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Kiddle is a safe search engine, offering a safe web, image, and video search. Results are vetted by editors.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Kids learn about the Declaration of Independence major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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Mr. Nussbaum - Battles of the Revolutionary War Interactive Map

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This awesome map allows students to click on the points of the map to learn more about each battle.

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This is a description of what happened before, after, and during, the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Battles of Lexington and Concord Stamp

The Redcoats March to Concord to Seize Weapons

Following resolutions made by the Continental Congress, armed conflict seemed imminent. King George, who declared the colonies in a state of rebellion, had authorized the deliverance of British soldiers to reinforce those who had occupied Boston since 1768. General Thomas Gage was sent to Boston to disarm the colonists and arrest the leaders of the rebellion, namely John Hancock and Samuel Adams. After learning of the existence of a large colonial arsenal in Concord, about 20 miles northwest of Boston, General Gage sent a detachment of 700 troops under Colonel Francis Smith to march to Concord for the purposes of seizing and destroying artillery and ammunition. The Colonists, however, already knew their weapons were in jeopardy and had moved most of them to secret locations before the arrival of the Redcoats.

Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

As British troops mobilized in Boston, Dr. Joseph Warren alerted members of the Sons of Liberty - Paul Revere and William Dawes. Dawes promptly rode to Concord to warn Hancock and Adams and Revere rode through the countryside yelling "The Regulars are Coming" or "The Regulars are Out." By dawn, about 70 armed minutemen (Massachusetts militia) had gathered in the Lexington town common awaiting the arrival of the Redcoats. Gage's own wife, Margaret Kemble Gage, is thought to have given Warren information about her husband's planned raid in sympathy to the Revolution.

"One if by Land, Two if By Sea" referred to lanterns hung in the Old North Church

At Lexington - The Shot Heard Round the World

When the British arrived on the scene, someone fired a shot that would become known as "The Shot Heard Round' the World." To this day, historians disagree on which side fired first, or, if the shot came from a spectator. Nevertheless, the Redcoats subsequently unleashed devastating volleys before charging the minutemen with their bayonets. As the Redcoats marched on to Concord, eight minutemen were killed and ten wounded. Nevertheless, the numbers of Minutemen arriving from surrounding towns swelled and the substantial militia retreated to a ridge about a mile from Concord across the North Bridge.

Shots Fired at Lexington

The Devastating March from Concord to Boston

Meanwhile, British troops had occupied Concord, destroyed several cannons, and burned leftover ammunition. A gun battle erupted as the two sides crossed at the North Bridge. In a stunning turn of events, the Minutemen held the bridge, forcing the Redcoats to retreat. As the Redcoats exited Concord on their way back to Boston, hundreds or even thousands of farmers and other colonial workers had positioned themselves behind trees, rocks, in pastures, under bridges, and in places they could not be seen by the Redcoats, firing at them as they marched on. Desperate Redcoats, frustrated by an enemy they could not see, and in revenge for the brutal scalping of one of their dead, sometimes pillaged houses and communities along the way, killing dozens of colonists. Colonial militias, however, continued to snipe away the lines of Redcoats. By the time they finally had made it back to Boston, 73 Redcoats were killed and 174 were wounded. The American Revolution had officially begun.

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Following resolutions made by the Continental Congress, armed conflict seemed imminent. King George, who declared the colonies in a state of rebellion, had authorized the deliverance of British soldiers

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Ducksters: African Americans Revolutionary War

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Ducksters: African Americans Revolutionary War

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Learn about African Americans during the Civil War including soldiers and regiments. Famous patriots such as Crispus Attucks, James Armistead, William Lee, and Peter Salem.

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Learn about the women from the American Revolution including roles such as spies, nurses, camp followers, and soldiers. Also, famous women who played an important part in the war.

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Native Americans and the American Revolution

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Native Americans and the American Revolution

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Learn about the Battle of Long Island, New York during the Revolutionary War including the commanders, where it was fought, before the battle, results, and interesting facts.

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Learn about the Crossing the Delaware major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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History >> American Revolution

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, just a few months after the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Battle of Bunker Hill by Pyle

Boston was being besieged by thousands of American militia. The British were trying to keep control of the city and control its valuable seaport. The British decided to take two hills, Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill, in order to gain a tactical advantage. The American forces heard about it and went to defend the hills.

Where did the battle take place?

This seems like the easiest question ever, doesn't it? Well, not really. There were two hills that the British wanted to take in order to be able to bombard the Americans from a distance. These were Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill. The Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place mostly on Breed's Hill. It's only called the Battle of Bunker Hill because the army thought they were on Bunker Hill. Sort of a funny mistake and it makes for a good trick question.

Bunker Hill Monument by Ducksters
You can visit Bunker Hill and climb to the top of
the monument for a view of the city of Boston

The Leaders

The British were led up the hill by General William Howe. The Americans were led by Colonel William Prescott. Maybe this should have been called the Battle of the Williams! Major John Pitcairn was also one of the British leaders. He was in command of the troops that started the fighting at Lexington that began the Revolutionary War. From the American side, Israel Putnam was the General in charge. Also, leading patriot Dr. Joseph Warren was part of the battle. He was killed during the fighting.

What happened at the battle?

The American forces learned that the British were planning on taking over the hills around Boston in order to gain a tactical advantage. As a result of this information, the Americans secretly moved their troops onto Bunker and Breed's Hill, two unoccupied hills just outside of Boston in Charlestown, Massachusetts. They built up fortifications during the night and prepared for battle.

The next day, when the British realized what had happened, the British attacked. Their commander William Howe led three charges up Breed's Hill. The Americans fought back the first two charges, but started to run out of ammunition and had to retreat at the third charge. The British gained the hill, but their costs were great. Around 226 British were killed and 800 wounded while the Americans did not suffer nearly as many casualties.

Battle Map - Click to see larger picture

Result of the Battle

Although the British won the battle and gained control of the hills, they paid a heavy price. They lost hundreds of soldiers including several officers. This gave the Americans the courage and confidence that they could stand up to the British in battle. Many more colonists joined the army after this battle and the revolution continued to grow in strength.

Bunker Hill Cannon Ball by Ducksters
A cannon ball dug up from Bunker Hill

Interesting Facts about The Battle of Bunker Hill

Because the Americans were low on ammunition, they were told "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

The American troops worked hard during the night building up the defenses. Much of the wall they built, called a redoubt, was nearly 6 feet high.

Future President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, watched the battle from a nearby hill with his mother Abigail Adams. He was seven years old at the time.

The British suffered the most casualties of any single fight during the American Revolutionary War.

Activities

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Works Cited

History >> American Revolution

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Kids learn about the Battle of Bunker Hill major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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Ducksters: Battle of Guilford Courthouse

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Ducksters: Battle of Guilford Courthouse

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Learn about the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the Revolutionary War including the commanders, where it was fought, before the battle, results, and interesting facts.

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The Battle of Saratoga and the case of Benedict Arnold

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The Battle of Saratoga and the case of Benedict Arnold

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Learn about Valley Forge. The place where George Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter during the Revolutionary War.

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This is an article all about the Continental Army.

Militias

For its first 160 years of existence, the colonies that made up England's North American empire acted more as individual nations than as united colonies. Hence, when tensions with England increased, and the onset of war seemed more and more likely, there was hardly a "national" army to fight the British. At the time, individual colonies relied on their local militias for defense. These militias consisted of citizens, farmers, and laborers who doubled as "soldiers" with weapons. Such militias had little formal military training.

Creation of a Permanent Army

Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, a colonial army consisting of 26 regiments was formed on orders from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Smaller forces were raised throughout New England and New York. The Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Army with these regiments on June 14, 1775. The next day, Congress appointed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the army. Although many disliked the idea of a permanent national army, it was deemed necessary in the wake of the British threat.

Lacking Supplies and Shelter

Throughout the war the Continental Army experienced major problems. Not only were the soldiers in the army inexperienced, but they lacked adequate weaponry, clothes, shoes, and food. Not surprisingly, desertions were frequent and morale was extremely low. Disease, starvation, and hypothermia plagued the Continental Army at its winter quarters at Morristown in early 1777, and at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778. Nearly one in six soldiers wintering at Valley Forge died of typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia because of the unsanitary conditions and contaminated food. Nutrition was non-existent and the only food that many soldiers ate for months at a time was known as firecake - a simple mixture of flour and water cooked over a fire until it became solid.

Misery at Valley Forge

Becoming a Military Force

Despite the dreadful conditions and desertions, the Continental Army remained relatively intact under the leadership of George Washington. With the arrival of Baron Steuben at Valley Forge in 1778, the army learned military tactics, formations, training, and discipline, and gradually became a military force that could effectively fight the British in combat. In its first action after Valley Forge, the vastly improved army fought the British to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse. Combined with French forces, the Continental Army would stage a successful siege of the British at Yorktown in 1781, which would prove the last major battle of the war.

Continental Soldiers in 1781

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Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, a colonial army consisting of 26 regiments was formed on orders from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Smaller forces were raised throughout New England and New York.

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The Signing of the Declaration of Independence

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The Signing of the Declaration of Independence

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The First Shots are fired, but the war is not official yet!

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The First Shots are fired, but the war is not official yet!

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African-Americans in the Revolutionary War

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African-Americans in the Revolutionary War

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Kids learn about the biography of Abigail Adams, First Lady with John Adams and human rights activist. Mother of John Quincy.

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Choosing Sides: Native Americans in the Revolutionary War

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Choosing Sides: Native Americans in the Revolutionary War

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This is a full description of the fabled heroine of Connecticut, Sybil Ludington.

Introduction

Sybil Ludington was a prominent figure and heroine during the Revolutionary War, although many believe her story is more myth than fact. She was born on April 5, 1761, in Fredericksburg, New York. Today, the area where she grew up has been renamed Ludingtonville. Ludington was the daughter of Henry Ludington, an officer in the militia and a future aide to General George Washington. Ludington was supporting the Patriot cause, which fought for independence from England.

Attack on Danbury

On April 25, 1777, Governor William Tryon arrived near Connecticut with a 2,000-man British military force. His plan was to attack the city of Danbury, where the supplies for the Continental Army were being stored. That day, Tryon and his army moved south, searching for the army's weapons and foodstuffs; they left chalk marks on the houses of British supporters and informers, setting any house that was unmarked for destruction. Since the Continental Army had recently moved its supplies to Danbury, the area was not well-guarded; all of their food stores, including flour, beef, pork, and wheat, were left vulnerable.

Hero at Age Sixteen

On the night of April 26, 1777, a messenger arrived at the Ludington house who explained the imminent British attack. Henry Ludington tried to pull together his forces, but all of his men had traveled home for spring planting and were spread out across the area. The messenger didn't know the area well enough to find each of them and warn them - but Sybil Ludington did. At only sixteen years old, she embarked on a 40-mile journey atop her horse, Star, traveling south to Mahopac and north to Stormville to warn the men of the impending attack. She rode more than twice the distance of Paul Revere, another prominent Revolution hero, calling out: "The British are burning Danbury. Muster at Ludington's at daybreak!"

Her Story was Lost in History Until 1907

The next day, most of the 400 soldiers in the area were ready to fight, thanks to Sybil Ludington's brave and heroic efforts. Although Danbury was partially burned down, her famous ride helped protect a Continental Army storehouse. Her journey was not fully recognized until 1907, when her great nephew, Louis S. Patrick, revealed it to the world in an article. Today, statues of Sybil Ludington on her horse can be found on the shore of Lake Gleneida in New York, in Danbury, and in Washington D.C., at the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

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Sybil Ludington was a prominent figure and heroine during the Revolutionary War, although many believe her story is more myth than fact. She was born on April 5, 1761, in Fredericksburg, New York.

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The American Revolution for Kids - Winter 1776, Battle of Trenton - American Revolution for Kids

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For Kids: The British and the German soldiers (called Hessians) did not expect George Washington to cross the Delaware River. It was the winter of 1776. It was freezing. And the river was full of big chunks of ice and wild currents of water. On the British side, no one was patrolling the rive…

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Learn about the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolutionary War including the commanders, where it was fought, before the battle, results, and interesting facts.

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History >> American Revolution

The Battles of Saratoga were a series of battles that culminated in the Battle of Saratoga and the surrender of British General John Burgoyne. This decisive victory by the Americans was a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

The Leaders

The main leader for the British was General John Burgoyne. He had the nickname "Gentleman Johnny".

The Americans were led by Major General Horatio Gates as well as Generals Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Lincoln. Other key commanders included Colonel Daniel Morgan and General Enoch Poor.

General Horatio Gates
by Gilbert Stuart

General General John Burgoyne
by Joshua Reynolds

Leading up to the Battles

British General Burgoyne had come up with a plan to defeat the American colonies. He would split the colonies in two along the Hudson River. With the colonies divided, he was sure they could not stand.

Burgoyne was to lead his army south from Lake Champlain to Albany, New York. At the same time General Howe was to advance north along the Hudson River. They would meet at Albany.

Burgoyne and his army successfully advanced south. They first recaptured Fort Ticonderoga from the Americans then proceeded to march south. General Howe, however, had other plans. Instead of heading north to Albany, he headed east to take Philadelphia. Burgoyne was on his own.

