Much of the British Military Leadership Opposed the War
It was not just finding sufficient troops to fight the war in North America which vexed the British political leadership. They also had problems finding suitable commanders to lead them. The war in America was almost universally unpopular with senior British military and naval leaders. There were several different reasons for professional military men to oppose the war, knowledge of the immensity of the American landscape and the difficulty imposing the national will upon it being just one. Many English military leaders simply found the war to be unjust, with varying levels of sympathy for the American cause.
Lord Jeffrey Amherst, who had been one of the most successful and respected British commanders in North America during the French and Indian War, was offered the command of His Majesty’s troops in America and turned it down. Later, while occupying a seat in the cabinet of Lord North as Commander in Chief of the Forces, he insisted that the war could not be successfully completed with less than 75,000 troops.
William Howe, who did go to North America at the command of the British Army and trounced Washington in several battles, never followed up on his victories to completely destroy the Continental Army. With his brother, Admiral Richard Howe, William continued to seek an accommodation with the Americans, hoping for a peaceful settlement. Later in life Howe claimed to have opposed the war, and had served only because he had been so ordered by his sovereign.
Another officer of note in British society, Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham, resigned his commission in protest rather than serve when he received orders that would have sent him and his regiment to North America, leading the Americans to name a frigate USS Effingham in his honor.
In the hierarchy of the British Army many officers manned their own regiments, including the officers who served under them, and thus commanded loyalty which was more to them personally than to country or Parliament. The paucity of troops whose first loyalty was to the Crown was another reason the King was forced to turn to his fellow German princes to hire mercenaries to send North America to subjugate his intractable subjects.