a comfortable country so that the dream and adventure of the new world could live; I am convinced that one day the lost colonists story will be told. Until then, we are free to search through the shadows of uncertainty and create our own understanding of what happened to the men and women of the new world. Whether you lie on the side of fact or fiction, the story of the Lost Colonist at Roanoke is mystery that implores research and understanding. Open a book, read a story and let your mind connect the dots. You could be the person that puts together what so many before you have tried. Come for the unanswered questions, and stay for the mystery and adventure.

Bibliography

Basu, Tanya. "Have We Found the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island?" National Geographic. December 8, 2013. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131208-roanoke-lost-colony-discovery-history-raleigh/.

Casale, By Steven. "America’s First Mystery: The Lost Colony of Roanoke | The Lineup." The Lineup Americas First Mystery The Lost Colony of Roanoke Comments. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.the-line-up.com/lost-colony-of-roanoke/.

Childs, By T. Mike. "The Dare Stones." Dare Stones. 2013. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://ncpedia.org/dare-stones.

"The Croatoan Mystery." Ghost Cities. October 17, 2011. Accessed October 03, 2016. https://anilbalan.com/2011/10/17/the-croatoan-mystery/.

Lane, Ralph. "Colony at Roanoke - 1586." National Center. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ColonyofRoanoke.html.

"The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research." Lost Colony. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.lost-colony.com/home.html.

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. NY: Arcade Publishing, 2000.

Moran, Michael G. "John White (d. 1593)." Library of Virginia. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/White_John_d_1593#start_entry.

"The Mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke Island Vanished, Leaving Behind a Strange Message." Ancient Origins. May 9, 2015. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-lost-colony-roanoke-island-020289.

Pruitt, Sarah. "Archaeologists Find New Clues to "Lost Colony" Mystery." History.com. August 10, 2015. Accessed October 03, 2016. http://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-find-new-clues-to-lost-colony-mystery.

University of Virginia. “Virtual Jamestown: First-Hand Accounts.” Accessed September 30, 2016. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/fhaccounts_date.html.

John Whites map of VA and NC

John Whites Roanoke

Archaeologist on Hatteras Island 

---

[1] “Virtual Jamestown: First-Hand Accounts,” Virtual Jamestown, accessed September 30, 2016, http://www.virtualjamestown.org/exist/cocoon/jamestown/fha/J1018.

[2] Michael G. Moran, "John White (d. 1593)," Library of Virginia, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/White_John_d_1593#start_entry.

[3] “Virtual Jamestown: First-Hand Accounts,” Virtual Jamestown, accessed September 30, 2016, http://www.virtualjamestown.org/exist/cocoon/jamestown/fha/J1019.

[4] Ibid.

[5] By Steven Casale, "America’s First Mystery: The Lost Colony of Roanoke | The Lineup," The Lineup Americas First Mystery The Lost Colony of Roanoke Comments, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.the-line-up.com/lost-colony-of-roanoke/.

[6] Ibid.

[7] "The Mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke Island Vanished, Leaving Behind a Strange Message," Ancient Origins, May 9, 2015, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-lost-colony-roanoke-island-020289.

[8] By Steven Casale, "America’s First Mystery: The Lost Colony of Roanoke | The Lineup," The Lineup Americas First Mystery The Lost Colony of Roanoke Comments, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.the-line-up.com/lost-colony-of-roanoke/.

[9] Sarah Pruitt, "Archaeologists Find New Clues to "Lost Colony" Mystery," History.com, August 10, 2015, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-find-new-clues-to-lost-colony-mystery.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] "The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research," Lost Colony, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://www.lost-colony.com/DNAproj.html.

[13] By T. Mike Childs, "The Dare Stones," Dare Stones, 2013, , accessed October 03, 2016, http://ncpedia.org/dare-stones.

[14] Lee Miller, Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony (NY: Arcade Publishing, 2000), 18.

[15] "The Croatoan Mystery," Ghost Cities, October 17, 2011, , accessed October 03, 2016, https://anilbalan.com/2011/10/17/the-croatoan-mystery/.

The Everlasting Love Story

The Everlasting Love Story

            The timeless stories created by Shakespeare have been adapted and readapted since their inception. The stories range from following Shakespeare’s dialogue faithfully, to only capturing his essence and deriving from his inspiration. With the vast availability of Shakespearian work (literal or not), taken from the original stories and ideas that were written almost four hundred years ago, there will be no generation that will not be introduced to some type of Shakespearian comedy, tragedy, history, or poem. His legacy is the passion that resonates within his work and ignites that same fervor with past, present, and future readers alike.

              Romeo and Juliet is one Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies and is featured on the reading list of almost every high school student in the United States. One could undoubtedly argue that there are hundreds if not tens of thousands (taking into account unpublished and amateur adaptions; including the hysterical comic book version I handed in as my ninth grade final paper), of versions of Romeo and Juliet floating around the proverbial literary water cooler; each version somewhat different from the last. This essay will take into account the 1968 Romeo and Juliet directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the 1996 Romeo + Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann, the 2011 Gnomeo & Juliet directed by Kelly Asbury, and the 2013 Warm Bodies directed by Jonathan Levine. Each version correlates either directly or indirectly with the original Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s (who actually took his inspiration from the Italian Romeus and Juliet written many years before).

             “Two households, both alike in dignity / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, / Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. / From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” (Prologue.1-5). This is how the majority of Romeo and Juliet adaptations begin and the 1968 version is not different, in fact the movie deviates very little from the original play. In an interview with Pitch weekly Zeffirelli said, “You're talking to

someone who's done 80 percent of his work based on classical material” and his work on Taming of the Shrew (1967), Hamlet (1990), and  Jesus of Nazareth (1977) add credence to that (Lybarger). One of the most important characteristics Zeffirelli takes from the original play is the naivety of the characters. He takes two young people: Leonard Whiting (Romeo) who was seventeen at the time and Olivia Hussey (Juliet) who was fifteen at the time and allows their adolescent character to flourish on screen capturing both their innocence and budding romance.

            The 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet also features much of the original dialogue with minor changes to modernize the text to screen dynamic. The most abrupt change is to set and scenery as this version takes place in modern day (1996 modern day anyways). The movie features cars, guns instead of swords, and the two opposing families are actually two opposing corporations (one owned by the Capulets and one by the Montagues). The major difference (besides the set), is the grittiness of the 1996 version from the 1968 version. Luhrmann really captured the action, struggle, and resistance of the Romeo and Juliet story in a way that Zeffirelli didn’t. In this versions Romeo and Juliet both are more mature than in Zeffirelli’s adaptation; they (especially Leonardo DiCaprio), captured the essence of tormented teenagers stuck between a life and death situation with such passion and anguish Shakespeare himself would have given a slight nod from the audience.

             Apart from the literal adaptations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, there are many stories that take only inspiration. Gnomeo and Juliet was a kids movie made in 2011 that featured two rival garden gnome families (one blue and one red), that lived in two adjacent yards. This movie centered around two characters (Gnome and Juliet), who met one day and fell in love, but were forced apart due to some very devastating horticultural differences. The movie features some of the famous lines (if only a little different): “A weed by any other name is still a weed” and “The story you are about to see has been told before. A lot. And now we are going to tell it again. But different. It's about two star-crossed lovers kept apart by a big feud. No one knows how this feud started, but it's all quite entertaining” (Gnomeo & Juliet). The movie is clearly directed towards young children and features music, playful action, and of course: A HAPPY ENDING!

