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Chapter 5
Fighting for Independence
What is this war called?
Revolutionary War
The American Revolution
British
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Advantages
highly trained
experienced troops
best navy in world
support of 1/3 of
colonists
larger population
strong manufacturing
base
German troops
officers with battlefield
experience
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Disadvantages
3000 miles from home
unreliable communication
news, supplies, and travel
took months
unfamiliar with terrain
in hostile territory
American holdings were
huge
colonists were committed
to their ideals
Patriots
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Advantages
owned rifles
good shots
leader – George
Washington
were defending their
homes
know the land
1/3 of the colonies
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Disadvantages
poorly organized
untrained
few cannons and little
gunpowder
had no navy
many colonists were
unwilling to enlist in
Continental Army
George Washington
• focused on drill, careful
planning, and tough
discipline –
characteristics not
common of minutemen
• insisted on organizing a
regular well-trained field
army
• avoided any “general
actions” that might
destroy the Continental
Army
• knew that the Army
served as a symbol of the
republican cause
Loyalists (Tories)
• 1/3 of colonists who
remained loyal to
England
• included wealthy
merchants, some
farmers, and craftsmen
• most lived in the Middle
and Southern Colonies
• faced hard times from
Patriots who tarred,
feathered, and harassed
them
• many fled to England or
Canada
- at the
beginning of
war, most
fighting
centers
around
Boston
Role of African Americans
• ½ million African Americans lived
in the colonies in 1776
– wanted personal as well as political
freedom
– would join whatever side made the
best offer in terms of ‘unalienable
rights’
• Washington asked Congress to
allow free African Americans to
enlist
– 5,000 served in army
– 2,000 served in navy
• some formed special regiments
• others served in white regiments
as drummers, fifers, spies, and
guides
• Britain offered freedom to male slaves who would
serve the king
– more than 10,000 would serve and eventually flee the
United States to Nova Scotia, Jamaica, etc.
• many ran away, especially along the coast
• Black Patriots hoped the Revolution would end
slavery
– in the Declaration of Independence it stated that “all men
are created equal”
• Quakers – spoke out strongly against slavery
• slavery began declining in the North
• slavery was eventually made illegal
– Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania
Role of Indians
• Patriot victory would mean
more white settlers on
their land
• the British got support of
tribes in the South
• Indians attacked many
settlements
• in North – Iroquois –
Mohawk – Joseph Brant –
joined Loyalists in raiding
settlements
• Patriots struck back
destroying Iroquois villages
• British General Howe
replaced Gage and lands in
New York
• Parliament authorized more
than 50,000 more troops be
sent to the colonies
– left Boston and moved to
Staten Island
• Howe wanted to cut off
New England from the rest
of America
• Washington sent many of
his inexperienced soldiers to
defend Long Island where
they suffered a major defeat
• 1,400 Americans killed – the
rest retreat to Manhattan
• the British pursued and
drove the Continental Army
across the Hudson River
Battle of Long Island
• Howe thought that few Americans supported
independence and he issued a general pardon
to those who swore allegiance to George III
• this plan failed, because the British soldiers
and officers regarded the Americans as
inferior
– rebel militias also punished those who deserted
the patriots
Nathan Hale
• Connecticut officer and
former school teacher who
volunteered to go behind
British lines
• was captured with
information on the layout of
the fortifications in New
York found in the soles of
his shoes
• General Howe ordered Hale
hanged
• “I only regret that I have but
one life to lose for my
country.”
