British Strategic Reassessment

This chapter discusses the British military strategy reassessment after the Saratoga defeat. Shortly after learning of Saratoga, British senior leaders embarked on a several-months-long reassessment of their military strategy and policy for the American war. They replaced senior commanders, including Howe, with Sir Henry Clinton. They offered Americans everything short of independence, but it was too little, too late. For the Americans, after Saratoga, there was no turning back. Their initial revised strategy was undermined by the news that the French had signed an alliance with the Americans. Now the British faced an expanded and more challenging war. Their new strategy included naval operations, attacks on French overseas possessions, and limited operations in North America. They directed Clinton to conduct operations in the American South in the future. The British reassessment was good, but they never fully addressed the underlying objectives of their strategy toward the American rebellion.