            One of the even less literal adaptations for Romeo and Juliet is Warm Bodies directed by Jonathan Levine in 2013. The main character “R” is a zombie who early on in the film begins to wonder about himself in a very existential kind of way. He wonders why can’t connect anymore with anyone (which draws on many modern day worries of connecting physically with people rather than digitally). Then he meets “Julie” (getting any hints yet?), who begins to change him and instead of wanting to eat her brains, he wants to protect her. The two warring ‘families’ are the humans and zombies and if that isn’t enough evidence there is very compelling balcony scene. In the end the love between the two ignites R’s heart and turns him human again (happy ending!).

            The reason I choose these four adaptations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is because they all deserve a place within the storylines. Literal adaptations like Zeffirelli’s aid in a more classical understanding of Shakespeare while Luhrmann’s version creates a textual understanding of the story but adding a more relatable exterior. As for the last two examples (Gnomeo and Juliet & Warm Bodies), they make Shakespeare available to the masses; available to people (teenagers and children especially), who would not be drawn to more literal adaptations. This is an important point because although there are people who swear by the original, it just isn’t plausible to assume everyone is going to be able to spend time learning an old English story from start to finish. I do wholeheartedly believe that if Shakespeare was here today he would want people to understand the underlying idea of Romeo and Juliet; not just the literal or textual complexity but the passion and electricity that is available when you connect with someone so completely. For that reason, I can’t argue for what genre presents Shakespeare best because they all do, in their own ways; for different people, on different days.

Works Cited

Gnomeo & Juliet. Touchstone Home Entertainment, 2011. DVD.

Lybarger, Dylan. "Spreading the Wrong Gospel: An Interview with Franco Zeffirelli." Lybarger Links. N.p., 13 Mar. 1999. Web. 18 July 2015. <http://www.tipjar.com/dan/zeffirelli.htm>.

Shakespeare, William, and G. Blakemore Evans. "Romeo and Juliet." The Wadsworth             Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Second ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage        Learning, 1997. Print.

Gobalization Naomi Klein & Hans Rosling

Globalization
Naomi Klein & Hans Rosling

Kaitlin Walsh
Anthropology 101: Introduction to Geography

            With every trade, alliance, migration, immigration, and conversation between two or more countries, the world becomes more globally integrated. Globalization is, “the increasing interconnection of all parts of the world as the full range of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental processes and patterns of change becomes international in scale and effect.”[1] In this essay I will analyze two different views of globalization from author Naomi Klein and scientist and Professor Hans Rosling.

            In a TED talk that took place in 2010, author Naomi Klein took the stage to discuss the recklessness of human activity on the environment. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a company interested in spreading the word about important topics that range from a variety of different subjects. In this video Klein begins her discussion with the effect oil contamination has on the microscopic lifeforms in the ocean; specifically the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Klein mentions that, “even trace amounts of oil can be highly toxic to phytoplankton.”[2] She goes on to say that even though oil companies say 75% of the oil disappears, it is not gone. Those smaller lifeforms, like phytoplankton, absorb the contaminates and spread them up the food chain as they are consumed. This process is also known as bio-magnification. One of Klein’s main points is about how people are, “far too willing to gamble with things that are precious and irreplaceable.”[3] She claims that humans jump into war and gamble with the stock market without an exit strategy. She insists that it is better to error on the side of caution when it comes to climate change, than to put the fate of the world and future generations at risk. Klein discusses that people far too often ask questions like, “What is the latest possible moment…how much hotter can we let it get?”[4] Some of the possible reasons she attributes to these types of questions is greed, over confidence, and privilege; wanting to make a profit, thinking there will be a way out, and the overall dismissal of a problem. Tony Hayward even said, “The Gulf of Mexico is a big ocean, the amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”[5] The majority of the world assumes that our resources are limitless, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Klein goes on to say that as we use up our current resources we are pushed to, “drill into the deepest oceans, like the Artic, where clean-up could be impossible, large scale hydraulic fracking for gas, and massive strip mining operations for coal.”[6] Klein mentions that the Alberta tar sands are projected to be one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States. Klein refers to the mutilation of the land as, “terrestrial gutting.”[7] Instead of using the renewable resources of the sun, wind, and waves on the surface of the earth, Klein asserts that humans are, “frantically trying to dig down to the dirtiest highest emitting stuff imaginable.”[8] She makes a powerful quote towards the end of the video; “This is how civilizations commit suicide, by slamming their foot on the accelerator on the exact moment when they should be putting on the breaks.”[9] The last few minutes of the video focus on geo-engineering and how the man’s best ideas of how to save earth from global warming, revolve around pumping more toxins into the atmosphere. With no clue about the repercussions of those actions, people are recklessly trying to make up ideas on how to save the world instead of focusing on managing the use of resources here on earth. The overall idea of the video was that we need to take a risk-as a world- to confront recklessness head on.

            Hans Rosling did a TED talk in 2009 discussing the idea of what a “developing country” is. Rosling asked his students what the difference was between a “developing country” and a “western country” was. The general consensus was that a developing country had a large family and a short life; a western country had a small family and a long life. Rosling used graphs called ‘bubble data charts’ that compared countries family size vs life expectancy.  In 1970 there was a huge disparity between some countries; as the slider bar moved towards present day the data changed drastically. In 2007 most countries were in top right (long life, small family) of the graph. Only a few countries were left behind (the Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan to name a few).[10] One of his major points was that many people, including scientist and historians, were unaware of the real progress many countries have made in the last 60 years. He then showed a graph that analyzed income and life expectancy per countries beginning in the 1800s. As the slider bar moved toward present day, many countries (some with a slow start) began to reach both high life expectancy and high GDP. One interesting fact to take from this graph is that while China took longer to gain economic growth, they began to soar in life expectancy through other avenues (education, family planning, etc.).[11] As he showed more graphs, his overall point was being made more clear: The world was converging. Many of the once deemed “developing worlds/countries” were making progress. Some countries had a long way to go, but Rosling says without serious help and attention those countries would never grow; “We have to really find a way of supporting those countries, we have to respect the middle income countries on what they’re doing, and we have to fact base the whole way we look at the world.”[12] Rosling’s HIV graph was very informative. Many times people mention that Africa is rampant with HIV, but as his graph explains, it is only a few countries in Africa that are suffering from the HIV epidemic; “poverty is not the issue, race is not the issue, it needs to be made a local issue, and dealt with as such.”[13] Overall his main point was to change the mindset on how people think about “developing countries” and what criteria dictates that thought process.

            Both Klein and Rosling create interesting perspectives on globalization. One author uses emotion to insight a reaction while the other uses science and data. Overall I think a mix of both arguments creates the most viable representation of globalization because globalization is about the integration of not just countries but those countries peoples. You need to be informed about the world and the obstacles it faces, especially if you want to do anything positive about it. Each of these representations brings something important to issue of globalization and should both be used as tools to help move it forward in a positive way.

Work Cited:

Getis, Arthur, San Diego State University, Judith Getis, Deceased, Mark Bjelland, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Victoria Getis. Introduction to Geography. 14th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2013.

Klein, Naomi. “Addicted to Risk” TED. December, 2010. Accessed December 17, 2014.http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk?language=en.

Rosling, Hans. “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset.” TED. June, 2009. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state?language=en#t-1042982.

[1] Arthur Getis, Introduction to Geography, 14th ed. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2013), G-5.

[2] Naomi Klein, “Addicted to Risk,” TED, December, 2010, accessed December 17, 2014, http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk?language=en, 1:00.

[3] Ibid., 3:30.

[4] Ibid, 6:26.

[5] Ibid., 11:15.

[6] Ibid., 11:15.

[7] Ibid., 15:50.

[8] Ibid., 16:30.

[9] Ibid., 17:00.

[10] Hans Rosling, “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset,” TED, June, 2009, accessed December 17, 2014, http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state?language=en#t-1042982, 2:30.