Bennington

As the British continued south, the Americans harassed them along the way. They cut down trees to block the roads and took shots at the soldiers from the forests. Burgoyne's progress was slow and the British began to run out of food. Burgoyne sent some of his soldiers to Bennington, Vermont to find food and horses. However, Bennington was guarded by American General John Stark. They surrounded the British troops and captured around 500 soldiers. It was a decisive victory for the Americans and weakened the British forces.

Map of the Battles of Saratoga
Click picture to see larger version

The Battle of Freeman's Farm

The first battle of Saratoga took place on September 19, 1777 on the farmland of British loyalist John Freeman. Daniel Morgan led 500 sharpshooters to the field where they saw the British advancing. They were able to take out a number of officers before the British began to attack. At the end of the battle the British gained control of the field, but they had suffered 600 casualties, twice as many as the Americans.

The Battle of Bemis Heights

After the Battle of Freeman's Farm the Americans set up their defenses at Bemis Heights. More militia men arrived and the American forces continued to grow. On October 7, 1777 the British attacked. Their attack failed miserably and they were defeated by the Americans. British casualties mounted to nearly 600 men and General Burgoyne was forced to retreat.

The Americans under General Gates pursued the British army. Within days, they had them surrounded. The British surrendered on October 17, 1777.

Surrender of General Burgoyne
Source: U.S. Federal Government

Results

The Battles of Saratoga and the surrender of the British army under General Burgoyne was one of the major turning points of the Revolutionary War. The Americans morale was boosted and the country now felt it could win the war. Just as important to the war, the French decided to support the Americans with military aid.

Interesting Facts About the Battles of Saratoga

Benedict Arnold did not get along with General Gates. At one point they had a heated argument and Gates relieved Arnold of his command.

George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving on December 18, 1777 to celebrate the victory over the British at Saratoga.

Despite being relieved of his command, Benedict Arnold entered the battle at Saratoga. He was injured when his horse was shot and fell on his leg.

The American ranks swelled from 9,000 soldiers at the first battle to over 15,000 by the time the British surrendered. The British army, on the other hand, shrunk from 7,200 at the first battle to around 6,600 at the second battle.

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History >> American Revolution

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Learn about the Battles of Saratoga at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights. Major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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We invite you and your family to participate in these activities, inspired by the collections, programs, and expertise of the Library of Congress.

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Resources for Family Engagement from the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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We invite you and your family to participate in these activities, inspired by the collections, programs, and expertise of the Library of Congress.

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Learn about the Soldiers Uniforms and Gear during the Revolutionary War. The British wore red coats while many Americans wore their own clothes.

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The Declaration of Independence and its Legacy

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The Declaration of Independence and its Legacy

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About Lauren Tarshis

Lauren Tarshis's acclaimed and bestselling I Survived series, which has more than 25 million copies in print and digital formats since its launch in 2010, tells stories of young people and their resilience and strength in the midst of unimaginable disasters. For each book in the series that has captivated kids and educators alike, Tarshis has conducted extensive research on topics such as the sinking of the Titanic, the destruction of Pompeii, Hurricane Katrina, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and now on the war that brought the United States its independence in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776. In addition to being an author, Lauren oversees the ELA magazines for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, and is the editor of Storyworks. She lives in Connecticut, and can be found online at laurentarshis.com.

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I Survived the American Revolution Webcast | Scholastic.com

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Lauren Tarshis's acclaimed and bestselling I Survived series, which has more than 25 million copies in print and digital formats since its launch in 2010, tells stories of young people and their resilience and strength in the midst of unimaginable disasters.

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This is a description of what happened before, after, and during, the Battle of Trenton.

Silver Lining

For the most part, and with the exception of the publication of the Declaration of Independence, 1776 had been a brutal year for Patriot morale. The Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, had been more or less routed in and around New York City, suffering tremendous casualties. Morale was low and the ragtag Continental army was forced to retreat through New Jersey to the west side of the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. On the other side of the river, in Trenton, N.J., were three regiments of Hessian soldiers (German soldiers) numbering about 1,400.

A Nine-mile Path of Blood

General Washington planned an attack on the Hessians from three directions to be executed on December 26, 1776, the day after Christmas. As the Continental Army prepared to cross the Delaware River on their way to Trenton, sleet and snow had begun to fall, delaying the crossing. With great effort and difficulty, the army eventually crossed the river in Durham boats, and the horses and artillery were ferried across. Two men fell overboard during the crossing, but both survived. Two other generals who were to assist Washington were delayed by the adverse weather. By 4:00 in the morning, however, the crossing was completed and the Continental Army began the nine mile march toward Trenton. During the march, Washington continually encouraged his troops, many of whom lacked shoes and were bleeding from their feet.

Surprising the Hessians

The first shots of the battle happened about a mile north of Trenton at a Hessian outpost, where the Hessians stationed there began a desperate retreat. Once in Trenton, Washington instructed the escape route to Princeton cut off. Washington's army was soon joined by armies under the command of Generals Nathaniel Greene and John Sullivan. Cannons and artillery were set up at the heads of King and Queen Streets, the two main streets running through the city, which did tremendous damage to the Hessian ranks. Hessian soldiers advancing up the streets were quickly repulsed. Elsewhere in the city, Hessian forces were being overrun. Eventually, the majority of Hessian forces would become surrounded by American forces in an orchard. They were forced to surrender. Others surrendered when their escape routes had been cut off.

Capture of the Hessians at Trenton on December 26, 1776 by John Trumbull

A Key Victory for Patriot Morale

In the battle, only two American soldiers were killed and five were injured, though many more suffered from hypothermia and disease. The Hessians suffered 83 casualties, 22 of which were fatalities. 896 Hessians were captured, though several hundred did manage to escape. All four Hessian colonels, however, were killed. Although the battle was not important tactically, it inspired the American war effort and raised the morale of the army, which seemed to be threatened with dissolution.

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General Washington planned an attack on the Hessians from three directions to be executed on December 26, 1776, the day after Christmas. As the Continental Army prepared to cross the Delaware River on their way to Trenton

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This is a description of what happened before, after, and during, the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Taking the High Ground Around Boston

Following the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Patriot militiamen had blocked the British from sending reinforcements or supplies to their forces within the city by land. The British, however, could still access Boston through its harbor. On May 25, 1775, British generals William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton arrived in Boston via its harbor to plan strategy for breaking the siege. Part of the plan called for the fortification of high ground around Boston that included Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights.

Fortifying Bunker and Breed's Hills

On June 15, Patriot forces learned of the British plan and rushed to fortify both Bunker and Breed's Hill on the Charlestown Peninsula before the British. The Charlestown Peninsula was a narrow strip of land that extended about a mile into Boston Harbor. In preparation for the battle, the British generals underestimated the resolve of the Patriots and voted to stage a direct assault on the Patriots to dislodge them from the hills for the purposes of taking the peninsula. General Burgoyne, in fact, referred to the militia as "untrained rabble."

Costly British Victory

At 3:00 in the afternoon on June 17, the British began their initial assault on Breed's Hill, which was summarily repulsed by Patriot gunners. With the British marching four men deep and several hundred across, they made for easy targets and hundreds fell dead or wounded in the matter of hours. The British reorganized and again attempted to assault the Patriot position, but the outcome was much the same as the first disaster. By this time, the armies of both sides were in disarray. The British, however, reorganized for a third assault, which was designed to focus on the fortifications of Breed's Hill. Again, Patriots gunners poured gunfire into the British lines, felling hundreds. As the fighting went on, however, the Patriots on Breed's Hill ran out of ammunition which invited hand-to-hand combat inside the fortifications. Here, the British had a major advantage with their muskets and bayonets. At this point, the Patriots were forced to flee and staged a brilliant retreat, preventing most soldiers from being captured by the British. Despite the carnage, however, the British had achieved their objective of controlling the Charlestown Peninsula.

The Battle of Bunker Hill is considered a pyrrhic British victory. "Pyrrhic" means costly. British forces suffered well over 1,000 casualties, compared to about 450 Patriot casualties. Of the British casualties, 81 were officers.

Strategic Adjustment

Following the Battle of Bunker Hill, British generals proved more cautious in their approach to assaulting fortified Patriot positions. It also led to the realization that the British would need more military firepower, and hence, led to the hiring of more than 30,000 Hessian (German) soldiers to supplement their own army. For the Patriots, the stand at Bunker Hill increased confidence and morale and proved that its untrained militias would not wither against the powerful British army.

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On May 25, 1775, British generals William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton arrived in Boston via its harbor to plan strategy for breaking the siege.

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This is a description of what happened before, after, and during, the Battle of Cowpens.

British Success in the Southern Theater

Despite the success of the combined American and French forces in the Middle Colonies, the southern colonies remained under British control. The British had recently captured the port cities of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina in 1778 and 1779. The siege at Charleston was particularly costly for Patriot forces. 5,000 Patriot soldiers were surrendered, making it the single largest loss of soldiers for the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War.

Daniel Morgan's Assignment

On October 14, 1780, General George Washington chose Nathanael Greene to lead Patriot forces in the South against the British. Because Greene's small army of 2,300 soldiers would be no match for the British armies in the area, he decided to split it into two parts, giving command of the detachment he sent to the west of the Catawba River to Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. Morgan was to join another militia in the area and was assigned to protect the locals living in between the Broad and Pacolet Rivers.

Morgan Decides the Location of the Coming Battle

British General Charles Cornwallis, in charge of British forces in the South, ordered Banastre (Benny) Tarleton to engage Morgan's forces, and to protect a fort he mistakenly believed Morgan would attack. By disposing of Morgan's army, Cornwallis would have a clear path to invade North Carolina. When Tarelton realized Morgan's army had no intention of taking the fort, he called for reinforcements and began following Morgan, who decided to engage Tarelton at an area in between the Broad and Pacolet Rivers where cows often grazed. Morgan was said to have positioned his army in between the two rivers, so that his soldiers could not desert the army when attacked.

Morgan Defeats Tarleton's Redcoats

At 6:45 in the morning on January 17, 1781, Tarelton's exhausted and possibly malnourished army engaged Morgan's at what came to be known as Cowpens. Before Tarleton's arrival, however, Morgan had positioned his troops in formations that ultimately confused the charging British soldiers and officers. After the initial British charge, the first two lines of Patriot fighters withdrew. Tarelton believed the Patriots to be in full retreat and ordered his soldiers to charge. What Tarelton failed to account for, however, was a third line of Patriot fighters waiting for the British charge. In an attempt to chase the lines of Patriots who seemed to be in retreat, British forces charged directly into the third line of Patriots who immediately halted the British advance with a bayonet charge of their own. Many exhausted British soldiers surrendered on the spot and others turn and ran. Soon, the British army was outflanked and Patriot forces began attacking the British from behind. British forces began a disorderly retreat, despite the desperate urgings of Tarelton to continue fighting.

The Beginning of the End for the British

As the battle ended, Morgan captured 712 British soldiers. 110 British soldiers were killed in the battle. 128 Patriot soldiers were killed or wounded. The surprising Patriot victory at Cowpens served as a turning point in the Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War. Cowpens would ultimately prove to be the first step in the eventual end of the war as it caused Cornwallis to abandon South Carolina, engage General Nathanael Greene at Guilford's Courthouse in North Carolina, and eventually withdraw his battered army to Yorktown, Virginia - where his army would eventually come under siege and surrender.

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British General Charles Cornwallis, in charge of British forces in the South, ordered Banastre (Benny) Tarleton to engage Morgan's forces, and to protect a fort he mistakenly believed Morgan would attack.

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British general John Burgoyne earned the nickname "Gentleman Johnny" for his love of leisure and his tendency to throw parties between battles. His surrender to American forces at the Battle of Saratoga marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War.

The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolutionary War.

The scope of the victory is made clear by a few key facts: On October 17, 1777, 5,895 British and Hessian troops surrendered their arms. General John Burgoyne had lost 86 percent of his expeditionary force that had triumphantly marched into New York from Canada in the early summer of 1777.

Divide and Conquer

The divide-and-conquer strategy that Burgoyne presented to British ministers in London was to invade America from Canada by advancing down the Hudson Valley to Albany. There, he would be joined by other British troops under the command of Sir William Howe. Howe would be bringing his troops north from New Jersey and New York City.

Burgoyne believed that this bold stroke would not only isolate New England from the other American colonies, but achieve command of the Hudson River and demoralize Americans and their would-be allies, such as the French.

Some historians today are unsure if her death came at Native American hands or by other means, but the murder of Jane McCrea united Americans against the British and their Native American allies.

In June 1777, Burgoyne's army of over 7,000 men (half of whom were British troops and the other half Hessian troops from Brunswick and Hesse-Hanau) departed from St. Johns on Lake Champlain, bound for Fort Ticonderoga, at the southern end of the lake.

As the army proceeded southward, Burgoyne drafted and had his men distribute a proclamation that, among other things, included the statement "I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction, and they amount to thousands," which implied that Britain's enemies would suffer attacks from Native Americans allied to the British.

More than any other act during the campaign, this threat and subsequent widely reported atrocities such as the scalping of Jane McCrea stiffened the resolve of the Americans to do whatever it took to assure that the threat did not become reality.

Instead of heading north to help Burgoyne fight the rebels in Saratoga, General Howe sailed south and embarked on a campaign to capture Philadelphia.

Round One to the British

The American forces at Fort Ticonderoga recognized that once the British mounted artillery on high ground near the fort, Ticonderoga would be indefensible. A retreat from the Fort was ordered, and the Americans floated troops, cannon, and supplies across Lake Champlain to Mount Independence.

