在美国独立战争期间，英国人遭受的最令人士气低落的经历是什么？

Joe Phibbs
乔·菲布斯

Short answer: the elevation of George Washington to Commander-in-Chief.
Twenty years earlier, British General Braddock was tasked with securing the ‘western border’ of the colonies in the Ohio region. This was at the beginning of what is known in Europe as the Seven Years War. In America, it was called the French and Indian War, because the French were moving in from Canada, aided by the Indians. The French and the natives got along because the French mainly wanted to trade with Indians; the American colonists wanted to homestead the region. Indians rightfully feared their way of life would end with the English-speakers building towns and farming the area.

简单的说，是：将乔治·华盛顿提拔为总司令。
二十年前，英国的布拉多克将军受命保卫殖民地在俄亥俄地区的“西部边境”。此时正是欧洲七年战争的开端，这场战争在美国被称为法印战争，因为法国人在印第安人的帮助下从加拿大迁入此地。法国人与原住民相处融洽，因为法国人主要是想和印第安人进行贸易；而美洲殖民者则想要在这片地区建立家园。印第安人有理由担心，随着说英语的人在这里建造城镇、耕种土地，他们的生活方式将会走向终结。

Enter Braddock, who enlists the Virginia militia to aid the redcoats. Despite the colonists’, especially Washington’s, expertise, Braddock and the Brits paid the Virginians less, treated them worse and ignored their warnings. That ill-treatment and disrespect of colonial wisdom soured Washington and his troops. Lesson: Britain cannot be trusted to play fair or pay fair. It was Washington who crossed the Delaware River on a snowy December night to capture the British in Philadelphia.

随后布拉多克登场，他征召弗吉尼亚民兵来协助英国正规军。尽管殖民者——尤其是华盛顿——具备相关的专业能力，布拉多克和英国人却给弗吉尼亚人的报酬更低，对待他们更恶劣，还无视他们的警告。这种恶劣的待遇以及对当地殖民者智慧的不尊重，让华盛顿和他的部队心生不满。教训是：英国不值得信任，既不会公平行事，也不会给予合理报酬。
而正是华盛顿在一个飘雪的12月夜晚渡过特拉华河，在费城俘虏了英国人。

To fail to defeat such a ragtag army over seven years and be humiliated at Yorktown by the personification of colonial inferiority, demoralized the British. Their grand fleet, superior intellect, brilliant tactics and better firepower fizzled.

七年时间都没能击败这样一支乌合之众的军队，还在约克镇被殖民地“低等人”的代表羞辱，英国人的士气大受打击。他们庞大的舰队、出众的智慧、出色的战术以及更强大的火力都付诸东流。

Payback came by way of refusing, even after the Treaty of Paris ( 1783), to vacate garrisons in the newly minted United States of America. It took three more months for the Brits to leave New York and thirteen years before Detroit was handed over to the Americans.

报复的方式是，即便在1783年《巴黎条约》签订后，英国人仍拒绝撤离在新成立的美利坚合众国的驻军。英国人花了三个月时间才离开纽约，而底特律过了十三年才被移交给美国人。、

Historians call the War of 1812 the true war for American independence. America’s siding with Napoleon did not help diplomatic relations, nor did the Louisiana Purchase. Britain poked America in the eye again, a generation later, by tacitly supporting the Confederacy.
Yet no Southern diplomat ever reached the Court of St. James.

历史学家将1812年战争称为真正的美国独立战争。美国支持拿破仑的行为无益于外交关系，路易斯安那购地案也起到反效果。一代人之后，英国又暗中支持南方邦联，再次激怒了美国。
然而，从未有南方邦联的外交官踏入过圣詹姆斯宫（英国的一处皇家宫殿）。
 
James M. Volo
詹姆斯·M·沃洛

The British surrenders at Saratoga and at Yorktown are obvious. Even Trenton was written off as a loss by the Hessians. However, two other battle results created great consternation among the British early in the war.
The Battle at Breed’s Hill (a.k.a. Bunker Hill) and the failed attempt to take Charleston by sea in 1776.
Breed’s Hill — a Pyrrhic victory that encouraged the revolution (1775).

