The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was an armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris (1783), which resulted in the establishment of the United States of America as an independent nation, which was recognized by Great Britain and other nations of the world.
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Clockwise from top left: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the siege of Yorktown, Battle of Trenton, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Long Island, and the Battle of Guilford Court House | |||||||||
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Patriots: Thirteen Colonies (1775) United Colonies (1775–1776)
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In 1763, after the British Empire gained dominance in North America following its victory over the French in the Seven Years' War, tensions and disputes began escalating between the British and the Thirteen Colonies, especially following passage of Stamp and Townshend Acts by the British Parliament. The British Army responded by seeking to occupy Boston militarily, leading to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
In mid-1774, with tensions escalating even further between the British Army and the colonies, the British Parliament imposed the Intolerable Acts, an attempt to disarm Americans, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. In June 1775, the Second Continental Congress, including 56 colonial delegates, convened in present-day Independence Hall in the colonial capital of Philadelphia, incorporating colonial-based Patriot militias into one single military, the Continental Army, and appointing Washington as its commander-in-chief.
Two months later, in August 1775, the British Parliament declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress embraced and formalized the war, passing the Lee Resolution on July 2, and, two days later, unanimously adopting the Declaration of Independence, on July 4.
In March 1776, in an early win for the newly-formed Continental Army under Washington's command, following a successful siege of Boston, the Continental Army successfully drove the British Army out of Boston. British commander in chief William Howe responded by launching the New York and New Jersey campaign, which resulted in Howe's capture of New York City in November. Washington responded by clandestinely crossing the Delaware River and winning small but significant victories at Trenton and Princeton.
In the summer of 1777, as Howe was poised to capture Philadelphia, the Continental Congress fled to Baltimore. In October 1777, a separate northern British force under the command of John Burgoyne was forced to surrender at Saratoga in an American victory that proved crucial in convincing France and Spain that an independent United States was a viable possibility. France signed a commercial agreement with the rebels, followed by a Treaty of Alliance in February 1778. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition undertook a scorched earth campaign against the Iroquois who were largely allied with the British. Indian raids on the American frontier, however, continued to be a problem. Also, in 1779, Spain allied with France against Great Britain in the Treaty of Aranjuez, though Spain did not formally ally with the Americans.
Howe's replacement Henry Clinton intended to take the war against the Americans into the Southern Colonies. Despite some initial success, British General Cornwallis was besieged by a Franco-American force in Yorktown in September and October 1781. Cornwallis was forced to surrender in October. The British wars with France and Spain continued for another two years, but fighting largely ceased in North America. In the Treaty of Paris, ratified on September 3, 1783, Great Britain acknowledged the sovereignty and independence of the United States, bringing the American Revolutionary War to an end. The Treaties of Versailles resolved Great Britain's conflicts with France and Spain and forced Great Britain to cede Tobago, Senegal, and small territories in India to France, and Menorca, West Florida and East Florida to Spain.
Prelude to war
The French and Indian War, part of the wider global conflict known as the Seven Years' War, ended with the 1763 Peace of Paris, which expelled France from their possessions in New France. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was designed to refocus colonial expansion north into Nova Scotia and south into Florida, with the Mississippi River as the dividing line between British and Spanish possessions in America. Settlement was tightly restricted beyond the 1763 limits, and claims west of this line, including by Virginia and Massachusetts, were rescinded. With the exception of Virginia and others deprived of rights to western lands, the colonial legislatures agreed on the boundaries but disagreed on where to set them. Many settlers resented the restrictions entirely, and enforcement required permanent garrisons along the frontier, which led to increasingly bitter disputes over who should pay for them.
Taxation and legislation
The huge debt incurred by the Seven Years' War and demands from British taxpayers for cuts in government expenditure meant Parliament expected the colonies to fund their own defense. The 1763 to 1765 Grenville ministry instructed the Royal Navy to cease trading smuggled goods and enforce customs duties levied in American ports. The most important was the 1733 Molasses Act; routinely ignored before 1763, it had a significant economic impact since 85% of New England rum exports were manufactured from imported molasses. These measures were followed by the Sugar Act and Stamp Act, which imposed additional taxes on the colonies to pay for defending the western frontier. The taxes proved highly burdensome, particularly for the poorer classes, and quickly became a source of discontent. In July 1765, the Whigs formed the First Rockingham ministry, which repealed the Stamp Act and reduced tax on foreign molasses to help the New England economy, but re-asserted Parliamentary authority in the Declaratory Act.
However, this did little to end the discontent; in 1768, a riot started in Boston when the authorities seized the sloop Liberty on suspicion of smuggling. Tensions escalated in March 1770 when British troops fired on rock-throwing civilians, killing five in what became known as the Boston Massacre. The Massacre coincided with the partial repeal of the Townshend Acts by the Tory-based North Ministry. North insisted on retaining duty on tea to enshrine Parliament's right to tax the colonies; the amount was minor, but ignored the fact it was that very principle Americans found objectionable.
In April 1772, colonialists staged the first American tax revolt against British royal authority in Weare, New Hampshire, later referred to as the Pine Tree Riot. This would inspire the design of the Pine Tree Flag. Tensions escalated following the destruction of a customs vessel in the June 1772 Gaspee Affair, then came to a head in 1773. A banking crisis led to the near-collapse of the East India Company, which dominated the British economy; to support it, Parliament passed the Tea Act, giving it a trading monopoly in the Thirteen Colonies. Since most American tea was smuggled by the Dutch, the act was opposed by those who managed the illegal trade, while being seen as another attempt to impose the principle of taxation by Parliament. In December 1773, a group called the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dumped crates of tea into Boston Harbor, an event later known as the Boston Tea Party. The British Parliament responded by passing the so-called Intolerable Acts, aimed specifically at Massachusetts, although many colonists and members of the Whig opposition considered them a threat to liberty in general. This increased sympathy for the Patriot cause locally, in the British Parliament, and in the London press.
Break with the British Crown
Throughout the 18th century, the elected lower houses in the colonial legislatures gradually wrested power from their governors. Dominated by smaller landowners and merchants, these assemblies now established ad-hoc provincial legislatures, effectively replacing royal control. With the exception of Georgia, twelve colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress to agree on a unified response to the crisis. Many of the delegates feared that a boycott would result in war and sent a Petition to the King calling for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts. After some debate, on September 17, 1774, Congress endorsed the Massachusetts Suffolk Resolves and on October 20 passed the Continental Association, which instituted economic sanctions and a boycott of goods against Britain.
While denying its authority over internal American affairs, a faction led by James Duane and future Loyalist Joseph Galloway insisted Congress recognize Parliament's right to regulate colonial trade. Expecting concessions by the North administration, Congress authorized the colonial legislatures to enforce the boycott; this succeeded in reducing British imports by 97% from 1774 to 1775. However, on February 9 Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion and instituted a blockade of the colony. In July, the Restraining Acts limited colonial trade with the British West Indies and Britain and barred New England ships from the Newfoundland cod fisheries. The tension led to a scramble for control of militia stores, which each assembly was legally obliged to maintain for defense. On April 19, a British attempt to secure the Concord arsenal culminated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the Revolutionary War.
Political reactions
After the Patriot victory at Concord, moderates in Congress led by John Dickinson drafted the Olive Branch Petition, offering to accept royal authority in return for George III mediating in the dispute. However, since the petition was immediately followed by the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, Colonial Secretary Lord Dartmouth viewed the offer as insincere and refused to present the petition to the king. Although constitutionally correct, since the monarch could not oppose his own government, it disappointed those Americans who hoped he would mediate in the dispute, while the hostility of his language annoyed even Loyalist members of Congress. Combined with the Proclamation of Rebellion, issued on August 23 in response to the Battle at Bunker Hill, it ended hopes of a peaceful settlement.
Backed by the Whigs, Parliament initially rejected the imposition of coercive measures by 170 votes, fearing an aggressive policy would drive the Americans towards independence. However, by the end of 1774 the collapse of British authority meant both Lord North and George III were convinced war was inevitable. After Boston, Gage halted operations and awaited reinforcements; the Irish Parliament approved the recruitment of new regiments, while allowing Catholics to enlist for the first time. Britain also signed a series of treaties with German states to supply additional troops. Within a year, it had an army of over 32,000 men in America, the largest ever sent outside Europe at the time. The employment of German soldiers against people viewed as British citizens was opposed by many in Parliament and by the colonial assemblies; combined with the lack of activity by Gage, opposition to the use of foreign troops allowed the Patriots to take control of the legislatures.
Declaration of Independence
Support for independence was boosted by Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, which was published on January 10, 1776, and argued for American self-government and was widely reprinted. To draft the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The declaration was written almost exclusively by Jefferson.
Identifying inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies as "one people", the declaration simultaneously dissolved political links with Britain, while including a long list of alleged violations of "English rights" committed by George III. This is also one of the first times that the colonies were referred to as "United States", rather than the more common United Colonies.
On July 2, Congress voted for independence and published the declaration on July 4. At this point, the revolution ceased to be an internal dispute over trade and tax policies and had evolved into a civil war, since each state represented in Congress was engaged in a struggle with Britain, but also split between American Patriots and American Loyalists. Patriots generally supported independence from Britain and a new national union in Congress, while Loyalists remained faithful to British rule. Estimates of numbers vary, one suggestion being the population as a whole was split evenly between committed Patriots, committed Loyalists, and those who were indifferent. Others calculate the split as 40% Patriot, 40% neutral, 20% Loyalist, but with considerable regional variations.
At the onset of the war, the Second Continental Congress realized defeating Britain required foreign alliances and intelligence-gathering. The Committee of Secret Correspondence was formed for "the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain and other parts of the world". From 1775 to 1776, the committee shared information and built alliances through secret correspondence, as well as employing secret agents in Europe to gather intelligence, conduct undercover operations, analyze foreign publications, and initiate Patriot propaganda campaigns. Paine served as secretary, while Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, sent to France to recruit military engineers, were instrumental in securing French aid in Paris.
War breaks out
Early engagements
On April 14, 1775, Sir Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief, North America and Governor of Massachusetts, received orders to take action against the Patriots. He decided to destroy militia ordnance stored at Concord, Massachusetts, and capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were considered the principal instigators of the rebellion. The operation was to begin around midnight on April 19, in the hope of completing it before the American Patriots could respond. However, Paul Revere learned of the plan and notified Captain Parker, commander of the Concord militia, who prepared to resist. The first action of the war, commonly referred to as the shot heard round the world, was a brief skirmish at Lexington, followed by the full-scale Battles of Lexington and Concord. British troops suffered around 300 casualties before withdrawing to Boston, which was then besieged by the militia.
In May 1775, 4,500 British reinforcements arrived under Generals William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Sir Henry Clinton. On June 17, they seized the Charlestown Peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill, a frontal assault in which they suffered over 1,000 casualties. Dismayed at the costly attack which had gained them little, Gage appealed to London for a larger army, but instead was replaced as commander by Howe.
On June 14, 1775, Congress took control of Patriot forces outside Boston, and Congressional leader John Adams nominated Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Continental Army. On June 16, Hancock officially proclaimed him "General and Commander in Chief of the army of the United Colonies." He assumed command on July 3, preferring to fortify Dorchester Heights outside Boston rather than assaulting it. In early March 1776, Colonel Henry Knox arrived with heavy artillery acquired in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga. Under cover of darkness, on March 5, Washington placed these on Dorchester Heights, from where they could fire on the town and British ships in Boston Harbor. Fearing another Bunker Hill, Howe evacuated the city on March 17 without further loss and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, while Washington moved south to New York City.
Beginning in August 1775, American privateers raided towns in Nova Scotia, including Saint John, Charlottetown, and Yarmouth. In 1776, John Paul Jones and Jonathan Eddy attacked Canso and Fort Cumberland respectively. British officials in Quebec began negotiating with the Iroquois for their support, while US envoys urged them to remain neutral. Aware of Native American leanings toward the British and fearing an Anglo-Indian attack from Canada, Congress authorized a second invasion in April 1775. After the defeat at the Battle of Quebec on December 31, the Americans maintained a loose blockade of the city until they retreated on May 6, 1776. A second defeat at Trois-Rivières on June 8 ended operations in Quebec.
British pursuit was initially blocked by American naval vessels on Lake Champlain until victory at Valcour Island on October 11 forced the Americans to withdraw to Fort Ticonderoga, while in December an uprising in Nova Scotia sponsored by Massachusetts was defeated at Fort Cumberland. These failures impacted public support for the Patriot cause, and aggressive anti-Loyalist policies in the New England colonies alienated the Canadians.
In Virginia, Dunmore's Proclamation on November 7, 1775, promised freedom to any slaves who fled their Patriot masters and agreed to fight for the Crown. British forces were defeated at Great Bridge on December 9 and took refuge on British ships anchored near Norfolk. When the Third Virginia Convention refused to disband its militia or accept martial law, Lord Dunmore ordered the Burning of Norfolk on January 1, 1776.
The siege of Savage's Old Fields began on November 19 in South Carolina between Loyalist and Patriot militias, and the Loyalists were subsequently driven out of the colony in the Snow Campaign. Loyalists were recruited in North Carolina to reassert British rule in the South, but they were decisively defeated in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. A British expedition sent to reconquer South Carolina launched an attack on Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan's Island on June 28, 1776, but it failed.
A shortage of gunpowder led Congress to authorize a naval expedition against the Bahamas to secure ordnance stored there. On March 3, 1776, an American squadron under the command of Esek Hopkins landed at the east end of Nassau and encountered minimal resistance at Fort Montagu. Hopkins' troops then marched on Fort Nassau. Hopkins had promised governor Montfort Browne and the civilian inhabitants that their lives and property would not be in any danger if they offered no resistance; they complied. Hopkins captured large stores of powder and other munitions that was so great he had to impress an extra ship in the harbor to transport the supplies back home, when he departed on March 17. A month later, after a brief skirmish with HMS Glasgow, they returned to New London, Connecticut, the base for American naval operations.
