At first sight it seems as if the Americans were very foolish to fight the British. There were five or six times as many people in the British Isles as there were in the continental colonies. The British government had a great standing army. The Americans had no regular army. The British government had a great navy. The Americans had no navy. The British government had quantities of powder, guns, and clothing, while the Americans had scarcely any military stores of any kind. Indeed, there were so few guns in the colonies that one British officer thought if the few colonial gunsmiths could be bribed to go away, the Americans would have no guns to fight with after a few months of warfare.

All these things were clearly against the Americans. But they had some advantages on their side. In the first place, America was a long way off from Europe. It was very difficult and very costly to send armies to America, and very difficult and very costly to feed the soldiers when they were fighting in America. In the second place, the Americans usually fought on the defensive and the country over which the armies fought was made for defense. In New England hill succeeded hill. In the Middle states river succeeded river. In the South wilderness succeeded wilderness. In the third place, the Americans had many great soldiers. Washington, Greene, Arnold, Morgan, and Wayne were better soldiers than any in the British army.

We are apt to think of the colonists as united in the contest with the British. In reality the well-to-do, the well-born, and the well-educated colonists were as a rule opposed to independence. The opponents of the Revolution were strongest in the Carolinas, and were weakest in New England.

It was most fortunate that the British army was at Boston when the war began, for Boston was about as bad a place for an army as could be found. In those days Boston was hardly more than an island connected with the mainland by a strip of gravel. Gage built a fort across this strip of ground. The Americans could not get in. But they built a fort at the landward end, and the British could not get out. On either side of Boston was a similar peninsula. One of these was called Dorchester Heights; the other was called Charlestown. Both overlooked Boston. To hold that town, Gage must possess both Dorchester and Charlestown. If the Americans could occupy only one of these, the British would have to abandon Boston. At the same moment Gage made up his mind to seize Dorchester, and the Americans determined to occupy the Charlestown hills. The Americans moved first, and the first battle was fought for the Charlestown hills.