The Mock Court Martial of British General Sir William Howe
George Washington Revealed as the Greatest Commanding General in World Military History
by
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The Mock Court Martial of General Sir William Howe
George Washington Revealed
as
The Greatest Commanding General
in
World Military History
by
Roy Cini Cusumano
THE COURT MARTIAL
OF
General Sir William Howe
IN
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
ON AUGUST 28, 1789
RELATIVE TO
HIS FAILURE
TO END THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR
At
VALLEY FORGE
IN
A VICTORY
For
THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN
DURING HIS LATE COMMAND OF THE KING’S TROOPS
IN
N O R T H A M E R I C A
[The First Edition]
L O N D O N
Sold By S. Burns, Bookseller, (No.134) In Crestview, Opposite Fetter Lane
MDCCLXXXIX
(Price Three Shillings and Sixpence)
PRINTED BY J. KIMBAL BARNES, IN FLEET STREET
*************
The House of Commons, August 28, 1789.
The Court was ordered to be open and free admittance given to everybody who had the curiosity to hear the trial, which occasioned a numerous concourse of people.
All members of the Court being duly sworn; the Judge Advocate sworn; Defendant Lieutenant General Sir William Howe, sworn; Joseph Galloway, Esquire, Prosecutor, and witness sworn; Thomas Paine as Defense witness and Counsel for General Sir William Howe, sworn; American Defense Counsel Doctor Benjamin Franklin sworn; the following witnesses sworn: Thomas Jefferson, Esquire; General James Grant, General Charles Grey 1st Earl Grey, General Sir Henry Clinton, General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Major General the Marquis de Lafayette, Joseph Plumb Martin, Oneida Indian Chief Hawkeye.
Judge Advocate: The Court requires that whoever makes an accusation must produce such evidence and in that sense he is a prosecutor.
The Judge Advocate will attempt to prove that Lieutenant General Sir William Howe violated the 12th Article of War which mandates capital punishment for his gross negligence.
All things being on order, and the witnesses ready, the charge was opened which was to this Effect:
That he, General Sir William Howe, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in North America, during the engagement of His Majesty’s said army at Barren Hill, Pennsylvania, on the 20th of May, 1778, did withdraw, or keep back and did not do his utmost to take, seize, and destroy the American detachment under the command of General the Marquis de Lafayette, for which it was his duty to have engaged and for that, the said Sir William Howe, did not do his utmost to continue on to take, seize, and destroy the forces of General George Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Continental Army at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to put an end to the rebellion in the American Colonies, and for that he thereby prevented the King from prosecuting signers of the Declaration of Independence with treason, and that the said General Sir William Howe betrayed the Loyalist community who were forced to leave their country to seek refuge and protection in foreign countries after the rebel victory over His Majesty King George III on October 19, 1781, causing irreparable pain and suffering through revengeful physical abuse, assassinations, and loss of their estates and personal properties.
Lieutenant General Howe, appearing before the Court, the charges above recited were read to him to which he pleaded Not Guilty.
The Judge Advocate on behalf of His Majesty King George III produced charges preferred against Lieutenant General Sir William Howe during his late command of the King’s troops,
Each person appearing for the benefit of this trial will state his name, age, title, and residence,
*************
Joseph Plum Martin appearing as American witness before the Court,
Judge Advocate: When did you join the Continental Army?
A. When I was sixteen in 1776.
Q. What was your reason for joining?
A. Our family talked about the Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party, and the French and Indian War. At first, I had no interest in any war; but then felt I was a coward. When I read that the British landed troops in the Colonies and were spreading death and destruction, I felt ashamed and decided to join.
Q. What reaction did you get from your parents?
A. One of satisfaction for my decision to join the Continental Army. I lived much of my childhood with my parents until I was seven and lived with my grandfather who got me interested in politics. He was wealthy and treated me as his son. My father was educated at Yale College and became a minister of the Congregational religion. And my mother was a farmer’s daughter. (Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier, Martin p. 3,4)
Q. In which regiment did you serve?
A. Seventeenth Continental Regiment.
Q. Who was your immediate commander?
A. General James Varnum.
Q. In which battles were you a participant before Barren Hill?
A. I got to New York just as the Battle of Long Island began, then the Battle of White Plains, Battle of Brooklyn, Fort Mifflin, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. I worked my way up to sergeant.