British New York counter-offensive
After regrouping at Halifax in Nova Scotia, Howe set sail for New York in June 1776 and began landing troops on Staten Island near the entrance to New York Harbor on July 2. The Americans rejected Howe's informal attempt to negotiate peace on July 30; Washington knew that an attack on the city was imminent and realized that he needed advance information to deal with disciplined British regular troops.
On August 12, 1776, Patriot Thomas Knowlton was ordered to form an elite group for reconnaissance and secret missions. Knowlton's Rangers, which included Nathan Hale, became the Army's first intelligence unit. When Washington was driven off Long Island, he soon realized that he would need to professionalize military intelligence. With aid from Benjamin Tallmadge, Washington launched the six-man Culper spy ring. The efforts of Washington and the Culper Spy Ring substantially increased the effective allocation and deployment of Continental regiments in the field. Throughout the war, Washington spent more than 10 percent of his total military funds on military intelligence.
Washington split the Continental Army into positions on Manhattan and across the East River in western Long Island. On August 27 at the Battle of Long Island, Howe outflanked Washington and forced him back to Brooklyn Heights, but he did not attempt to encircle Washington's forces. Through the night of August 28, Knox bombarded the British. Knowing they were up against overwhelming odds, Washington ordered the assembly of a war council on August 29; all agreed to retreat to Manhattan. Washington quickly had his troops assembled and ferried them across the East River to Manhattan on flat-bottomed freight boats without any losses in men or ordnance, leaving General Thomas Mifflin's regiments as a rearguard.
Howe met with a delegation from the Second Continental Congress at the September Staten Island Peace Conference, but it failed to conclude peace, largely because the British delegates only had the authority to offer pardons and could not recognize independence. On September 15, Howe seized control of New York City when the British landed at Kip's Bay and unsuccessfully engaged the Americans at the Battle of Harlem Heights the following day. On October 18, Howe failed to encircle the Americans at the Battle of Pell's Point, and the Americans withdrew. Howe declined to close with Washington's army on October 28 at the Battle of White Plains and instead attacked a hill that was of no strategic value.
Washington's retreat isolated his remaining forces and the British captured Fort Washington on November 16. The British victory there amounted to Washington's most disastrous defeat with the loss of 3,000 prisoners. The remaining American regiments on Long Island fell back four days later. General Henry Clinton wanted to pursue Washington's disorganized army, but he was first required to commit 6,000 troops to capture Newport, Rhode Island, to secure the Loyalist port. General Charles Cornwallis pursued Washington, but Howe ordered him to halt.
The outlook following the defeat at Fort Washington appeared bleak for the American cause. The reduced Continental Army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men and was reduced further when enlistments expired at the end of the year. Popular support wavered, and morale declined. On December 20, 1776, the Continental Congress abandoned the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia and moved to Baltimore, where it remained until February 27, 1777. Loyalist activity surged in the wake of the American defeat, especially in New York state.
In London, news of the victorious Long Island campaign was well received with festivities held in the capital. Public support reached a peak. Strategic deficiencies among Patriot forces were evident: Washington divided a numerically weaker army in the face of a stronger one, his inexperienced staff misread the military situation, and American troops fled in the face of enemy fire. The successes led to predictions that the British could win within a year. The British established winter quarters in the New York City area and anticipated renewed campaigning the following spring.
Patriot resurgence
On the night of December 25–26, 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware River, leading a column of Continental Army troops from today's Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to today's Mercer County, New Jersey, in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation.
Meanwhile, the Hessians were involved in numerous clashes with small bands of Patriots and were often aroused by false alarms at night in the weeks before the actual Battle of Trenton. By Christmas they were tired, while a heavy snowstorm led their commander, Colonel Johann Rall, to assume no significant attack would occur. At daybreak on the 26th, the American Patriots surprised and overwhelmed Rall and his troops, who lost over 20 killed including Rall, while 900 prisoners, German cannons and supplies were captured.
The Battle of Trenton restored the American army's morale, reinvigorated the Patriot cause, and dispelled their fear of what they regarded as Hessian "mercenaries". A British attempt to retake Trenton was repulsed at Assunpink Creek on January 2; during the night, Washington outmaneuvered Cornwallis, then defeated his rearguard in the Battle of Princeton the following day. The two victories helped convince the French that the Americans were worthy military allies.
After his success at Princeton, Washington entered winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, where he remained until May and received Congressional direction to inoculate all Patriot troops against smallpox. With the exception of a minor skirmishing between the two armies which continued until March, Howe made no attempt to attack the Americans.
British northern strategy fails
The 1776 campaign demonstrated that regaining New England would be a prolonged affair, which led to a change in British strategy to isolating the north by taking control of the Hudson River, allowing them to focus on the south where Loyalist support was believed to be substantial. In December 1776, Howe wrote to the Colonial Secretary Lord Germain, proposing a limited offensive against Philadelphia, while a second force moved down the Hudson from Canada. Burgoyne supplied several alternatives, all of which gave him responsibility for the offensive, with Howe remaining on the defensive. The option selected required him to lead the main force south from Montreal down the Hudson Valley, while a detachment under Barry St. Leger moved east from Lake Ontario. The two would meet at Albany, leaving Howe to decide whether to join them. Reasonable in principle, this did not account for the logistical difficulties involved and Burgoyne erroneously assumed Howe would remain on the defensive; Germain's failure to make this clear meant he opted to attack Philadelphia instead.
With a mixed force of British regulars, professional German soldiers and Canadian militia Burgoyne set out on June 14, 1777 and captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 5. As General Horatio Gates retreated, his troops blocked roads, destroyed bridges, dammed streams, and stripped the area of food. This slowed Burgoyne's progress and forced him to send out large foraging expeditions; one of more than 700 British troops were captured at the Battle of Bennington on August 16. St Leger moved east and besieged Fort Stanwix; despite defeating an American relief force at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, Burgoyne was abandoned by his Indian allies and withdrew to Quebec on August 22. Now isolated and outnumbered by Gates, Burgoyne continued onto Albany rather than retreating to Fort Ticonderoga, reaching Saratoga on September 13. He asked Clinton for support while constructing defenses around the town.
Morale among his troops rapidly declined, and an unsuccessful attempt to break past Gates at the Battle of Freeman Farms on September 19 resulted in 600 British casualties. When Clinton advised he could not reach them, Burgoyne's subordinates advised retreat; a reconnaissance in force on October 7 was repulsed by Gates at the Battle of Bemis Heights, forcing them back into Saratoga with heavy losses. By October 11, all hope of British escape had vanished; persistent rain reduced the camp to a "squalid hell" and supplies were dangerously low. Burgoyne capitulated on October 17; around 6,222 soldiers, including German forces commanded by General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, surrendered their arms before being taken to Boston, where they were to be transported to England.
After securing additional supplies, Howe made another attempt on Philadelphia by landing his troops in Chesapeake Bay on August 24. He now compounded failure to support Burgoyne by missing repeated opportunities to destroy his opponent: despite defeating Washington at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, he then allowed him to withdraw in good order. After dispersing an American detachment at Paoli on September 20, Cornwallis occupied Philadelphia on September 26, with the main force of 9,000 under Howe based just to the north at Germantown. Washington attacked them on October 4, but was repulsed.
To prevent Howe's forces in Philadelphia being resupplied by sea, the Patriots erected Fort Mifflin and nearby Fort Mercer on the east and west banks of the Delaware respectively, and placed obstacles in the river south of the city. This was supported by a small flotilla of Continental Navy ships on the Delaware, supplemented by the Pennsylvania State Navy, commanded by John Hazelwood. An attempt by the Royal Navy to take the forts in the October 20 to 22 Battle of Red Bank failed; a second attack captured Fort Mifflin on November 16, while Fort Mercer was abandoned two days later when Cornwallis breached the walls. His supply lines secured, Howe tried to tempt Washington into giving battle, but after inconclusive skirmishing at the Battle of White Marsh from December 5 to 8, he withdrew to Philadelphia for the winter.
On December 19, the Americans followed suit and entered winter quarters at Valley Forge. As Washington's domestic opponents contrasted his lack of battlefield success with Gates' victory at Saratoga, foreign observers such as Frederick the Great were equally impressed with Washington's command at Germantown, which demonstrated resilience and determination. Over the winter, poor conditions, supply problems and low morale resulted in 2,000 deaths, with another 3,000 unfit for duty due to lack of shoes. However, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben took the opportunity to introduce Prussian Army drill and infantry tactics to "model companies" in each Continental Army regiment, who then instructed their home units. Despite Valley Forge being only twenty miles away, Howe made no effort to attack their camp, an action some critics argue could have ended the war.
Foreign intervention
Like his predecessors, French foreign minister Vergennes considered the 1763 Peace a national humiliation and viewed the war as an opportunity to weaken Britain. He initially avoided open conflict, but allowed American ships to take on cargoes in French ports, a technical violation of neutrality. Vergennes persuaded Louis XVI to secretly fund a government front company to purchase munitions for the Patriots, carried in neutral Dutch ships and imported through Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean.
Many Americans opposed a French alliance, fearing to "exchange one tyranny for another", but this changed after a series of military setbacks in early 1776. As France had nothing to gain from the colonies reconciling with Britain, Congress had three choices: making peace on British terms, continuing the struggle on their own, or proclaiming independence, guaranteed by France. Although the Declaration of Independence had wide public support, over 20% of Congressmen voted against an alliance with France. Congress agreed to the treaty with reluctance and as the war moved in their favor increasingly lost interest in it.
Silas Deane was sent to Paris to begin negotiations with Vergennes, whose key objectives were replacing Britain as the United States' primary commercial and military partner while securing the French West Indies from American expansion. These islands were extremely valuable; in 1772, the value of sugar and coffee produced by Saint-Domingue on its own exceeded that of all American exports combined. Talks progressed slowly until October 1777, when British defeat at Saratoga and their apparent willingness to negotiate peace convinced Vergennes only a permanent alliance could prevent the "disaster" of Anglo-American rapprochement. Assurances of formal French support allowed Congress to reject the Carlisle Peace Commission and insist on nothing short of complete independence.
On February 6, 1778, France and the United States signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce regulating trade between the two countries, followed by a defensive military alliance against Britain, the Treaty of Alliance. In return for French guarantees of American independence, Congress undertook to defend their interests in the West Indies, while both sides agreed not to make a separate peace; conflict over these provisions would lead to the 1798 to 1800 Quasi-War.Charles III of Spain was invited to join on the same terms but refused, largely due to concerns over the impact of the Revolution on Spanish colonies in the Americas. Spain had complained on multiple occasions about encroachment by American settlers into Louisiana, a problem that could only get worse once the United States replaced Britain.
Although Spain ultimately made important contributions to American success, in the Treaty of Aranjuez, Charles agreed only to support France's war with Britain outside America, in return for help in recovering Gibraltar, Menorca and Spanish Florida. The terms were confidential since several conflicted with American aims; for example, the French claimed exclusive control of the Newfoundland cod fisheries, a non-negotiable for colonies like Massachusetts. One less well-known impact of this agreement was the abiding American distrust of 'foreign entanglements'; the U.S. would not sign another treaty with France until their NATO agreement of 1949. This was because the US had agreed not to make peace without France, while Aranjuez committed France to keep fighting until Spain recovered Gibraltar, effectively making it a condition of U.S. independence without the knowledge of Congress.
To encourage French participation in the struggle for independence, the U.S. representative in Paris, Silas Deane promised promotion and command positions to any French officer who joined the Continental Army. Such as Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, whom Congress via Dean appointed a major general, on July 31, 1777.
When the war started, Britain tried to borrow the Dutch-based Scots Brigade for service in America, but pro-Patriot sentiment led the States General to refuse. Although the Republic was no longer a major power, prior to 1774 they still dominated the European carrying trade, and Dutch merchants made large profits shipping French-supplied munitions to the Patriots. This ended when Britain declared war in December 1780, a conflict that proved disastrous to the Dutch economy.
The British government failed to take into account the strength of the American merchant marine and support from European countries, which allowed the colonies to import munitions and continue trading with relative impunity. While well aware of this, the North administration delayed placing the Royal Navy on a war footing for cost reasons; this prevented the institution of an effective blockade. Traditional British policy was to employ European land-based allies to divert the opposition; in 1778, they were diplomatically isolated and faced war on multiple fronts.
Meanwhile, George III had given up on subduing America while Britain had a European war to fight. He did not welcome war with France, but he held the British victories over France in the Seven Years' War as a reason to believe in ultimate victory over France. Britain subsequently changed its focus into the Caribbean theater, and diverted major military resources away from America.
Stalemate in the North
At the end of 1777, Howe resigned and was replaced by Sir Henry Clinton on May 24, 1778; with French entry into the war, he was ordered to consolidate his forces in New York. On June 18, the British departed Philadelphia with the reinvigorated Americans in pursuit; the Battle of Monmouth on June 28 was inconclusive but boosted Patriot morale. That midnight, the newly installed Clinton continued his retreat to New York. A French naval force under Admiral Charles Henri Hector d'Estaing was sent to assist Washington; deciding New York was too formidable a target, in August they launched a combined attack on Newport, with General John Sullivan commanding land forces. The resulting Battle of Rhode Island was indecisive; badly damaged by a storm, the French withdrew to avoid risking their ships.
Further activity was limited to British raids on Chestnut Neck and Little Egg Harbor in October. In July 1779, the Americans captured British positions at Stony Point and Paulus Hook. Clinton unsuccessfully tried to tempt Washington into a decisive engagement by sending General William Tryon to raid Connecticut. In July, a large American naval operation, the Penobscot Expedition, attempted to retake Maine but was defeated. Persistent Iroquois raids in New York and Pennsylvania led to the punitive Sullivan Expedition from July to September 1779. Involving more than 4,000 patriot soldiers, the scorched earth campaign destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages and 160,000 bushels (4,000 mts) of maize, leaving the Iroquois destitute and destroying the Iroquois confederacy as an independent power on the American frontier. However, 5,000 Iroquois fled to Canada, where, supplied and supported by the British, they continued their raids.
During the winter of 1779–1780, the Continental Army suffered greater hardships than at Valley Forge. Morale was poor, public support fell away, the Continental dollar was virtually worthless, the army was plagued with supply problems, desertion was common, and mutinies occurred in the Pennsylvania Line and New Jersey Line regiments over the conditions.