From there the army set out for Hubbardton where the British and German troops caught up with them and gave battle. Round one to the British.

Burgoyne continued his march towards Albany, but miles to the south a disturbing event occurred. Sir William Howe decided to attack the Rebel capital at Philadelphia rather than deploying his army to meet up with Burgoyne and cut off New England from the other Colonies. Meanwhile, as Burgoyne marched south, his supply lines from Canada were becoming longer and less reliable.

Bennington: "the compleatest Victory gain'd this War"

As Burgoyne and his troops marched down from Canada, the British managed to win several successful campaigns as well as infuriate the colonists. By the time the Burgoyne reached Saratoga, Americans had successfully rallied support to beat him.

In early August, word came that a substantial supply depot at Bennington, Vermont, was alleged to be lightly guarded, and Burgoyne dispatched German troops to take the depot and return with the supplies. This time, however, stiff resistance was encountered, and American general John Stark surrounded and captured almost 500 German soldiers. One observer reported Bennington as "the compleatest Victory gain'd this War."

Burgoyne now realized, too late, that the Loyalists (Tories) who were supposed to have come to his aid by the hundreds had not appeared, and that his Native American allies were also undependable.

American general Schuyler proceed to burn supplies and crops in the line of Burgoyne's advance so that the British were forced to rely on their ever-longer and more and more unreliable supply line to Canada. On the American side, General Horatio Gates arrived in New York to take command of the American forces.

Battle of Freeman's Farm

Mask letters, invisible ink, and secret code are the tricks of the trade for any good spy. Loyalist Henry Clinton used a mask letter to communicate with Burgoyne.

By mid-September, with the fall weather reminding Burgoyne that he could not winter where he was and needed to proceed rapidly toward Albany, the British army crossed the Hudson and headed for Saratoga.

On September 19 the two forces met at Freeman's Farm north of Albany. While the British were left as "masters of the field," they sustained heavy human losses. Years later, American Henry Dearborn expressed the sentiment that "we had something more at stake than fighting for six Pence pr Day."

Battle of Saratoga

In late September and during the first week of October 1777, Gate's American army was positioned between Burgoyne's army and Albany. On October 7, Burgoyne took the offensive. The troops crashed together south of the town of Saratoga, and Burgoyne's army was broken. In mop-up operations 86 percent of Burgoyne's command was captured.

The victory gave new life to the American cause at a critical time. Americans had just suffered a major setback the Battle of the Brandywine along with news of the fall of Philadelphia to the British.

One American soldier declared, "It was a glorious sight to see the haughty Brittons march out & surrender their arms to an army which but a little before they despised and called paltroons."

A stupendous American victory in October 1777, the success at Saratoga gave France the confidence in the American cause to enter the war as an American ally. Later American successes owed a great deal to French aid in the form of financial and military assistance.

A Word about Spies

worked for both British and American armies. Secret messages and battle plans were passed in a variety of creative ways, including being sewn into buttons. Patriots and loyalists penned these secret letters either in code, with invisible ink, or as mask letters.

Here is an example of Loyalist Sir Henry Clinton's mask letter. The first letter is the mask letter with the secret message decoded; the second is an excerpt of the full letter.

Benedict Arnold

As a brilliant leader and patriot, he was wounded at Saratoga during a daring charge. Had he been killed, he would've died a hero. Instead, history remembers him as the worst of traitors.
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On September 19, 1777 British and American forces clashed at the Battle of Freeman's Farm (1st Battle of Saratoga) and again on October 17 in the Battle of Bemis Heights (2nd Battle of Saratoga), an overwhelming victory for the Americans.

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Ducksters: Washington Crossing the Delaware

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Ducksters: Washington Crossing the Delaware

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Learn about the Crossing the Delaware major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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History of the Taxes Imposed by the British Government during the American Revolution in Colonial America

PBS: Boston Tea Party

People Important to the American Revolutionary War
Important People to the American Revolutionary War Famous People to the American Revolutionary War Key People to the American Revolutionary War

Sites with SPECIFIC Information about the History of the American Revolution in Colonial America

Academic Kids' Encyclopedia : The American Revolution: Complete historical facts

American Revolution: What Were the Causes?: Your guide to some of the most informative and factual information about the American Revolution

Account of a Declaration: Over thirty historical documents, sixty-seven biographical sketches, and some twenty-five essays about the causes
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Introduction to the American Revolutionary War: Historical facts and graphics

Jump Back in Time: American Revolution: Brought to you from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world and the nation's library; Designed with young readers in mind; Facts and information about the American Revolution

Liberty: Chronicle of the American Revolution: Headlines, timelines, resource material and related topics---a potpourri of information on the American Revolution. Picture this: Daily Life in the Colonies, the Global Village, and a Military point-of-view

The Road to Independence: A New Colonial System -- Stamp Act -- Taxation Without Representation - Townshend Acts-- Samuel Adams -- Boston "Tea Party" -- The Coercive Acts -The Revolution Begins -- Common Sense and Independence -- Defeats and Victories- Franco-American Alliance -- The British Move South -- Victory and Independence Loyalists During the American Revolution

Spy Letters of the American Revolution: A fascinating Web site about the American Revolution. The site offers a set of primary source letters written by spies on both sides of the conflict, plus the stories surrounding them. Learn about the methods that secret agents used to encode and hide their information

Tour of the American Revolutionary War: Causes, battles, and biographies, writings, links

*The American Revolutionary War was also known as the Seven Years War.

The American Revolutionary War was known as the Overview of the American Revolutionary War/a>".

* The " shot heard 'round the world" refers to the first time colonists and British troops engaged in battle - the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

* George III was the British King during the war.

* France supplied military support during the American Revolutionary Way.

Interesting Facts about the American Revolutionary War Battles

*There were hundreds of battles during the American Revolutionary War.

*George Washington was the commander-in-chief of all American armies during the American Revolutionary War.

* Valley Forge was the location where George Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777-1778 during the American War for Independence.

* General Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at the Battle of Yorktown. That was the last battle of the war; however, fighting continued for two more years until the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783.

*The Battle of Bunker Hill was not fought on Bunker Hill, but rather Breed's Hill.

*One signers to the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 was Benjamin Franklin.

Interesting Facts about the Black Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War

What mattered most to the African Americans who fought during the Revolutionary War was an opportunity to gain their freedom. Those who joined the was joined the side which they felt would eventually provide them with freedom.

Crispus Attucks, a black man, was the first person to be shot and killed during the American Revolutionary War.

Interesting Facts about the Causes of the American Revolutionary War

*There were many leading causes that lead to the American Revolutionary War.

*The British passed the so called Navigational Acts which stated the colonists just only with Britain.

*The British also passed a tax on Sugar Act 1764 making so the colonists had pay tax on sugar.

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770. A riot took place and British soldiers shot 5 people dead.

*The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the leading causes of the Revolutionary War as it taxed newspapers and official documents.

The Townshed Act of 1767 placed on the colonists taxed imported goods.

*In 1773, a group of men disguised as Indians boarded the ships and dumped all the tea in the harbor to protest the Tea Act which gave a British company the right sell tea and put a tax on it. This Boston Tea Party was one of the leading causes of the American Revolutionary War.

*After the Boston Tea Party the British passed the Intolerable Acts which placed restrictions on the colonists including outlawing town meetings and the closing of Boston Harbor.

Interesting Facts about the People Important to the American Revolutionary War

*There were many people important to the American Revolution

* George III was the British King during the war.

*Paul Revere, known for awakening people in his " midnight ride" to warn them about the arrival of the British, was eventually captured by British soldiers and later released.

* Benedict Arnold became a traitor after George Washington was made Commander of the Continental Army during the Revolution because he did not think he was getting credit for his contributions to the war.

* Betsy Ross made the decision to create the five pointed stars on the American flag because it was an easier to create a five star with scissors rather than the more difficult six star.

* Thomas Jefferson was head of the committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, and many others signed the Declaration of Independence.

Interesting Facts about the Women Important to the American Revolutionary War

Many women served in the American Revolutionary War.

*Mary McCauley Hays, also known at " Molly Pitcher" went to the battlefield with her husband William and distributed water to the Continental troops.

* Deborah Sampson who fought in the Revolutionary War was not know to be a woman until she came down with a fever and was examined by a doctor. She was discharged from the army.

* Betsy Ross made the decision to create the five pointed stars on the American flag because it was an easier to create a five star with scissors rather than the more difficult six star.

American History Calendar: A calendar site showing American history in a unique way: through a user-friendly web calendar. Birthdays of important people in American history and important events in American history can be viewed; interactive - browse through it and display details on a specific person or event. A printer friendly version of the calendar is also available.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History Search Engine: Discover history through objects, photographs, interactive timelines: Complete archived collections - excellent!

The History Channel: Each month the History Channel takes new explorations into the past and puts them on display for you, utilizing state-of-the-art interactive technology; listen to speeches drawn from the most famous broadcasts and recordings of the Twentieth Century. The History Channel Time Machine brings you to a different speech every day; trivia quiz; fact of the day; games.

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Ducksters: Life as a Revolutionary War Soldier

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Ducksters: Life as a Revolutionary War Soldier

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Learn about the daily life of a Revolutionary War Soldier including the Continental army, the militia, how much they were paid, how old they were, and more.

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Kids learn about the Battle of Yorktown major event ending the American Revolutionary War.

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Liberty Kids: The Shot Heard 'Round The World

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Liberty Kids: The Shot Heard 'Round The World

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Deborah Sampson Gannett (December 17, 1760-April 29, 1827) was one of the only women to serve in the army during the Revolutionary War. After disguising herself as a man and enlisting under the name Robert Shurtliff, she served for 18 months. Sampson was severely wounded in battle and received an honorable discharge after her gender was discovered. She later successfully fought for her rights to a military pension.

Fast Facts: Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson's parents were descended from Mayflower passengers and Puritan luminaries, but they did not prosper like many of their ancestors. When Deborah was about five years old, her father vanished. The family believed that he was lost at sea during a fishing trip, but it later emerged that he had abandoned his wife and six young children to build a new life and family in Maine.

Deborah's mother, unable to provide for her children, placed them with other relatives and families, as was common for destitute parents of the time. Deborah ended up with the widow of a former minister, Mary Prince Thatcher, who likely taught the child to read. From that point on, Deborah displayed a desire for education unusual in a girl of that era.

When Mrs. Thatcher died around 1770, 10-year-old Deborah became an indentured servant in the household of Jeremiah Thomas of Middleborough, Massachusetts. "Mr. Thomas, as an earnest patriot, did much towards shaping the political opinions of the young woman in his charge." At the same time, Thomas did not believe in women's education, so Deborah borrowed books from the Thomas sons.

After her indenture ended in 1778, Deborah supported herself by teaching school in the summers and working as a weaver in the winter. She also used her skills at light woodworking to peddle goods like spools, pie crimpers, milking stools, and other items door-to-door.

Enlisting in the Army

The Revolution was in its final months when Deborah decided to disguise herself and attempt to enlist sometime in late 1781. She purchased some cloth and made herself a suit of men's clothing. At 22, Deborah had reached a height of around five feet, eight inches, tall even for men of the period. With a wide waist and a small chest, it was easy enough for her to pass as a young man.

She first enlisted under the pseudonym "Timothy Thayer" in Middleborough in early 1782, but her identity was discovered before she made it into service. On Sept. 3, 1782, the First Baptist Church of Middleborough expelled her, writing that she: "Last spring was accused of dressing in men's clothes and enlisting as a Soldier in the Army [...] and for some time before had behaved very loose and unchristian like, and at last left our parts in a suden maner, and it is not known where she has gone."

She ended up walking from Middleborough to the port of New Bedford, where she considered signing on to an American cruiser, then passed through Boston and its suburbs, where she finally mustered in as "Robert Shurtliff" in Uxbridge in May 1782. Private Shurtliff was one of 50 new members of the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Infantry.

Identity Uncovered

Deborah soon saw combat. On July 3, 1782, just a few weeks into her service, she took part in a battle outside Tarrytown, New York. During the fight, she was struck by two musket balls in the leg and a gash to her forehead. Fearing exposure, "Shurtliff" begged comrades to leave her to die in the field, but they took her to the surgeon anyway. She quickly slipped out of the field hospital and removed the bullets with a penknife.

More or less permanently disabled, Private Shurtliff was reassigned as a waiter to General John Patterson. The war was essentially over, but American troops remained in the field. By June 1783, Deborah's unit was sent to Philadelphia to put down a brewing mutiny among American soldiers over delays in back pay and discharge.

Fevers and illness were common in Philadelphia, and not long after she arrived, Deborah fell seriously ill. She was put under the care of Dr. Barnabas Binney, who discovered her true gender as she lay delirious in his hospital. Rather than alert her commander, he took her to his home and put her under the care of his wife and daughters.

After months in Binney's care, it was time for her to rejoin General Patterson. As she prepared to leave, Binney gave her a note to give to the General, which she correctly assumed revealed her gender. Following her return, she was called to Patterson's quarters. "She says, 'A re-entrance was harder than facing a cannonade," in her biography. She nearly fainted from the tension.

To her surprise, Patterson decided not to punish her. He and his staff seemed almost impressed she had carried off her ruse for so long. With no sign she had ever acted inappropriately with her male comrades, Private Shurtliff was given an honorable discharge on Oct. 25, 1783.