Battle of Trenton
• in December 1776, Washington retreated across
the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
• night of December 25, 1776 – Washington hoped
to capture an exposed outpost and his soldiers
slipped over the ice-filled Delaware River
• took nine hundred sleeping Hessians by surprise
and took them prisoner
• attempted a second
attack on Trenton,
but a British force
under Lord
Cornwallis trapped
the Americans
Battle of Princeton
• Washington and his small army fled by night
• Americans were able to surprise a British
Garrison at Princeton
• British General Charles Cornwallis - set out to
recapture Trenton
• Washington fooled Cornwallis
– left fires burning and slipped behind British Lines
• Continental Army defeated British
Washington and troops spend cold winter at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Victory in a Year of Defeat
• British General John
Burgoyne
• intended to clear the
Hudson Valley of
rebel resistance and
cut New England off
from the other states
– needed to stop the
flow of soldiers and
supplies from New
England to
Washington’s Army
– ITS GAMEDAY!! -19
• Burgoyne’s campaign was a disaster
• marched toward Albany, New York, but was
slowed by the Patriots who cut down trees
and dammed up streams limiting their
progress
• troops from New England destroyed his
military units in the woods north of Albany
- Burgoyne was able to recapture Fort Ticonderoga
Battle of Bennington
• the Patriots of the New Hampshire militia under
Brigadier General John Stark overwhelmed a
thousand German mercenaries
• the Patriots wounded or captured nearly 1,000
British soldiers
• Burgoyne could only hope that Howe would
rescue him and his forces
Battle of Saratoga
• at Saratoga New York the
Americans surrounded the
British
• Burgoyne was trapped and
forced to surrender
– around 5,800 men to American
General Horatio Gates
• major turning point in the war
– ended British threat to New
England
– boosted American spirits
– convinced France to become an
ally of the U.S.
• George III wanted
Howe to capture
Philadelphia first – the
nation’s new capital
• the Americans
obstructed Howe’s
progress at the Battles
of Brandywine Creek
and at Paoli
– the Patriots could not
stop the British from
entering the capital
• Howe captures
Philadelphia
• Washington attempted one last battle at
Germantown
– major counterattack on a fog-covered battlefield, but
the Americans broke off the fight (bad luck,
confusion, and incompetence)
• the Continental Army dug in at Valley Forge
where they would spend a miserable winter
– camp diseases killed many of the soldiers
The French Alliance
• Louis XVI agents had been
looking for ways to help the
Americans
– hoped to embarrass the English
– began covertly sending military
supplies to the Americans
through secret agents and
fictitious trading companies
• Benjamin Franklin – wanted
official recognition of American
independence or an outright
military alliance
– the French were wary and
advised patience in the matter
• Lord North tried to bargain
with the Continental
Congress, if the colonists
agreed to drop their
demand for independence
– Parliament conceded the
right of the colonists to tax
themselves
– to elect their own governors
– promised to remove all
British troops in peacetime
• American resolve was
steadfast and Congress
refused to deal with the
British emissary the Earl of
Carlisle
• France knew that to really embarrass their old
rival, they would have to recognize the
independence of the United States
• became the first nation to sign a treaty with the
US
– Treaty of Amity and Commerce – established
commercial relations between the two nations
– Treaty of Alliance – agreement between the two
nations to not sign a treaty with the British unless it
was to terminate war
– France surrendered all claims to areas formerly owned
by Great Britain
– made no claim to Canada, asking only for the right to
possession of certain British islands in the Caribbean
• agreed to provide military aid
Spain Helps the United States
• agreed to assist after the French
and the US became allies
• Bernardo de Galvez, governor
of Spanish Louisiana
• secretly supplied medicine,
cloth, muskets, and gunpowder
to Americans
• seized British forts along the
Mississippi River and Gulf of
Mexico
• drove British out of West Florida
• first cattle drive – 10,000 cattle
driven from Texas to colonies
Marquis de Lafayette
• young French noble
– about 19 when he
joined the Revolution
• brought trained
soldiers and had
supreme tactical skills
• became one of George
Washington’s most
trusted friends
– was treated like a son
by the General
Friedrich von Steuben
• from German state of
Prussia
• helped train Patriot
troops to march and
drill
– set the army’s
standard drill manual
• focusing on discipline
Thaddeus
Kosciusko
• from Poland
• worked in the
American
Revolution,
fortifying battle
sites
– many of which
became turning
points