In June 1780, Clinton sent 6,000 men under Wilhelm von Knyphausen to retake New Jersey, but they were halted by local militia at the Battle of Connecticut Farms; although the Americans withdrew, Knyphausen felt he was not strong enough to engage Washington's main force and retreated. A second attempt two weeks later ended in a British defeat at the Battle of Springfield, effectively ending their ambitions in New Jersey. In July, Washington appointed Benedict Arnold commander of West Point; his attempt to betray the fort to the British failed due to incompetent planning, and the plot was revealed when his British contact John André was captured and executed. Arnold escaped to New York and switched sides, an action justified in a pamphlet addressed "To the Inhabitants of America"; the Patriots condemned his betrayal, while he found himself almost as unpopular with the British.
War in the South
The Southern Strategy was developed by Lord Germain, based on input from London-based Loyalists, including Joseph Galloway. They argued that it made no sense to fight the Patriots in the north where they were strongest, while the New England economy was reliant on trade with Britain. On the other hand, duties on tobacco made the South far more profitable for Britain, while local support meant securing it required small numbers of regular troops. Victory would leave a truncated United States facing British possessions to the south, north, and west; with the Atlantic seaboard controlled by the Royal Navy, Congress would be forced to agree to terms. However, assumptions about the level of Loyalist support proved wildly optimistic.
Germain ordered Augustine Prévost, the British commander in East Florida, to advance into Georgia in December 1778. Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell, an experienced officer, captured Savannah on December 29, 1778. He recruited a Loyalist militia of nearly 1,100, many of whom allegedly joined only after Campbell threatened to confiscate their property. Poor motivation and training made them unreliable troops, as demonstrated in their defeat by Patriot militia at the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779, although this was offset by British victory at Brier Creek on March 3.
In June 1779, Prévost launched an abortive assault on Charleston, before retreating to Savannah, an operation notorious for widespread looting by British troops that enraged both Loyalists and Patriots. In October, a joint French and American operation under d'Estaing and General Benjamin Lincoln failed to recapture Savannah. Prévost was replaced by Lord Cornwallis, who assumed responsibility for Germain's strategy; he soon realized estimates of Loyalist support were considerably over-stated, and he needed far more regular forces.
Reinforced by Clinton, Cornwallis's troops captured Charleston in May 1780, inflicting the most serious Patriot defeat of the war; over 5,000 prisoners were taken and the Continental Army in the south effectively destroyed. On May 29, Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton's mainly Loyalist force routed a Continental Army force nearly three times its size under Colonel Abraham Buford at the Battle of Waxhaws. The battle is controversial for allegations of a massacre, which were later used as a recruiting tool by the Patriots.
Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis to oversee the south; despite their success, the two men left barely on speaking terms. The Southern strategy depended on local support, but this was undermined by a series of coercive measures. Previously, captured Patriots were sent home after swearing not to take up arms against the king; they were now required to fight their former comrades, while the confiscation of Patriot-owned plantations led formerly neutral "grandees" to side with them. Skirmishes at Williamson's Plantation, Cedar Springs, Rocky Mount, and Hanging Rock signaled widespread resistance to the new oaths throughout South Carolina.
In July 1780, Congress appointed Gates commander in the south; he was defeated at the Battle of Camden on August 16, leaving Cornwallis free to enter North Carolina. Despite battlefield success, the British could not control the countryside and Patriot attacks continued; before moving north, Cornwallis sent Loyalist militia under Major Patrick Ferguson to cover his left flank, leaving their forces too far apart to provide mutual support. In early October, Ferguson was defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain, dispersing organized Loyalist resistance in the region. Despite this, Cornwallis continued into North Carolina hoping for Loyalist support, while Washington replaced Gates with General Nathanael Greene in December 1780.
Greene divided his army, leading his main force southeast pursued by Cornwallis; a detachment was sent southwest under Daniel Morgan, who defeated Tarleton's British Legion at Cowpens on January 17, 1781, nearly eliminating it as a fighting force. The Patriots now held the initiative in the south, with the exception of a raid on Richmond led by Benedict Arnold in January 1781. Greene led Cornwallis on a series of countermarches around North Carolina; by early March, the British were exhausted and short of supplies and Greene felt strong enough to fight the Battle of Guilford Court House on March 15. Although victorious, Cornwallis suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Wilmington, North Carolina, seeking supplies and reinforcements.
The Patriots now controlled most of the Carolinas and Georgia outside the coastal areas; after a minor reversal at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, they recaptured Fort Watson and Fort Motte on April 15. On June 6, Brigadier General Andrew Pickens captured Augusta, leaving the British in Georgia confined to Charleston and Savannah. The assumption Loyalists would do most of the fighting left the British short of troops and battlefield victories came at the cost of losses they could not replace. Despite halting Greene's advance at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8, Cornwallis withdrew to Charleston with little to show for his campaign.
Western campaign
From the beginning of the war, Bernardo de Gálvez, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana, allowed the Americans to import supplies and munitions into New Orleans, then ship them to Pittsburgh. This provided an alternative transportation route for the Continental Army, bypassing the British blockade of the Atlantic Coast.
In February 1778, an expedition of militia to destroy British military supplies in settlements along the Cuyahoga River was halted by adverse weather. Later in the year, a second campaign was undertaken to seize the Illinois Country from the British. Virginia militia, Canadien settlers, and Indian allies commanded by Colonel George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia on July 4 and then secured Vincennes, though Vincennes was recaptured by Quebec Governor Henry Hamilton. The Spanish-aligned fur trader Francis Vigo, an American sympathizer, alerted Clark to the threat posed to his control of the west by Hamilton's position and in early 1779, the Virginians counter-attacked in the siege of Fort Vincennes and took Hamilton prisoner. Clark secured western British Quebec as the American Northwest Territory in the Treaty of Paris as the Revolutionary War came to an end.
When Spain joined France's war against Britain in the Anglo-French War in 1779, their treaty specifically excluded Spanish military action in North America. Later that year, however, Gálvez initiated offensive operations against British outposts. First, he cleared British garrisons in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Fort Bute, and Natchez, Mississippi, and captured five forts. In doing so, Gálvez opened navigation on the Mississippi River north to the American settlement in Pittsburgh.
On May 25, 1780, British Colonel Henry Bird invaded Kentucky as part of a wider operation to clear American resistance from Quebec to the Gulf Coast. Their advance on New Orleans was repelled by Spanish Governor Gálvez's offensive on Mobile. Simultaneous British attacks were repulsed on St. Louis by the Spanish Lieutenant Governor de Leyba, and on the Virginia County courthouse in Cahokia, Illinois, by Lieutenant Colonel Clark. The British initiative under Bird from Detroit was ended at the rumored approach of Clark. The scale of violence in the Licking River Valley, was extreme "even for frontier standards." It led to English and German settlements, who joined Clark's militia when the British and their hired German soldiers withdrew to the Great Lakes. The Americans responded with a major offensive along the Mad River in August which met with some success in the Battle of Piqua but did not end Indian raids.
French soldier Augustin de La Balme led a Canadian militia in an attempt to capture Detroit, but they dispersed when Miami natives led by Little Turtle attacked the encamped settlers on November 5. The war in the west stalemated with the British garrison sitting in Detroit and the Virginians expanding westward settlements north of the Ohio River in the face of British-allied Indian resistance.
In 1781, Galvez and Pollock campaigned east along the Gulf Coast to secure West Florida, including British-held Mobile and Pensacola. The Spanish operations impaired the British supply of armaments to British Indian allies, which effectively suspended a military alliance to attack settlers between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1782, large scale retaliations between settlers and Native Americans in the region included the Gnadenhutten massacre and the Crawford expedition. The 1782 Battle of Blue Licks was one of the last major engagements of the war. News of the treaty between Great Britain and the United States arrived late that year. By this time, about 7% of Kentucky settlers had been killed in battles against Native Americans, contrasted with 1% of the population killed in the Thirteen Colonies. Lingering resentments led to continued fighting in the west after the war officially ended.
British defeat
Clinton spent most of 1781 based in New York City; he failed to construct a coherent operational strategy, partly due to his difficult relationship with Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot. In Charleston, Cornwallis independently developed an aggressive plan for a campaign in Virginia, which he hoped would isolate Greene's army in the Carolinas and cause the collapse of Patriot resistance in the South. This strategy was approved by Lord Germain in London, but neither informed Clinton.
Washington and Rochambeau discussed their options: Washington wanted to attack the British in New York, and Rochambeau wanted to attack them in Virginia, where Cornwallis's forces were less established. Washington eventually gave way, and Lafayette took a combined Franco-American force into Virginia. Clinton misinterpreted his movements as preparations for an attack on New York and instructed Cornwallis to establish a fortified sea base, where the Royal Navy could evacuate British troops to help defend New York.
When Lafayette entered Virginia, Cornwallis complied with Clinton's orders and withdrew to Yorktown, where he constructed strong defenses and awaited evacuation. An agreement by the Spanish Navy to defend the French West Indies allowed Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse to relocate to the Atlantic seaboard, a move Arbuthnot did not anticipate. This provided Lafayette naval support, while the failure of previous combined operations at Newport and Savannah meant their coordination was planned more carefully. Despite repeated urging from his subordinates, Cornwallis made no attempt to engage Lafayette before he could establish siege lines. Expecting to be withdrawn within a few days, he also abandoned the outer defenses, which were promptly occupied by the besiegers and hastened British defeat.
On August 31, a Royal Navy fleet under Thomas Graves left New York for Yorktown. After landing troops and munitions for the besiegers on August 30, de Grasse remained in Chesapeake Bay and intercepted him on September 5; although the Battle of the Chesapeake was indecisive in terms of losses, Graves was forced to retreat, leaving Cornwallis isolated. An attempted breakout over York River at Gloucester Point failed due to bad weather. Under heavy bombardment with dwindling supplies, on October 16 Cornwallis sent emissaries to General Washington to negotiate surrender; after twelve hours of negotiations, the terms of surrender were finalized the following day. Responsibility for defeat was the subject of fierce public debate between Cornwallis, Clinton, and Germain. Clinton ultimately took most of the blame and spent the rest of his life in relative obscurity.
Subsequent to Yorktown, American forces were assigned to supervise the armistice between Washington and Clinton made to facilitate British departure following the January 1782 law of Parliament forbidding any further British offensive action in North America. British-American negotiations in Paris led to signed preliminary agreements in November 1782, which acknowledged U.S. independence. The enacted Congressional war objective, a British withdrawal from North America and cession of these regions to the U.S., was completed in stages in East Coast cities.
In the U.S. South, Generals Greene and Wayne observed the British remove their troops from Charleston on December 14, 1782. Loyalist provincial militias of whites and free Blacks and Loyalists with slaves were transported to Nova Scotia and the British West Indies. Native American allies of the British and some freed Blacks were left to escape unaided through the American lines.
On April 9, 1783, Washington issued orders that "all acts of hostility" were to cease immediately. That same day, by arrangement with Washington, Carleton issued a similar order to British troops. As directed by a Congressional resolution of May 26, 1783, all non-commissioned officers and enlisted were furloughed "to their homes" until the "definitive treaty of peace", when they would be automatically discharged. The U.S. armies were directly disbanded in the field as of Washington's General Orders on June 2, 1783. Once the Treaty of Paris was signed with Britain on September 3, 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The last British occupation of New York City ended on November 25, 1783, with the departure of Clinton's replacement, General Sir Guy Carleton.
Strategy and commanders
To win their insurrection, Washington and the Continental Army needed to outlast the British will to fight. To restore British America, the British had to defeat the Continental Army quickly and compel the Second Continental Congress to retract its claim to self-governance. Historian Terry M. Mays of The Citadel identifies three separate types of warfare during the Revolutionary War. The first was a colonial conflict in which objections to imperial trade regulation were as significant as taxation policy. The second was a civil war between American Patriots, American Loyalists, and those who preferred to remain neutral. Particularly in the south, many battles were fought between Patriots and Loyalists with no British involvement, leading to divisions that continued after independence was achieved.
The third element was a global war between France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, and Britain, with America serving as one of several different war theaters. After entering the Revolutionary War in 1778, France provided the Americans money, weapons, soldiers, and naval assistance, while French troops fought under U.S. command in North America. While Spain did not formally join the war in America, they provided access to the Mississippi River and captured British possessions on the Gulf of Mexico that denied bases to the Royal Navy, retook Menorca and besieged Gibraltar in Europe. Although the Dutch Republic was no longer a major power prior to 1774, they still dominated the European carrying trade, and Dutch merchants made large profits by shipping French-supplied munitions to the Patriots. This ended when Britain declared war in December 1780, and the conflict proved disastrous to the Dutch economy.
American strategy
The Second Continental Congress stood to benefit if the Revolution evolved into a protracted war. Colonial state populations were largely prosperous and depended on local production for food and supplies rather than on imports from Britain. The thirteen colonies were spread across most of North American Atlantic seaboard, stretching 1,000 miles. Most colonial farms were remote from the seaports, and control of four or five major ports did not give Britain control over American inland areas. Each state had established internal distribution systems. Motivation was also a major asset: each colonial capital had its own newspapers and printers, and the Patriots enjoyed more popular support than the Loyalists. Britain hoped that the Loyalists would do much of the fighting, but found that the Loyalists did not engage as significantly as they had hoped.
Continental Army
When the Revolutionary War began, the Second Continental Congress lacked a professional army or navy. However, each of the colonies had a long-established system of local militia, which were combat-tested in support of British regulars in the French and Indian War. The colonial state legislatures independently funded and controlled their local militias.