Becoming Mrs. Gannett

Deborah returned to Massachusetts, where she married Benjamin Gannett and settled down on their small farm in Sharon. She was soon the mother of four: Earl, Mary, Patience, and an adopted daughter named Susanna. Like many families in the young Republic, the Gannetts struggled financially.

Starting in 1792, Deborah began what would become a decades-long battle to receive back pay and pension relief from her time in service. Unlike many of her male peers, Deborah didn't rely just on petitions and letters to Congress. To raise her profile and strengthen her case, she also allowed a local writer named Herman Mann to write a romanticized version of her life story, and in 1802 embarked on a lengthy lecture tour of Massachusetts and New York.

National Tour

Reluctantly leaving her children in Sharon, Gannett was on the road from June 1802 to April 1803. Her tour covered over 1,000 miles and stopped in every major town in Massachusetts and the Hudson River Valley, ending in New York City. In most towns, she lectured simply on her wartime experiences.

In bigger venues like Boston, the "American Heroine" was a spectacle. Gannett would give her lecture in female dress, then exit the stage as a chorus sang patriotic tunes. Finally, she would reappear in her military uniform and perform a complex, 27-step military drill with her musket.

Her tour was met with widespread acclaim until she got to New York City, where she lasted only a single performance. "Her talents do not appear calculated for theatrical exhibitions," one reviewer sniffed. She returned home to Sharon soon after. Because of the high cost of travel, she ended up making a profit of around $110.

Petition for Benefits

In her long fight for benefits, Gannett had the support of some powerful allies like Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, Massachusetts Congressman William Eustis, and her old commander, General Patterson. All would press her claims with the Government, and Revere, in particular, would frequently lend her money. Revere wrote to Eustis after meeting Gannett in 1804, describing her as "much out of health," in part because of her military service, and despite the Gannett's obvious efforts, "they are really poor." He added:

We commonly form our Idea of the person whom we hear spoken off, whom we have never seen; according as their actions are described, when I heard her spoken off as a Soldier, I formed the Idea of a tall, Masculine female, who had a small share of understandg, without education, & one of the meanest of her Sex-When I saw and discoursed with I was agreeably surprised to find a small, effeminate, and converseable Woman, whose education entitled her to a better situation in life.

In 1792, Gannett successfully petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for back pay of £34, plus interest. Following her lecture tour in 1803, she began to petition the Congress for disability pay. In 1805, she received a lump sum of $104 plus $48 a year thereafter. In 1818, she gave up disability pay for a general pension of $96 a year. The fight for retroactive payments went on until the end of her life.

Deborah died at the age of 68, after a long period of ill health. The family was too poor to pay for a headstone, so her gravesite in Sharon's Rock Ridge Cemetery was unmarked until the 1850s or 1860s. At first, she was noted only as "Deborah, Wife of Benjamin Gannett." It wasn't until years after that someone memorialized her service by carving into the headstone, "Deborah Sampson Gannett/Robert Shurtliff/The Female Soldier."

Resources and Further Reading

Abbatt, William. The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries: Extra Numbers. 45-48, XII, 1916.

"Letter from Paul Revere to William Eustis, 20 February 1804." Massachusetts Historical Society Collections Online, Mass Cultural Council, 2019.

Mann, Herman. Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson, the Female Soldier in the War of the Revolution. Forgotten, 2016.

Rothman, Ellen K., et al. "Deborah Sampson Performs in Boston." Mass Moments, Mass Humanities.

Young, Alfred Fabian. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. Vintage, 2005.

Weston, Thomas. History of the Town of Middleboro, Massachusetts. Vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin, 1906.

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Deborah Sampson: Hidden Heroine of the American Revolution

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Deborah Sampson Gannett, one of the only women to serve in the Revolutionary War, disguised herself as a man in order to enlist in the army.

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The Battle of Trenton was a small but crucial American Revolutionary War battle that took place on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. After General George Washington crossed the Delaware River north of Trenton the previous night, he led the main body of the Continental Army against Hessian soldiers stationed at Trenton. After a short battle, almost two-thirds of the Hessian force was captured with few losses to the Americans.

Before the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army had suffered several defeats in New York and had been forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Morale (confidence during hard times) in the army was low. To end the year on a positive note, George Washington-Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army-designed a plan to cross the Delaware River on the night of December 25-26 and surround the Hessians' garrison.

Because the river was icy and the weather was severe, the crossing was dangerous. Two groups of soldiers were unable to cross the river, leaving Washington with only 2,400 men under his command in the attack. This was 3,000 fewer than he had planned to have. The army marched 9 miles (14.5 km) south to Trenton. The Hessians, thinking they were safe from the Americans' army, had lowered their guard and had no long-distance outposts or patrols. Washington's forces caught them off guard. After a short but fierce resistance, most of the Hessians surrendered and were captured. About one-third escaped across Assunpink Creek.

Even though the battle did not involve a large number of soldiers, the victory inspired patriots and sympathizers of the newly formed United States. Because so many were questioning whether or not the revolution would be successful just a week earlier, the army had seemed like it was about to collapse. The dramatic victory inspired soldiers to serve longer and attracted new recruits to the ranks.

Background

In the 1760s, the American colonies started a revolution because they wanted to become independent from English rule. The English wanted to remain in control of the American colonies. This is what had begun the Revolutionary War in 1775. By 1776, American soldiers had been fighting the British for over a year, and the morale was extremely low. The Americans had been pushed out of New York by the British and their hired Hessian auxiliaries (a group of soldiers who are serving a nation at war but are not part of the regular army). The Continental Army had been forced to retreat across New Jersey. Ninety percent of the Continental Army soldiers who had served at Long Island were gone. Soldiers had deserted, feeling that independence from England was no longer possible. Even Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, had expressed some doubts, writing to his cousin in Virginia, "I think the game is pretty near up."

At the time, a small town in New Jersey called Trenton was occupied by four regiments of Hessian soldiers (numbering about 1,500 men). The Hessian soldiers were commanded by Colonel Johann Rall.

On December 20, 1776, about 2,000 troops led by General Sullivan arrived in Washington's camp. They had been under the command of Charles Lee and had been moving slowly through northern New Jersey when Lee was captured. That same day, an additional 800 troops arrived from Fort Ticonderoga under the command of Horatio Gates. Washington's army now contained 2,400 men. The infantry divisions were commanded by Major Generals Nathanael Greene and John Sullivan. The artillery division was under the direction of Brigadier General Henry Knox.

Intelligence

George Washington had placed a spy named John Honeyman, posing as a Tory, in Trenton. Honeyman had served with Major General James Wolfe in Quebec at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759, and had no trouble being able to pose as a Tory. Honeyman was a butcher and bartender who traded with the British and Hessians. This helped him to gather intelligence (collect facts about an opposing army) and to convince the Hessians that the Continental Army was in such a low state of morale that they would not attack Trenton. Shortly before Christmas, Honeyman arranged to be captured by the Continental Army. They, of course, had orders to bring him to Washington unharmed. After being questioned by Washington, he was imprisoned in a hut to be tried as a Tory in the morning, but a small fire broke out nearby, enabling him to "escape." This plan allowed Honeyman to give Washington any news he had without the Hessians suspecting anything.

During the week before the battle, the U.S. sent small groups of soldiers to ambush enemy cavalry patrols. The U.S. soldiers captured despatch riders and attacked Hessian guards.

The U.S. plan depended on being able to attack at the same time from three different directions.

General John Cadwalader would cross at Dunk's Ferry and start an attack against the British garrison at Bordentown, New Jersey, to block off British reinforcements from the south and to create a diversion.

Washington's main-attack force of 2,400 men would cross the river 9 mi (14 km) north of Trenton and split into two groups. Generals Greene and Sullivan would begin attacking before dawn. Sullivan would attack the town from the south and Greene from the north. Depending on the success of the operation, the Americans would possibly follow up with separate attacks on Princeton and New Brunswick.

General James Ewing would take 700 militia across the river further south at Trenton Ferry, seize the bridge over the Assunpink Creek, and prevent enemy troops from escaping.

Washington ordered Ewing and his Pennsylvania militia to try to get information on Hessian movements and technology. Ewing instead made three successful raids across the river. On December 17 and 18, 1776, they attacked an outpost of jägers, and on the 21st, they set fire to several houses. Washington had soldiers constantly watching all possible crossings near the Continental Army encampment on the Delaware River because he believed William Howe would attack from the north if the river froze over.

Hessian moves

On December 14, 1776, the Hessians arrived in Trenton to set up their winter quarters. At the time, Trenton was a small town with about 100 houses and two main streets: King (now Warren) Street and Queen (now Broad) Street. Carl von Donop, the Hessian Colonel Johann Rall's superior, had marched south to Mount Holly on December 22 to fight with some New Jersey militia there on December 23.

Donop despised Rall and did not want to give command of Trenton to Rall while he was in Mount Holly. Rall was known to be loud and unfamiliar with the English language, but he was also a 36-year soldier with a great deal of battle experience. His request for reinforcements had been turned down by British commander General James Grant, who thought the American rebels were poor soldiers. Despite Rall's experience, the Hessians at Trenton did not admire their commander.

Trenton did not have city walls or fortifications, which was normal for U.S. settlements. Some Hessian officers had suggested to Rall that it would be wise to fortify the town, and two of his engineers had advised that a redoubt be built at the upper end of town and fortifications be built along the river. The engineers even drew up the plans, but Rall disagreed with them. When Rall was again urged to fortify the town, he replied, "Let them come...We will go at them with the bayonet."

As Christmas Day approached, Loyalists and deserters told the Hessians that the Americans were planning to come across the river and that they were preparing rations for the soldiers. This news worried Rall. He acted like a confident leader, but he secretly wrote letters to his superiors to tell them that he felt as if the Americans could attack at any moment. He asked that British troops come to help by establishing a garrison in Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville). He felt that because Trenton was "indefensible," a nearby garrison would help defend the roads from Americans. The British denied his request.

The main Hessian force of 1,500 men was divided into three regiments led by Knyphausen, Lossberg, and Rall. That night, they did not send out any patrols because of the severe weather.

Crossing and march

At approximately 11:00 p.m. on Christmas Day, Washington and his soldiers began to cross the Delaware River. Each soldier carried 60 rounds of ammunition (bullets) and three days of rations for the battle. The soldiers, with John Glover in command, began to cross the river in Durham boats. The horses and artillery crossed on large ferries. Though several men fell overboard during the crossing, no one died, and all the artillery pieces made it over in good condition.

The rain had changed to sleet and then to snow as temperatures dropped. This put the entire mission behind schedule. The crossing into New Jersey, which was supposed to be completed by midnight, was not completed until 3:00 a.m. Washington realized that it was too late to be able to attack Trenton before dawn.

At 4:00 am, Washington's soldiers began to march toward Trenton. Along the way, several civilians joined as volunteers and led as guides (such as John Mott) because of their knowledge of the land. The soldiers marched to Birmingham (now West Trenton) together and then split forces. Greene's force headed east to approach Trenton by the Scotch and Pennington Roads. Sullivan headed southwest to approach by way of River Road.

Many of the troops did not have boots, so they were forced to wear rags around their feet. Some of the men's feet bled, turning the snow to a dark red. Two men died on the march. As they marched, Washington rode up and down the line, encouraging the men to continue. General Sullivan sent a courier to tell Washington that the weather was wetting his men's gunpowder. Washington replied, "Tell General Sullivan to use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton."

About 2 miles (3 km) outside the town, the main companies were startled by the sudden appearance of armed men, but they were American. The men, led by Adam Stephen, had not known about the plan to attack Trenton and had attacked a Hessian outpost. Washington feared that his element of surprise was taken and shouted at Steven, "You, sir! You, sir, may have ruined all my plans by having them put on their guard!" The attack on the Hessian outpost ended up working in Washington's favor. In the event, Rall thought the first raid led by Adam Stephen was the attack which Grant had warned him about, and that there would be no more action that day.

At 8:00 a.m., Washington led an assault on a Hession outpost at a copper shop on Pennington Road, about one mile northwest of Trenton. As the Hessian commander of the outpost, Lieutenant Andreas Wiederholdt, left the shop, an American fired at him but missed. Wiederholdt immediately shouted, "Der Feind!" (The Enemy!) and other Hessians came out. The Americans and the Hessians exchanged fire and the Hessians began to retreat from the outpost. The Americans were able to drive the Hessians, who were joined by other companies of Hessians and using houses as cover, to the outskirts of town. One of the companies that joined Wiederholdt's men was posted near the Delaware River. This left River Road into Trenton open. Washington ordered the escape route to Princeton to be cut off, sending infantry in battle formation to block it, while artillery formed at the head of King and Queen Streets.

Leading the southern U.S. column, General Sullivan entered Trenton by the abandoned River Road and blocked the only crossing over the Assunpink Creek to cut off the Hessian escape. Sullivan briefly paused his advance to make sure Greene's division had time to drive the Hessians from their outposts in the north. Soon after, Sullivan's men continued their advance. Lieutenant von Grothausen was stationed, with jägers, at the home of Philemon Dickinson. The Hessians were driven back and the 20 British dragoons also fled. Some tried to swim across the creek, while others escaped over the bridge which had not yet been cut off. As Greene and Sullivan's columns pushed into the town, Washington moved to the high ground north of King and Queen Streets so that he could see the action and direct his troops. By this time, U.S. artillery from the other side of the Delaware River had come into action, destroying the Hessian positions.