• helped build
forts
Casimir Pulaski
• from Poland
• trained cavalry,
troops on
horseback
– Father of the
American Cavalry
• Betsy Ross – asked to sew the first American flag
Captain John Paul Jones
• after British ships
blockaded American
ports
– captured British
warships
– seized weapons and
supplies in the Bahamas
– Father of the US Navy
Francis Marion
• known as the Swamp
Fox
• used guerrilla tactics
– hit and run
– small surprise attacks to
capture British soldiers
– sabotaged
communication and
supply lines
– lead enemy into swamps
to get lost
The Final Campaign
• New British Commander
• British General Henry
Clinton replaced Howe
after the Battle of
Saratoga
• goal – take over the
Southern colonies and
cut them off from the
other colonies
– planned to use the sizable
body of Loyalists in the
South
• this plan started a lot
of guerrilla conflict in
the South
• the search for an
easy victory had
opened a Pandora’s
box of fury
– Patriots versus
Loyalists – raiding
each other
• burned farms, killed
civilians, and tortured
prisoners
• the British wanted to take
Charles Town
– knew that if they could, they
would be able to control the
entire South
• Clinton and his second in
command General Cornwallis
gradually encircled the city
until Lincoln surrendered an
American army of almost 6,000
men
• Congress sent Horatio Gates to
the South, and he too failed
– was outmaneuvered at Camden
where Cornwallis captured or
killed 750 raw American recruits
in the battle
• Tory raiders showed little interest in serving as regular
soldiers in Cornwallis army
• preferred night riding, indiscriminate plundering or
murdering or neighbors who they had grudges against
• King’s Mountain – most vicious fighting of the Revolution
– backwoodsman decimated a force of British regulars and Tory
raiders who had strayed too far from their base
• General Cornwallis
wore out his
soldiers trying to
catch American
forces in the
Carolinas
• Nathaniel Greene,
Commander of
Continental Army
in South
Battle of Cowpens
• Daniel Morgan of the famed
Virginia Riflemen joined Greene
and sapped the strength of
Cornwallis army
• divided
soldiers into
front and rear
lines to defeat
British
• bloodiest battle of the war – Greensboro or
Guildford Courthouse, North Carolina
• Americans retreated, but British suffered
greatest losses
• General Cornwallis
pushed North into
Virginia to
establish a base of
operations on the
coast
– he chose Yorktown
• Washington
sensed that
Cornwallis had
made a serious
blunder
Battle of Yorktown
Last Major Battle
• Yorktown was a strip of land jutting into the
Chesapeake Bay
– the French fleet could gain temporary dominance in the
Bay
• Governor Thomas Jefferson and other officials had to
escape
• Washington trapped Cornwallis on peninsula by
guarding it on the north and west sides, encircling
the British on land
• thousands of French soldiers
under the Comte de
Rochambeau marched with
Washington
• the French fleet – Admiral
Comte de Grasse cut
Cornwallis off from the sea
• Cornwallis cut off; could not get supplies; could
not escape by land or sea
• 16,000 American and French troops vs. Cornwallis’
entire army of 6,000 men
• Cornwallis under siege
– army surrounds and blockades an enemy position in an
attempt to capture it
• Cornwallis held out for several weeks
• October 19, 1781 – British surrendered
their weapons
• the British still controlled New York City and
Charles Town, but the fighting had pretty
much ended
• now the task to secure independence fell in
the hands of the diplomats
Treaty of Paris (1783)
• peace talks in Paris, France
• Congress sent Benjamin
Franklin , John Adams, John
Jay, and Henry Laurens
– were to insist only on the
recognition of the
independence of the United
States
• Britain was eager to end the
war
1. Britain recognized the United States as an
independent nation
2. U.S. borders from Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi
River, northern border stopped at the Great Lakes
3. southern border stopped at Florida which returned to
Spain
4. gained important fishing rights in the North Atlantic
5. Congress promised to help British merchants collect
their debts contracted before the Revolution
6. Congress also agreed to compensate Loyalists whose
lands had been taken from them
April 1783 – treaty is ratified
Reasons the United States Won
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geography
Britain too far from home
Spain – helped with attacks
France – helped with money, supplies, military aid
Americans – greater cause; reason to fight, and
better fighting skills
• George Washington – provided leadership and
military skills
Benedict Arnold
• one of America’s
best generals
• traitor – switches
sides to help
Britain
• he felt he was not
appreciated for his
Am. victories
• he needed money
• secretly agreed to
turn over West
Point (NY) to
British
• plot uncovered by
Patriot patrol
• GW ordered
Arnold hanged –
but he was never
captured