英军在萨拉托加和约克镇的投降是显而易见的例子。就连特伦顿之战，也被黑森雇佣兵算作一场失利。不过，战争初期还有另外两场战役的结果，在英国人中间引发了极大的恐慌。
分别是邦克山（又名布里德山）之战，以及1776年英军从海上攻占查尔斯顿的失败尝试。
布里德山之战——一场鼓舞了革命的惨胜（1775年）。

The rebels were "not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be."

这些反叛者“并非是许多人所认为的那种卑劣乌合之众”。

The British had been caught unaware at Lexington and Concord — or so they told themselves. It was inconceivable to most Britons that a group of colonial farmers, laborers, and mechanics commanded by "pettifogging attorneys, bankrupt shopkeepers, and outlawed smugglers" could defeat the greatest military force in the world at the time. A British surgeon at Boston in 1775 wrote of the patriot militia assembled there: "This army ... is truly nothing but a drunken, canting, lying, praying, hypocritical rabble, without order, subjection, discipline, or cleanliness; and must fall to pieces of itself in the course of three months." Yet James Murray, an old friend and supporter of the Marquis of Rockingham, noted, "The notion of the provincials not fighting is very erroneous, and ... they have pretty good planners among them." Indeed, Gen. Thomas Gage may have been correct when he noted that the rebels were "not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be."

英军在莱克星顿和康科德被打了个措手不及——至少他们是这么跟自己说的。对于大多数英国人而言，一群由“耍花招的律师、破产的店主、被取缔的走私者”指挥的殖民地农民、劳工和技工，竟然能击败当时世界上最强大的军事力量，这是无法想象的。1775年，一名在波士顿的英国外科医生，如此描述在当地集结的爱国者民兵：“这支军队……不过是一群醉酒、伪善、满口谎言、假装虔诚的乌合之众，毫无秩序、服从性、纪律性和整洁可言，不出三个月就会自行分崩离析。”然而，罗金厄姆侯爵的老友兼支持者詹姆斯·默里却指出：“认为殖民地居民不会作战的想法大错特错，而且……他们当中有相当出色的谋划者。”实际上，托马斯·盖奇将军的看法或许是对的，他认为这些反叛者“并非是许多人所认为的那种卑劣乌合之众”。

After suffering the humiliation of having his troops hounded back to Boston while under galling fire (273 casualties), General Thomas Gage utterly failed to attempt to drive the patriots from the heights surrounding the city. Instead, he chose to sit behind his fortifications under the protective guns of the Royal Navy. Consequently, as the Americans massed outside the city, it became obvious that these heights should be fortified. The patriots were more active in this regard than the regulars, and almost overnight they built substantial earthworks on both Bunker and Breed’s Hill. The more extensive works were completed on the latter summit, and it was against Breed’s Hill that the British opened the next phase of the revolution.

在蒙受了部队在猛烈火力下被赶回波士顿的耻辱（伤亡273人）之后，托马斯·盖奇将军完全没尝试将爱国者们从城市周边的高地赶走。相反，他选择躲在防御工事之后，依靠皇家海军的炮火掩护。因此，随着美国人在城外集结，加固这些高地的必要性显而易见。爱国者们在这方面比正规军更积极，几乎在一夜之间，他们就在邦克山和布里德山上修建了坚固的土木工事，其中规模更大的工事建在了布里德山的山顶，英军也正是针对布里德山，开启了革命的下一阶段战事。

The tactical error committed by the British generals on the day of the battle was to attempt to carry the fortified positions of the rebels by repeated assaults that brought the regulars within lethal range. Hence, the caution given by Colonel John Stark to his regiment to hold their fire “until you see the whites of their eyes” was more than mere bravado. It was a tactical imperative. Though accepted European protocol frowned upon targeting officers, the American forces during the Revolution had no such limitation, in fact officers were more often targeted.