When the alarm sounded, the three Hessian regiments who were stationed at Trenton began to prepare for battle. Rall awoke to find that the rebels had taken the "V" of the main streets of the town. This is where the engineers had recommended building a redoubt. Rall ordered his regiment to form up at the lower end of King Street, the Lossberg regiment to prepare for an advance up Queen Street, and the Knyphausen regiment to stand by as a reserve for Rall's advance up King Street. On both sides of town, the U.S. cannons and soldiers fired too much for the Hessian soldiers to be able to fight back. The Hessian soldiers fell back and fled to a field. Many were lost to grapeshot and musket fire. Sullivan led a column of men to block off the escape of the troops across the creek.

Hessian resistance collapses

The Hessians in the field attempted to reorganize and make one last attempt to retake the town so they could make a breakout. Rall decided to attack the U.S. flank (the sides or back of the formation of soldiers) on the heights north of the town. Rall yelled "Forward! Advance! Advance!" and the Hessians began to move, with the brigade's band playing fifes, bugles, and drums to help the Hessians' spirit.

Washington, still on high ground, saw the Hessians approaching the U.S. flank. He moved his troops to assume battle formation against the enemy. The two Hessian regiments began marching toward King Street but were caught in U.S. fire that came at them from three directions. Some Americans had taken up positions inside houses where civilians joined the fight against the Hessians. The Hessians' formations broke, and they began to scatter. Washington led his troops down from high ground while yelling, "March on, my brave fellows, after me!" Most of the Hessians retreated into an orchard with the Americans in close pursuit. Quickly surrounded, the Hessians were offered terms of surrender, to which they agreed.

Although ordered to join Rall, the remains of the Knyphausen regiment mistakenly marched in the opposite direction. They tried to escape across the bridge but found it had been taken. The Americans quickly swept in, defeating a Hessian attempt to break through their lines. Surrounded by Sullivan's men, the regiment surrendered, just minutes after the rest of the brigade.

Casualties and capture

The Hessian forces lost 22 who were killed in action; 83 were wounded and 896 were captured - including the wounded. The Americans suffered only two deaths during the march and five wounded from battle. Two important U.S. officers were wounded while leading the charge down King Street: William Washington, cousin of General Washington, and Lieutenant James Monroe, the future President of the United States. Monroe was carried from the field bleeding badly after he was struck in the left shoulder by a musket ball, which severed an artery. Doctor John Riker clamped the artery, preventing him from bleeding to death. Other losses experienced by the Patriots from exhaustion, exposure, and illness in the following days, however, may have raised their losses above those of the Hessians.

Rall was mortally wounded in the battle and died later that night at his headquarters. All four Hessian colonels in Trenton were killed in the battle. The Lossberg regiment was effectively removed from the British forces. Parts of the Knyphausen regiment escaped to the south, but Sullivan captured about 200 additional men, along with the regiment's cannon, supplies, approximately 1,000 arms, and much-needed ammunition. The Americans also captured the Hessians' entire store of provisions-tons of flour, dried and salted meats, ale, and other liquors, as well as shoes, boots, clothing, and bedding-things that were as much needed by the ragtag Continental forces as weapons and horses. The captured Hessians were sent to Philadelphia and later Lancaster. In 1777, they were moved to Virginia.

On December 28, after the Hessians' surrender, General Washington interviewed Lieutenant (later Colonel) Andreas Wiederhold, who detailed the failures of Rall's preparation. Washington soon learned, however, that Cadwalader and Ewing had been unable to complete their crossing, leaving his worn-out army of 2,400 men isolated. Washington realized he did not yet have the forces to attack Princeton and New Brunswick.

By noon, Washington's force had moved back across the Delaware into Pennsylvania, taking their prisoners and captured supplies with them. Washington would follow up his success a week later in the Battle of the Assunpink Creek and the Battle of Princeton.

This small but crucial battle, as with the later Battle of Cowpens, had an effect that was much greater than its size. The Patriot victory at Trenton gave the Continental Congress new confidence, as it proved that colonial forces could defeat regulars. Soldiers re-enlisted in the Continental Army, and fear of the Hessians decreased. The writings of Thomas Paine and more successful actions by the New Jersey Militia also helped gain colonial support for the rebellion.

The Trenton Battle Monument, standing at "Five Points" in Trenton, endures as a tribute to this U.S. victory. The crossing of the Delaware River and the battle are reenacted by local enthusiasts every year (unless the weather is too severe on the river).

Eight current Army National Guard units (101st Engineer Batallion, 103rd Engineer Batallion, A/1-104th Cavalry Regiment, 111th Infantry Regiment, 125th Quartermaster Company, 175th Infantry Regiment, 181st Infantry Regiment, and 198th Signal Batallion) and one currently-active Regular Army Artillery battalion (1st Batallion, 5th Field Artillery) originated with U.S. units that participated in the Battle of Trenton. There are thirty current units of the U.S. Army with colonial roots.

In 1851, German-American artist Emanuel Leutze painted the second of three paintings depicting Washington crossing the Delaware. At the time of its first exhibition, it gained much attention in Europe and the United States. Leutze hoped it would bring revolutionary feelings in Germany. After six months in Germany, the painting was shipped to New York City where the New York Mirror newspaper praised it with the words, "the grandest, most majestic, and most effective painting ever exhibited in America." It is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is "one of the most famous American paintings." The painting is the centerpiece of the collections in the American Wing. It is still one of the most recognizable paintings at the Metropolitan. It is central to the canon of American historical art images, remaining just as popular now as when it was first exhibited.

Images for kids

In Spanish: Batalla de Trenton para niños

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Overview:

On June 17, 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill took place. It is one of the most important colonial victories in the U.S. War for Independence. Fought during the Siege of Boston, it lent considerable encouragement to the revolutionary cause. This battle made both sides realize that this was not going to be a matter decided on by one quick and decisive battle. When the British planned to occupy Dorchester Heights on the Boston Peninsula, the colonists became alarmed at the build up of British troops off of the coast. The colonists decided that action had to be taken so as to stop the threatening British movement in this territory to protect themselves from an attack. The Battle of Bunker Hill started when the colonists learned about the British plan to occupy Dorchester Heights. The colonists were understandably shaken by this news. They thought of this as the last straw, and they had to protect their land and freedom.

Synopsis:

On June 15, 1775 the American colonists heard news that the British planned to control the Charlestown peninsula between the Charles and Mystic Rivers. Bunker's and Breed's Hill on this peninsula overlooked both Boston and its harbor, thus making the hills critical vantage points. In order to beat the British to the high ground, General Prescott took 1,200 of his often times undisciplined, disobedient, and sometimes intoxicated soldiers to dig into and fortify Bunker Hill with the cover of night on June 16.

When dawn broke, the British were stunned to see Breed's Hill fortified overnight with a 160-by-30-foot earthen structure. The British General, Gage, dispatched 2,300 troops under the command of Major General Howe to take control of the hill. So it came to be that General Prescott did not actually fortify Bunker's Hill, but Breed's Hill instead. How did this happen? One proposed idea is that Colonel William Prescott, since fortifying the hill in the middle of the night, chose the wrong hill. Another theory is that the map the Colonel used was incorrect, since many maps during this period had commonly misidentified the hills. Another suggestion, and probably the most practical, is that Breed's Hill is closer to where the British ships were positioned allowing the colonists a better attacking position than at Bunker Hill. Regardless of the reason, the Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place on Breed's Hill.

The fighting began as soon as the day did. As soon as the men on British frigate awoke they opened fire on the colonial fortifications. Carol McCabe states that one soldier wrote there would be firing for about twenty minutes, then a lull, then the ships would start firing again. At about 3:00 PM Thomas Gage, the British commander, ordered men to try and take control of the hill. It took Gage this long to issue a command due to a shortage of boats and an unfavorable tide. Peter Brown, an American soldier, would later write about this, "There was a matter of 40 barges full of Regulars coming over to us; it is supposed there were about 3,000 of them and about 700 of us left not deserted, besides 500 reinforcements. . . the enemy landed and fronted before us and formed themselves in an oblong square. . . and after they were well formed they advanced towards us, but they found a choakly [sic] mouthful of us."

When the British forces were firmly established on the ground at the base of the hill they proceeded to charge. The British just expected to march up the hill and just scare the colonists away. The British Regulars advanced with bayonets fixed; many of their muskets were not even loaded. The British troops, wearing their bright red wool jackets and weighed down by heavy equipment, marched up hill over farm fields and low stone walls hidden in the tall grass.

As the colonists saw this massive red line approach slowly and steadily, they remained calm and did not open fire. The fact they waited so long to commence an attack was that General Prescott has been assumed to have given the famous order, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes." If this command was given it would have been to either help preserve their already low ammunition supplies, and to help keep the men from shooting out of their capable ranges. Once the British came within range, the colonists began firing, and the British soldiers started to fall rapidly. The British forces were driven back twice, but on their third and final thrust forward the British were able to break through the colonists' line, overrunning the tentative American fortifications, thus taking the hill. The colonists had run out of ammunition and supplies. The colonists fled back up the peninsula since it was their only escape route. This battle, which lasted for approximately three hours, was one of the deadliest of the Revolutionary War.

Although the British technically won the battle because they took control of the hill, they suffered too many losses to fully benefit from it. The British had suffered more than one thousand casualties out of the 2,300 or so who fought. While the colonists only suffered 400 to 600 casualties from an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 men. Besides having fewer deaths than the British, the colonists believe they had won in other ways as well.

Effects:

The Americans had proved to themselves, and the rest of the world that they could stand up to the British army in traditional warfare. And only a few days later, George Washington would lead a group of men up to Dorchester Heights, aiming their cannons at the British, and then watched the Red Coats retreat from the hill. So even though the British had won the battle, it was a short lived victory since the colonists took control of the hill again, but this time with more soldiers to defend it. The Battle of Bunker Hill was important for a variety of reasons. The first one being that it was the first battle of the Revolutionary War, and because of the fierce fighting that defined the battle it foreshadowed that it was going to be a long, close war. Another important event that came from the battle was that it allowed the American troops to know that the British army was not invincible, and that they could defeat the British in traditional warfare. The losses experienced on the British side also helped to bolster the colonists confidence. So it came to be that the Battle of Bunker Hill would be the foundation that the colonists would look back to for the many battles that occurred during the American Revolution. The first being that the British suffered heavy losses and would no longer convinced of a victory when they went to battle the colonists.

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On June 17, 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill took place. It is one of the most important colonial victories in the U.S. War for Independence. Fought during the Siege of Boston, it lent considerable encouragement to the revolutionary cause.

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African-Americans in the Revolutionary War

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African-Americans in the Revolutionary War

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Schoolhouse Rock: Declaration of Independence

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Schoolhouse Rock: Declaration of Independence

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Table of Contents

1. Before the Battles of Trenton and Princeton

2. Washington Crosses the Delaware

3. The Battle of Trenton

4. Between Trenton and Princeton

5. The Battle of Princeton

6. Importance of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton

General George Washington's army crossed the icy Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and, over the course of the next 10 days, won two crucial battles of the American Revolution. In the Battle of Trenton (December 26), Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries before withdrawing. A week later he returned to Trenton to lure British forces south, then executed a daring night march to capture Princeton on January 3. The victories reasserted American control of much of New Jersey and greatly improved the morale and unity of the colonial army and militias.

Before the Battles of Trenton and Princeton

Since August 1776, British forces under General William Howe had been driving the Continental Army south out of New York. On November 16 the British overran Fort Washington in Manhattan, taking 2,000 Americans prisoner.

Did you know? During the Battle of Princeton, Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, fired cannons at British troops blockaded in Nassau Hall, the main building of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Three years earlier, Hamilton had applied to the college but been rejected when he asked for permission to take courses at his own pace.

The British then pursued the Americans across New Jersey. In mid-December Washington led his army south across the Delaware River. They camped on the Pennsylvania side, short of food, ammunition and supplies.

Washington Crosses the Delaware

Washington realized that without a decisive action, the Continental Army was likely doomed, so he planned a daring assault on the Hessian garrison at Trenton. He envisioned a three-pronged attack, with his army of 2,400 flanked by a 1,900-man diversionary force under Colonel John Cadwalader and a blocking move by General James Ewing's 700 men.

Washington's men and cannons crossed the icy river in boats and began the 19-mile march towards Trenton in a freezing storm. In the end, neither Cadwalader nor Ewing were able to carry out their parts of the plan.

The Battle of Trenton

The Hessian force at Trenton numbered 1,400 under the leadership of Colonel Johann Rall. Although Rall had received warnings of colonial movements, his men were exhausted and unprepared for Washington's attack-though rumors that they were drunk from Christmas celebrations are unfounded.

As he approached the town, Washington divided his men, sending flanking columns under General Nathaniel Greene and General John Sullivan. Meanwhile, Colonel Henry Knox's cannons fired on the garrison. Rall attempted to rally his troops but was never able to establish a defensive perimeter, and was shot from his horse and fatally wounded. The Hessians quickly surrendered. All told, 22 were killed, 92 wounded, 918 captured and 400 escaped in the Battle of Trenton. The Americans suffered two frozen to death and five wounded.