[11] Ibid., 6:00.

[12] Ibid., 15:50.

[13] Ibid., 16:30.

The Devastation of Hurricane Katrina

  

The Devastation of Hurricane Katrina

  

Katie Walsh

Anthology 101: Introduction to Geography

On August 29, 2005 the United States experienced one of the most devastating storms in the history of the country; this storm was Hurricane Katrina. A hurricane is a large storm that forms when warm water in the ocean evaporates into the atmosphere and condenses into storm clouds creating a low pressure zone (with warm and moist air). As the warm air rises, a cycle begins as the high pressure area (cool and dry air) around the storm begins to flow in and replace the rising warm air. As the storm grows and more and more air converges in the sky, the winds begin to swirl; in the northern hemisphere, like Hurricane Katrina, the winds will spin in a counterclockwise rotation and in the southern hemisphere they will spin in a clockwise rotation and this is due to the Coriolis effect and Earth’s rotation on its axis. Warm ocean water fuels the hurricane and can cause it to grow exponentially. Conversely, when a hurricane reaches land it loses its fuel and can dissipate quickly; unfortunately devastating damage doesn’t take long to accumulate.

The Saffir-Simpson scale which categorizes hurricanes into five sections based on their intensity was created by Engineer Herbert Saffir and director of the National Hurricane Center Robert Simpson.[1] “Category one hurricanes have winds from between seventy-four and ninety-five miles an hour. These hurricanes do some damage to plants, trees, and mobile homes and usually feature a five foot storm surge. Category two hurricanes have winds from ninety-six to one hundred and ten miles per hour. They feature severe damage to plants, trees, and mobile homes and feature an eight foot storm surge. A category three hurricane has winds that range from one hundred and eleven to one hundred and thirty miles per hour. These hurricanes can do damage to buildings, blow trees down, destroy mobile homes and feature a twelve foot storm surge. Hurricanes that are considered category four have winds from one hundred thirty-one to one hundred fifty-five miles per hour. These hurricanes feature severe flooding to shoreline housing, severe damage to buildings and homes and feature a storm surge of eighteen feet. The last category for hurricanes is category five and the winds rush to over one hundred and fifty-fives miles per hour. The storm surge is over eighteen feet high and entire buildings can be blown over.”[2]

            In Hurricane Katrina’s case, she started off very slow, “sometimes moving as slow as six miles per hour”.[3] As Katrina breezed by the coast of Florida as a category one hurricane, she was only just beginning. She passed Florida with minimal damage and continued on a three day journey through the warm eighty-seven degree waters of the Gulf of Mexico – growing.[4] Quickly the hurricane turned into a category five storm with winds raging over one hundred and sixty miles an hour.[5] When it finally hit the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi it had been, “downgraded to a category four storm with winds at a steady one hundred and fifty-five miles per hour, but that was little consolation” to the people living within the point of landfall considering Katrina has a storm surge of over twenty feet high.[6]. After twelve hours Hurricane Katrina had descended into tropical storm territory with winds at sixty-five miles per hour, after sixteen hours, “she had dissipated and only destruction was left in her wake”.[7]

In the early hours of the aftermath it, “seemed as though New Orleans had escaped with no more damage than might have been expected, but the worst was yet to come.”[8] During the storm the levies protecting the city of New Orleans had been severely damaged and the waters of the Mississippi River were slowly flooding in. During the next two days, “about eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded with anywhere from one to three meters of water.”[9] Almost two thousand people were killed during Hurricane Katrina in over five states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia) and over one million people were without homes.[10] Entire towns were destroyed and families separated. The devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi still has a long way to go before it will ever be able to be back to normal.

            There are a lot of things that have been done to prevent the havoc of Hurricane Katrina from ever happening again. For example, one of the largest issues: the levies that were destroyed have been built with safe holds so that the same issue cannot occur again. There is also a lot that can be done in the area of emergency preparedness. If you live in an area where hurricanes can easily decimate you, there should be protocols you should have to endure in regards to housing and building regulations, appropriate amount of supplies in danger areas, and emergency evacuation procedures. Overall I think a lot of effort has been put into making sure an event of this magnitude will not cause the immense destruction it did last time.

            Hurricane Katrina may have been one of the worst storms in the history of the United States but the amount of kindness, generosity, and hospitality it brought out in the American people was unprecedented. It shows that no matter how large a storm or how much devastation occurs we will always ban together to help others in need.

Annotated Bibliography

CNN U.S. “Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts.” Last modified August 22, 2014. Accessed November 9, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/.

This website featured a lot of statistics on Hurricane Katrina. There was information available for death tolls, insurance premiums, and impacts of the hurricane.

Getis, Arthur, Mark Bjelland, and Victoria Getis. Introduction to Geography. 14th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014.

I used our textbook to feature information in my paper regarding the levies in Hurricane Katrina and the Saffir-Simpson Scale. I also referenced information on how hurricanes are created.

“How Hurricane Katrina Formed” (video). September 5, 2005. Accessed November 9, 2014. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/katrina-formation?source=relatedvideo.

This website featured an amazing example on how hurricanes are formed as well the exact information I needed to describe Hurricane Katrina’s path from Florida to Louisiana.

The Weather Channel. “Hurricanes and Tropical Storms.” Accessed November 9, 2014.http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/charts/tropical/saffirscale.html.

This website featured information on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

---

[1] “Hurricanes and Tropical Storms,” The Weather Channel, accessed November 9, 2014,http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/charts/tropical/saffirscale.html.

[2] Arthur Getis, Mark Bjelland, and Victoria Getis, Introduction to Geography, 14th ed. (New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014), 92.

[3] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed” (video), September 5, 2005, 3:00, accessed November 9, 2014, http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/katrina-formation?source=relatedvideo, 1.64.

[4] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  1.82.

[5] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  1.97.

[6] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  2.47.

[7] “How Hurricane Katrina Formed”,  2.85.

[8] Getis, Bjelland, and Getis, 75.

[9] Getis, Bjelland, and Getis, 75.

[10] “Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts,” CNN U.S., last modified August 22, 2014, accessed November 9, 2014,http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/.

BA Thesis: The Perfect Storm: Weathers Impact on the Patriots during the American Revolution

The Perfect Storm:

Weathers Impact on the Patriots during the American Revolution

History 494: Senior Seminar in History

Kaitlin Walsh

10 May 2015

            A man astride a white horse leads his troops in battle, shouting encouragement…evoking inspiration. He rides to and fro amidst the fray, among the bullets whistling past, a fearsome sight to behold. Just when it appears that he may be too close to the enemy to be saved, the fog rolls in, and he and his horse are enveloped in the white mist, disappearing from view, and he lives on, to fight another day.[1]  Weather can be unpredictable; it can be mild and placid or it can rage with the ferocity of one thousand suns. Throughout history it is has been an unwavering backdrop in our lives, taking a backseat to our more current situations; but weather is much more than a backdrop. It initiates change, adaptation, ingenuity, and perseverance. Weather has played an integral part in our military history, acting as the victor and the spoiler. In the American Revolution alone, a historian could spend a lifetime researching the effects of weather on each and every battle and confrontation. During the eighteen years between 1765 and 1783 the Patriots and the Redcoats were able to experience all of the individual seasons that are present within the United States from year to year. They endured harsh winters, violent squalls, sweltering summers, and tropical storms.            