Militiamen were lightly armed, had little training, and usually did not have uniforms. Their units served for only a few weeks or months at a time and lacked the training and discipline of more experienced soldiers. Local county militias were reluctant to travel far from home and were unavailable for extended operations. To compensate for this, the Continental Congress established a regular force known as the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, which proved to be the origin of the modern United States Army, and appointed Washington as its commander-in-chief. However, it suffered significantly from the lack of an effective training program and from largely inexperienced officers. Each state legislature appointed officers for both county and state militias and their regimental Continental line officers; although Washington was required to accept Congressional appointments, he was permitted to choose and command his own generals, such as Greene; his chief of artillery, Knox; and Alexander Hamilton, the chief of staff. One of Washington's most successful general officer recruits was Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff who wrote the Revolutionary War Drill Manual. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress and Washington used both his regulars and state militias throughout the war; when properly employed, the combination allowed them to overwhelm smaller British forces, as they did in battles at Concord, Boston, Bennington, and Saratoga. Both sides used partisan warfare, but the state militias effectively suppressed Loyalist activity when British regulars were not in the area.
Washington designed the overall military strategy in cooperation with Congress, established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs, personally recruited his senior officer corps, and kept the states focused on a common goal. Washington initially employed the inexperienced officers and untrained troops in Fabian strategies rather than risk frontal assaults against Britain's professional forces. Over the course of the war, Washington lost more battles than he won, but he never surrendered his troops and maintained a fighting force in the face of British field armies.
By prevailing European standards, the armies in America were relatively small, limited by lack of supplies and logistics. The British were constrained by the logistical difficulty of transporting troops across the Atlantic and their dependence on local supplies. Washington never directly commanded more than 17,000 men, and the combined Franco-American army in the decisive American victory at Yorktown was only about 19,000. At the beginning of 1776, Patriot forces consisted of 20,000 men, with two-thirds in the Continental Army and the other third in the state militias. About 250,000 American men served as regulars or as militia for the revolutionary cause during the war, but there were never more than 90,000 men under arms at any time.
On the whole, American officers never equaled their British opponents in tactics and maneuvers, and they lost most of the pitched battles. The great successes at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777), and Yorktown (1781) were won by trapping the British far from base with a greater number of troops. After 1778, Washington's army was transformed into a more disciplined and effective force, mostly as a product of Baron von Steuben's military training. Immediately after the Continental Army emerged from Valley Forge in June 1778, it proved its ability to match the military capabilities of the British at the Battle of Monmouth, including a Black Rhode Island regiment fending off a British bayonet attack and then counter charging the British for the first time as part of Washington's army. After the Battle of Monmouth, Washington came to realize that saving entire towns was not necessary, but preserving his army and keeping the revolutionary spirit alive was more important. Washington informed Henry Laurens, then president of the Second Continental Congress, "that the possession of our towns, while we have an army in the field, will avail them little."
Although the Continental Congress was responsible for the war effort and provided supplies to the troops, Washington took it upon himself to pressure Congress and the state legislatures to provide the essentials of war; there was never nearly enough. Congress evolved in its committee oversight and established the Board of War, which included members of the military. Because the Board of War was also a committee ensnared with its own internal procedures, Congress also created the post of Secretary of War, appointing Major General Benjamin Lincoln to the position in February 1781. Washington worked closely with Lincoln to coordinate civilian and military authorities and took charge of training and supplying the army.
Continental Navy
During the first summer of the war, Washington began outfitting schooners and other small seagoing vessels to prey on ships supplying the British in Boston. The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Navy on October 13, 1775, and appointed Esek Hopkins as its first commander; for most of the war, the Continental Navy included only a handful of small frigates and sloops, supported by privateers. On November 10, 1775, Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Marines, which ultimately evolved into the United States Marine Corps.
John Paul Jones became the first American naval hero when he captured HMS Drake on April 24, 1778, the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters. The last such victory was by the frigate USS Alliance, commanded by Captain John Barry. On March 10, 1783, the Alliance outgunned HMS Sybil in a 45-minute duel while escorting Spanish gold from Havana to the Congress in Philadelphia. After Yorktown, all US Navy ships were sold or given away; it was the first time in America's history that it had no fighting forces on the high seas.
Congress primarily commissioned privateers to reduce costs and to take advantage of the large proportion of colonial sailors found in the British Empire. In total, they included 1,700 ships that successfully captured 2,283 enemy ships to damage the British effort and to enrich themselves with the proceeds from the sale of cargo and the ship itself. About 55,000 sailors served aboard American privateers during the war.
France
At the beginning of the war, the Americans had no major international allies, since most nation-states waited to see how the conflict unfolded. Over time, the Continental Army established its military credibility. Battles such as the Battle of Bennington, the Battles of Saratoga, and even defeats such as the Battle of Germantown, proved decisive in gaining the support of powerful European nations, including France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic; the Dutch moved from covertly supplying the Americans with weapons and supplies to overtly supporting them.
The decisive American victory at Saratoga convinced France, which was already a long-time rival of Britain, to offer the Americans the Treaty of Amity and Commerce. The two nations also agreed to a defensive Treaty of Alliance to protect their trade and also guaranteed American independence from Britain. To engage the United States as a French ally militarily, the treaty was conditioned on Britain initiating a war on France to stop it from trading with the U.S. Spain and the Dutch Republic were invited to join by both France and the United States in the treaty, but neither was responsive to the request.
On June 13, 1778, France declared war on Great Britain, and it invoked the French military alliance with the U.S., which ensured additional U.S. private support for French possessions in the Caribbean. Washington worked closely with the soldiers and navy that France would send to America, primarily through Lafayette on his staff. French assistance made critical contributions required to defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.
British strategy
The British military had considerable experience fighting in North America. However, in previous conflicts they benefited from local logistics and support from the colonial militia. In the American Revolutionary War, reinforcements had to come from Europe, and maintaining large armies over such distances was extremely complex; ships could take three months to cross the Atlantic, and orders from London were often outdated by the time they arrived.
Prior to the conflict, the colonies were largely autonomous economic and political entities, with no centralized area of ultimate strategic importance. This meant that, unlike Europe where the fall of a capital city often ended wars, that in America continued even after the loss of major settlements such as Philadelphia, the seat of Congress, New York, and Charleston. British power was reliant on the Royal Navy, whose dominance allowed them to resupply their own expeditionary forces while preventing access to enemy ports. However, the majority of the American population was agrarian, rather than urban; supported by the French navy and blockade runners based in the Dutch Caribbean, their economy was able to survive.Lord North, Prime Minister since 1770, delegated control of the war in North America to Lord George Germain and the Earl of Sandwich, who was head of the Royal Navy from 1771 to 1782. Defeat at Saratoga in 1777 made it clear the revolt would not be easily suppressed, especially after the Franco-American alliance of February 1778. With Spain also expected to join the conflict, the Royal Navy needed to prioritize either the war in America or in Europe; Germain advocated the former, Sandwich the latter.
North initially backed the Southern strategy attempting to exploit divisions between the mercantile north and slave-owning south, but after the defeat of Yorktown, he was forced to accept that this policy had failed. It was clear the war was lost, although the Royal Navy forced the French to relocate their fleet to the Caribbean in November 1781 and resumed a close blockade of American trade. The resulting economic damage and rising inflation meant the US was now eager to end the war, while France was unable to provide further loans; Congress could no longer pay its soldiers. The geographical size of the colonies and limited manpower meant the British could not simultaneously conduct military operations and occupy territory without local support. Debate persists over whether their defeat was inevitable; one British statesman described it as "like trying to conquer a map". While Ferling argues Patriot victory was nothing short of a miracle,Ellis suggests the odds always favored the Americans, especially after Howe squandered the chance of a decisive British success in 1776, an "opportunity that would never come again". The US military history speculates the additional commitment of 10,000 fresh troops in 1780 would have placed British victory "within the realm of possibility".
British Army
The expulsion of France from North America in 1763 led to a drastic reduction in British troop levels in the colonies; in 1775, there were only 8,500 regular soldiers among a civilian population of 2.8 million. The bulk of military resources in the Americas were focused on defending sugar islands in the Caribbean; Jamaica alone generated more revenue than all thirteen American colonies combined. With the end of the Seven Years' War, the permanent army in Britain was also cut back, which resulted in administrative difficulties when the war began a decade later.
Over the course of the war, there were four separate British commanders-in-chief. The first was Thomas Gage, appointed in 1763, whose initial focus was establishing British rule in former French areas of Canada. Many in London blamed the revolt on his failure to take firm action earlier, and he was relieved after the heavy losses incurred at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His replacement was Sir William Howe, a member of the Whig faction in Parliament who opposed the policy of coercion advocated by Lord North; Cornwallis, who later surrendered at Yorktown, was one of many senior officers who initially refused to serve in North America.
The 1775 campaign showed the British overestimated the capabilities of their own troops and underestimated the colonial militia, requiring a reassessment of tactics and strategy, and allowing the Patriots to take the initiative. Howe's responsibility is still debated; despite receiving large numbers of reinforcements, Bunker Hill seems to have permanently affected his self-confidence and lack of tactical flexibility meant he often failed to follow up opportunities. Many of his decisions were attributed to supply problems, such as his failure to pursue Washington's beaten army. Having lost the confidence of his subordinates, he was recalled after Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.
Following the failure of the Carlisle Commission, British policy changed from treating the Patriots as subjects who needed to be reconciled to enemies who had to be defeated. In 1778, Howe was replaced by Sir Henry Clinton. Regarded as an expert on tactics and strategy, like his predecessors Clinton was handicapped by chronic supply issues. In addition, Clinton's strategy was compromised by conflict with political superiors in London and his colleagues in North America, especially Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot, replaced in early 1781 by Rodney. He was neither notified nor consulted when Germain approved Cornwallis's invasion of the south in 1781 and delayed sending him reinforcements believing the bulk of Washington's army was still outside New York City. After the surrender at Yorktown, Clinton was relieved by Carleton, whose major task was to oversee the evacuation of Loyalists and British troops from Savannah, Charleston, and New York City.
German troops
During the 18th century, states commonly hired foreign soldiers, including Britain. When it became clear additional troops were needed to suppress the revolt in America, it was decided to employ professional German soldiers. There were several reasons for this, including public sympathy for the Patriot cause, a historical reluctance to expand the British army and the time needed to recruit and train new regiments. Many smaller states in the Holy Roman Empire had a long tradition of renting their armies to the highest bidder. The most important was Hesse-Kassel, known as "the Mercenary State".
The first supply agreements were signed by the North administration in late 1775; 30,000 Germans served in the American War. Often generically referred to as "Hessians", they included men from many other states, including Hanover and Brunswick. Sir Henry Clinton recommended recruiting Russian troops whom he rated very highly, having seen them in action against the Ottomans; however, negotiations with Catherine the Great made little progress.
Unlike previous wars their use led to intense political debate in Britain, France, and even Germany, where Frederick the Great refused to provide passage through his territories for troops hired for the American war. In March 1776, the agreements were challenged in Parliament by Whigs who objected to "coercion" in general, and the use of foreign soldiers to subdue "British subjects". The debates were covered in detail by American newspapers; in May 1776 they received copies of the treaties themselves, provided by British sympathizers and smuggled into North America from London.
The prospect of foreign German soldiers being used in the colonies bolstered support for independence, more so than taxation and other acts combined; the King was accused of declaring war on his own subjects, leading to the idea there were now two separate governments. By apparently showing Britain was determined to go to war, it made hopes of reconciliation seem naive and hopeless, while the employment of what was regarded as "foreign mercenaries" became one of the charges levelled against George III in the Declaration of Independence. The Hessian reputation within Germany for brutality also increased support for the Patriot cause among German American immigrants.
The presence of over 150,000 German Americans meant both sides felt the German soldiers might be persuaded to desert; one reason Clinton suggested employing Russians was that he felt they were less likely to defect. When the first German troops arrived on Staten Island in August 1776, Congress approved the printing of handbills, promising land and citizenship to any willing to join the Patriot cause. The British launched a counter-campaign claiming deserters could be executed. Desertion among the Germans occurred throughout the war, with the highest rate of desertion occurring between the surrender at Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris. German regiments were central to the British war effort; of the estimated 30,000 sent to America, some 13,000 became casualties.
Revolution as civil war
Loyalists
Wealthy Loyalists convinced the British government that most of the colonists were sympathetic toward the Crown; consequently, British military planners relied on recruiting Loyalists, but had trouble recruiting sufficient numbers as the Patriots had widespread support. Approximately 25,000 Loyalists fought for the British throughout the war. Although Loyalists constituted about twenty percent of the colonial population, they were concentrated in distinct communities. Many of them lived among large plantation owners in the Tidewater region and South Carolina.
When the British began probing the backcountry in 1777–1778, they were faced with a major problem: any significant level of organized Loyalist activity required a continued presence of British regulars. The available manpower that the British had in America was insufficient to protect Loyalist territory and counter American offensives. The Loyalist militias in the South were constantly defeated by neighboring Patriot militia. The Patriot victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain irreversibly impaired Loyalist militia capability in the South.
When the early war policy was administered by Howe, the Crown's need to maintain Loyalist support prevented it from using the traditional revolt suppression methods. The British cause suffered when their troops ransacked local homes during an aborted attack on Charleston in 1779 that enraged both Patriots and Loyalists. After Congress rejected the Carlisle Peace Commission in 1778 and Westminster turned to "hard war" during Clinton's command, neutral colonists in the Carolinas often allied with the Patriots. Conversely, Loyalists gained support when Patriots intimidated suspected Tories by destroying property or tarring and feathering.
A Loyalist militia unit—the British Legion—provided some of the best troops in British service. It was commanded by Tarleton and gained a fearsome reputation in the colonies for "brutality and needless slaughter".[better source needed]
Women
Women played various roles during the Revolutionary War; they often accompanied their husbands when permitted. For example, throughout the war Martha Washington was known to visit and provide aid to her husband George at various American camps. Women often accompanied armies as camp followers to sell goods and perform necessary tasks in hospitals and camps, and numbered in the thousands during the war.
Women also assumed military roles: some dressed as men to directly support combat, fight, or act as spies on both sides. Anna Maria Lane joined her husband in the Army. The Virginia General Assembly later cited her bravery: she fought while dressed as a man and "performed extraordinary military services, and received a severe wound at the battle of Germantown ... with the courage of a soldier". On April 26, 1777, Sybil Ludington is said to have ridden to alert militia forces to the British's approach; she has been called the "female Paul Revere". Whether the ride occurred is questioned. A few others disguised themselves as men. Deborah Sampson fought until her gender was discovered and she was discharged as a result; Sally St. Clair was killed in action.