Between Trenton and Princeton

Realizing his men could not hold Trenton against British reinforcements, Washington withdrew across the Delaware. However, on December 30 he crossed back into New Jersey with an army of 2,000. Informed that 8,000 British troops under Generals Charles Cornwallis and James Grant were marching south from Princeton, Washington worked quickly to supplement his numbers, urging militiamen whose terms had expired to stay on for six weeks.

On New Year's Day, Washington's force of 5,000 poorly trained men massed in Trenton. The next day Cornwallis arrived with an army 5,500. After skirmishes at the American lines and three attempts to cross the bridge at Assunpink Creek, Cornwallis relented for the day, assuming he had Washington trapped.

That night, Washington deployed 500 men to keep the campfires going while the rest of his troops made a nighttime march north to Princeton. To keep their movement secret, torches were extinguished and wagon wheels muffled in heavy cloth.

Battles of Trenton and Princeton

The Battle of Princeton

At dawn on January 3, 1777, Cornwallis woke to find that his opponent had disappeared, while Washington's men were nearing the end of their 12-mile march to Princeton.

Washington sent a small force under General Hugh Mercer to destroy a bridge. Mercer's men encountered Redcoats under Lt. Col. Charles Mawhood and Mercer was killed in the fighting. Arriving militiamen under Col. Cadwalader had little effect. Then Washington arrived, riding between the firing lines until his terrified horse refused to go on. The Americans rallied and broke through Mawhood's lines.

Importance of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton

As at Trenton, the Americans took prisoners, arms and supplies but quickly withdrew after winning the Battle of Princeton. Washington had wanted to advance to New Brunswick, but was fortuitously overruled by his officers (at the time, Cornwallis' men were en route to New Brunswick).

Washington's men marched to Morristown, in northern New Jersey, where they established winter quarters, safe from British incursions. The Continental Army basked in its achievements-at Princeton they had defeated a regular British army in the field. Moreover, Washington had shown that he could unite soldiers from all the colonies into an effective national force.

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Battles of Trenton and Princeton - Facts, Location & Importance | HISTORY

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The Revolutionary War battles of Trenton and Princeton turned the tide for the colonies and sealed George Washington's fate as an American hero.

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Women supported the American Revolution by making homespun cloth, working to produce goods and services to help the army, and even serving as spies.

Women performed crucial tasks in the American Revolution, organizing fundraising drives, supplying the troops, working in the military camps, and tending to the wounded soldiers.

One of the most common ways that women supported the war effort was by making homespun, home-made cloth that took on revolutionary symbolism after the colonies imposed boycotts on British goods, including textiles.

Some women even acted as spies, and there is at least one documented case of a woman disguising herself as a man to fight in the war.

The American Revolution

By the time the British imposed the Coercive Acts, or the Intolerable Acts, as they became known in the North American colonies, revolutionary sentiment and activism had been on the rise.

The Coercive Acts, passed in 1774 as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, during which Boston radicals dumped over 300 crates of British tea into the harbor, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back of continued loyalty to the mother country. These acts convinced many colonists that they could no longer afford to live under the increasingly tyrannical rule of the British and contributed to uniting the colonies in opposition to continued colonial control.

The Daughters of Liberty and homespun

After the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, the Daughters of Liberty was formed. Established in 1765, the organization was comprised solely of women who sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the revolutionary cause by boycotting British goods and making their own. Martha Washington, wife of George Washington, was one of the most prominent Daughters of Liberty.

Not only were women at the forefront of efforts to impose boycotts on British goods, they also spearheaded domestic production efforts. Because most textiles in the colonies were imported from Britain, weaving homespun cloth became an act of political rebellion. The Daughters of Liberty made public demonstrations of their spinning, such as the one at Newport, Rhode Island, where 92 women gathered in a meeting-house and produced 170 skeins of yarn.

What do you think?

What was so subversive about homespun?

In your opinion, what was the most important way that women contributed to the American Revolution?

How do you think women's wartime service might have affected their view of gender roles in the post-revolutionary period?

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The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, were the first military clashes of the American Revolutionary War.

The Massachusetts militia routed the British Army forces and were soon joined by militias from Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. These militias would become the core of the Continental Army.

Growing tensions leading to the American Revolution

In February 1775, British Parliament declared that the colony of Massachusetts was in a state of rebellion.

After Parliament had passed the Intolerable Acts-largely aimed at punishing Boston's revolutionaries for the Boston Tea Party -the British government had tightened its grip on the government of Massachusetts. The royally appointed governor, Thomas Gage, had been granted broadly expanded powers, and the British had sent thousands of troops to Boston.

The Massachusetts colonial assembly responded to these provocations by directing townships to ready their militias. War was coming, and Boston's patriots were preparing for it.

The British were preparing, too, and in April 1775, they directed Gage to disarm the rebels. Gage ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to gather 700 British Army soldiers and march to Concord, where the rebels were reportedly storing mass quantities of arms and ammunition. Their orders were to find the stash and destroy it.

The Patriots, as the anti-British rebels were known, had established a fairly effective intelligence network, and some historians even believe that Gage's American wife, Margaret Kemble Gage, was a rebel spy. Whether or not she was the one who provided the Patriots with the information about the planned seizure and destruction of the armory at Concord, they received word of the British orders.

On April 18, Patriot Paul Revere rode to Concord and notified local militias in the area to be on the alert for the British army forces.

The "shot heard round the world"

On April 18, Revere was warned that British Army regulars were making their way to the towns of Lexington and Concord. Having already warned the militia in Concord, which had secured the weapons supply, Revere rode quickly to Lexington to warn the townspeople of the expected British onslaught. The rebel intelligence network suggested that the British aim in Lexington was to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the most prominent Patriot leaders, but the size of the British army force was large enough to suggest they had bigger goals in mind.

The British soldiers and rebel militiamen raced to Lexington during the night; they confronted each other at Lexington Green-a village common area-just as the sun was rising on the morning of April 19. Captain John Parker, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, led a contingent of 80 Lexington militiamen, known as minutemen because they had to be ready to fight at a minute's notice. Years later, one of the participants recalled Parker's words right before the deadly skirmish: "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

A British officer demanded that the militia disarm and disperse, and in the ensuing confusion, shots were fired. To this day, there exists considerable uncertainty over whether the militiamen or the British soldiers fired first. Regardless, the British soldiers rushed forward with their bayonets. A skirmish ensued, during which eight militiamen were killed and only one British soldier wounded.

After order was restored, the British soldiers began the march to Concord, where militias from Concord and the nearby town of Lincoln were waiting. After the British found and destroyed rebel weapons caches, they squared off against the colonial forces at the North Bridge. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the British soldiers broke rank and fled, handing the stunned colonists a victory.

The militiamen proceeded to lay siege to Boston, where they were joined by militias from Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. These colonial forces would be constituted as the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress.

What do you think?

In your opinion, was the Battle of Lexington really a battle? Why was it so significant?

Do you think the confrontation at Lexington and Concord made war with Britain inevitable?

What role do you think spies might have played in shaping the course of the first military clash between the British army and the colonial militias?

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Battle of Yorktown

Part of the Yorktown Campaign
Part of the American Revolutionary War

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull, depicts the British surrendering to Benjamin Lincoln, flanked by French (left) and American troops. Oil on canvas, 1820.

Belligerents

United States

France

Great Britain

Commanders and leaders

George Washington
Benjamin Lincoln
Henry Knox
Alexander Hamilton
Marquis de Lafayette
Baron von Steuben
Thomas Nelson
Moses Hazen
Comte de Rochambeau
Comte d'Aboville
Marquis de Choisy

Comte de Grasse

Lord Cornwallis
Charles O'Hara
Banastre Tarleton
Robert Abercromby
Thomas Dundas
Thomas Symonds
Matthias von Fuchs

August Voit

Strength

Americans: 8,000-9,000 men

5,000-5,900 regular troops

3,000-3,100 militia (not engaged)

Total: 15,500-17,800 (fewer engaged)

British: 7,000+
German: Fewer than 3,000

Total: 9,000-10,000

Casualties and losses

88 killed
301 wounded

142-309 killed;
326-595 wounded prisoners;
7,416-7,685 captured

The Battle of Yorktown, also called the Siege of Yorktown, fought from September 28 to October 19, 1781. It is considered the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army, led by General George Washington, won a decisive victory against the British Army, led by General Lord Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis was forced to surrender after being surrounded by Washington's army.

The Americans were assisted by the French, led by the Comte de Rochambeau. The battle took place in Yorktown, Virginia, near the York River. After the French fleet defeated a British fleet, Cornwallis was cut off and had to surrender to the French and the Continental Army. Eventually, it led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, two years later.

Background

British General Lord Cornwallis had fought against the Americans in 1776 and 1777. He was convinced the Americans could not defeat a British army in the field. In 1778 he returned to England to care for his wife who died in February of 1779. After a few months he returned to America to continue the fight. While he was gone, there was a change in British strategy. Before, the British had concentrated on defeating and destroying Washington's army. Now, since the French had joined the Americans, it was no longer just a rebellion but a world war. Earlier, the French had been helping the Americans with loans and war supplies. Now France and Spain were fighting against the British, who had to move troops from North America to defend other places. The new strategy was to win back the Southern colonies beginning with Georgia. The British thought that as many as 50 percent of the population in the South was loyal to Britain. They would start with Georgia and move north through The Carolinas to the Virginia Colony.

On his arrival in New York City, Cornwallis was made second-in-command to General Henry Clinton. The two generals did not trust each other. Clinton was convinced Washington would attack him in New York. He was afraid of sending troops home and having to depend more on Loyalist militia. Cornwallis was ready to go ahead with what troops he had. Clinton was suspicious Cornwallis' return from England was to get a command for himself. In fact, Cornwallis had secured a commission to replace Clinton if Clinton repeated his threats to resign.

Clinton sent Cornwallis south to recapture Charleston, South Carolina following the new plan. Soon, Cornwallis began acting independently of Clinton, who stayed safe in New York City. Cornwallis wasn't going to play it safe and advance by careful steps as he had been instructed. When he saw a chance to attack the new patriot army under Major General Horatio Gates, he did so without orders nearly wiping out the Americans.

Cornwallis moved carelessly. He left American units, such as the one led by Francis Marion (called the "Swamp Fox"), in his rear. The American general Nathanael Greene noticed this right away. He broke up his command into smaller units in order to plague Cornwallis. Finally the two armies met at the Battle of Guilford Court House, which neither army won. During this time Cornwallis was not sending messages to Clinton telling him where he was. After Guilford Court House, Cornwallis moved to the coast of North Carolina to rest his men. Then, again without orders, he decided to march north to Virginia. Frustrated by this, Clinton sent Cornwallis a number of contradictory messages. Most of them were worded as suggestions rather than orders. But he did order Cornwallis to find a defensible position. This was so he could be evacuated by the Royal Navy, possibly to Philadelphia. Cornwallis decided on the community of Yorktown and his men started building defenses there in August of 1781 to wait for the Navy.

In New York, Washington learned that the French Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse was sailing north from the West Indies. Rochambeau convinced Washington they could attack and defeat Cornwallis. The two commanders began marching south to meet de Grasse's 27 ships and 3,200 troops. Clinton learned of this and sent a British naval fleet to the Chesapeake Bay to cut them off. But the French and Americans arrived first. In the Battle of the Chesapeake the French navy forced the British ships back to New York City. Clinton warned Cornwallis in early September he would soon be facing American and French troops but promised him reinforcements by sea. Clinton had not yet learned of the French naval victory and did not know he could not rescue Cornwallis by sea. By the end of September, Washington and Rochambeau had surrounded Yorktown. Cornwallis received another message in late September from Clinton telling him help was on the way. Cornwallis was misled again and thought he only had to hold out for a few days.

The Siege of Yorktown

Just after the clash between the French and British Fleets, a smaller French squadron carrying the French army's siege artillery slipped into the Chesapeake. Now the French and Americans had bigger guns than Cornwallis had behind his earthen fortifications.

Marching out of Williamsburg, Virginia the Americans and French arrived on September 28, 1781 at Yorktown. They surrounded the earthworks in a Semicircle with the York River completing the circle. Cornwallis made the first move, abandoning his outer works made up of four redoubts. Washington and Rochambeau thought this was a mistake. They sent troops to occupy the outer earthworks.

The Americans and French began setting up their siege operations on September 30, first on the east side. By October 9, they were close enough to begin the bombardment. The Americans and French stormed two of the redoubts on October 14, forcing the British back even further. By that time it became obvious the British could not hold out much longer. On October 16, the British attacked two of the redoubts they had abandoned and spiked the guns. At the same time Cornwallis attempted to slip past the guards to Gloucester (now Gloucester Point, Virginia) across the river but was turned back by a storm.

Finally, with no sign of relief as promised by Clinton, Cornwallis' army of 6,000 soldiers surrendered.

The casualties were about 500 British, 200 French and 80 Americans. Captured were 240 artillery pieces, a large supply of small arms and ammunition, plus equipment. General Cornwallis did not attend the surrender, claiming to be sick, he sent General Charles O'Hara to surrender for him. O'Hara first tried to surrender to Comte de Rochambeau. Rochambeau directed him to surrender to General Washington. In turn, Washington directed him to surrender to General Benjamin Lincoln who accepted O'Hara's sword.