By the Court: Why did you include Valley Forge when there was no battle fought there at all?
A. But there was a battle--in fact there were many of them!
Q. What kind of battles? Cite some examples.
A. I learned from my grandfather, whose favorite writer was Shakespeare, that any battle is any struggle either physical or mental. At Valley Forge, General Washington first went through a mental struggle. He was worried that General Howe would plan to attack us and end the war. I thought, well, we have a Hamlet, our commander in chief. He was worried about all of us including himself dying or suffering at Valley Forge. What should he do? Live or die? He was our leader. But to end the suffering he had to think like Hamlet by way of Shakespeare’s own words whether “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes or take arms against a sea of troubles”. And the sea of troubles, or battles, began when we arrived in the middle December of 1777. Our first battle was lodgings. We had to chop trees to build 800 huts or cabins and collect firewood while the snow fell. (Blanco, p. 1691, Vol II) For three months we had nothing of advantage. Fireplaces weren’t built right, windows and doors went missing, and poor discipline kept us on the wrong track of survival against cold weather and sickness.
Then there were battles of snow storms and rain storms as we fought to keep warm and dry. The bitter winds howled and blew through the cracks in our huts.
We were poorly clothed with little or no training which was another battle. And because of the winds and lack of clothing, lots of us froze to death.
Another terrible battle was disease: typhus, typhoid, small pox, pneumonia, and dysentery. All of them caused deaths. We moved soldiers’ bodies to a shelter for processing to their next of kin.
Judge Advocate: Were all of the deceased troops processed this way?
A. Not all. There were so many of them so we had to bury some in the woods. The stench of corpses was too much for us to bear. So in the ground they went as quickly as possible. Just as bad was the horrible smell of dead horses lying around. I understood why so many deserted; not because they were cowards but that they hated putting up with the living conditions.
Q. Were the soldier’s graves marked in any way?
A. Unfortunately not. Many were unmarked.
Q. So to this day the graves are final resting places for unknown soldiers?
A. I believe so.
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About the Book
David McCullough, America’s award-winning historian, laid down the challenge in an interview on CBS “60 Minutes” when he claimed that when it comes to teaching history “young Americans are historically illiterate.” Hall of Fame, award-winning historian Roy Cini Cusumano took up the challenge: His riveting, fast paced court martial with nonstop suspense. British Commander in Chief General Sir William Howe, facing a death sentence, is haunted in London by his flawed military campaigns at Long Island, Brandywine, Barren Hill, and Valley Forge. The trial also exposes Howe’s embarrassing life styles including perjury, adultery, and his farewell, wild party gone mad. In his gripping trial Cusumano exposes England’s best kept secret of the American Revolutionary War concocted by Sir William at Philadelphia. The King and Parliament were furious. General Howe’s best chance to end the war was at Barren Hill or Valley Forge. If he captures Generals Lafayette or George Washington, the war is over. It was that simple. The British commander had the perfect chance to launch his invasion and capture General Washington with 16,000 British and German armies—the two greatest, most powerful on the globe. Washington had only 3000. Skillfully, Sir William imposed a code of silence on his generals. He played down the Barren Hill event as a meaningless tactic. Invading Valley Forge was an absurd idea. Testimonies by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin unsheathe their rhetorical knives drawn to strike at England’s tyrannies. Sir William lost the war; England lost the thirteen colonies. And General George Washington emerged the greatest military commander in the history of warfare.
About the Author
Roy Cini Cusumano was born in Philadelphia but lived mainly in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was educated at West Chester State College and Villanova University with studies in English and American Literature, Mathematics, and American history, subjects he taught for 38 years as a classroom teacher. He lives with his wife Diane at North Wales, PA.