African Americans
When war began, the population of the Thirteen Colonies included an estimated 500,000 slaves, predominantly used as labor on Southern plantations. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation that promised freedom to any Patriot-owned slaves willing to bear arms. Although the announcement helped to fill a temporary manpower shortage, white Loyalist prejudice meant recruits were eventually redirected to non-combatant roles. The Loyalists' motive was to deprive Patriot planters of labor rather than to end slavery; Loyalist-owned slaves were returned.
The 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation issued by Clinton extended the offer of freedom to Patriot-owned slaves throughout the colonies. It persuaded entire families to escape to British lines, many of which were employed growing food for the army by removing the requirement for military service. While Clinton organized the Black Pioneers, he also ensured fugitive slaves were returned to Loyalist owners with orders that they were not to be punished. As the war progressed, service as regular soldiers in British units became increasingly common; Black Loyalists formed two regiments of the Charleston garrison in 1783.
Estimates of the numbers who served the British during the war vary from 25,000 to 50,000, excluding those who escaped during wartime. Thomas Jefferson estimated that Virginia may have lost 30,000 slaves to escapes. In South Carolina, nearly 25,000 slaves (about 30 percent of the enslaved population) either fled, migrated, or died, which significantly disrupted the plantation economies both during and after the war.
Black Patriots were barred from the Continental Army until Washington convinced Congress in January 1778 that there was no other way to replace losses from disease and desertion. The 1st Rhode Island Regiment formed in February included former slaves whose owners were compensated; however, only 140 of its 225 soldiers were Black and recruitment stopped in June 1788. Ultimately, around 5,000 African Americans served in the Continental Army and Navy in a variety of roles, while another 4,000 were employed in Patriot militia units, aboard privateers, or as teamsters, servants, and spies. After the war, a small minority received land grants or Congressional pensions; many others were returned to their masters post-war despite earlier promises of freedom.
As a Patriot victory became increasingly likely, the treatment of Black Loyalists became a point of contention; after the surrender of Yorktown in 1781, Washington insisted all escapees be returned but Cornwallis refused. In 1782 and 1783, around 8,000 to 10,000 freed Blacks were evacuated by the British from Charleston, Savannah, and New York; some moved onto London, while 3,000 to 4,000 settled in Nova Scotia. White Loyalists transported 15,000 enslaved Blacks to Jamaica and the Bahamas. The free Black Loyalists who migrated to the British West Indies included regular soldiers from Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, and those from Charleston who helped garrison the Leeward Islands.
Native Americans
Most Native Americans east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war, and many tribes were divided over how to respond. A few tribes were friendly with the colonists, but most Natives opposed the union of the Colonies as a potential threat to their territory. Approximately 13,000 Natives fought on the British side, with the largest group coming from the Iroquois tribes who deployed around 1,500 men.
Early in July 1776, Cherokee allies of Britain attacked the short-lived Washington District of North Carolina. Their defeat splintered both Cherokee settlements and people, and was directly responsible for the rise of the Chickamauga Cherokee, who perpetuated the Cherokee–American wars against American settlers for decades after hostilities with Britain ended.
Muscogee and Seminole allies of Britain fought against Americans in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1778, a force of 800 Muscogee destroyed American settlements along the Broad River in Georgia. Muscogee warriors also joined Thomas Brown's raids into South Carolina and assisted Britain during the siege of Savannah. Many Native Americans were involved in the fight between Britain and Spain on the Gulf Coast and along the British side of the Mississippi River. Thousands of Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw fought in major battles such as the Battle of Fort Charlotte, the Battle of Mobile, and the siege of Pensacola.
The Iroquois Confederacy was shattered as a result of the American Revolutionary War. The Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga tribes sided with the British; members of the Mohawks fought on both sides; and many Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the Americans. To retaliate against raids on American settlement by Loyalists and their Indian allies, the Continental Army dispatched the Sullivan Expedition throughout New York to debilitate the Iroquois tribes that had sided with the British. Mohawk leaders Joseph Louis Cook and Joseph Brant sided with the Americans and the British respectively, which further exacerbated the split.
In the western theater, conflicts between settlers and Native Americans led to lingering distrust. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Great Britain ceded control of the disputed lands between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, but Native inhabitants were not a part of the peace negotiations. Tribes in the Northwest Territory joined as the Western Confederacy and allied with the British to resist American settlement, and their conflict continued after the Revolutionary War as the Northwest Indian War.
Peace negotiations
The terms presented by the Carlisle Peace Commission in 1778 included acceptance of the principle of self-government. Parliament would recognize Congress as the governing body, suspend any objectionable legislation, surrender its right to local colonial taxation, and discuss including American representatives in the House of Commons. In return, all property confiscated from Loyalists would be returned, British debts honored, and locally enforced martial law accepted. However, Congress demanded either immediate recognition of independence or the withdrawal of all British troops; they knew the commission were not authorized to accept these, bringing negotiations to a rapid end.
On February 27, 1782, a Whig motion to end the offensive war in America was carried by 19 votes. North resigned, obliging the king to invite Lord Rockingham to form a government; a consistent supporter of the Patriot cause, he made a commitment to U.S. independence a condition of doing so. George III reluctantly accepted and the new government took office on March 27, 1782; however, Rockingham died unexpectedly on July 1, and was replaced by Lord Shelburne who acknowledged American independence.
When Lord Rockingham was elevated to Prime Minister, Congress consolidated its diplomatic consuls in Europe into a peace delegation at Paris. The dean of the delegation was Benjamin Franklin. He had become a celebrity in the French Court, but he was also influential in the courts of Prussia and Austria. Since the 1760s, Franklin had been an organizer of British American inter-colony cooperation, and then served as a colonial lobbyist to Parliament in London. John Adams had been consul to the Dutch Republic and was a prominent early New England Patriot. John Jay of New York had been consul to Spain and was a past president of the Continental Congress. As consul to the Dutch Republic, Henry Laurens had secured a preliminary agreement for a trade agreement. Although active in the preliminaries, he was not a signer of the conclusive treaty.
The Whig negotiators included long-time friend of Franklin David Hartley, and Richard Oswald, who had negotiated Laurens' release from the Tower of London. The Preliminary Peace signed on November 30 met four key Congressional demands: independence, territory up to the Mississippi, navigation rights into the Gulf of Mexico, and fishing rights in Newfoundland.
British strategy was to strengthen the U.S. sufficiently to prevent France from regaining a foothold in North America, and they had little interest in these proposals. However, divisions between their opponents allowed them to negotiate separately with each to improve their overall position, starting with the American delegation in September 1782. The French and Spanish sought to improve their position by creating the U.S. dependent on them for support against Britain, thus reversing the losses of 1763. Both parties tried to negotiate a settlement with Britain excluding the Americans; France proposed setting the western boundary of the U.S. along the Appalachians, matching the British 1763 Proclamation Line. The Spanish suggested additional concessions in the vital Mississippi River Basin, but required the cession of Georgia in violation of the Franco-American alliance.
Facing difficulties with Spain over claims involving the Mississippi River, and from France who was still reluctant to agree to American independence until all her demands were met, John Jay told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them, cutting off France and Spain, and Prime Minister Lord Shelburne, in charge of the British negotiations, agreed. Key agreements for the United States in obtaining peace included recognition of US independence; all of the territory east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida and south of Canada; and fishing rights in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The United States and Great Britain were each given perpetual access to the Mississippi River.
An Anglo-American Preliminary Peace was formally entered into in November 1782, and Congress endorsed the settlement on April 15, 1783. It announced the achievement of peace with independence, and the conclusive treaty was signed on September 2, 1783, in Paris, effective the following day when Britain signed its treaty with France. John Adams, who helped draft the treaty, claimed it represented "one of the most important political events that ever happened on the globe". Ratified respectively by Congress and Parliament, the final versions were exchanged in Paris the following spring. On November 25, the last British troops remaining in the U.S. were evacuated from New York to Halifax.
Aftermath
Territory
The expanse of territory that was now the U.S. included millions of sparsely settled acres south of the Great Lakes line between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, much of which was part of Canada. The tentative colonial migration west became a flood during the war.
Britain's extended post-war policy for the U.S. continued to try to establish an Indian barrier state below the Great Lakes as late as 1814 during the War of 1812. The formally acquired western American lands continued to be populated by Indigenous tribes that had mostly been British allies. In practice the British refused to abandon the forts on territory they formally transferred. Instead, they provisioned military allies for continuing frontier raids and sponsored the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795). British sponsorship of local warfare on the U.S. continued until the Anglo-American Jay Treaty, authored by Hamilton, went into effect on February 29, 1796.
Of the European powers with American colonies adjacent to the newly created U.S., Spain was most threatened by American independence, and it was correspondingly the most hostile to it. Its territory adjacent to the U.S. was relatively undefended, so Spanish policy developed a combination of initiatives. Spanish soft power diplomatically challenged the British territorial cession west to the Mississippi River and the previous northern boundaries of Spanish Florida. It imposed a high tariff on American goods, then blocked American settler access to the port of New Orleans. At the same time, the Spanish also sponsored war within the U.S. by Indian proxies in its Southwest Territory ceded by France to Britain, then Britain to the Americans.
Casualties and losses
The total loss of life throughout the conflict is largely unknown. As was typical in wars of the era, diseases such as smallpox claimed more lives than battle. Between 1775 and 1782, a smallpox epidemic throughout North America killed an estimated 130,000. Historian Joseph Ellis suggests that Washington having his troops inoculated against the disease was one of his most important decisions.
Up to 70,000 American Patriots died during active military service. Of these, approximately 6,800 were killed in battle, while at least 17,000 died from disease. The majority of the latter died while prisoners of war of the British, mostly in the prison ships in New York Harbor. The number of Patriots seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been estimated from 8,500 to 25,000.
The French suffered 2,112 killed in combat in the United States. The Spanish lost 124 killed and 247 wounded in West Florida.
A British report in 1781 puts their total Army deaths at 6,046 in North America (1775–1779). Approximately 7,774 Germans died in British service in addition to 4,888 deserters; among those labeled German deserters, however, it is estimated that 1,800 were killed in combat.
Legacy
The American Revolution set an example to overthrow both monarchy and colonial governments. The United States has the world's oldest written constitution, which was used as a model in other countries, sometimes word-for-word. The Revolution inspired revolutions in France, Haiti, Latin America, and elsewhere.
Although the Revolution eliminated many forms of inequality, it did little to change the status of women, despite the role they played in winning independence. Most significantly, it failed to end slavery. While many were uneasy over the contradiction of demanding liberty for some, yet denying it to others, the dependence of southern states on slave labor made abolition too great a challenge. Between 1774 and 1780, many of the states banned the importation of slaves, but the institution itself continued. In 1782, Virginia passed a law permitting manumission and over the next eight years more than 10,000 slaves were given their freedom. The number of abolitionist movements greatly increased, and by 1804 all the northern states had outlawed it. However, slavery continued to be a serious social and political issue and caused divisions that would ultimately end in civil war.
Historiography
The body of historical writings on the American Revolution cite many motivations for the Patriot revolt. American Patriots stressed the denial of their constitutional rights as Englishmen, especially "no taxation without representation." Contemporaries credit the American Enlightenment with laying the intellectual, moral, and ethical foundations for the American Revolution among the Founding Fathers, who were influenced by the classical liberalism of John Locke and other Enlightenment writers and philosophers.
Two Treatises of Government has long been cited as a major influence on Revolutionary-era American thinking, but historians David Lundberg and Henry F. May contend that Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding was far more widely read. Historians since the 1960s have emphasized that the Patriot constitutional argument was made possible by the emergence of an American nationalism that united the Thirteen Colonies. In turn, that nationalism was rooted in a Republican value system that demanded consent of the governed and deeply opposed aristocratic control. In Britain, on the other hand, republicanism was largely a fringe ideology since it challenged the aristocratic control of the British monarchy and political system. Political power was not controlled by an aristocracy or nobility in the 13 colonies; instead, the colonial political system was based on the winners of free elections, which were open at the time to the majority of white men. In analysis of the Revolution, historians in recent decades have often cited three motivations behind it:
- The Atlantic history view places the American story in a broader context, including subsequent revolutions in France and Haiti. It tends to reintegrate the historiographies of the American Revolution and the British Empire.
- The "new social history" approach looks at community social structure to find cleavages that were magnified into colonial cleavages.
- The ideological approach that centers on republicanism in the United States. Republicanism dictated there would be no royalty, aristocracy or national church but allowed for continuation of the British common law, which American lawyers and jurists understood and approved and used in their everyday practice. Historians have examined how the rising American legal profession adopted British common law to incorporate republicanism by selective revision of legal customs and by introducing more choices for courts.
Revolutionary War commemoration stamps
After the first U.S. postage stamp was issued in 1849, the U.S. Postal Service frequently issued commemorative stamps celebrating people and events of the Revolutionary War. The first such stamp was the Liberty Bell issue of 1926.
- Selected issues:
-
The Liberty Bell stamp, issued on the 150th anniversary of American independence in 1926 -
150th anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga stamp featuring Burgoyne's surrender, issued in 1927 -
Washington at prayer at Valley Forge stamp, issued in 1928 -
150th anniversary of the siege of Yorktown stamp featuring Rochambeau, Washington, and de Grasse, issued in 1931
See also
- 1776 in the United States: events, births, deaths, and other years
- Timeline of the American Revolution
Topics of the Revolution
- Committee of safety (American Revolution)
- Diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War
- Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War
- Flags of the American Revolution
- Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War
Social history of the Revolution
- Black Patriot
- Christianity in the United States#American Revolution
- The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution
- History of Poles in the United States#American Revolution
- List of clergy in the American Revolution
- List of Patriots (American Revolution)
- Quakers in the American Revolution
- Scotch-Irish Americans#American Revolution
Others in the American Revolution
- Nova Scotia in the American Revolution
- Watauga Association
Lists of Revolutionary military
- List of American Revolutionary War battles
- List of British Forces in the American Revolutionary War
- List of Continental Forces in the American Revolutionary War
- List of infantry weapons in the American Revolution
- List of United States militia units in the American Revolutionary War
Legacy and related
- American Revolution Statuary
- Commemoration of the American Revolution
- Founders Online
- Independence Day (United States)
- The Last Men of the Revolution
- List of plays and films about the American Revolution
- Museum of the American Revolution
- Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution
- List of wars of independence
- Bibliography of the American Revolutionary War
Notes
- Including the United Colonies period from 1776 to 1781 and the Confederation period from 1781 to 1783.
