Download Key Battles of the Ameri can Revo l u ti o n

Key Battles of the American Revolution
Lexington and Concord Massachusetts
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were actually the first military engagements of the American
Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay,
within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near
Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its
thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.
About 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were ordered to capture and destroy
military supplies that were reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. Dr. ​Joseph Warren​ alerted
the colonists of this. The Patriot colonists had received intelligence weeks before the expedition which warned
of an impending British search, and had moved much, but not all, of the supplies to safety. They had also
received details about British plans on the night before the battle, and information was rapidly supplied to the
militia.
The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The militia were outnumbered and fell back.
Other British colonists, hours later at the North Bridge in Concord, fought and defeated three companies of the
king's troops. The outnumbered soldiers of the British Army fell back from the Minutemen after a pitched battle
in open territory.
More Minutemen arrived soon thereafter and inflicted heavy damage on the British regulars as they marched
back towards Boston. Upon returning to Lexington, Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under
Hugh, Earl Percy. A combined force of fewer than 1,700 men marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a
tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown.
The British failed to maintain the secrecy and speed required to conduct a successful strike into hostile territory,
yet they did destroy some weapons and supplies. Most British regulars returned to Boston. The occupation of
surrounding areas by the Massachusetts Militia that evening marked the beginning of the Siege of Boston.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Concord Hymn described the first shot fired by the Patriots at the North Bridge as
the "shot heard 'round the world".
Charlestown, Massachusetts (Battle of Bunker Hill)
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
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 believed they had won in other ways as well.
Battle of Quebec City, Province of Quebec (Canada) and New York
Canada
The Battle of Quebec was an attempt on December 31, 1775, by American colonial forces to capture the city of
Quebec, drive the British military from the Province of Quebec, and enlist French Canadian support for the
American Revolutionary War. The British governor of Quebec, General Guy Carleton, could not get significant
outside help because the St. Lawrence River was frozen, so he had to rely on a relatively small number of
regulars along with local militia that had been raised in the city.
Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold led a force of about 1,200 American army forces and Canadian militia
in a multi-pronged attack on the city, which, due to bad weather and bad timing, did not start well, and ended
with Montgomery dead, Arnold wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men captured. Following a
somewhat ineffectual five-month siege, the American forces were driven to retreat by the arrival of ships from
England carrying British troops in early May 1776. The battle was the first military defeat for the Continental
Army.
New York
The British recognized the strategic importance of New York as the focal point for communications between the
northern and southern colonies. Washington also recognized this, and in April of 1776 he marched his troops
from Boston to New York. He positioned his troops on the western end of Long Island in anticipation of the
British arrival. The American outpost of Colonel Edward Hand's sent word that the British were preparing to
cross Long Island from Staten Island on August 22, at dawn.
There were three frigates, the Phoenix, Rose, and Greyhound, and two bomb ketches named Carcass and
Thunder, in Gravesend Bay. The frigates were anchored in the Namews. British generals Cornwallis and Clinton
had a force of 4,000 men that included Von Donop's corps of jaegers and grenadiers. The force started crossing
to Denyse Point and they were covered by the guns of the H.M.S. Rainbow. Two hundred men of Edward Hand's
withdrew to Prospect Hill, destroying the property and supplies that the British might use. The British boats
returned to Staten Island and landed in Gravesend Bay with more than 5000 men. By noon, they had landed
almost 5,000 men and about 40 cannons safely on shore.
When George Washington arrived on August 27, he wasted no time on blaming who lost the battle of Long
Island. Remaining cool, calm, and confident , he oversaw the construction of new fortifications on Brooklyn
Heights. A serendipitous downpour made further British attacks unlikely. American troops found it hard to cook
their food or to keep their powder dry. On August 28, additional troops arrived to boost the number of men
under his command to 9,000.
Washington realized that he had put himself in a trap. He had split his troops between Manhattan and Long
Island, with the Hudson River, the East River, and Long Island Sound open to British warships and transport.