             Weather largely goes unnoticed in most historical accounts of the past, being featured as background information or descriptive ‘fluff’. Jonathan T. Engle mentions in his thesis The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781 that most histories of the American revolution offer only a limited insight into how weather influenced battles, strategies, and war time tactics but not as, “a force that shaped military conduct.”^[2] This practice is common in many of the primary resources of the time. For example, a soldier present at Dorchester Heights could mention how fog played a part in cloaking the men during preparations, while another soldier (present at the same battle) would leave any mention of the weather completely out. This phenomenon boils down to perspective and what each author deems necessary information to include and many other factors present at the time of writing the resource. The American Revolution primary resources that are available today in compendiums like Rebels and Redcoats, Redcoats and Rebels, and The Spirit of Seventy-Six, “provide a window into the past…unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought” for historians looking to understand the intricacies of daily life during colonial war time and some of our only firsthand resources for understand how weather shaped our past.[3]  

            Authors like Harold A. Winters who wrote Battling the Elements: Weather and Terrain in the Conduct of War, Laura Lee author of Blame it on the Rain, and Gary D. Attkins who wrote a thesis entitled “Impact of Weather on Military Operations: Past, Present, Future,” have all found the value in researching weathers various impacts on military history but the research into the American Revolution is far less substantial. There is very little research available on the subject in any form, but finding a novel solely discussing weathers roles in the American Revolution is almost impossible. Most authors who focus on the Revolution, like Joseph J. Ellis who wrote Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, will mention the weather in passing or write a small excerpt on how “weather played crucial roles,” in why the British didn’t win the war but expand on the idea no further.[4] One major contributor is Jonathan T. Engle whose thesis featured evidence that, “weather affected the operations of both American and British armies in three areas: strategy…tactics…and administration.”[5] Engle focuses on the historical aspect of weathers contribution, rather than the scientific details; he argued that all aspects of the war were touched by weather in some way;

            “Weather affected the operations of both American and British armies in three areas: strategy, influencing the planning of campaigns; tactics, affecting the course of battles; and administration, adding to the daily work of maintaining armies in the field and keeping them functional”^[6]

Engle mentions all four battles specific to this essay in his thesis; he discusses the stormy weather that allowed time for Washington to fortify his position at Dorchester Heights, the cold weathers effect on men crossing the Delaware, its choppy waters,  and the storm that Christmas Day in which the hessians assumed no army would fight through, the fogs assistance to the Continental Army during the Long Island escape, and in perhaps one of the most pivotal moments of the American Revolution: the weathers influence on the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

            William R. Baron and David C. Smith worked together to create a study entitled “Growing Season Parameter Reconstructions for New England Using Killing Frost Records, 1697-1947,” that discussed the role in which weather played on agriculture in the early 1770’s. Through climatic evidence they uncovered that ‘killing frost’ wreaked havoc on corn crops during the years of 1761-1764 and again in the early 1770’s.[7] They concluded that this ‘weather phenomenon’ coupled with the growing taxes, “deserves a place on our list of causes for the coming of the American Revolution in New England.”[8] As historians analyze how weather has impacted the American Revolution, whether they believe it fate, fiction, or scientific fact, it continues becoming a growing subject of interest for students and historians alike, with much more research left to be accomplished.

            Weather can create obstacles, but more importantly it can create opportunities. The Fortification of Dorchester Heights (March 1776), the Escape of Long Island (August 1776), the Battle of Trenton (December 1776), and the Battle of Yorktown (October 1781) were four battles in which the weather played an integral part in the victory for the Patriots. Had the “perfect storm” of meteorological events not occurred at the time they did in these particular battles, America could very well look completely different today.

            Dorchester Heights is located just southeast of Boston in the state of Massachusetts [Refer to picture one in Appendix- Colonial Map of Boston and DH from 1776 that shows the elevation and troop encampments]. On March 2^nd 1776 George Washington devised a plan to place cannons northwest and southwest of Boston in Cambridge and Roxbury. He chose those locations to create a diversion so that on March 4^th 1776 a division of 2,000 soldiers led by American Brigadier General John Thomas could fortify Dorchester Heights without interruption.[9] The cannons used to provide cover for Thomas and his men were provided by Colonel Henry Knox who transported them by Ox sled 300 miles in 56 days from Fort Ticonderoga in which they were captured almost a year prior by Colonel Benedict Arnold, Ethen Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.[10] Weathers first service to the Patriots preparing for battle at Dorchester Heights was the snow that Knox used to transport the cannons all the way to Boston, “Thursday next trusting that between this & then we shall have a [inserted: fine] fall of snow which will [inserted: enable us to proceed further &] make the carriage easy.”[11] Severe winter weather in the Northern New York area is due to the lake-effect precipitation from Lake Ontario, where it is not uncommon to have 5 or more feet of snow a year. The Fort Ticonderoga area, even today, averages 66.7 inches, which is the average over the past 76 years that weather has been recorded by professional meteorologists.[12] Had Knox been unable to supply the cannons to Washington and his men at Dorchester Heights, they would have been ill equipped to adequately fortify their position and the strategic location of Dorchester Heights could have fallen into British Hands, securing their hold on Boston. 

            Weather continued to be on the patriot’s side as heavy winds carried the sound of cannon fire away from Boston. Reverend William Gordon of Roxbury Massachusetts wrote in a letter to Samuel Wilson on April 6, 1776, “the wind lay so as to carry what noise could not be avoided…into the harbor between the town and the castle, so as not to be heard… especially as there was a continued cannonade on both sides.”[13] Gordon recalls the fog that acted as an invisibility cloak to the Patriots, “it was hazy below so that our people could not be seen.”[14] As the fog lay thick on the city of Boston, the British were unaware of the work being accomplished in the clear moonlight air up on the hill of Dorchester Heights. Patriots continued to move unnoticed by padding their wagon-wheels with straw.[15] By the morning of the 5^th the small group of 2,000 men had accomplished a great amount of work. In a letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote that after the British had awoken to see the immense fortifications in which the American army had erected overnight, General Howe said, “My God! These fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.” Overnight the Patriots had constructed two forts, several barracks, and multiple long breastworks (vertical constructions that are usually built up even to the breast as a means for protection during battle).[16] Even though the Patriots had made substantial progress in the fortification of Dorchester Heights, General Howe concluded that if the British army didn’t make a move quickly, the Patriots would turn Dorchester Heights into an impregnable position. As General Howe was making plans to take Dorchester Heights, George Washington was devising a strategy to attack Boston, however, both armies were halted by an immense snow storm. William Gordon recalls the storm, “how amazingly strong the wind blew (for it was a storm as scarce any one remembered to have heard).”[17] In a climatology thesis, written and constructed by Professor R. Ward, Ward studied the weather patterns of colonial times along with data taken from primary resources to construct four maps illustrating the snowstorm that took place from March 4^th-6^th 1776 in the Eastern United States [Refer to picture two in Appendix-Map of the storm]. As the poor weather continued and the Continental army had more time to fortify their position, any attacks on Dorchester Heights from General Howe and his soldiers became impossible. General Howe quickly began making provisions to evacuate the city and on March 18^th, 1776 General Howe and his troops sailed away from Boston. In a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth written on March 21, 1776 General Howe wrote that, “a wind coming contrary and blowing very hard, the ships were not able to get to their destination…the attempt become impracticable.”[18] During the Fortification of Dorchester Heights four instances of weather in favor of the Patriots can be seen and documented. The four meteorological events, especially the storm that began on the 5^th of March, were crucial in the patriot’s victory at Dorchester Heights.

           

            After the success at Dorchester Heights, George Washington predicted that General Howe and the British Army would try to make a move on New York City. George Washington positioned nineteen thousand men in and around the Brooklyn area located just southeast of New York City.[19]  On August 22^nd General Howe landed south of New Utrecht on the coast of the Hudson River and prepared his nearly forty thousand men for battle. The Patriots, who had been preparing themselves since April were now scrambling to make last minute preparations.[20] Colonel William Douglas, a soldier positioned in Long Island, wrote a letter to his wife on August 23^rd, 1776, only four days before the fighting began and said,

            “the wind and wether [weather] has been remarkeable [remarkable] in our favor,” it “has kept back the enemy…I hope that the same kind Providence that has wonderfully carried us thus far will shew his power in bringing us off victorious.”[21]

The Patriots watched, waited, and prepared for what would be one of their most challenging battles to date in their fight for freedom.