- Two independent "COR" Regiments, the Congress's Own Regiments, were recruited among British Canadiens. The 1st Canadian Regiment formed by James Livingston of Chambly, Quebec; and the 2nd Canadian Regiment formed by Moses Hazen of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.
- Augustin de La Balme independently marched on Detroit under a French flag with British Canadien militia recruited from western Quebec (Illinois County, Virginia) at the county seat of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes.
- (until 1779)
- Sixty-five percent of Britain's German auxiliaries employed in North America were from Hesse-Kassel (16,000) and Hesse-Hanau (2,422), flying this same flag.
- Twenty percent of Britain's German auxiliaries employed in North America were from Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (5,723), flying this flag.
- The British hired over 30,000 professional soldiers from various German states who served in North America from 1775 to 1782. Commentators and historians often refer to them as mercenaries or auxiliaries, terms that are sometimes used interchangeably.
- (from 1779)
- A cease-fire in North America was proclaimed by Congress on April 11, 1783, under a cease-fire agreement between Great Britain and France on January 20, 1783. The final peace treaty was signed on September 3, 1783, and ratified on January 14, 1784, in the U.S., with final ratification exchanged in Europe on May 12, 1784. Hostilities in India continued until July 1783.
- Arnold served on the American side from 1775 to 1780; after defecting, he served on the British side from 1780 to 1783.
- The total in active duty service for the American Cause during the American Revolutionary War numbered 200,000.
- 5,000 sailors (peak), manning privateers, an additional 55,000 total sailors
- In 1780, General Rochambeau landed in Rhode Island with an independent command of about 6000 troops, and in 1781 Admiral de Grasse landed nearly 4000 troops who were detached to Lafayette's Continental Army surrounding British General Cornwallis in Virginia at Yorktown. An additional 750 French troops participated with the Spanish assault on Pensacola.
- For five months in 1778 from July to November, the French deployed a fleet to assist American operations off of New York, Rhode Island and Savannah commanded by Admiral d'Estaing, with little result. In September 1781, Admiral de Grasse left the West Indies to defeat the British fleet off Virginia at the Battle of the Chesapeake, then offloaded 3,000 troops and siege cannon to support Washington's siege of Yorktown.
- Governor Bernardo de Gálvez deployed 500 Spanish regulars in his New Orleans-based attacks on British-held locations west of the Mississippi River in Spanish Luisiana. In later engagements, Galvez had 800 regulars from New Orleans to assault Mobile, reinforced by infantry from regiments of Jose de Ezpeleta from Havana. In the assault on Pensacola, the Spanish Army contingents from Havana exceeded 9,000. For the final days of the siege at Pensacola siege, Admiral Jose Solano's fleet landed 1,600 crack infantry veterans from that of Gibraltar.
- Admiral Jose Solano's fleet arrived from the Mediterranean Sea to support the Spanish conquest of English Pensacola, West Florida.
- British 121,000 (global 1781) "Of 7,500 men in the Gibraltar garrison in September (including 400 in hospital), some 3,430 were always on duty".
- Royal Navy 94 ships-of-the-line global, 104 frigates global, 37 sloops global, 171,000 sailors
- Contains a detailed listing of American, French, British, German, and Loyalist regiments; indicates when they were raised, the main battles, and what happened to them. Also includes the main warships on both sides, and all the important battles.
- Beyond the 2112 deaths recorded by the French Government fighting for U.S. independence, additional men died fighting Britain in a war waged by France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic from 1778 to 1784, "overseas" from the American Revolution as posited by a British scholar[specify] in his "War of the American Revolution".
- Clodfelter reports that the total deaths among the British and their allies numbered 15,000 killed in battle or died of wounds. These included estimates of 3,000 Germans, 3,000 Loyalists and Canadians, 3,000 lost at sea, and 500 Native Americans killed in battle or died of wounds.
- "Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: ... they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, ...: But, ... we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament, as are bonafide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or external, [without the consent of American subjects]." quoted from the Declarations and Resolves of the First Continental Congress October 14, 1774.
- To learn when and where the attack would occur Washington asked for a volunteer among the Rangers to spy on activity behind enemy lines in Brooklyn. Young Nathan Hale stepped forward, but he was only able to provide Washington with nominal intelligence at that time. On September 21, Hale was recognized in a New York City tavern, and was apprehended with maps and sketches of British fortifications and troop positions in his pockets. Howe ordered that he be summarily hung as a spy without trial the next day.
- Tallmadge's cover name became John Bolton, and he was the architect of the spy ring.
- The American prisoners were subsequently sent to the infamous prison ships in the East River, where more American soldiers and sailors died of disease and neglect than died in every battle of the war combined.
- The mandate came by way of Benjamin Rush, chair of the Medical Committee. Congress had directed that all troops who had not previously survived smallpox infection be inoculated. In explaining himself to state governors, Washington lamented that he had lost "an army" to smallpox in 1776 by the "Natural way" of immunity.
- Bird's expedition numbered 150 British soldiers, several hundred Loyalists, and 700 Shawnee, Wyandot, and Ottawa auxiliaries. The force skirted into the eastern regions of Patriot-conquered western Quebec that had been annexed as Illinois County, Virginia. His target was Virginia militia stationed at Lexington. As they approached downriver on the Ohio River, rumor among the natives spread that the feared Colonel Clark had discovered their approach. Bird's natives and Loyalists abandoned their mission 90 miles upriver to loot settlements at the Licking River. At the surrender of Ruddles Station, safe passage to families was promised, but 200 were massacred by Indian raiders. Grenier maintains that "The slaughter the Indians and rangers perpetrated was unprecedented".
- Most Native Americans living in the area remembered the French better than any of the British they had met. Despite the British military nearby, the Miami people sought to avoid fighting with either Virginian Clark or Frenchman La Balme. On La Balme's horseback advance on Detroit, he paused two weeks to ruin a local French trader and loot surrounding Miami towns. La Balme might have treated them as allies, but he pushed Little Turtle into warrior leadership, converting most Miami tribes into British military allies, and launching the military career of one of the most successful opponents of westward settlement over the next 30 years.
- Governor Bernardo de Gálvez is only one of eight men made honorary US citizens for his service in the American Cause. see Bridget Bowman (29 December 2014). "Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid's Very Good Year". Roll Call. The Economist Group. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- In Nova Scotia, a province that had been a Massachusetts county in the 1600s, British settlement of freed black Loyalists from the American Revolutionary War secured its Canadian claim there. Britain continued its last "Bourbon War" with the French and Spanish primarily amidst their mutually conflicting territorial claims adjacent the Caribbean Sea, including Jamaica, adjacent the Mediterranean Sea including Gibraltar and Isla Mallorca, and adjacent the Indian Ocean during the Second Mysore War.
- Three branches of the United States Military trace their roots to the American Revolutionary War; the Army comes from the Continental Army; the Navy comes from the Continental Navy, appointing Esek Hopkins as the Navy's first commander. The Marine Corps links to the Continental Marines, created by Congress on November 10, 1775.
- Laurens was president of the Second Continental Congress at this time.
- In what was known as the Whaleboat War, American privateers mainly from New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Connecticut attacked and robbed British merchant ships and raided and robbed coastal communities of Long Island reputed to have Loyalist sympathies.
- King George III feared that the war's prospects would make it unlikely he could reclaim the North American colonies. During the later years of the Revolution, the British were drawn into numerous other conflicts about the globe.
- The final elements for US victory over Britain and US independence was assured by direct military intervention from France, as well as ongoing French supply and commercial trade over the final three years of the war.
- On militia see Boatner 1974, p. 707;
Weigley 1973, ch. 2 - For the thirteen years prior to the Anglo-American commercial Jay Treaty of 1796 under President George Washington, the British maintained five forts in New York state: two forts at northern Lake Champlain, and three beginning at Fort Niagara stretching east along Lake Ontario. In the Northwest Territory, they garrisoned Fort Detroit and Fort Michilimackinac.
- There had been native-born Spanish (hidalgo) uprisings in several American colonies during the American Revolution, contesting mercantilist reforms of Carlos III that had removed privileges inherited from the Conquistadors among encomiendas, and they also challenged Jesuit dominance in the Catholic Church there. American ship captains were known to have smuggled banned copies of the Declaration of Independence into Spanish Caribbean ports, provoking Spanish colonial discontent.
- In addition to as many as 30% deaths in port cities, and especially high rates among the closely confined prisoner-of-war ships, scholars have reported large numbers lost among the Mexican population, and large percentage losses among the American Indian along trade routes, Atlantic to Pacific, Eskimo to Aztec.
- If the upper limit of 70,000 is accepted as the total net loss for the Patriots, it would make the conflict proportionally deadlier than the American Civil War. Uncertainty arises from the difficulties in accurately calculating the number of those who succumbed to disease, as it is estimated at least 10,000 died in 1776 alone.
- Elsewhere around the world, the French lost another approximately 5,000 total dead in conflicts 1778–1784.
- During the same time period in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch suffered around 500 total killed, owing to the minor scale of their conflict with Britain.
- British returns in 1783 listed 43,633 rank and file deaths across the British Armed Forces. In the first three years of the Anglo-French War (1778), British list 9,372 soldiers killed in battle across the Americas; and 3,326 in the West Indies (1778–1780). In 1784, a British lieutenant compiled a detailed list of 205 British officers killed in action during British conflicts outside of North America, encompassing Europe, the Caribbean, and the East Indies. Extrapolations based upon this list puts British Army losses in the area of at least 4,000 killed or died of wounds outside of its North American engagements.
- Around 171,000 sailors served in the Royal Navy during British conflicts worldwide 1775–1784; approximately a quarter of whom had been pressed into service. Around 1,240 were killed in battle, while an estimated 18,500 died from disease (1776–1780). The greatest killer at sea was scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. It was not until 1795 that scurvy was eradicated from the Royal Navy after the Admiralty declared lemon juice and sugar were to be issued among the standard daily grog rations of sailors. Around 42,000 sailors deserted worldwide during the era. The impact on merchant shipping was substantial; 2,283 were taken by American privateers. Worldwide 1775–1784, an estimated 3,386 British merchant ships were seized by enemy forces during the war among Americans, French, Spanish, and Dutch.
