Livin on a Prayer: The Luck of Washington’s Army

Livin’ on a Prayer: The Luck of Washington’s Army

“Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance the Revolution would have almost certainly failed.” (294) Nathaneal Greene wrote, “He will be the deliverer of his own country.” (294) But even more so than Washington’s tenacious and unrelenting leadership, the Revolution was saved time and again by luck. Most of this luck stems from the overall underestimation that every British soldier had of the Americans. The British thought the war would be over within a matter of days, but that didn’t happen. Although we did come very close to being annihilated several times over the course of 1776. I agree that it was the luck that saved the Continental Army that long first year, helped along by General George Washington.

Much if not the entire Parliament believed the war would be over quickly. “General James Grant, a member of the House of Commons, boasted that with 5,000 British Regulars he would march from one end of the American Continent to the other…” (6) This claim was widely believed and quoted. When Washington took command of the forces at Boston the luck of the army turned for the good. Washington had a good eye for what he called “raw materials” for building an army, and he saw that in many of his young officers. It was very lucky that Nathaneal Greene and Henry Knox had become officers and were able to meet Washington; otherwise we may have lost the war.

The Siege of Boston was a long stretch of lucky occurrences, just happening one after the other. Dorchester Heights was by far the biggest. Henry Knox was sent to secure cannons from Fort Ticonderoga, and didn’t return for a long time. Because Knox was gone for so long, Washington called many councils of war to decide whether or not to attack Boston, luckily his officers voted to wait. Knox returned and the men set about fortifying the