            Howe executed a three pronged attack [Refer to figure three in Appendix-Map of Battle of Long Island, troop encampments, and movement of General Howe’s sneak attack], two regiments led by James Grant and a Hessian General named Leopold Philip von Heister attacked Washington’s left line (defended by William Alexander) and front line (defended by General John Sullivan).[22] Another large group of soldiers led by Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton stealthily took a side road through Bedford known as the Jamaica Pass (just east of Brooklyn) and attacked Washington’s troops positioned in Brooklyn who also aided in attacking Washington’s front lines from behind.[23] The situation looked very bleak for the American soldiers and those that could, retreated to Brooklyn. As the Americans were trapped inland on all sides, their only saving grace was that wind and tides present in the New York Bay would not allow the British warships through so as to trap the Americans and their only means of escape: the East River.[24]

            On the night of the 29^th General Washington called for as many boats as he could muster to evacuate his soldiers to Manhattan, a heavy fog, wind, and rain helped mask his narrow escape.”[25] In a letter to congress Washington explained that, “the weather of late has been extremely wet, yesterday it rained severely the whole afternoon.”[26] Captain Enoch Anderson recalls the weather conditions, “Our regiment was the last that left our lines. We set off at daybreak,-a thick fog arose;-it was the pillar of a cloud to our enemies and favorable to us.”[27] Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge made the decision, after being called to retreat from Brooklyn, to take the opportunity to go back for his horse. He recalls in his person memoirs that,

            “A very dense fog began to rise, and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manner over both encampments… When the sun rose we had just received orders to leave the lines… The fog remained as dense as ever… Finally, the second order arrived for the regiment to retire, and we very joyfully bid those trenches ... adieu…I obtained my horse and got off some distance into the river before the enemy appeared in Brooklyn. As soon as they reached the ferry we were saluted merrily from their musketry, and finally by their field pieces; but we returned in safety.”[28]

Historian Edward G. Lengel credits George Washington as being the last man to leave Long Island.[29] Wind, tides, rain and especially fog were four crucial factors in the Americans escape from Long Island. Had General Howe been able to cut off the Americans escape or had the visibility to disrupt their escape, the revolution could have been crushed then and there, as General Washington, many of his elite officers, and a large portion of his army would have been captured or killed.

           

            As winter was briskly approaching, Howe decided to take the bulk of the British Army back to New York for the winter. He dispatched a small force in the charge of General Cornwallis who were tasked with continuing the pursuit of the American army. They chased Washington all the way to the Delaware River but were unable to cross because, “everything that floated for miles up and down the river,” had been destroyed by the Patriots in an attempt to foil the British army’s quest.[30] General Cornwallis then decided to strategically place the soldiers in his command all around New Jersey and set up camp for the winter in Brunswick. Troops were set up all over; in Princeton, Perth, Amboy, Bordentown, and Pennington…The Hessians were place at Trenton.[31] Though the Hessian commander Colonel Rhal had strict orders and protocols to enforce on his soldiers his, “fondness of drink and celebration” coupled with his assurance the fighting would be on hold until January were his ultimate demise.[32]

            1500 Hessian soldiers were placed at Trenton, located in the middle bend of New Jersey; southwest of New York and Northeast of Philadelphia. Washington devised a strategic plan of attack in which the Hessian forces would be completely surrounded but to reach the enemy Washington and his army of nearly 2500 men would need to cross the Delaware River [Refer to picture four in Appendix-Map of the Battle of Trenton showing the troop encampments and Washington’s strategy to surround the Hessian Army]. On a warm summers day this many not seem like such a feat but in the dead of winter amidst snow, wind, rain, and ice, it could have proved fatal. In Elisha Bostwick’s memoirs he talked about the dangerous expedition across the river, fighting against snow, ice, and recalled how their torches, “sparkled and blazed in the storm all night.”[33] In a letter to his wife, Henry Knox described the obstacles the Patriots endured in crossing of the Delaware, “the floating ice in the river mad the labor almost impossible…the night was cold and stormy; it hailed with great violence.”[34] George Washington wrote to John Hancock on December 27^th 1776 that he had planned to make it to Trenton by five o’ cloak in the morning but, “the quantity of ice, made that night, impeded the passage of boats so much, that it was three o’clock before the artillery could all be got over, and near four before the troops took up their march again.”[35] While the weather seemed like it was a hindrance to the Patriots, it was really their key to victory.

            When Washington and his army finally reached Trenton and the battle began, Knox wrote that, “the storm continued with great violence, but was in our backs, and consequently in the faces of our enemy.”[36] The Americans took Trenton with relative ease losing only a handful of men while the incredibly inebriated regiment of Hessians were either killed or captured, the majority being the later. The effectiveness of Washington’s plans, and ultimately his victory, stemmed from the bad weather. The Hessians (and British alike) both assumed that with winter fully under way and a snowstorm above their heads no military operation would take place until the new year. The snow and ice present in Trenton on December 26^th, 1776 was assumed to act as a deterrent for the American army but in actuality it acted as a cloaking device that followed the Continental army to their first major win in the Revolutionary war. This victory resonated within the army, rejuvenated spirits, and inspired new enlistments. This incredible transformation within the army is credited as a “turning point in the war,” and hope for the future of the America.[37]

            One of the issues that plagued soldiers during the summer months, especially in the southern colonial states, was the intense heat and humidity. At the battle of Monmouth alone the British lost 59 men to “fatigue” and the Patriots lost 37 to “sunstroke.”[38] While this heat affected both armies, Jonathan T. Engle describes Cornwallis’ blatant disregard for his soldier’s health in the heat of the summer months in his expeditions across the Carolina’s and Virginia in his thesis. Engle goes on to mention that Cornwallis was told multiple times by General Clinton (his superior officer) to find a cooler place to wait out the summer instead of tiring his men winning only, “trivial victories,” in the south.[39] Clinton wrote that the summer was a time when all military operations should cease as it was a period of, “deadly epidemics,” and a time, “when the rays of the sun are more fatal than even a superior and victorious foe.”[40] By the time his men had settled in Yorktown they were already exhausted and the summer months were not yet gone.

            The battle of Yorktown took place on October 19^th, 1781 and is credited as one of major decisive victories of the Patriots which led to the end of the American Revolution.[41] Washington waited patiently for a chance to strike a tremendous blow to the British. His first thought was to ally with the French and strike New York but fighting the British at their strongest Fortification made both Washington and the French commander Rochambeau nervous. When General Cornwallis decided to entrench his men at Yorktown, it seemed like the perfect opportunity with a much higher rate of success. Washington wrote in his general orders of September 30^th, 1781 that, “the present moment offers in prospect the epoch which will decide American Independence and the Glory and superiority of the Allies,” and his choice to attack Yorktown at the time turned out to be one of the most influential decisions of the American Revolution.[42]  Cornwallis was expecting reinforcements, which is one of the main reasons he chose not to evacuate his position earlier; instead, Cornwallis and his soldiers created heavy fortifications to wait out the oncoming storm.