Admiral Richard Howe, the brother of General Howe, could cut him off if moved the fleet from the New Jersey
Shore to the East River to block movement from Long Island to Manhattan. Unfavorable winds and rains kept
Admiral Howe from taking advantage of this opportunity to cut Washington off.
Rain continued to be intermittent the next day, August 29. Washington realized his position was untenable and it
was time to withdraw. The seagoing soldiers of John Glover's Marblehead [Massachusetts] Regiment noiselessly
ferried Washington's troops across the East River to Manhattan on the night of August 29. Darkness, fog, and
bad weather immobilized Admiral Howe's fleet. Washington's cool and firm command exacted superb discipline
from green troops. They remained quiet throughout the ordeal. He had kept the British high command in utter
ignorance of the evacuation that he hastily ordered. When the British charged in the morning, they founded
empty trenches. Washington's army lived to fight another day.
Battle of Trenton, New Jersey (The Crossing of the Delaware)
As soon as Fort Lee was abandoned, Washington began to withdraw his army across New Jersey toward
Philadelphia. About 5,000 Americans left Hackensack on November 21, 1776, and retired without casualties 100
miles to safety behind the Delaware River on December 7. But the troops suffered a want of clothing and a sense
of defeat which quickly translated into high sickness and desertion rates. It was a demoralized army that
unraveled in retreat. Even their stoic commander despaired over "a noble cause lost," and wrote to his brother,
"I think the game is pretty near up.
After the abandonment of Fort Lee in the face of a British invasion on November 20, 1776, the Continental
troops under command of General Washington had retreated across the Jerseys to the edge of Pennsylvania,
passing over the Delaware River on December 8th. In an audacious maneuver, designed to reverse the fortunes
of war and restore American morale, Washington determined to attack the three Hessian battalions stationed at
Trenton, a force of about 1,200 soldiers under command of Commandant Colonel Johann Rall. The boldness of
Washington's plan of attack lay partly in its timing: the Continental troops would approach Trenton in the wee
hours of December 26th. Colonel John Fitzgerald, one of Washington's aides, noted how the Hessians were
vulnerable on one particular account: "They make a great deal of Christmas in Germany, and no doubt the
Hessians will drink a great deal of beer and have a dance tonight."
At six o'clock on Christmas evening, the troops marched toward McKonkey's Ferry, nine miles north of Trenton.
Many of the ill-clad soldiers wrapped rags around their feet; others were shoeless. Boats collected at this
strategic crossing were manned by Colonel John Glover's Fourteenth Regiment of Continental Line, a unit largely
composed of fishermen from Marblehead, Massachusetts. The passage of 2,700 American soldiers commenced at
twilight, but was impeded by snowfall that turned to sleet and by heavy ice floes in the river. Washington,
wrapped in his cloak, watched silently from the shore. The artillery finally landed on the Jersey bank of the
Delaware at about three o'clock in the morning of December 26, 1776, and the march got underway an hour
later. Two miles beyond the landing, at Bear's Tavern, Washington separated his army into two columns:
General Greene a division of about 1,200 men and ten field pieces, accompanied by General Washington, down
the Pennington Road while General Sullivan's division of about 1,500 men marched down the River Road.
Informed along the march by courier that the storm was making muskets unfit for firing, Washington
responded: "Tell General Sullivan to use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton."
Saratoga County, New York
In December General Burgoyne concerted with the British ministry a plan for the campaign of 1777. A large
force under his command was to go to Albany by way of Lakes Champlain and George, while another body,
under Sir Henry Clinton, advanced up the Hudson. Simultaneously, Colonel Barry St. Leger was to make a
diversion, by way of Oswego, on the Mohawk river. In pursuance of this plan, Burgoyne, in June began his
advance with one of the best-equipped armies that had ever left the shores of England.
Proceeding up Lake Champlain, he easily forced the evacuation of Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Fort Anne. But,
instead of availing himself of the water-carriage of Lake George, at the head of which there was a direct road to
Fort Edward, he advanced upon that work by land, consuming three weeks in cutting a road through the woods
and building bridges over swamps. This gave time for Schuyler to gather the yeomanry together, and for
Washington to re-enforce that general with troops, under Morgan, from the southern department. Burgoyne also
lost valuable time and received a fatal check by his disastrous attack on Bennington.
