An Infinitely Important Object: Strategy, Authority, and the Aftermath of Colonialism at West Point in the American Revolution

Abstract

This dissertation studies the Continental Army’s attempts to control navigation on the Hudson River in the New York Highlands during the American Revolutionary War. It examines the overlapping lines of authority between federal, state, and military entities; the escalation of civil-military tensions over supplies, provisions, and pay; how American strategy created varying levels of resources and troops in the region, and the failure of efforts to mitigate that risk; the anxiety created in Continental officers when they rejected a French engineers’ advice on the location and scope of riverside defenses; and how George Washington and his officers used the fortifications at West Point to demonstrate the legitimacy of the United States to domestic and foreign audiences. This dissertation utilizes correspondence, diaries, memoirs, the journals of legislative proceedings, orderly books, archeological studies, and contemporaneous newspapers to reveal that, despite the hindrance of overlapping authorities, the fortifications in the Highlands enabled US strategy and displayed the aftermath of colonialism in the United States. Controlling river traffic in the Highlands began as a colonial project with plans that outstripped available resources and relied on technology incapable of achieving its purpose. The New York Provincial Congress relocated its efforts five miles south and included a physical obstacle in the water. A British attack overwhelmed the defenses at the southern location in just a few hours. The Continental Army, contrary to the advice from a French military engineer, decided to rebuild near the original site and began the iterative development of a system of layered defenses. The project successfully deterred the British from attempting to take the works forcefully. Civil-military relationships grew tenser as the war wound down, but Washington’s intervention assured continued civilian control of the army. This dissertation uses the example of the Highlands fortification process to provide a new understanding of strategy that gives the term more explanatory value. It takes seriously the impact of the power imbalance between Great Britain and its North American colonies and analyzes the lingering effects of that relationship on the United States. Finally, it reveals the tension and conflict between different lines of authority throughout the war and uncovers the roots of civil-military tensions in the young republic.