Blog #4: Rethinking the Revolution

The Revolutionary War

Five Things I Learned:

1.  The Revolutionary War was the longest American declared war in history.  Lasting for more than eight years, the war resulted in immense numbers of casualties on both sides, making the war very important and memorable (even though the Americans won). 


2.  The War of Independence is often downgraded or not seen as important as it was, due to some historians.  They tend to not talk as much about the war, not on purpose, but simply because it was between two other major points in history: the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention (1787).  These two other events in history are probably the most written about events in American history, making the War of Independence seem less significant.


3.  Later, it was reported by Washington that during the winter of 1780, his men were so starving that they resorted to eating horse food, tree bark, and even tried to cook and eat their own shoes.  In addition, lots of the men were naked as well as starving, because of the low supplies level during the winter. 


4.  Even though they did not personally fight in the war, civilians also suffered during the War of Independence.  Diseases were widely spread by both troops and took a significant amount of the population.  Also, many of the colonists were captured or their homes were destroyed during British raids and attacks. 

5.  The Revolutionary War actually included a civil war within another civil war.  The Americans were fighting against the British, and at the same time, the American Whigs and Tories were fighting against each other.  Both civil wars ended up turning a lot of the civilians and colonists against each other, even though they were fighting on the same side against the British.

The Civil War was quite similar to the Revolutionary War.  For example, both wars were fought with the cause of wanting unity.  In the Revolutionary War, the colonies wanted to unite together and become a separate nation from Britain.  In the Civil War, the major goal of the war was for American to unite once again as one country, instead of two halves with different flags or beliefs.  Both wars were fought in the name of unity, making them more alike (besides the fact that American was involved in both wars).