At length, finding his progress stopped by the entrenchments of Gates at Bemus' heights, nine miles south of
Saratoga (Schuylerville), he endeavored to extricate himself from his perilous position by fighting. The conflict
lasted till sunset. The British remained masters of the field. But the loss on each side was nearly equal (from 500
to 600 men) and the spirits of the Americans were greatly raised by having withstood the best regular troops of
the English army.
Arnold, when the decisive engagement of the 7th of October commenced, had been deprived of his command by
Gates, in consequence of a quarrel between them about the action of the 19th of September.
He had listened for a short time in the American camp to the thunder of the battle, in which he had no military
right to take part, either as commander or as combatant. But his excited spirit could not long endure such a state
of inaction. He called for his horse, a powerful brown charger, and springing on it, galloped furiously to where
the fight seemed to be the thickest.
Gates saw him, and sent an aide-de-camp to recall him. But Arnold spurred far in advance and placed himself at
the head of three regiments which had formerly been under him, and which welcomed their old commander
with joyous cheers.
He led them instantly upon the British center and then galloping along the American line, he issued orders for a
renewed and a closer attack, which were obeyed with alacrity, Arnold himself setting the example of the most
daring personal bravery, and charging more than once, sword in hand, into the English ranks.
Burgoyne's whole force was now compelled to retreat towards their camp. The left and center were in complete
disorder but the light infantry and the 24th checked the fury of the assailants, and the remains of the column
with great difficulty effected their return to their camp, leaving six of their cannons in the possession of the
enemy and great numbers of killed and wounded on the field. And especially a large proportion of the
artillerymen, who had stood to their guns until shot down or bayoneted beside them by the advancing
Americans.
In addition to winning a decisive military victory, the Americans also gained the support of the French and the
Spanish, who upon seeing the evidence of the Continental Army's ability to defeat the British in direct combat,
were now less reluctant to openly support the cause of independance.
Washington's Winter at Valley Forge
Things could hardly have looked bleaker for Washington and the Continental Army as 1777 came to a close. The
British had successfully occupied Philadelphia, leading some members of Congress to question Washington’s
leadership abilities. No one knew better than Washington that the army was on the brink of collapse–in fact, he
had defied Congress’ demand that he launch a mid-winter attack against the British at Philadelphia and instead
fell back to Valley Forge to rest and refit his troops. Though he had hoped to provide his weary men with more
nutritious food and badly needed winter clothing, Congress had been unable to provide money for fresh
supplies. That Christmas Eve, the troops dined on a meal of rice and vinegar, and were forced to bind their
bleeding frost-bitten feet with rags. “We have experienced little less than a famine in camp,” Washington wrote
to Patrick Henry the following February.
Desperate to keep the army intact, Washington tried to stem desertion by resorting to lashings as punishment
and then threatening to shoot deserters on sight. For those soldiers who remained with him, Washington
expressed deep gratitude and awe. He described men marching without clothes, blankets or shoes–leaving
bloody trails in the snow–who displayed “patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled.”
Meanwhile Washington faced the displeasure of Congress and rumors of plots to replace him with his typical
stoicism and composure. On December 31, he wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette that he would continue “to
observe one steady and uniform conduct, which I shall invariably pursue, while I have the honour to command,
regardless of the Tongue of slander or the powers of detraction.” Furthermore, he told the press that if Congress
could find someone better suited to lead the army that he would be more than happy to resign and return to
private life at his Mount Vernon estate.
The winter at Valley Forge might have signaled the end of the American Revolution. Fortunately for the
Continentals though, Washington did not give up. During this time Washington made several key additions to his
officer corps, such as the Prussian General Friedrich von Steuben, who was tasked with implementing a new
training regimen, and Nathanael Greene, who served as quartermaster general, relieving Washington of the duty
of supply procurement. Washington, supported by a loyal officer corps, was now free to focus on strategies to
beat the British. He was further buoyed by France’s agreement to join the revolutionaries in February 1778.