            In late-September George Washington led 8,800 soldiers, along with 7,800 French allies commanded by Comte de Rochambeau, in a multi-pronged attack to trap General Cornwallis and his army of 8,000 soldiers in Yorktown by land and water [refer to picture five in the appendix-Map of the Battle of Yorktown that shows troop encampments and Washington’s troop movements].[43] The French took their position on the left side of Yorktown just southwest of the British encampments and were also present in the York River with Cornwallis’ two main vessels the H.M.S. Guadeloupe and the H.M.S. Charon. The Continental army surrounded Cornwallis on the right side just southeast of Yorktown. Cornwallis had also set up a small camp straight across the river from Yorktown at Gloucester Point but Washington sent both French and American soldiers to surround them as well. Historian Russell S. Perkins wrote that Cornwallis’s position, “was made so indefensible,” by the clout of the Franco-American forces, surrender was inevitable.[44]  

            Fighting dragged on from mid-September to mid-October and in some of the last days of the battle, the fighting became intense. In a journal written by Dr. James Thacher, a medic for the Patriots, Thacher said at one point during combat Washington’s aid asked him to back away from the front lines for fear of him being “too much exposed” in which Washington replied, “Colonel Cobb, if you afraid, you have liberty to step back.”[45] With Washington’s French and American forces slowly closing in on Cornwallis’ men he made a last ditch effort to escape, Cornwallis called for any and all available ships to transport his men down the York River and into New York. General Cornwallis wrote a letter to Henry Clinton on October 20^th 1781 in which he described his secret escape attempt that took place only four days prior, but mentions that, “at the critical moment, the weather from being moderate and calm, changed to a most violent storm of wind and rain, and drove all the boats, some of which had troops on board, down the river.”[46] Captain Johann von Ewald, who commanded a Hessian regiment alongside the British recalled the weather on the night of the 16^th,

            “I will not forget this past night in all my life.… It was dark as a sack, and one could neither see nor hear anything because of the awful downpour and heavy gale. Moreover, there was a most severe thunderstorm, but the violent flashes of lightning benefited us, since we could at least see around us for an instant.”[47]

After a devastating blow dealt by the weather, Cornwallis was forced to analyze all of his remaining options.

            It was on October 19^th 1781 that Cornwallis officially surrendered at Yorktown, however he claimed he was too ill to attend the ceremony, so Brigadier General Charles O’ Hara attended the surrender in his place[48] Later Cornwallis wrote in a letter,

            “A diversion by the French ships of war that lay at the mouth of York River… Our numbers…diminished by the enemy's fire…sickness…exhausted by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty. Under all these circumstances, I thought it would have been…inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives of this small body of gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved with so much fidelity and courage, by exposing them to an assault, which from the numbers and precautions of the enemy could not fail to succeed. I therefore proposed to capitulate.”[49]

Once again weather played a crucial role in the victory for Yorktown. Had Cornwallis been able to escape, the Revolution could have dragged on for many more years.

           

            Weather worked in favor of the Patriots at The Fortification of Dorchester Heights (March 1776), the Escape of Long Island (August 1776), the Battle of Trenton (December 1776), and the Battle of Yorktown (October 1781) and were instrumental in their victories. In each of these battles weather conditions played their roles in supporting the Patriots. The cannons at Dorchester Heights were brought from Knox all the way from Ticonderoga using snow. Victor Brooks Author of The Boston Campaign: April 1775-March 1776 regarded Knox’s transportation accomplishment as, “one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire war.”[50] The wind and fog made it possible for the patriots to fortify Dorchester in secrecy and the large storm on the night of the 4^th halted an oncoming attack from the British and allowed the Patriots to continue their fortification efforts at Dorchester Heights. George Washington described the events in a letter to Joseph Reed on March 7, 1776 as an, “act of providence.”[51] Wind and tides played a crucial part in stopping the British from trapping the Americans at Long Island and rain and fog allowed the Patriots to escape. During the winter of 1776 British assumed the harsh weather would deter any attempts to fight, but Washington used the weather to his advantage, orchestrating a successful attack on Trenton.  Finally, at the battle of Yorktown British soldiers unaccustomed to fighting in the summer months had become exhausted by the time they reached Yorktown, Virginia and when a violent storm interrupted Cornwallis’ escape attempt on the 16^th of October 1781 the Patriots were finally the ones standing with two feet on the ground.

            Each of these battles played an important role in the American Revolution. The Battle of Dorchester Heights showed the British Army early on that the Patriots were a capable and competent force that was not to be underestimated. Thomas McGrath said that the victory at Dorchester Heights was the, “birthplace of this country,” and that if the British were able to push back the Patriots and occupy Dorchester Heights themselves we would not have won Boston and in turn, we wouldn’t have the Fourth of July; we wouldn’t be free.”[52] The Escape from Long Island allowed the Patriots time to regroup and continue fighting for their freedom from the British. At the Battle of Trenton the Patriots won an enormous victory at the time when their morale was at its lowest. That victory sparked revolution back into the hearts of the people in America and gave them to strength to carry on fighting. Finally, at the Battle of Yorktown, the Patriots all but ended the Revolutionary War fighting within the Americas. In the memoirs of Sir Nathaniel Wraxall he recalls a meeting with the Prime Minster at the time, Lord Fredrick North, who when received news of the British defeat at Yorktown exclaimed, “O God! It is all over!”[53] After their victory, George Washington and his army journeyed to New York where they were stationed until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.

            One conclusion that can be drawn from the patriot’s good fortune is the fact that they were more acclimated to the weather than the British army who were accustomed to a much milder climate than that of the colonial United States.[54] At the Battle of Monmouth Lieutenant Nathan wrote that the heat was “scarcely to be conceived in Europe.”[55] This is especially true for the fighting that occurred in the south during the summer months. The climate in the southern-to-middle-east coast states is different than the climate in England in the summer time, and the sweltering humidity took a serous toll on the troops, British and American alike.  However, it was the British soldiers who argued that style, nobility, and appearance were more important than comfort, practicality, and adaptability, no matter what the weather was like.  They especially suffered with their sixty-pound packs, “heavy woolen greatcoats,” and several layers underneath that were described as, “hot, heavy and immensely constricting.”[56] In Kyle Madison’s thesis entitled The Battle of Monmouth: How the Continental Army Used the Environmental Conditions to Gain Victory On June 28, 1778 he discusses how the British uniform was worn almost to their detriment in the colonies. They wore brimless hats that provided no protection from the sun or other weather conditions and heavy “buffalo-hide shoulder and waist belts.”[57] During the Battle of Monmouth, Washington ordered his soldiers to carry only the necessities in their packs and two days rations. The soldiers also “stripped off excess clothing, with some soldiers stripped to just their pants, in order to combat the intense heat”[58] The British’s adamant ideals about appearance over their soldier’s efficiency and effectiveness could have been a determining factor in some of their warmer weather conduct.

            The Patriots were also been better at predicting how the weather would change and adapting to it considering the British had colonized the United States almost one hundred and fifty years prior and they had already adapted to living through all of the seasons year after year. Madison writes in his thesis that it was the Continental soldier’s ability to “fight offensively in

the intense heat and incorporate the terrain into their battle strategy” that led them to several small victories at the Battle of Monmouth.[59] Meteorology and climatology really didn’t exist at the time beyond the means of what a thermometer or barometer would tell you. Jonathan Engle wrote that, “they had no satellites, no weather balloons, no radar to detect what was happening higher in the atmosphere… almanacs may have purported to offer meteorological insights.”[60] One of the main advocates of weather research at the time was Thomas Jefferson who kept a detailed journal of the temperature and day to day weather conditions from July 1776 to 1818 [Refer to picture six in appendix- Thomas Jefferson Weather Journal Excerpt Nov 1776-Feb 1777 (Note the Snowfall on Dec. 25^th)].

