Military leadership in the American Revolutionary War

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American Revolutionary War
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.jpg
Armed Forces
United States
Continental Army
 → Commander-in-Chief
 → Regional departments
 → List of units
Continental Navy
Continental Marines
State forces
 → List of militia units
 → Maritime units
 → Pennsylvania Navy
 → Massachusetts State Navy
British Empire
List of British units
France
List of French units
Related topics
List of battles
Military leadership

A great number of military leaders played a role in the American Revolutionary War.

Contents

[edit] United States

When the war began, the American colonists did not have a regular army (also known as a "standing army"). Each colony had traditionally provided for its own defenses through the use of local militia.

Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army—the Continental Army—in June 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington reluctantly augmented the regular troops with militia throughout the war.

[edit] Commander-in-Chief

[edit] Continental Army

Detail from Washington and his generals at Yorktown (c. 1781) by Charles Willson Peale. Lafayette (far left) is at Washington's right, the Comte de Rochambeau to his immediate left.

[edit] Militia

[edit] Continental Navy

[edit] Operating out of France

[edit] Frontier

[edit] Foreign individuals allied with the American cause

[edit] British Empire

See also: War Office

[edit] Government officials


At the head of the British forces was the King, George III, who was captain general of all forces both naval and military. It was usual for him to delegate his military powers as captain general or commander-in-chief. From 1772 to 1778 the office was vacant, but from 1778 to 1782 Sir Jeffery Amherst officiated as Commander-in-Chief with the title of General on the Staff. He was succeeded in February, 1782 by Henry Seymour Conway.

Next in importance to the Commander-in-Chief was the Secretary at War who was bidden "to observe and follow such orders and directions as he should from time to time receive from the king or the general of the forces". Not until 1783 was he a minister responsible to parliament. At the start of part of the war the secretary was Lord Barrington. He was replaced in 1778 by Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool who held this position until the fall of Lord North's government.

[edit] Commander-in-Chief, North America

[edit] Other military officers

[edit] Canadians and other Loyalists

[edit] Rangers and Indian Department officials

[edit] French & Spanish leaders

[edit] Native Americans

Chief Cornplanter portrait by F. Bertoli, 1796
  • Dunquat (the Wyandot "Half-King")

[edit] References

  • Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775–1783. St. Martin's Press (New York) and Sutton Publishing (UK), 1991. ISBN 0-312-06713-5 (1991), ISBN 0-312-12346-9 (1994 paperback), ISBN 0-7509-2808-5 (2001 paperpack).
  • Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.

[edit] Further reading

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