战役当天，英军将领犯下的战术错误，是试图通过反复进攻夺取叛军的防御阵地，这让英军正规军进入了致命的射程范围。因此，约翰·斯塔克上校告诫他的部队“等看到敌人的眼白再开火”，这不只是虚张声势，而是战术上的必要之举。尽管公认的欧洲战争准则不赞成瞄准军官，但美国革命军没有这样的限制，事实上军官反而更容易成为目标。

Recent scholarship shows that the citizen soldiers who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill were far better shots than the “professional” British soldiers who faced them. Some among the frontier riflemen at the American camp had put on fairly convincing exhibitions of marksmanship before the battle. Militiamen were not perfect. They were citizen short-term irregulars, not long-service professional troops, and they neither took orders kindly nor could face an infantry assault in the open field. But in 1775 they did know how to shoot. In 1775 the American militias were packed with veterans blooded in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). An eyewitness in Cambridge (Boston), Dr. James Thacher, described the riflemen as "remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks, or rifle-shirts, and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards distance." Sergeant Roger Lamb of the Royal Fusiliers judged that “the generality of the Americans were good marksmen; the whole of their previous military knowledge had been derived from hunting, and the ordinary amusements of sportsmen. The dexterity which by long habit they had acquired in hitting beasts, birds, and marks, was fatally applied.” It is clear that the Americans were deemed to be fine shots. 

近期学术研究表明，在邦克山之战中作战的平民士兵，枪法远比与他们对阵的“专业”英军士兵要好得多。美军营地中的一些边境步枪兵，在战前就展示出了令人信服的枪法。民兵并不完美，他们是短期服役的平民非正规军，而非长期服役的职业军人，他们既不乐意服从命令，也无法在开阔地带抵挡步兵的进攻，但在1775年，他们确实懂得如何射击。1775年的美国民兵中，有很多是在法印战争（1754-1763年）中积累了作战经验的老兵。剑桥（波士顿）的目击者詹姆斯·撒切尔医生如此描述这些步枪兵：“他们是一群格外强壮耐劳的人，其中许多人身高超过六英尺。他们身着白色工装或步枪衫，头戴圆顶帽。这些人的枪法准得出奇，能在两百码的距离上准确击中目标。”皇家燧发枪团的罗杰·兰姆中士评价道：“大部分美国人都是优秀的神枪手；他们此前所有的军事知识都来自狩猎和普通的户外运动。长期的习惯让他们练就了击中野兽、鸟类和目标的灵巧身手，而这种身手被致命地用在了战场上。”显然，美国人被认为是出色的射手。[i]

The regulars, marching up hill, quickly met with added resistance from the terrain itself. “Stumbling in the tall grass and over low stone walls, bumping into wooden fences, sweating under their heavy packs, the British regulars pushed up the hill closer to the American lines. When only fifty yards away, they met a blaze of musket fire that mowed them down.” A British officer who advanced with the troops noted, “An incessant stream of fire poured from the rebel lines. It seemed a continued sheet of fire for nearly thirty minutes.” Unfortunately, the rebels ran out of powder and were forced to retire when the British assaulted for a third time.

英军正规军向山上行进时，很快就遭遇了来自地形的额外阻力。“英军正规军在高高的草丛中绊倒，被低矮的石墙绊倒，撞上木栅栏，在沉重的背包下汗流浃背，他们朝着山上推进，逼近美军防线。在距离只有五十码的时候，他们遭遇了一阵火枪齐射，被扫倒在地。”一名随军前进的英国军官记录道：“叛军防线不断喷射出火力，那连绵的火力持续了将近三十分钟。”不幸的是，当英军发起第三次进攻时，叛军弹药耗尽，被迫撤退。

Owing largely to the expert marksmanship of the militia during this first pitched battle of the revolution, the loss to the British in terms of men and officers was almost incomprehensible, and the battle remained throughout the entire war one of the worst bloodlettings in a single day of fighting. Of a British force of 2400 men engaged, 226 were killed and 828 wounded (44%) as compared to 140 killed and 271 wounded for the more numerous Americans. More than two dozen British officers had been killed. Ten percent of the casualties at Bunker Hill (K & W) were among the officers. The American riflemen — composing a tiny minority of the rebel force — were accused of targeting the Crown officers and NCOs. “The worst figure there can shoot from behind a bush and kill even a general. … In their ability to hit an obxt their riflemen create terror."