            One other possibility is that the Patriots made better use of the foggy weather because of their smaller numbers. They were able to use the fog as a cloaking device that worked more efficiently with smaller regiments. At the battle of Dorchester Heights the Continental Army was half the size of the British Army; had they had as many men as General Howe, half of the Continental Army could have been captured including General Washington ending the revolution.[61] This thesis focuses on four instances in which the weather helped the Patriots, however it goes without saying that weather is not always on your side. There were times that the weather helped the British, or hindered both sides at the same time. Engle summed up his thesis by stating that, “Weather represents a striking commonality between the opposing sides… American and British generals…feared the same effects of heat and winter on their men, and had their gunpowder equally ruined by inconvenient squalls.”[62] There were countless instances in which both armies were fighting not only each other, but the wind, rain, snow, heat, and all of the other relentless elements.

            Whether they believe it fate, fiction, or scientific fact, weather, along with the incredible ingenuity, bravery, and perseverance of the Patriot army ultimately led them to victory at Dorchester Heights, escaping certain capture at Long Island, victory at the Battle of Trenton, dominion over Yorktown, and ultimately the American Revolution. George Washington wrote that at the battle of Trenton, even in the face of abominable weather that, “their behavior upon this occasion, reflects the highest honor upon them…the difficult of passing the river….the snow and hail…did not in the least abate their ardour [ardor].”[63] It is impossible to know which side weather favored the most throughout the entire American Revolution but had the “perfect storm” of meteorological events not occurred at the time they did in these particular battles, America could very well look completely different today.

Appendix:

Dorchester Heights, Ma.

1. Hyde, Thomas. “Boston, Its Environs and Harbour, with the Rebels Works Raised Against That Town in 1775.” Library of Congress. Accessed April 27, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000623/.

Dorchester Heights Storm

2. Ward, R. “Weather Influences Preceding the Evacuation of Boston Mass.” Monthly Weather Review: United States Department of Agriculture 36, no. 1 (January 1908): 128-29.

The Battle of Long Island

3. British Battles. “The Battle of Long Island 1776.” Accessed April 23, 2015.             http://www.britishbattles.com/long-island.htm.

  

The Battle of Trenton

4. Library of Congress. “Sketch of the Engagement at Trenton.” Accessed April 25, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3814t.ar126700/.

The Battle of Yorktown

5. Perkins, Russell S. “Yorktown Campaign.” MOUNT VERNON. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/yorktown-campaign/.

Thomas Jefferson Weather Journal Excerpt Nov 1776-Feb 1777

6. Jefferson, Thomas. “The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 7. Miscellaneous Bound Volumes.” The Library of Congress. Accessed April 30, 2015. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj7&fileName=mtj7page059.db&recNum=56.

Primary Resources:

Adams, Charles Francis. Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams. New York, Cambridge: Hurd and Houghton, The Riverside Press, 1876.

Anderson, Enoch. Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson an Officer of the Delaware Regiments in the Revolutionary War. with Notes by Henry Hobart Bellas. Williamston: The Historical Society of Delaware, 1896.

Bostwick, Elisha. Letter, “For God’s Sake, Keep By Your Officers!.” In The Spirit of 'seventy- Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 511, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Clinton, Henry. The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns,

1775-1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents. Edited by William B. Willcox.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.

Cornwallis, Charles. Letter, “I Have The Mortification To Inform Your Excellency” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 511, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1236-1238.

Douglas, William. Letter, “Let Them  Come On As Soon As They Dare.” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 431, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Ewald, Johann. Diary of the American War, A Hessian Journal. Translated and edited by Joseph P. Tustin. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.

Gordon, William. Letter, “Washington Seizes the Heights of Dorchester.” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 177-179, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Howe, William. Letter, “General How Justifies His Decision to Evacuate Boston.” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 179-181, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Hyde, Thomas. “Boston, Its Environs and Harbour, with the Rebels Works Raised Against That Town in 1775.” Library of Congress. Accessed April 27, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000623/.

Jefferson, Thomas. “The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 7. Miscellaneous Bound Volumes.” The Library of Congress. Accessed April 30, 2015. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/ampage?collId=mtj7&fileName=mtj7page059.db&recNum=56.

Knox, Henry. Letter, “Providence Seemed to Have Smiled Upon This Enterprise!.” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 515, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Knox, Henry. “Letter from Henry Knox to George Washington On: Dragging Cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, 1775.” THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY. Accessed April 22, 2015. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/war-for-independence/resources/dragging- cannon-from-fort-ticonderoga-boston-1775.

Library of Congress. “Sketch of the Engagement at Trenton.” Accessed April 25, 2015.http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3814t.ar126700/.

Siskin, Ed, and Jean Siskin. “A Wonderful Revolutionary War Letter.” The Journal of the NEW JERSEY POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY 40, no. 1 (Feburary, 2012): 5-6.

Tallmadge, Benjamin. Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. New York: Thomas Holman Book and Jon Printer, Corner of Center And White Streets, 1858.

Thacher, Dr. James. Letter, “An Army Surgeon Describes The Great Cannonade” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1232- 1234, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Washington, George. “General Orders, 30 September 1781.” National Archives. Accessed April 29, 2015. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07054.

Washington, George. Letter, ““To JOSEPH REED Cambridge, March 7, 1776”. In The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol. 4.” George Washington Resources, University of Virginia. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/.

Washington, George. Letter, “To THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS Long Island, August 29, half past four, A.M., 1776.” In “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol 4.” George Washington Resources, University of Virginia. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/.

Washington, George. Writings. New York: Library of America, 1997.

Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel. Letter, “Oh God! It Is All Over” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1244-1245, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Secondary Resources:

Baron, William R., and David C. Smith. “Growing Season Parameter Reconstructions for New England Using Killing Frost Records, 1697-1947.” The University of Maine- DigitalCommons@UMaine. November, 1996. Accessed April 20, 2015. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=aes _bulletin.

British Battles. “The Battle of Long Island 1776.” Accessed April 23, 2015. http://www.britishbattles.com/long-island.htm.

Brooks, Victor. The Boston Campaign: April 1775-March 1776. Conshohocken, PA: Da Capo Press, 1999.

Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris. The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Dameron, Theodore P. Savas & J. David. A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution. New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010.

Ellis, Joseph J. Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

Engle, Jonathan T. “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781.” Master's thesis, Florida State University, 2011.

Gaitan, Catalina “Evacuation Day Remembered at Dorchester Heights Ceremony.” The Boston Globe. March 17, 2014. Accessed May 9, 2015. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/03/17/evacuation-day-remembered-dorchester- heights-ceremony/PzoAaQiyf3dwFY1IZ38RVN/story.html.

Heathcote, Charles William. “General Henry Knox.” USHistory.org. Accessed April 22, 2015. http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/knox.html.

History Channel. “American Forces Occupy Dorchester Heights.” Accessed April 22, 2015. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-forces-occupy-dorchester-heights.

Lee, Laura. Blame It On the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006.

Lengel, Edward G. General George Washington: a Military Life. New York: Random House, 2005.

Library of Congress. “Why Use Primary Sources?” Accessed May 9, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/whyuse.html.

Madison, Kyle. “The Battle of Monmouth: How the Continental Army Used the Environmental Conditions to Gain Victory On June 28, 1778.” Master's thesis, Rutgers University, 2011.

Martin, David G. The Philadelphia Campaign: June 1777-July 1778. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003.

NWS Grand Junction. “Science Briefing: Weather Impacts During American Revolution” (video). May 14, 2013. Accessed April 22, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5HDPUsfGks.

Perkins, Russell S. “Yorktown Campaign.” MOUNT VERNON. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/yorktown- campaign/.