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The American Revolutionary War April 19 1775 September 3 1783 also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence was an armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army The conflict was fought in North America the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean The war ended with the Treaty of Paris 1783 which resulted in the establishment of the United States of America as an independent nation which was recognized by Great Britain and other nations of the world American Revolutionary WarPart of the American RevolutionClockwise from top left Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the siege of Yorktown Battle of Trenton The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Guilford Court HouseDateApril 19 1775 September 3 1783 8 years 4 months and 15 days Ratification effective May 12 1784LocationEastern North America North Atlantic Ocean the CaribbeanResultAmerican and allied victory Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 Great Britain would not recognize American independence until signing the Treaty of Paris End of the First British EmpireTerritorial changesGreat Britain cedes generally all mainland territories east of the Mississippi River south of the Great Lakes and north of the Floridas to the United States Great Britain cedes Tobago and Senegal to France Great Britain cedes Menorca West Florida and East Florida to Spain BelligerentsPatriots Thirteen Colonies 1775 United Colonies 1775 1776 United States from 1776 List New HampshireMassachusettsRhode IslandConnecticutNew YorkNew JerseyPennsylvaniaDelawareMarylandVirginiaNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaGeorgia France Spain Dutch Republic Great Britain Loyalists Quebec Nova Scotia West Florida East FloridaCombatants Br Canadien Cong rgts Br Canadien mil Fr led Native Americans OneidaTuscaroraCatawbaLenapeChickasawChoctawMohicanMi kmaqAbenakiCherawPedeeLumbeeCombatants German mercenaries auxiliaries Hesse KasselHesse HanauWaldeckBrunswickAnsbachAnhalt Zerbst Hanover Native Americans OnondagaMohawkCayugaSenecaMi kmaqCherokeeOdawaMuscogeeSusquehannockShawneeCommanders and leadersPeyton RandolphJohn HancockBenjamin Franklin George WashingtonHoratio GatesNathanael GreeneHenry KnoxJohn SullivanBenedict Arnold George Rogers ClarkLafayetteRochambeauBernardo de Galvezfull list George IIILord NorthLord Shelburne Lord George GermainThomas GageWilliam HoweHenry ClintonJohn BurgoyneCharles CornwallisBenedict ArnoldHenry HamiltonBanastre Tarletonfull list StrengthUnited States Army and militia 40 000 average Navy 53 frigates and sloopsMarines 2 131 peak State navies 106 ships total France Army 10 800Navy 2 fleets escortsSpain Army 12 000Navy 1 fleet escortsNative Americans UnknownGreat Britain Army 48 000 average most in North AmericaNavy Task force fleets amp blockading squadronsLoyalist troops 25 000 total German troops 29 875 total Native Americans 13 000Casualties and lossesUnited States 178 800 223 800 total dead6 800 killed6 100 wounded17 000 dead from disease25 000 70 000 war dead130 000 dead from smallpoxFrance 2 112 killed East CoastSpain 371 killed W Florida4 000 dead prisonersNative Americans UnknownGreat Britain 8 500 killedGermans 7 774 total dead1 800 killed4 888 desertedLoyalists 7 000 total dead1 700 killed5 300 dead from diseaseNative Americans 500 total dead In 1763 after the British Empire gained dominance in North America following its victory over the French in the Seven Years War tensions and disputes began escalating between the British and the Thirteen Colonies especially following passage of Stamp and Townshend Acts by the British Parliament The British Army responded by seeking to occupy Boston militarily leading to the Boston Massacre on March 5 1770 In mid 1774 with tensions escalating even further between the British Army and the colonies the British Parliament imposed the Intolerable Acts an attempt to disarm Americans leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 the first battles of the Revolutionary War In June 1775 the Second Continental Congress including 56 colonial delegates convened in present day Independence Hall in the colonial capital of Philadelphia incorporating colonial based Patriot militias into one single military the Continental Army and appointing Washington as its commander in chief Two months later in August 1775 the British Parliament declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion In July 1776 the Second Continental Congress embraced and formalized the war passing the Lee Resolution on July 2 and two days later unanimously adopting the Declaration of Independence on July 4 In March 1776 in an early win for the newly formed Continental Army under Washington s command following a successful siege of Boston the Continental Army successfully drove the British Army out of Boston British commander in chief William Howe responded by launching the New York and New Jersey campaign which resulted in Howe s capture of New York City in November Washington responded by clandestinely crossing the Delaware River and winning small but significant victories at Trenton and Princeton In the summer of 1777 as Howe was poised to capture Philadelphia the Continental Congress fled to Baltimore In October 1777 a separate northern British force under the command of John Burgoyne was forced to surrender at Saratoga in an American victory that proved crucial in convincing France and Spain that an independent United States was a viable possibility France signed a commercial agreement with the rebels followed by a Treaty of Alliance in February 1778 In 1779 the Sullivan Expedition undertook a scorched earth campaign against the Iroquois who were largely allied with the British Indian raids on the American frontier however continued to be a problem Also in 1779 Spain allied with France against Great Britain in the Treaty of Aranjuez though Spain did not formally ally with the Americans Howe s replacement Henry Clinton intended to take the war against the Americans into the Southern Colonies Despite some initial success British General Cornwallis was besieged by a Franco American force in Yorktown in September and October 1781 Cornwallis was forced to surrender in October The British wars with France and Spain continued for another two years but fighting largely ceased in North America In the Treaty of Paris ratified on September 3 1783 Great Britain acknowledged the sovereignty and independence of the United States bringing the American Revolutionary War to an end The Treaties of Versailles resolved Great Britain s conflicts with France and Spain and forced Great Britain to cede Tobago Senegal and small territories in India to France and Menorca West Florida and East Florida to Spain Prelude to warMap showing the territorial gains of Great Britain and Spain following the French and Indian War with lands held by the British prior to 1763 in red land gained by Britain in 1763 in pink and lands ceded to the Kingdom of Spain in secret during 1762 in light yellow The French and Indian War part of the wider global conflict known as the Seven Years War ended with the 1763 Peace of Paris which expelled France from their possessions in New France The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was designed to refocus colonial expansion north into Nova Scotia and south into Florida with the Mississippi River as the dividing line between British and Spanish possessions in America Settlement was tightly restricted beyond the 1763 limits and claims west of this line including by Virginia and Massachusetts were rescinded With the exception of Virginia and others deprived of rights to western lands the colonial legislatures agreed on the boundaries but disagreed on where to set them Many settlers resented the restrictions entirely and enforcement required permanent garrisons along the frontier which led to increasingly bitter disputes over who should pay for them Taxation and legislation The huge debt incurred by the Seven Years War and demands from British taxpayers for cuts in government expenditure meant Parliament expected the colonies to fund their own defense The 1763 to 1765 Grenville ministry instructed the Royal Navy to cease trading smuggled goods and enforce customs duties levied in American ports The most important was the 1733 Molasses Act routinely ignored before 1763 it had a significant economic impact since 85 of New England rum exports were manufactured from imported molasses These measures were followed by the Sugar Act and Stamp Act which imposed additional taxes on the colonies to pay for defending the western frontier The taxes proved highly burdensome particularly for the poorer classes and quickly became a source of discontent In July 1765 the Whigs formed the First Rockingham ministry which repealed the Stamp Act and reduced tax on foreign molasses to help the New England economy but re asserted Parliamentary authority in the Declaratory Act However this did little to end the discontent in 1768 a riot started in Boston when the authorities seized the sloop Liberty on suspicion of smuggling Tensions escalated in March 1770 when British troops fired on rock throwing civilians killing five in what became known as the Boston Massacre The Massacre coincided with the partial repeal of the Townshend Acts by the Tory based North Ministry North insisted on retaining duty on tea to enshrine Parliament s right to tax the colonies the amount was minor but ignored the fact it was that very principle Americans found objectionable In April 1772 colonialists staged the first American tax revolt against British royal authority in Weare New Hampshire later referred to as the Pine Tree Riot This would inspire the design of the Pine Tree Flag Tensions escalated following the destruction of a customs vessel in the June 1772 Gaspee Affair then came to a head in 1773 A banking crisis led to the near collapse of the East India Company which dominated the British economy to support it Parliament passed the Tea Act giving it a trading monopoly in the Thirteen Colonies Since most American tea was smuggled by the Dutch the act was opposed by those who managed the illegal trade while being seen as another attempt to impose the principle of taxation by Parliament In December 1773 a group called the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dumped crates of tea into Boston Harbor an event later known as the Boston Tea Party The British Parliament responded by passing the so called Intolerable Acts aimed specifically at Massachusetts although many colonists and members of the Whig opposition considered them a threat to liberty in general This increased sympathy for the Patriot cause locally in the British Parliament and in the London press Break with the British Crown Throughout the 18th century the elected lower houses in the colonial legislatures gradually wrested power from their governors Dominated by smaller landowners and merchants these assemblies now established ad hoc provincial legislatures effectively replacing royal control With the exception of Georgia twelve colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress to agree on a unified response to the crisis Many of the delegates feared that a boycott would result in war and sent a Petition to the King calling for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts After some debate on September 17 1774 Congress endorsed the Massachusetts Suffolk Resolves and on October 20 passed the Continental Association which instituted economic sanctions and a boycott of goods against Britain While denying its authority over internal American affairs a faction led by James Duane and future Loyalist Joseph Galloway insisted Congress recognize Parliament s right to regulate colonial trade Expecting concessions by the North administration Congress authorized the colonial legislatures to enforce the boycott this succeeded in reducing British imports by 97 from 1774 to 1775 However on February 9 Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion and instituted a blockade of the colony In July the Restraining Acts limited colonial trade with the British West Indies and Britain and barred New England ships from the Newfoundland cod fisheries The tension led to a scramble for control of militia stores which each assembly was legally obliged to maintain for defense On April 19 a British attempt to secure the Concord arsenal culminated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord which began the Revolutionary War Political reactions The Committee of Five who were charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence including from left to right John Adams chair Roger Sherman Robert Livingston Thomas Jefferson the Declaration s principal author and Benjamin Franklin After the Patriot victory at Concord moderates in Congress led by John Dickinson drafted the Olive Branch Petition offering to accept royal authority in return for George III mediating in the dispute However since the petition was immediately followed by the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms Colonial Secretary Lord Dartmouth viewed the offer as insincere and refused to present the petition to the king Although constitutionally correct since the monarch could not oppose his own government it disappointed those Americans who hoped he would mediate in the dispute while the hostility of his language annoyed even Loyalist members of Congress Combined with the Proclamation of Rebellion issued on August 23 in response to the Battle at Bunker Hill it ended hopes of a peaceful settlement Backed by the Whigs Parliament initially rejected the imposition of coercive measures by 170 votes fearing an aggressive policy would drive the Americans towards independence However by the end of 1774 the collapse of British authority meant both Lord North and George III were convinced war was inevitable After Boston Gage halted operations and awaited reinforcements the Irish Parliament approved the recruitment of new regiments while allowing Catholics to enlist for the first time Britain also signed a series of treaties with German states to supply additional troops Within a year it had an army of over 32 000 men in America the largest ever sent outside Europe at the time The employment of German soldiers against people viewed as British citizens was opposed by many in Parliament and by the colonial assemblies combined with the lack of activity by Gage opposition to the use of foreign troops allowed the Patriots to take control of the legislatures Declaration of Independence Support for independence was boosted by Thomas Paine s pamphlet Common Sense which was published on January 10 1776 and argued for American self government and was widely reprinted To draft the Declaration of Independence the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five Thomas Jefferson John Adams Benjamin Franklin Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston The declaration was written almost exclusively by Jefferson Identifying inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies as one people the declaration simultaneously dissolved political links with Britain while including a long list of alleged violations of English rights committed by George III This is also one of the first times that the colonies were referred to as United States rather than the more common United Colonies On July 2 Congress voted for independence and published the declaration on July 4 At this point the revolution ceased to be an internal dispute over trade and tax policies and had evolved into a civil war since each state represented in Congress was engaged in a struggle with Britain but also split between American Patriots and American Loyalists Patriots generally supported independence from Britain and a new national union in Congress while Loyalists remained faithful to British rule Estimates of numbers vary one suggestion being the population as a whole was split evenly between committed Patriots committed Loyalists and those who were indifferent Others calculate the split as 40 Patriot 40 neutral 20 Loyalist but with considerable regional variations At the onset of the war the Second Continental Congress realized defeating Britain required foreign alliances and intelligence gathering The Committee of Secret Correspondence was formed for the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain and other parts of the world From 1775 to 1776 the committee shared information and built alliances through secret correspondence as well as employing secret agents in Europe to gather intelligence conduct undercover operations analyze foreign publications and initiate Patriot propaganda campaigns Paine served as secretary while Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane sent to France to recruit military engineers were instrumental in securing French aid in Paris War breaks outEarly engagements The British repulse a Continental Army attack at the Battle of Quebec in December 1775Sergeant William Jasper of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment raises the fort s flag at the Battle of Sullivan s Island in Charleston South Carolina in June 1776 On April 14 1775 Sir Thomas Gage Commander in Chief North America and Governor of Massachusetts received orders to take action against the Patriots He decided to destroy militia ordnance stored at Concord Massachusetts and capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams who were considered the principal instigators of the rebellion The operation was to begin around midnight on April 19 in the hope of completing it before the American Patriots could respond However Paul Revere learned of the plan and notified Captain Parker commander of the Concord militia who prepared to resist The first action of the war commonly referred to as the shot heard round the world was a brief skirmish at Lexington followed by the full scale Battles of Lexington and Concord British troops suffered around 300 casualties before withdrawing to Boston which was then besieged by the militia In May 1775 4 500 British reinforcements arrived under Generals William Howe John Burgoyne and Sir Henry Clinton On June 17 they seized the Charlestown Peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill a frontal assault in which they suffered over 1 000 casualties Dismayed at the costly attack which had gained them little Gage appealed to London for a larger army but instead was replaced as commander by Howe On June 14 1775 Congress took control of Patriot forces outside Boston and Congressional leader John Adams nominated Washington as commander in chief of the newly formed Continental Army On June 16 Hancock officially proclaimed him General and Commander in Chief of the army of the United Colonies He assumed command on July 3 preferring to fortify Dorchester Heights outside Boston rather than assaulting it In early March 1776 Colonel Henry Knox arrived with heavy artillery acquired in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Under cover of darkness on March 5 Washington placed these on Dorchester Heights from where they could fire on the town and British ships in Boston Harbor Fearing another Bunker Hill Howe evacuated the city on March 17 without further loss and sailed to Halifax Nova Scotia while Washington moved south to New York City Beginning in August 1775 American privateers raided towns in Nova Scotia including Saint John Charlottetown and Yarmouth In 1776 John Paul Jones and Jonathan Eddy attacked Canso and Fort Cumberland respectively British officials in Quebec began negotiating with the Iroquois for their support while US envoys urged them to remain neutral Aware of Native American leanings toward the British and fearing an Anglo Indian attack from Canada Congress authorized a second invasion in April 1775 After the defeat at the Battle of Quebec on December 31 the Americans maintained a loose blockade of the city until they retreated on May 6 1776 A second defeat at Trois Rivieres on June 8 ended operations in Quebec British pursuit was initially blocked by American naval vessels on Lake Champlain until victory at Valcour Island on October 11 forced the Americans to withdraw to Fort Ticonderoga while in December an uprising in Nova Scotia sponsored by Massachusetts was defeated at Fort Cumberland These failures impacted public support for the Patriot cause and aggressive anti Loyalist policies in the New England colonies alienated the Canadians In Virginia Dunmore s Proclamation on November 7 1775 promised freedom to any slaves who fled their Patriot masters and agreed to fight for the Crown British forces were defeated at Great Bridge on December 9 and took refuge on British ships anchored near Norfolk When the Third Virginia Convention refused to disband its militia or accept martial law Lord Dunmore ordered the Burning of Norfolk on January 1 1776 The