这场革命的首次激战中，民兵的精湛枪法是英军人员和军官损失惨重的主要原因，这种损失程度几乎令人难以理解，这场战役也成了整场战争中单日战斗伤亡最惨重的战役之一。参战的2400名英军士兵中，226人阵亡，828人受伤（占比44%），而人数更多的美军仅有140人阵亡，271人受伤。有二十多名英国军官阵亡，邦克山之战的伤亡人员（阵亡和受伤）中，有10%是军官。占叛军兵力极小一部分的美军步枪兵，被指控专门瞄准英国王室的军官和军士。“哪怕是最差的射手，也能躲在灌木丛后开枪，甚至射杀将军……他们的步枪兵击中目标的能力，制造了恐慌。”

News of a British victory in which more than 1100 regulars were killed or wounded led one London politician to note, “If we have eight more such victories there’ll be not a soldier left alive to bring back the report!” There were many British officers who felt after the battle that taking the field to destroy the patriots was futile because the rebel army would melt away of its own accord if not faced by an immediate danger to keep it together. Young officers contemplating deployment to America were admonished to settle up their affairs due to the high proportion of casualties among “gentlemen” on the colonial battlefield. General William Howe wrote to Lord George Germaine that it might be a “better policy to withdraw the troops entirely” and “leave the colonists to war with each other for sovereignty,” as this was “the certain consequence” of their determination to separate from Britain.

英军一场“胜利”却损失了1100多名正规军的消息传到伦敦，一名英国政客评论道：“如果再来八场这样的胜利，就不会有一个士兵活着回来报告战况了！”许多英国军官在战后认为，出兵剿灭爱国者是徒劳的，因为如果没有迫在眉睫的危险让叛军凝聚在一起，他们会自行溃散。考虑被派往美国的年轻军官被提醒要料理好自己的后事，因为殖民地战场上“绅士”的伤亡比例很高。威廉·豪将军写信给乔治·杰曼勋爵，称“完全撤军”，“让殖民地居民为争夺主权自相残杀”可能是“更好的策略”，因为这是他们决心脱离英国的“必然结果”。

As the British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and regrouped along the coast, plans were made on what to do to curb the American rebellion. One such strategy was the possibility of sailing south, establishing a foothold in the southern colonies, and rallying loyalist support to retake the provincial governments that were being ousted by patriot forces. Royal governors put forth such claims of widespread loyalists eager to join the fight in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. 

1776年3月，英军撤离波士顿并在海岸沿线重新集结，他们制定了遏制美国叛乱的计划。其中一个策略是南下航行，在南方殖民地建立据点，集结效忠派的支持，夺回被爱国者势力推翻的地方政府。英国王室总督宣称，南卡罗来纳州、北卡罗来纳州和弗吉尼亚州有大量效忠派渴望加入战斗。

Attack on Charleston — Battle for Sullivan’s Island (1776)
进攻查尔斯顿——沙利文岛之战（1776年）


“This will not be believed when it is first reported in England.”

“这个消息刚传到英国时，没人会相信。”

The British attack on Charleston, South Carolina in 1776 was remarkable for the depth of its failure, and it presented a number of strategic lessons from which the Americans might learn in defending other port cities. Unfortunately, the Patriots were never again so successful in defending a port city from naval attack as they were in repulsing General Henry Clinton’s combined arms attack. Admiral Sir Peter Parker accompanied Clinton’s transports filled with troops with ten warships to attack Charleston. They first had to reduce the rebel fort commanded by General William Moultrie on Sullivan Island that guarded the narrow passage into the harbor. Known as a chokepoint defense, the fort was made of soft Palmetto log cribs filled with sand. These simply absorbed the solid shot and shell of the Royal Navy.

1776年英军对南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的进攻，其失败的程度令人瞩目，这场战役也为美国人防御其他港口城市提供了不少战略教训。遗憾的是，爱国者们此后再也没能像击退亨利·克林顿将军的联合作战那样，成功地防御港口城市免受海军攻击。彼得·帕克爵士海军上将率领十艘战舰，护送载满部队的克林顿的运输船进攻查尔斯顿。他们首先必须摧毁由威廉·穆特里将军指挥的、位于沙利文岛的叛军堡垒，这座堡垒把守着进入港口的狭窄航道。这种防御被称为扼守要道防御，堡垒由填充了沙子的柔软棕榈木原木框架构成，这些材料可以轻松吸收皇家海军的实心炮弹。

The explosive projectiles from the bomb ketch Thunder (8 guns) were particularly ineffective. The Americans had as many as 7,000 cannonballs and exploding shells fired at them, some from less than 500 yards, yet they suffered only 36 casualties. Parker’s ships– the frigates Active (32), Solebay (28), Friendship (18), and Experiment (44)–received a fearful pounding in return, and several others grounded on the harbor sandbar including Sphinx (20), Syren (32), and Actaceon (32). A number of vessels collided in the cramped confines of the passage.

