ABSTRACT
One of the more familiar tales coming out of the War of American Independence is how a column of British soldiers who ventured into the Massachusetts countryside in April 1775 almost did not make it back to Boston alive. What is sometimes forgotten is what took the redcoats out of Boston in the first place. Congressional delegates from North Carolina had been authorized to support a motion for independence by April 1776, but they could not make that motion themselves. Britain's big push of 1776 had been poorly coordinated and launched late in the campaign season. The 1777 campaign, despite many months of preparation, would be slightly better planned and even more poorly coordinated. The Americans may have been better at soldiering than they were the year before but they were still not good enough. That France entered the war in 1778 allied to the Americans was the most obvious reason for the growing disillusionment.
