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Hello. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 269 the Boston raid.

Over the course of 1780, most of the large-scale fighting took place in the Carolinas,

where the British still contended to govern, and where the hope of loyalists rising to supplement their ranks still gave the

leadership the incentive to commit resources there. Yet despite the laws of

Burgoyne's army and the devastating attacks on Native settlements during the Sullivan campaign, many loyalists from upstate New York still contended for control of that region.

We last left this fight back in episode 250 when raids under Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and loyalists under John Johnson brought havoc in the area through the spring and summer of 1780. Despite the ability to

capture any territory, these raids continued into the fall and winter. A year

earlier in 1779, the Americans had hit Iroquois settlements

successfully forcing them to retreat into Canada. The Americans had burned their homes and food for the winter.

In the fall of 1780, the British plan to do pretty much the same thing to the Americans living there.

They launched a series of raids designed to burn the homes and destroy the crops of

rebels in the region just before harvest time. The governor of Canada in

1780 was General Friedrich Haldimund. I've given background on

Haldimund before way back in episode 62 when he was leaving Boston in 1775 and

also in episode 197 when he returned to Quebec as its new governor.

Despite his qualifications, Haldeman got the job almost by default. Secretary of State Lord Germain hated his predecessor,

Governor Guy Carleton and wanted him out. As a military leader, Carlton's obvious successor would have been General

John Berghoyne, that is until John Berghoyne surrendered his army at Saratoga.

Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, who also had a military background, might have been a good choice,

but Hamilton had spent the last couple of years as a POW of Virginia and showed no signs of being able to return to Canada

...