“雷霆”号（8门火炮）爆炸艇发射的爆炸弹尤其无效。美军遭到了多达7000发炮弹和爆炸弹的攻击，有些是从不到500码的距离发射的，但他们只伤亡了36人。帕克的战舰——“活跃”号（32门火炮）、“索尔贝”号（28门火炮）、“友谊”号（18门火炮）和“实验”号（44门火炮）护卫舰——遭到了猛烈的还击，还有几艘战舰在港口的沙洲上搁浅，包括“斯芬克斯”号（20门火炮）、“赛伦”号（32门火炮）和“阿克泰翁”号（32门火炮）。在狭窄的航道里，有多艘船只相撞。

Parker’s flagship, HMS Bristol (50), which closely engaged the fort for ten hours, was described after the battle as “junk.” One of the ship’s officers wrote, “No slaughter house could present so bad a sight . . . as our ship.” HMS Actaceon, which grounded on a bar, caught fire and surrendered its flag to a boat sent out by the fort. Bristol and Experiment had together 64 killed and 141 wounded. Because the navy could not get a foothold in the harbor, the British cancelled a planned land attack on the city. The British did not attempt to take the fort again. “We never had such a drubbing in our lives,” a Royal Navy sailor wrote. British battle casualties exceeded 200; damage to British morale was also devastating. “This will not be believed when it is first reported in England,” a British naval surgeon predicted.

帕克的旗舰“布里斯托尔”号（50门火炮）与堡垒近距离交战了十个小时，战后被形容为“一堆破烂”。船上的一名军官写道：“没有哪个屠宰场会像我们的船一样，呈现出如此惨烈的景象……”在沙洲上搁浅的“阿克泰翁”号起火，并向堡垒派出的小船投降。“布里斯托尔”号和“实验”号总共64人阵亡，141人受伤。由于海军无法在港口站稳脚跟，英军取消了对该市的登陆进攻计划，也再未尝试夺取这座堡垒。一名皇家海军水手写道：“我们这辈子从没吃过这么大的败仗。”英军战斗伤亡超过200人，士气也受到了毁灭性的打击。一名英国海军外科医生预言：“这个消息刚传到英国时，没人会相信。”

Clinton had informed Parker that the army could merely attempt a demonstration against Breach Inlet. No landing on the mainland was feasible because of impenetrable swamps, and while the inlet was too deep to wade, it was too shallow for any man-of-war to provide gunfire support. The squadron only possessed fifteen flat-bottomed assault boats, capable of transporting less than a quarter of Clinton’s force at one time to Sullivan’s Island. Such a fragmented attack, without adequate firepower, would easily be defeated in detail. The British Navy’s faulty intelligence of the whereabouts of the many shoals and sandbars in the area seemingly prevented them from adjusting their battle plans in the moment. Having paid such a heavy price in 1776, Clinton would not make the same mistakes again.

克林顿曾告知帕克，陆军只能尝试对 breach inlet进行佯攻。由于无法穿越的沼泽，在大陆登陆是不可行的，而这个入口太深，无法涉水而过，同时又太浅，任何战舰都无法提供炮火支援。这支舰队只有十五艘平底突击艇，一次只能运送不到四分之一的克林顿部队到沙利文岛。这种分散的进攻，没有足够的火力，很容易被逐个击破。英国海军对该地区众多浅滩和沙洲位置的情报有误，似乎让他们无法及时调整作战计划。1776年付出了如此惨重的代价后，克林顿不会再犯同样的错误。

This was a singular victory of American land forces over the Royal Navy that might have been repeated at the narrows in New York Bay had similar chokepoint defenses been established. Admiral Parker and General Clinton engaged in a war of words after the battle, each seeking to cast the blame on the other for the expedition's failures.

