All most people know of Revolutionary War naval history is John Paul Jones and the BonHomme Richard versus the Serapis. James L. Nelson has been working to correct that image, first with Benedict Arnold’s Navy (reviewed earlier) and now with George Washington’s Secret Navy. The “Secret” part is a little overdone, with back cover blurbs suggesting that Washington was engaged in deliberate deception by keeping his “navy” secret from Congress. Apparently presidents (well, future presidents) engaging in clandestine military operations sells books. The facts are less scandalous but still interesting. In 1775, the Continental Army had General Thomas Gage and his army at bay in Boston. Gage couldn’t get out, because doing so would have required an attack across a narrow neck of land in the face of American fortification. The Americans couldn’t get in, because doing so would have required an attack across a narrow neck of land in the face of British fortifications. The Americans were short of all sorts of military supplies, especially ammunition; the British had plenty of military stores but were short of everything else, especially food and firewood, all of which had to come across the Atlantic or from loyal parts of North American. (There’s an interesting insight into Royal Army supply methods here. Supply was contracted to a London firm, which subcontracted to American firms to supply the Royal Army in North American. Obviously, this arrangement went slightly haywire after Lexington/Concord).

What Washington did was not so much create a navy as commission quasi-privateers. These were miscellaneous small merchant ships hastily outfitted with whatever small cannon the army could spare and sent to seize ships supplying Boston. Simultaneously the Continental Congress got into the act and commissioned some “warships” of its own. Plus various colonies had their own navies. (The confusion over whose ships were what results in both Beverly and Marblehead, Massachusetts claiming to be “the birthplace of the American Navy”). With a few minor exceptions, not much came of this. The privateers were understandably cautious about venturing out to sea in the face of the Royal Navy; their major success was capturing a vessel loaded with much needed gunpowder. The other ships didn’t do much better, completely disregarding orders to intercept some munitions ships known to be bound for Canada and instead capturing a number of American vessels, and, despite explicit orders not to annoy the Canadians (in hopes of getting them to join in the revolution) staging a raid on Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island with no discernable results.

Like Nelson’s other books, this is an excellent read. It covers a part of the Revolutionary War that isn’t very well known. The various blunderings of the Continentals and the British makes you appreciate the axiom that “winner of a battle is the one to make the second to last mistake”. ( )

The book assumes a certain level of knowledge about the basics of the American Revolution that is not known to overseas readers however that is not spoiling my enjoyment of it ( )