Rimkunas, Barbara. “Moving Day in Winter.” SeaCoastOnline. January 8, 2010. Accessed May 5, 2015. http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20100108/NEWS/1080339?template=printart.

Scheer, [edited by] George F., and Hugh F. Rankin. Rebels and Redcoats: the American Revolution through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1987.

Schenawolf, Harry. “Uniform of the British Army Soldier During the American Revolution.” Shade of Liberty. May 23, 2013. Accessed May 9, 2015. http://www.harryschenawolf.com/uniform-of-the-british-army-soldier-during-the- american-revolution/.

Stockwell, Mary. “Battle of Long Island.” Mount Vernon. Accessed April 25, 2015. http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of- long-island/.

Ward, R. “Weather Influences Preceding the Evacuation of Boston Mass.” Monthly Weather Review: United States Department of Agriculture 36, no. 1 (January 1908): 128-29.

Washington, George. “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, 39 Vols.” George Washington Resources, University of Virginia. Accessed March 30, 2015.  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/.

Weather Base. “United States of America Ticonderoga, New York.” Accessed April 28, 2015.http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=305803&cityname=Ticonderoga%2C+New+York%2C+United+States +of+America&units=.

---

[1] [edited by] George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats: the American Revolution through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1987), 1.

[2] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781” (master's thesis, Florida State University, 2011), 3.

[3] “Why Use Primary Sources?,” Library of Congress, accessed May 9, 2015, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/whyuse.html.

[4] Joseph J. Ellis, Revolutionary Summer: the Birth of American Independence, Reprint ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), xi.

[5] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781” (master's thesis, Florida State University, 2011), vi.

[6] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781” (master's thesis, Florida State University, 2011), Vi.

[7] William R. Baron and David C. Smith, “Growing Season Parameter Reconstructions for New England Using Killing Frost Records, 1697-1947,” The University of Maine-DigitalCommons@UMaine, November, 1996, accessed April 20, 2015,

http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=aes_bulletin.

[8] Ibid.

[9] “American Forces Occupy Dorchester Heights,” History Channel, accessed April 22, 2015, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-forces-occupy-dorchester-heights.

[10] Barbara Rimkunas “Moving Day in Winter,” SeaCoastOnline, January 8, 2010, accessed May 5, 2015, http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20100108/NEWS/1080339?template=printart.

[11] Henry Knox, “Letter from Henry Knox to George Washington On: Dragging Cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, 1775,” THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY, accessed April 22, 2015, http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/war-for-independence/resources/dragging-cannon-from-fort-ticonderoga-boston-1775.

[12] “United States of America Ticonderoga, New York,” Weather Base, accessed April 28, 2015, http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=305803&cityname=Ticonderoga%2C+New+York%2C+United+States+of+America&units=.

[13] NWS Grand Junction, “Science Briefing: Weather Impacts During American Revolution” (video), May 14, 2013, 12:07, accessed April 22, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5HDPUsfGks; William Gordon, “Washington Seizes the Heights of Dorchester,” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants. Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 178.

[14] William Gordon, “Washington Seizes the Heights of Dorchester,” 178.

[15] “American Forces Occupy Dorchester Heights,” History Channel, accessed April 22, 2015, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-forces-occupy-dorchester-heights.

[16] Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams (New York, Cambridge: Hurd and Houghton, The Riverside Press, 1876), 142.

[17] William Gordon, “Washington Seizes the Heights of Dorchester,” 179.

[18] William Howe, “General How Justifies His Decision to Evacuate Boston,” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 180-181.

[19] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 54.

[20] Mary Stockwell, “Battle of Long Island,” Mount Vernon, accessed April 25, 2015, http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-long-island/.

[21] William Douglas, “Let Them  Come On As Soon As They Dare,” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 431.

[22] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 54-57.

[23] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 58.

[24] Laura Lee, Blame It On the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006), 119.

[25] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 60.

[26] George Washington, Letter, “To THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS Long Island, August 29, half past four, A.M., 1776,” Vol. 5, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/.

[27] Enoch Anderson, Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson an Officer of the Delaware Regiments in the Revolutionary War. with Notes by Henry Hobart Bellas. (Williamston: The Historical Society of Delaware, 1896), 22.

[28] Benjamin Tallmadge, Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, (New York: Thomas Holman Book and Jon Printer, Corner of Center And White Streets, 1858), 11.

[29] Edward G. Lengel, General George Washington: a Military Life (New York: Random House, 2005), 148.

[30] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution, 60.

[31] Ibid., 82.

[32] Ibid., 82.

[33] Elisha Bostwick, “For God’s Sake, Keep By Your Officers!” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 511.

[34] Henry Knox, “Providence Seemed to Have Smiled Upon This Enterprise!” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 513.

[35] George Washington, Writings (New York: Library of America, 1997), 262.

[36] Ibid.

[37] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 87.

[38] David G. Martin, The Philadelphia Campaign: June 1777-July 1778 (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003), 232-233.

[39] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781”, 67.

[40] Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of

His Campaigns, 1775-1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents, edited by William B. Willcox (New Haven:

Yale University Press, 1954), 290-291.

[41] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 336.

[42] George Washington, “General Orders, 30 September 1781,” National Archives, accessed April 29, 2015, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07054.

[43] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (New York, NY: Savas Beatie, 2010), 335.

[44] Russell S. Perkins, “Yorktown Campaign,” MOUNT VERNON, accessed May 9, 2015, http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/yorktown-campaign/.

[45] Dr. James Thacher, “An Army Surgeon Describes The Great Cannonade” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1233.

[46] Charles Cornwallis, “I Have The Mortification To Inform Your Excellency” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1238.

[47] Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War, A Hessian Journal, translated and edited by Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979), 337.

[48] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution, 336.

[49] Charles Cornwallis, “I Have The Mortification To Inform Your Excellency” in The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1238.

[50] Victor Brooks, The Boston Campaign: April 1775-March 1776 (Conshohocken, PA: Da Capo Press, 1999), 210.

[51] George Washington, Letter, “To JOSEPH REED Cambridge, March 7, 1776,” In “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol. 4,” George Washington Resources, University of Virginia, accessed March 30, 2015, Vol. 4, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/.

[52] Catalina Gaitan, “Evacuation Day Remembered at Dorchester Heights Ceremony,” The Boston Globe, March 17, 2014, accessed May 9, 2015, http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/03/17/evacuation-day-remembered-dorchester-heights-ceremony/PzoAaQiyf3dwFY1IZ38RVN/story.html.

[53] Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel. Letter, “Oh God! It Is All Over” In The Spirit of 'seventy-Six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, 1244-1245, Edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

[54] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781”, 72.

[55] Kyle Madison, “The Battle of Monmouth: How the Continental Army Used the Environmental Conditions to Gain Victory On June 28, 1778” (master's thesis, Rutgers University, 2011), 30.

[56] Harry Schenawolf “Uniform of the British Army Soldier During the American Revolution,” Shade of Liberty, May 23, 2013, accessed May 9, 2015, http://www.harryschenawolf.com/uniform-of-the-british-army-soldier-during-the-american-revolution/, Kyle Madison, “The Battle of Monmouth: How the Continental Army Used the Environmental Conditions to Gain Victory On June 28, 1778” (master's thesis, Rutgers University, 2011), 27.

[57] Kyle Madison, “The Battle of Monmouth: How the Continental Army Used the Environmental Conditions to Gain Victory On June 28, 1778”, 26.

[58] Ibid., 27.

[59] Ibid., 46.

[60] Jonathan T. Engle, “The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather On Armies During the American War of Independence, 1775-1781”, 71.

[61] Theodore P. Savas & J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution, 55.

[62] Ibid., 72.

[63] George Washington, Writings (New York: Library of America, 1997), 264.