这是美国陆军对皇家海军的一次非凡胜利，如果在纽约湾的狭窄水道也建立类似的扼守要道防御，这样的胜利或许可以重现。战后，帕克海军上将和克林顿将军陷入了口水战，双方都试图将这次远征的失败归咎于对方。

Both Parker and Clinton hurriedly wrote their respective dispatches, the better to influence what London might believe. Parker’s account to the Admiralty omitted Clinton’s offer of a diversionary attack and other relevant details. “If the troops would have cooperated on this attack … His Majesty would have been in possession of Sullivan’s Island,” he wrote, but “I was satisfied that the landing was impracticable” and would have resulted in “the destruction of many brave men without the least probability of success.”

帕克和克林顿都匆忙写了各自的报告，以便影响伦敦方面的看法。帕克给海军部的报告中，省略了克林顿提出的佯攻提议和其他相关细节。他写道：“如果陆军能配合这次进攻……陛下就能占领沙利文岛”，但“我确信登陆是行不通的”，那会“让许多勇敢的士兵白白牺牲，且毫无成功的可能”。

The British did not return to Charleston until 1780, when General Clinton besieged the city and captured an entire army from the Rebels. 

英军直到1780年才回到查尔斯顿，当时克林顿将军围攻这座城市，并俘虏了叛军的一整支军队。

Allen Jones
艾伦·琼斯

The Battle of Yorktown probably since they gave up after that. It was the sort of battle they assumed the American colonists were too incompetent to execute (a naval blockade eliminating escape, substantial use of field artillery against earthwork fortifications of the British, direct assaults against those forts as something militias and amateurs are normally unwilling to do and reliably fail at, use of envelopment tactics instead of just a head-on assault on one front, and breaking the British supply chains to Cornwallis’ army as broken or dysfunctional supply chains had been a hallmark of the American forces.

或许是约克镇之战，因为英军在此战后投降了。这场战役的作战方式，是他们认为美洲殖民地居民完全没有能力执行的：通过海军封锁切断英军的逃生路线；大量使用野战炮攻击英军的土木防御工事；直接进攻这些堡垒——而民兵和非职业军人通常不愿做这种事，且几乎都会失败；使用包围战术，而非只在单一战线发起正面进攻；切断康沃利斯军队的补给线，而补给线断裂或运转失灵此前一直是美军的标志性问题。

Another would be the Battle of Cowpens where amateur soldiers but very experienced deep woods hunters with rifles and local militiamen armed with muskets managed to trick sophisticated British and Tory forces by pretending to have their usual militia faults (running away when charged by Brits) and instead nearly exterminating the British forces.

另一场是考彭斯之战，作战的是非职业军人——却是经验丰富的深山猎人，他们配备步枪，还有配备火枪的当地民兵，他们成功骗过了训练有素的英军和托利党武装：假装表现出民兵常见的弱点（被英军冲锋时就逃跑），但实际上几乎歼灭了英军。

The Battle of Saratoga, the first with a conventional European battle that resulted in a big British loss was obviously quite demoralizing while encouraging France to bet on the Americans as at least a serious distraction to the British, like our arming the Afghanistan resistance against the Soviets or the Soviets’ arming of the North Koreans in 1950–53 or North Vietnamese in 1954–1975 to drain the Americans with proxy fighters.

萨拉托加之战是第一场遵循欧洲常规作战形式、且让英军遭受重大损失的战役，显然极大地打击了英军的士气，同时也促使法国决定支持美国人——至少可以将美国人当作能严重牵制英国的力量，就如同我们武装阿富汗抵抗力量对抗苏联，或是苏联在1950-1953年武装北朝鲜、1954-1975年武装北越，利用代理人消耗美国人的力量一样。

The Battle of Breeds’ Hill/Bunker Hill and being driven out of Boston entirely by local militia with almost no artillery, training, officers, plans, or supplies was certainly demoralizing since that had the risk of being replicated in any American population center spontaneously.

布里德山/邦克山之战，以及英军被几乎没有火炮、缺乏训练、没有像样的军官、计划和补给的当地民兵彻底赶出波士顿，无疑让英军士气受挫，因为这种情况有可能在美国的任何人口中心自发重演。