Blog #4: Rethinking the Revolution

5 things I learned:

I like the argument this writer is making about how the Revolutionary war was more brutal than the Civil War.

• I didn't know that the Revolutionary War was America's longest declared war, for eight years. Also the US Military death ratio's surprised me between the Civil and Revolutionary wars, with 1 to 4 from the Revolutionary war and 1 to 5 in the Civil War. Although it is still true that more Americans died in the civil war, compared to the population during the Revolutionary war, the ratio of American deaths was higher, which shocked me. 
• I learned that many of the Revolutionary war paintings gave an inaccurate representation of the war, being censored/sanitized from the actual violence and gore contained in the conflict.
• I am surprised of the harsh treatment the loyalists were faced with at King's mountain. They were forced to march, and it even got to a point where the continental commander had to restrain the slaughtering of the prisoners. Many of the rebel captives were skewered to death, which I found surprising. 
• I am very surprised by the hardships that George Washingtons army faced during winter at Valley Forge. Many of the soldiers were so hungry that they consumed pet dogs, and made a soup from boiled shoes and melted candles. Also, the lack of clothing surprised me, with many men being naked, and in Nathanael Greene's army, around 1/2 to 2/3 were left naked during the struggle for survival.
• The statistic that an American prisoner during the revolutionary war had a 50/50 chance of survival shocked me, as I did not expect that many of the captured prisoners to die. This exceeded any prisoner death count contained in the Civil war.

This reminds me of the Donner party out west, as when nature threw its wrath, they had to resort to cannibalism, like how the Revolutionary army in Valley Forge had to eat shoe candle soup.

Revolutionary War painting of Washington crossing the Delaware