As the British stacked their guns marching out of the fortress, their band played "The World Turned Upside Down". When Lord North, the British Prime Minister, received news of the surrender he cried out "Oh God, it is all over!"

The battles of Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781 were two major turning points in the Revolutionary war. Both were American victories over the British, but with very different results. The British defeat at Saratoga prolonged the war, while the battle at Yorktown foretold its end. Saratoga convinced the French to join the Americans against the British. Yorktown was a joint victory by the French and the Americans over the British. France and her allies continued to fight hard for two more years, but there was little fighting anymore on the American continent. The Treaty of Paris (1783) ended the war.

Yorktown Victory Monument

Five days after the British surrendered, Congress passed a resolution agreeing to erect a structure dedicated to commemorating those who participated in the battle. The government began building the monument in 1881.

Interesting facts about the Battle of Yorktown

60 French died and 194 were injured. 28 Americans died and 107 were wounded. 156 British were killed and 326 were wounded with 70 missing.

The battle lasted around 20 days.

George Washington refused to accept the Tenth Article of the Yorktown Articles of Capitulation (which are articles outlining the terms and conditions of surrender), which granted immunity to American Loyalists

A lot of Cornwallis's army suffered from Malaria due to the marshlands of eastern Virginia during the time. At the time of surrender a lot of soldiers couldn't fight because of this.

Cornwallis refused to go to the surrender ceremony saying he was sick. Instead, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara led the British army onto the field.

The siege of Yorktown is also known in some German historiographies as "die deutsche Schlacht" ("the German battle"), because Germans played significant roles in all three armies, accounting for roughly one third of all forces involved.

Images for kids

In Spanish: Batalla de Yorktown (1781) para niños

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Learn about Valley Forge. The place where George Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter during the Revolutionary War.

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Learn about the generals and military leaders of the American Revolution including George Washington, Nathanael Greene, Horatio Gates, John Paul Jones, William Howe, and Thomas Gage.

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Written for the Powers of the World

The main purpose of America's Declaration of Independence was to explain to foreign nations why the colonies had chosen to separate themselves from Great Britain. The Revolutionary War had already begun, and several major battles had already taken place. The American colonies had already cut most major ties to England and had established their own congress, currency, army, and post office. On June 7, 1776, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Richard Henry Lee voiced a resolution that the United States should be completely free of England's influence, and that all political ties between the two countries should be dissolved. Congress agreed and began plans to publish a formal declaration of independence and appointed a committee of five members to draft the declaration.

Explaining that Parliament had Failed the People

Thomas Jefferson was chosen to draft the letter, which he did in a single day. Four other members-Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams-were part of the committee to help Jefferson. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson explained that a body of people has a right to change governments if that government becomes oppressive (unfair and controlling). He further explained that governments fail when they no longer have the consent of the governed. Since Parliament clearly lacked the consent of the American colonists to govern them, it was no longer legitimate.

Approved and Signed

The Declaration was presented to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1776. It was approved with a few minor changes. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, of Massachusetts, was the first.

Independence Hall - Site of the Drafting of the Declaration of Independence

Actual Text

The Declaration of Independence - July 4, 1776

WHEN in the Course of human Events,

it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of the Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us;

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rules into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

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Effects of the Revolutionary War - Declaration of Independence

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The main purpose of America's Declaration of Independence was to explain to foreign nations why the colonies had chosen to separate themselves from Great Britain.

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American Revolutionary War Facts

Battle of Cowpens Monument

Introduction
Why is Catherine Moore Barry, also known as Kate Barry, a true heroine of the American Revolutionary War? She is best known for her role in successfully warning the American militia when the British were about to invade, before the decisive Continental Army victory at the Battle of Cowpens. She was instrumental in helping General Daniel Morgan, commander of the American forces, not only fend off British forces but ultimately set the stage for the turning point in the war. To find out more about this brave and heroic woman, read the interesting information and facts on her life below. Although not much is known about her later years, it covers her early life, such as where she was born and how many kids were in her family as well as interesting facts about her life.

Click here for a great selection ofAmazon.com books about the American Revolution.

Catherine Moore Barry Early Years

Catherine Moore Barry was born to Charles and Mary Moore in 1752 near Spartanburg, South Carolina.

She was the eldest of ten children.

One of the first families to migrate to the Piedmont area of South Carolina was the Moore family.

In 1767, at the young age of 15, Catherine married Andrew Barry. They lived about two miles from her childhood home.

Catherine and Andrew Barry had three children together.

Catherine Moore Barry Interesting Information

When Catherine's husband, Andrew, became a captain and commanding officer in the war, she proudly helped him acting as a spy and messenger and even fought in some battles with him.

Although there is no historical proof, it is said that Catherine Barry Moore tied her newborn baby to her bedpost and, using her extensive knowledge of the woods, rode on her horse through Indian trails to warn her neighbors that the British were approaching.

Barry not only rounded up enough Patriots to fight the British at the Battle of Cowpens, but also aided General Morgan in setting a trap to ambush the British which forced British troops to retreat from South Carolina into Virginia.

Winning the Battle of Cowpens was a turning point in the American War for Independence. Shortly thereafter it led to the Battle of Yorktown where the British troops, led by General Cornwallis, surrendered to General Washington and the colonies won their independence.

Catherine Moore Barry received several medals for her brave work and her intelligence as both a messenger and a spy during the American Revolution.

She died in September of 1823 and was buried next to her husband Andrew in a family cemetery.

Walnut Grove Plantation, the house where Catherine Moore Barry was raised, has become a popular tourist attraction on the outskirts of Spartanburg, South Carolina in a town called Roebuck.

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Click here for a list of interesting facts about Catherine Moore Barry which includes all the important information you need to know about this important woman of the American Revolution.

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Learn about the weapons and battle tactics from the American Revolution including muskets, cannons, Brown Bess, bayonets, lines of soldiers, and interesting facts.

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American Revolutionary War Facts

Betsy Ross's House

Introduction
Of all of the famous American Revolutionary women in history, the woman who shall forever stand out as an icon to so many is Betsy Ross. Although there is no actual historical evidence she is widely regarded as the person who sewed the very first American Flag. A patriotic symbol, such as a flag, was just what the American colonist needed as a symbol to help unite them during the war for independence. As the eighth of seventeen kids, her love of sewing flourished during her childhood where, as a Quaker, she was taught many crafts. Not only is her life interesting because of the flag, but the facts and information below highlight her struggles as a widowed business owner, which are just as impressive.

Click here for a great selection ofAmazon.com books about Betsy Ross.

Betsy Ross Interesting Facts

Betsy Ross was born as Elizabeth Griscom on January 1, 1752.

Her first marriage was to John Ross in 1772, for whom she went outside of the Quaker religion to marry. This action caused her Quaker place of worship to expel her and her own family to disown her.

Together, she and John Ross began their own upholstery business with the knowledge and skills she had gained as an apprentice to John Webster.

Sadly, Betsy Ross's first husband, John Ross, was killed while on militia duty. She became a widow who worked night and day to keep her company going on her own.

Joseph Ashburn became her next husband and he too tragically died young. In 1780 his boat was captured by the British upon which he was charged with treason. He was sent to prison where he died the following year.

Betsy Ross was married for a third time in 1783 to a man named John Claypoole. They went on to have five children together and continued to run an upholstery shop together. In 1817, she was widowed for the last time when John passed away.

It is widely believed that in June of 1776, President George Washington, George Ross and Robert Morris paid a visit to Betsy Ross at which point they asked her to design and sew the very first flag.

The tourist attraction, the Betsy Ross House, is said to be the place where the first flag was created. There is no definitive proof, however, that she even lived there.

After the first flag was sewn, the Pennsylvania State Navy paid her to manufacture flags.

A truss bridge, which crosses the Delaware River, was named after Betsy Ross. It has the distinction of being the first automotive bridge to be named after a woman.

Betsy Ross Later Years Facts

Betsy had made a point of teaching her daughters to sew and before she died, she turned over her upholstery business to them.

Betsy Ross was 84 when she died in 1836 in Philadelphia.

Betsy Ross had an unusual amount of burials. First she was buried at the Free Quaker burial ground in Philadelphia. Twenty years later her remains were brought to Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. Her remains were moved again in 1975 when the city of Philadelphia had the remains moved to the courtyard by the Betsy Ross House.

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Click here for a list of interesting facts about Betsy Ross which includes all the important information you need to know about this important woman of the American Revolution.

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Liberty's Kids   Season 01 Episode 21   Sybil Ludington

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Military Tactics of the British and a Patriot Troops

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Military Tactics of the British and a Patriot Troops

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Revolutionary War in the North and South

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During the American Revolution, both the Continental army and British army used specific strategies and tactics against each other. These played a large role in the outcome of that war. Brilliant planning and strategical attacks on the British led to the victory of the U.S. Introduction to the Strategies and Tactics of the Revolutionary War strategies and tactics
Strategies and Tactics of the British
The British didn't use nearly as many techniques as the U.S army but they did have efficient ways of taking on the Continental army. They also had a key ally- the Native Americans. They helped them navigate the land efficiently. This was a large advantage for the British over the U.S. They also were able to use the Native's battle strategies against the Continental army. The British were also able to charge with bayonets against the defenseless U.S towards the beginning of the war. The British could have destroyed the U.S in the first year in the war but they got far too cocky and slacked off in their tactics and attacks.

Strategies and Tactics of the U.S Army
The U.S army were far more ambitious with their strategies. With the help of Baron Von Steuben the Continental army got back on its feet and were trained into a fighting machine equipped with bayonets, sharpshooters, and spies behind enemy lines. All of these play a large part in the victory over the British. The British may have had the numbers, but the U.S had the heart and the potential to defeat the most powerful army and navy of the time. After Von Stueben joined the U.S, Spain and France, longtime enemies of the British, joined up with the U.S and supplied them with much needed supplies, ammunition, weapons, and soldiers. The French also supplied them with a strong naval force to counter the British.

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Introduction to the Strategies and Tactics of the Revolutionary War During the American Revolution, both the Continental army and British army used specific strategies and tactics...

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American Revolutionary War Facts

Statue of Sybil Ludington

Introduction
Sybil Ludington was an American Revolutionary War Woman who became famous for her horseback ride through upstate New York to warn militia that British troops were raiding and burning Danbury, Connecticut. What makes her ride even more impressive than that of Paul Revere's ride is that she was just a kid of sixteen when she heroically rode a treacherous forty miles during the middle of the night. To find out where her route took her, how she fended off outlaws during her ride and why there was such confusion over the spelling of her name, read the interesting facts and information on the life of Sybil Ludington below.

Click here for a great selection ofAmazon.com books about Sybil Ludington.

Sybil Ludington Early Years

Sybil Ludington was born on April 5, 1761 to Henry and Abigail Ludington.

Sybil was the eldest of twelve children.

Colonel Henry Ludington, Sybil's father, was a volunteer militia officer and community leader who went on to become an aide to General George Washington.

Sybil Ludington's Ride

When Sybil's father got word that the British were attacking Danbury, she volunteered to ride through the countryside and alert the militia, knowing they needed to muster as many troops as possible.

Sybil's ride on the night of April 26, 1777 took her through the towns of Kent, Mahopac and Stormville bringing her through both Putnam and Dutchess Counties in New York.

During her late-night ride through the rain, which began at 9 PM, she managed to fend off British soldiers and loyalists as well as outlaws that didn't side with either the British or the Americans. She traveled with a stick and used it as necessary to defend herself against attacks.

Some historians believe that along Ludington's journey, a man offered to ride with her but she instead sent him east to warn the town of Brewster.

When she arrived back home about 400 troops had gathered at the Ludington residence to fight the British.

Although the militia was not able to defend Danbury against attack, they were able to force the British to retreat in what became known as the Battle of Ridgefield.

Sybil Ludington Interesting Facts

Ludington's hometown, once named Fredericksburg, was renamed Ludingtonville to honor Sybil's heroic acts.

Interestingly, Sybil Ludington's name is not found on any official documents spelled as Sybil. The spelling on her tombstone says Sibbell, while her sister went by the spelling Sebil. To make things even more confusing, some documents suggests she spelled her own name as Sebal, yet she is also appears on historic records as Sibel and Cybil.

At the age of twenty-three, Ludington married Edmond Ogden, a famer and innkeeper. They had only one son named Henry.

Sybil Ludington died on February 26, 1839, at the age of 77. She was buried in Patterson, New York, at the same cemetery as her father.

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American Revolutionary War Women Facts Abigail Adams Facts Betsy Ross Facts Catherine Moore Barry Facts Martha Washington Facts Mercy Otis Warren Facts Sybil Ludington Facts

American Revolutionary War Women Facts

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Click here for a list of interesting facts about Sybil Ludington which includes all the important information you need to know about this important woman of the American Revolution.

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VIDEO | Join Park Ranger David Lawrence as he gives the ins and outs of what it was like to serve as a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. People from different races, ages, genders and social classes all fought and worked together under George Washington to form the country that we have today. Watch now to discover what life was like for the common soldier fighting against the British in the Revolutionary War.

View or download this video on Vimeo

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VIDEO | Watch now to discover what life was like for the common soldier fighting against the British in the Revolutionary War.

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Chris Kolakowski explains British strategy during the Revolutionary War, putting the American conflict in context along with the other major conflicts that were shaking the world in the late 1700s.

