By mid-1774 animosity (bitterness and hostility) between Great Britain and the American colonies had reached the boiling point. Poised on the brink of war with America, the British were wondering if the Americans would really fight. Most did not think so. England's Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792) declared: "These are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men." The colonies, it was thought, could never come together and fight as one. The British felt that the people of Virginia and the Carolinas would not fight Massachusetts's battles; they were "too wise to be caught in such a mouse-trap." One British soldier wrote to his father: "The rebels are the most absolute cowards on the face of the earth."

On the other hand, some British statesmen argued that the Americans were more than willing to fight for freedom—for those same...