(Washington was so happy with the news from his “powerful friend” France that, upon hearing the news, he
pardoned two of his own soldiers who were awaiting execution for desertion.)
Once Washington’s detractors in Congress realized they could not sway his troops’ loyalty, they gave up on any
secret plans to replace him. In March 1778, Washington led his troops, their bodies and supplies replenished
and their confidence restored, out of Valley Forge to face the British again.
War in the South
The Continental victory at Saratoga in 1777 and the Treaty with the French in 1778 transformed the war,
especially for the British. Increased French aid to the Continentals was very slow in coming; coordinated
military activity between the two new allies was even slower to happen. Meanwhile, the British were
immediately faced with a global conflict with France. As a result, the British changed their strategy yet again in
1778. Rather than mounting a full-scale military campaign against the Continental Army, the British decided to
focus their efforts on the loyalists, who they still believed were the majority of the American population.
Believing the loyalists were strongest in the South and hoping to enlist the slaves in their cause--an objective
that seems incompatible with a focus on Southern loyalists--the British turned their efforts to the South. In
fact, the British had some important military successes in the South. They occupied Savannah, Georgia, in late
1778 and Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1779. They also struck a disastrous blow on General Horatio
Gates' forces at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780.
Although the British were successful in most conventional battles, the fighting in the South, under the
leadership of Generals Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan, turned toward guerrilla tactics and hit-and-run
warfare. No unit was better at this style of fighting than Marion’s Brigade, led by Francis Marion. Marion’s
Brigade used these tactics to attack and disrupt British supply and communications lines. Moreover, the
British had overestimated loyalist sentiment in the South; their presence actually forced many, who had been
sitting out the war, to take sides, most in favor of the Patriots. At the same time, the British underestimated the
logistical problems they would encounter, especially when their army was in the interior away from the
supplies offered by their fleet. Patriot forces, on the other hand, were supplied and could hide among the local
population. As a result, the British southern strategy was a dismal failure.
War in the South
The ​Siege of Yorktown​ or ​Battle of Yorktown​ in 1781 was a decisive victory by combined assault of American
forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British
Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American
Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis's army prompted the British government eventually to
negotiate an end to the conflict.
In 1780, 5,500 French soldiers landed in Rhode Island to try to help their American allies in assaulting
British-occupied New York City. The two armies met North of New York City in 1781. The French Commander,
the Comte de Rochambeau, convinced the American Commander, George Washington, that an attack on New
York City would be hard pressed to succeed and it would be easier for the French Fleet under the command of
the Comte de Grasse to assist in the attack further south, because he was to bring the French Fleet into the
Caribbean in October. Thus, they agreed to attack Lord Cornwallis and his smaller army of 9,000 men which was
stationed in the port town of Yorktown, Virginia. In the beginning of September, de Grasse defeated a British
Fleet that had come to relieve Cornwallis at the Battle of the Chesapeake. As a result of this victory, de Grasse
blocked any escape by sea for Cornwallis. Washington had dispatched the French general Marquis de Lafayette
to contain Cornwallis in Yorktown until he arrived, and Lafayette did so. By late September the army and naval
forces had surrounded Cornwallis by land and by sea.
After initial preparations, the Americans and French built their first parallel and began the bombardment. With
the British defense weakened, Washington, on October 14, 1781, sent two columns to attack the last major
remaining British outer defenses; redoubts #9 and #10. A French column took #9 and an American column #10.
With these defenses gone, the allies were able to finish their 2nd parallel. With the Americans' artillery closer
and more intense than ever, the British situation began to deteriorate rapidly and Cornwallis asked for
capitulation terms on the 17th. After two days of negotiation, the surrender ceremony took place on the 19th,
with Cornwallis being absent since he claimed to be ill. With the capture of over 8,000 British soldiers,
negotiations between the United States and Great Britain began, resulting in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.