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British Strategy in the Revolutionary War

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VIDEO | Chris Kolakowski explains British strategy during the Revolutionary War, putting the American conflict in context along with the other major conflicts...

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VIDEO | Join David Lawrence of the Valley Forge National Historical Park for an overview of the fighting styles for both the Continental and British armies during the Revolutionary War.

View or download this video from Vimeo.

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Combat Strategy in the Revolutionary War

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VIDEO | David Lawrence describes the combat styles of the Continental and British Armies in the Revolutionary War.

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Revolutionary War in the North and South

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During the American Revolution, both the Continental army and British army used specific strategies and tactics against each other. These played a large role in the outcome of that war. Brilliant planning and strategical attacks on the British led to the victory of the U.S. Introduction to the Strategies and Tactics of the Revolutionary War strategies and tactics
Strategies and Tactics of the British
The British didn't use nearly as many techniques as the U.S army but they did have efficient ways of taking on the Continental army. They also had a key ally- the Native Americans. They helped them navigate the land efficiently. This was a large advantage for the British over the U.S. They also were able to use the Native's battle strategies against the Continental army. The British were also able to charge with bayonets against the defenseless U.S towards the beginning of the war. The British could have destroyed the U.S in the first year in the war but they got far too cocky and slacked off in their tactics and attacks.

Strategies and Tactics of the U.S Army
The U.S army were far more ambitious with their strategies. With the help of Baron Von Steuben the Continental army got back on its feet and were trained into a fighting machine equipped with bayonets, sharpshooters, and spies behind enemy lines. All of these play a large part in the victory over the British. The British may have had the numbers, but the U.S had the heart and the potential to defeat the most powerful army and navy of the time. After Von Stueben joined the U.S, Spain and France, longtime enemies of the British, joined up with the U.S and supplied them with much needed supplies, ammunition, weapons, and soldiers. The French also supplied them with a strong naval force to counter the British.

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Introduction to the Strategies and Tactics of the Revolutionary War During the American Revolution, both the Continental army and British army used specific strategies and tactics...

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To get a better understanding of the events of the Revolutionary War, it is helpful to evaluate the strategies of the Continental army and the British army in the war and how they both planned to win.

The battles and events that took place were often strategically planned with the hopes of gaining more control over a region, getting access to supplies and outmaneuvering the enemy all while trying to avoid as many casualties and military defeats as possible.

These strategies were also influenced by the geography of the region, which often affected the outcome of the battles.

Both sides had their own ideas on how to accomplish these goals and the strategies they used have been widely studied, scrutinized and even recreated.

In fact, numerous Revolutionary War strategy games are based on these very strategies and some types of battle reenactments, such as tactical battles or tactical events, use these strategies to try to defeat their opponents in recreations of the Revolutionary War battles.

The following is an overview of the strategies used in the Revolutionary War:

British Strategy:

British strategy changed throughout the course of the war as the British came up against more obstacles and challenges than they anticipated.

The British strategy at the beginning of the war was simply to contain the American Revolution in Massachusetts and prevent it from spreading.

This proved difficult though when the British suffered devastating casualties at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1775 during the Siege of Boston.

After the Americans captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York, they brought the fort's cannons to Cambridge, where they arrived on January 24, 1776, and planned to fortify the hills overlooking Boston harbor in an attempt to break the siege.

When powder for the cannons finally arrived on March 2, the Americans began firing on Boston. On March 4, they mounted the largest cannons on Dorchester Heights. When the British saw the cannons on Dorchester Heights, they made an attempt to attack the heights but were thwarted by a storm. The British then decided to abandon Boston altogether and flee for Nova Scotia, Canada on March 17, 1776.

The new British strategy at this point was to capture New York City and use it as a base of operations. The British successfully captured New York on September 15, 1776 and launched the next phase of the plan in 1777.

This plan was to isolate New England, which was the heart of the rebellion, from the rest of the colonies by marching three British armies simultaneously from New York City, Montreal and Fort Oswego to meet in Albany and take control of the Hudson River, which formed a natural barrier along the western edge of New England.

After doing so, the British would then move South and defeat the Southern colonies, according to an article by Tal Tovy in the Michigan War Studies Review journal:

"In practical terms, the British planned to seize control of the Hudson River and cordon off the New England colonies, and only then to move south and, with the help of settlers loyal to the Crown (the 'Loyalists'), conquer the southern colonies. But the defeat at Saratoga and the entry of France into the war early in 1778 led to a changed strategy of increasing reliance on Crown supporters in the colonies."

General William Howe was to lead the troops from New York City while General John Burgoyne led the troops south from Canada and General Barry St. Leger led troops down from the Mohawk Valley to upstate New York.

This idea failed though because it wasn't executed according to plan. It all went awry when General Howe, for reasons unknown, decided to take a detour and led his troops to Philadelphia instead, where the seat of the Continental Congress was located, and captured the city.

Realizing that a battle was brewing, Washington sent troops north and called for the militia to join them, which resulted in a large contingent of American troops and militia in the Saratoga area.

This resulted in the Battle of Saratoga on September 19, 1777 which was a devastating loss for the British, who lost two soldiers for every one on the American side.

A second battle, the Battle of Bernis Heights, took place on October 7 when Burgoyne tried to break free from the colonial forces surrounding them but was defeated. The defeat forced Burgoyne to withdraw his troops and surrender on October 17, 1777.

Many historians consider these battles to be a major turning point in the Revolutionary War because these American military victories prompted France to join the war and support the patriot cause, which turned the conflict into a global war rather than a colonial rebellion.

Yet, an article by John Ferling, in Smithsonian Magazine, argues that Saratoga wasn't the only defining moment in the Revolutionary War, stating that protracted wars "are seldom defined by a single decisive event" but was instead one of five important moments, which include: the American victories at Concord and Bunker Hill in 1775 and at Trenton in 1776, the establishment of the Continental Army in June of 1775 and the British failure in their Southern Campaign in 1778-1783.

As a result of their military losses and the French joining the conflict, the British decided to revisit the plan they had proposed earlier in the war, which was to focus their efforts on the loyalists in the Southern colonies in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

After turning their attention to the South, the British soon had a number of military successes, such as their occupation of Savannah, Georgia in late 1778 and Charleston, South Carolina in May of 1779 and their victory at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780.

But despite their modest success there, the British greatly overestimated loyalist sentiment in the South and their military presence there prompted many southern colonists who had been on the fence about the war to side with the patriots.

The British also struggled with getting access to their supply ships when they were fighting further inland. The patriots had easy access to their supplies and could also blend in among the general population.

An article by Major John A. Tokar, on the Army Logistics University website, states the British army's lack of supplies and failure to gain and use support and aid from Loyalists ultimately doomed the British cause and forced the British to fight a type of war that the Americans excelled at:

"An analysis of how Britain supplied its army, both from home and in the colonies, demonstrates how the presence, or absence, of critical commodities affects military operations. Ultimately, the lack of sufficient reserve supplies, combined with cautious generalship, insufficient transportation, widespread corruption, and the lack of a coherent strategy to maximize the potential support of British loyalists in the colonies, ensured British failure. These factors forced the British Army to fight a guerilla war-the only kind of war that the upstart United States could hope to win."

After the British lost the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia and British General Charles Cornwallis was forced to surrender more than 8,000 troops on October 19, 1781, British Prime Minister Lord North reportedly reacted to the news by exclaiming "O God! It is all over!"

These military failures coupled with the high cost of the war, a mounting national debt and a possible global war, proved to be too much for the British and prompted Parliament to vote to end the war in 1782, according to Francis D. Cogliano in his book Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History:

"Yorktown need not have spelled the end of the British war effort in America. Britain still had considerable resource to bring to bear in America, and British forces still occupied Savannah, Charleston, and New York. Nonetheless, six years of war in America had yielded few benefits to the British. Although the British had won most of the major battles in the conflict, they had been unable to reassert parliamentary authority over the rebellious Americans...Faced with the war against the Americans, French, Spanish and Dutch, as well as mounting national debt to pay for the conflict, there was little enthusiasm for pursuing the American conflict in the wake of Cornwalli's surrender. On February 27, 1782, Parliament voted to discontinue offensive operations in America."

American Strategy:

The Americans didn't develop a real strategy in the Revolutionary War until George Washington took control of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775, although many historians are divided on exactly how strategic of a military leader Washington actually was.

Many 20th century historians praised Washington as a brilliant military leader who followed the Fabian strategy of avoiding decisive battles in order wear the enemy out, according to Dave Richard Palmer in the introduction of the 2012 edition of his book George Washington's Military Genius:

"John Alden, writing in the late 1960s: 'The Americans had only to keep the field until Britain should tire of the struggle.' Douglas Southall Freeman: 'Washington's strategy had to be patiently defensive.' From an edited volume published in 1965: 'The plan of the Americans was the simple defensive - to oppose the British as best they could at every point, and to hold fast the line of the Hudson.' North Carolina, in 1972: Americans 'did not really win the war but Britain lost it mainly to circumstances rather the American enemy.' James Thomas Flexner credited the patriots with creating an effective hit-and-run capability, but supported the typical view that their success sprang primarily from perseverance. Russell Weigley saw the American strategy as one of attrition of enemy forces, or, at best, erosion. Thomas Frothingham believed the necessary object of the Continental army was merely to conduct operations designed to bolster partisan fighters and to 'hold in check the superior main forces of the British. In short, the mainstream of historical writing in the latter half of the twentieth century reflected the view that American strategy in the Revolutionary War was essentially one-dimensional-defensive."

Yet, other historians, such as Marcus Cunliffe, Richard Ketchum, Russell Weigley, Douglas Southall Freeman and David McCullough, believed Washington was no great strategist and was instead merely lucky, persistent and opportunistic.

Another strategy the Americans used to their advantage was the use of guerrilla warfare, which many of them had learned as soldiers during the French and Indian War in the 1750s-60s, according to an NPR interview by Steve Inskeep with author Max Boot:

"INSKEEP: Now, the American revolutionaries eventually did form a regular army. But guerrilla tactics played a huge role in securing their independence. Max Boot sees modern lessons in that story, as told in 'Invisible Armies,' his new history of guerrilla warfare.
What were the strategies that the American rebels used when they were rebels?
BOOT: Well, it first of all, comes down to not coming out into the open where you could be annihilated by the superior firepower of the enemy. The British got a taste of how the Americans would fight on the very first day of the Revolution, with the shot heard around the world, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where the British regulars marched through the Massachusetts countryside.
And the Americans did not mass in front of them but instead chose to slither on their bellies - these Yankees scoundrels, as the British called them - and fired from behind trees and stone walls. And not come out until the kind of open gentleman's fight that the British expected, and instead, took a devastating toll on the British regiment."

Boot also stated that the Americans used propaganda, such as Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet, to pressure British citizens not to support a war against their American brothers, which was greatly effective in undermining support in Britain for the long and costly war.

These tactics were highly effective and eventually achieved exactly what they were intended to do when the British decided to discontinue military offenses in America in 1782, although fighting didn't formally end until 1783.

Sources:
Tovy, Tal. "George Washington's Military Genius by Dave R. Palmer." Michigan War Studies Review, 3 Dec. 2012, www.miwsr.com/2012-070.aspx
Cogliano, Francis D. Revolutionary America 1763-1815: A Political History. Routledge, 2017.
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew. The Men Who Lost America: British Command During the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire. One World Publications, 2013.
Palmer, Dave R. George Washington's Military Genius. Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2012.
"The Pamphlet War and the Boston Massacre." The British Library, www.bl.uk/the-american-revolution/articles/the-pamphlet-war-and-the-boston-massacre
"American Revolution Reinvents Guerrilla Warfare." National Public Radio, 15 January. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169388719/guerrilla-warfare-turningpoint-america-revolution
Tokar, John A., Major, "Logistics and the British Defeat in the Revolutionary War." Army Logistics University, www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/SepOct99/MS409.htm
"Teacher's Guide: Factors that Handicapped the British." PBS.org, Twin Cities Public Television, 2004, www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/tguide_4.html
"Southern Strategy." George Washington's Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/southern-strategy/
Ferling, John. "Myths of the American Revolution." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institute, Jan. 2010, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myths-of-the-american-revolution-10941835/
"The Battle of Saratoga - A Major Turning Point of the Revolutionary War." Saratoga, www.saratoga.com/aboutsaratoga/battle-of-saratoga/
Wagoner, Scott. "George Washington: Using Reasoning as a Winning Strategy." Connection Newspapers. Ellington, 30 Jan. 2013, connectionnewspapers.com/news/2013/jan/30/george-washington-using-reasoning-winning-strategy/
"Revolutionary War: Northern Front, 1775-1777." Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/north/
"Revolutionary War: The Turning Point, 1777-1778." Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/turning/
"Revolutionary War: Southern Phase, 1778-1781." Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/south/
"The American Revolution." National Parks Service, nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/capsule_history.html
"British Strategy in the Revolutionary War." Civil War Trust, www.civilwar.org/learn/videos/british-strategy-revolutionary-war
Stockwell, Mary. "Grand Strategy." Mount Vernon Ladies' Association,, www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/grand-strategy/

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British & American Strategies in the Revolutionary War - History of Massachusetts Blog

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To get a better understanding of the events of the Revolutionary War, it is helpful to evaluate the strategies of the Continental army and the British army in the war and how they both planned to win. The battles and events that took place were often strategically planned with the...