siege of Savage s Old Fields began on November 19 in South Carolina between Loyalist and Patriot militias and the Loyalists were subsequently driven out of the colony in the Snow Campaign Loyalists were recruited in North Carolina to reassert British rule in the South but they were decisively defeated in the Battle of Moore s Creek Bridge A British expedition sent to reconquer South Carolina launched an attack on Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan s Island on June 28 1776 but it failed A shortage of gunpowder led Congress to authorize a naval expedition against the Bahamas to secure ordnance stored there On March 3 1776 an American squadron under the command of Esek Hopkins landed at the east end of Nassau and encountered minimal resistance at Fort Montagu Hopkins troops then marched on Fort Nassau Hopkins had promised governor Montfort Browne and the civilian inhabitants that their lives and property would not be in any danger if they offered no resistance they complied Hopkins captured large stores of powder and other munitions that was so great he had to impress an extra ship in the harbor to transport the supplies back home when he departed on March 17 A month later after a brief skirmish with HMS Glasgow they returned to New London Connecticut the base for American naval operations British New York counter offensive The British used the Narrows connecting Upper and Lower New York Bay to isolate Fort Washington in the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 After regrouping at Halifax in Nova Scotia Howe set sail for New York in June 1776 and began landing troops on Staten Island near the entrance to New York Harbor on July 2 The Americans rejected Howe s informal attempt to negotiate peace on July 30 Washington knew that an attack on the city was imminent and realized that he needed advance information to deal with disciplined British regular troops On August 12 1776 Patriot Thomas Knowlton was ordered to form an elite group for reconnaissance and secret missions Knowlton s Rangers which included Nathan Hale became the Army s first intelligence unit When Washington was driven off Long Island he soon realized that he would need to professionalize military intelligence With aid from Benjamin Tallmadge Washington launched the six man Culper spy ring The efforts of Washington and the Culper Spy Ring substantially increased the effective allocation and deployment of Continental regiments in the field Throughout the war Washington spent more than 10 percent of his total military funds on military intelligence Washington split the Continental Army into positions on Manhattan and across the East River in western Long Island On August 27 at the Battle of Long Island Howe outflanked Washington and forced him back to Brooklyn Heights but he did not attempt to encircle Washington s forces Through the night of August 28 Knox bombarded the British Knowing they were up against overwhelming odds Washington ordered the assembly of a war council on August 29 all agreed to retreat to Manhattan Washington quickly had his troops assembled and ferried them across the East River to Manhattan on flat bottomed freight boats without any losses in men or ordnance leaving General Thomas Mifflin s regiments as a rearguard Howe met with a delegation from the Second Continental Congress at the September Staten Island Peace Conference but it failed to conclude peace largely because the British delegates only had the authority to offer pardons and could not recognize independence On September 15 Howe seized control of New York City when the British landed at Kip s Bay and unsuccessfully engaged the Americans at the Battle of Harlem Heights the following day On October 18 Howe failed to encircle the Americans at the Battle of Pell s Point and the Americans withdrew Howe declined to close with Washington s army on October 28 at the Battle of White Plains and instead attacked a hill that was of no strategic value Washington s retreat isolated his remaining forces and the British captured Fort Washington on November 16 The British victory there amounted to Washington s most disastrous defeat with the loss of 3 000 prisoners The remaining American regiments on Long Island fell back four days later General Henry Clinton wanted to pursue Washington s disorganized army but he was first required to commit 6 000 troops to capture Newport Rhode Island to secure the Loyalist port General Charles Cornwallis pursued Washington but Howe ordered him to halt The outlook following the defeat at Fort Washington appeared bleak for the American cause The reduced Continental Army had dwindled to fewer than 5 000 men and was reduced further when enlistments expired at the end of the year Popular support wavered and morale declined On December 20 1776 the Continental Congress abandoned the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia and moved to Baltimore where it remained until February 27 1777 Loyalist activity surged in the wake of the American defeat especially in New York state In London news of the victorious Long Island campaign was well received with festivities held in the capital Public support reached a peak Strategic deficiencies among Patriot forces were evident Washington divided a numerically weaker army in the face of a stronger one his inexperienced staff misread the military situation and American troops fled in the face of enemy fire The successes led to predictions that the British could win within a year The British established winter quarters in the New York City area and anticipated renewed campaigning the following spring Patriot resurgence Washington Crossing the Delaware an iconic 1851 Emanuel Leutze portrait depicting Washington s covert crossing of the Delaware River on December 25 26 1776James Monroe the last U S president to fight in the Revolutionary War as a Continental Army officer took part in the crossing of the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton alongside George Washington On the night of December 25 26 1776 Washington crossed the Delaware River leading a column of Continental Army troops from today s Bucks County Pennsylvania to today s Mercer County New Jersey in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation Meanwhile the Hessians were involved in numerous clashes with small bands of Patriots and were often aroused by false alarms at night in the weeks before the actual Battle of Trenton By Christmas they were tired while a heavy snowstorm led their commander Colonel Johann Rall to assume no significant attack would occur At daybreak on the 26th the American Patriots surprised and overwhelmed Rall and his troops who lost over 20 killed including Rall while 900 prisoners German cannons and supplies were captured The Battle of Trenton restored the American army s morale reinvigorated the Patriot cause and dispelled their fear of what they regarded as Hessian mercenaries A British attempt to retake Trenton was repulsed at Assunpink Creek on January 2 during the night Washington outmaneuvered Cornwallis then defeated his rearguard in the Battle of Princeton the following day The two victories helped convince the French that the Americans were worthy military allies After his success at Princeton Washington entered winter quarters at Morristown New Jersey where he remained until May and received Congressional direction to inoculate all Patriot troops against smallpox With the exception of a minor skirmishing between the two armies which continued until March Howe made no attempt to attack the Americans British northern strategy fails Saratoga campaign maneuvers and inset the Battles of Saratoga in September and October 1777 The 1776 campaign demonstrated that regaining New England would be a prolonged affair which led to a change in British strategy to isolating the north by taking control of the Hudson River allowing them to focus on the south where Loyalist support was believed to be substantial In December 1776 Howe wrote to the Colonial Secretary Lord Germain proposing a limited offensive against Philadelphia while a second force moved down the Hudson from Canada Burgoyne supplied several alternatives all of which gave him responsibility for the offensive with Howe remaining on the defensive The option selected required him to lead the main force south from Montreal down the Hudson Valley while a detachment under Barry St Leger moved east from Lake Ontario The two would meet at Albany leaving Howe to decide whether to join them Reasonable in principle this did not account for the logistical difficulties involved and Burgoyne erroneously assumed Howe would remain on the defensive Germain s failure to make this clear meant he opted to attack Philadelphia instead With a mixed force of British regulars professional German soldiers and Canadian militia Burgoyne set out on June 14 1777 and captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 5 As General Horatio Gates retreated his troops blocked roads destroyed bridges dammed streams and stripped the area of food This slowed Burgoyne s progress and forced him to send out large foraging expeditions one of more than 700 British troops were captured at the Battle of Bennington on August 16 St Leger moved east and besieged Fort Stanwix despite defeating an American relief force at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6 Burgoyne was abandoned by his Indian allies and withdrew to Quebec on August 22 Now isolated and outnumbered by Gates Burgoyne continued onto Albany rather than retreating to Fort Ticonderoga reaching Saratoga on September 13 He asked Clinton for support while constructing defenses around the town Morale among his troops rapidly declined and an unsuccessful attempt to break past Gates at the Battle of Freeman Farms on September 19 resulted in 600 British casualties When Clinton advised he could not reach them Burgoyne s subordinates advised retreat a reconnaissance in force on October 7 was repulsed by Gates at the Battle of Bemis Heights forcing them back into Saratoga with heavy losses By October 11 all hope of British escape had vanished persistent rain reduced the camp to a squalid hell and supplies were dangerously low Burgoyne capitulated on October 17 around 6 222 soldiers including German forces commanded by General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel surrendered their arms before being taken to Boston where they were to be transported to England After securing additional supplies Howe made another attempt on Philadelphia by landing his troops in Chesapeake Bay on August 24 He now compounded failure to support Burgoyne by missing repeated opportunities to destroy his opponent despite defeating Washington at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11 he then allowed him to withdraw in good order After dispersing an American detachment at Paoli on September 20 Cornwallis occupied Philadelphia on September 26 with the main force of 9 000 under Howe based just to the north at Germantown Washington attacked them on October 4 but was repulsed To prevent Howe s forces in Philadelphia being resupplied by sea the Patriots erected Fort Mifflin and nearby Fort Mercer on the east and west banks of the Delaware respectively and placed obstacles in the river south of the city This was supported by a small flotilla of Continental Navy ships on the Delaware supplemented by the Pennsylvania State Navy commanded by John Hazelwood An attempt by the Royal Navy to take the forts in the October 20 to 22 Battle of Red Bank failed a second attack captured Fort Mifflin on November 16 while Fort Mercer was abandoned two days later when Cornwallis breached the walls His supply lines secured Howe tried to tempt Washington into giving battle but after inconclusive skirmishing at the Battle of White Marsh from December 5 to 8 he withdrew to Philadelphia for the winter On December 19 the Americans followed suit and entered winter quarters at Valley Forge As Washington s domestic opponents contrasted his lack of battlefield success with Gates victory at Saratoga foreign observers such as Frederick the Great were equally impressed with Washington s command at Germantown which demonstrated resilience and determination Over the winter poor conditions supply problems and low morale resulted in 2 000 deaths with another 3 000 unfit for duty due to lack of shoes However Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben took the opportunity to introduce Prussian Army drill and infantry tactics to model companies in each Continental Army regiment who then instructed their home units Despite Valley Forge being only twenty miles away Howe made no effort to attack their camp an action some critics argue could have ended the war Foreign intervention The Battle of Flamborough Head with U S warships in European waters with access to Dutch French and Spanish ports Like his predecessors French foreign minister Vergennes considered the 1763 Peace a national humiliation and viewed the war as an opportunity to weaken Britain He initially avoided open conflict but allowed American ships to take on cargoes in French ports a technical violation of neutrality Vergennes persuaded Louis XVI to secretly fund a government front company to purchase munitions for the Patriots carried in neutral Dutch ships and imported through Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean Many Americans opposed a French alliance fearing to exchange one tyranny for another but this changed after a series of military setbacks in early 1776 As France had nothing to gain from the colonies reconciling with Britain Congress had three choices making peace on British terms continuing the struggle on their own or proclaiming independence guaranteed by France Although the Declaration of Independence had wide public support over 20 of Congressmen voted against an alliance with France Congress agreed to the treaty with reluctance and as the war moved in their favor increasingly lost interest in it Silas Deane was sent to Paris to begin negotiations with Vergennes whose key objectives were replacing Britain as the United States primary commercial and military partner while securing the French West Indies from American expansion These islands were extremely valuable in 1772 the value of sugar and coffee produced by Saint Domingue on its own exceeded that of all American exports combined Talks progressed slowly until October 1777 when British defeat at Saratoga and their apparent willingness to negotiate peace convinced Vergennes only a permanent alliance could prevent the disaster of Anglo American rapprochement Assurances of formal French support allowed Congress to reject the Carlisle Peace Commission and insist on nothing short of complete independence On February 6 1778 France and the United States signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce regulating trade between the two countries followed by a defensive military alliance against Britain the Treaty of Alliance In return for French guarantees of American independence Congress undertook to defend their interests in the West Indies while both sides agreed not to make a separate peace conflict over these provisions would lead to the 1798 to 1800 Quasi War Charles III of Spain was invited to join on the same terms but refused largely due to concerns over the impact of the Revolution on Spanish colonies in the Americas Spain had complained on multiple occasions about encroachment by American settlers into Louisiana a problem that could only get worse once the United States replaced Britain French Admiral d Estaing s joint expedition with Sullivan at the Battle of Rhode Island in August 1778 Although Spain ultimately made important contributions to American success in the Treaty of Aranjuez Charles agreed only to support France s war with Britain outside America in return for help in recovering Gibraltar Menorca and Spanish Florida The terms were confidential since several conflicted with American aims for example the French claimed exclusive control of the Newfoundland cod fisheries a non negotiable for colonies like Massachusetts One less well known impact of this agreement was the abiding American distrust of foreign entanglements the U S would not sign another treaty with France until their NATO agreement of 1949 This was because the US had agreed not to make peace without France while Aranjuez committed France to keep fighting until Spain recovered Gibraltar effectively making it a condition of U S independence without the knowledge of Congress To encourage French participation in the struggle for independence the U S representative in Paris Silas Deane promised promotion and command positions to any French officer who joined the Continental Army Such as Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette whom Congress via Dean appointed a major general on July 31 1777 When the war started Britain tried to borrow the Dutch based Scots Brigade for service in America but pro Patriot sentiment led the States General to refuse Although the Republic was no longer a major power prior to 1774 they still dominated the European carrying trade and Dutch merchants made large profits shipping French supplied munitions to the Patriots This ended when Britain declared war in December 1780 a conflict that proved disastrous to the Dutch economy The British government failed to take into account the strength of the American merchant marine and support from European countries which allowed the colonies to import munitions and continue trading with relative impunity While well aware of this the North administration delayed placing the Royal Navy on a war footing for cost reasons this prevented the institution of an effective blockade Traditional British policy was to employ European land based allies to divert the opposition in 1778 they were diplomatically isolated and faced war on multiple fronts Meanwhile George III had given up on subduing America while Britain had a European war to fight He did not welcome war with France but he held the British victories over France in the Seven Years War as a reason to believe in ultimate victory over France Britain subsequently changed its focus into the Caribbean theater and diverted major military resources away from America Stalemate in the North Continentals repulsing the British at the Battle of Springfield in June 1780 Give em Watts boys At the end of 1777 Howe resigned and was replaced by Sir Henry Clinton on May 24 1778 with French entry into the war he was ordered to consolidate his forces in New York On June 18 the British departed Philadelphia with the reinvigorated Americans in pursuit the Battle of Monmouth on June 28 was inconclusive but boosted Patriot morale That midnight the newly installed Clinton continued his retreat to New York A French naval force under Admiral Charles Henri Hector d Estaing was sent to assist Washington deciding New York was too formidable a target in August they launched a combined attack on Newport with General John Sullivan commanding land forces The resulting Battle of Rhode Island was indecisive badly damaged by a storm the French withdrew to avoid risking their ships Further activity was limited to British raids on Chestnut Neck and Little Egg Harbor in October In July 1779 the Americans captured British positions at Stony Point and Paulus Hook Clinton unsuccessfully tried to tempt Washington into a decisive engagement by sending General William Tryon to raid Connecticut In July a large American naval operation the Penobscot Expedition attempted to retake Maine but was defeated Persistent Iroquois raids in New York and Pennsylvania led to the punitive Sullivan Expedition from July to September 1779 Involving more than 4 000 patriot soldiers the scorched earth campaign destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages and 160 000 bushels 4 000 mts of maize leaving the Iroquois destitute and destroying the Iroquois confederacy as an independent power on the American frontier However 5 000 Iroquois fled to Canada where supplied and supported by the British they continued their raids During the winter of 1779 1780 the Continental Army suffered greater hardships than at Valley Forge Morale was poor public support fell away the Continental dollar was virtually worthless the army was plagued with supply problems desertion was common and mutinies occurred in the Pennsylvania Line and New Jersey Line regiments over the conditions In June 1780 Clinton sent 6 000 men under Wilhelm von Knyphausen to retake New Jersey but they were halted by local militia at the Battle of Connecticut Farms although the Americans withdrew Knyphausen felt he was not strong enough to engage Washington s main force and retreated A second attempt two weeks later ended in a British defeat at the Battle of Springfield effectively ending their ambitions in New Jersey In July Washington appointed Benedict Arnold commander of West Point his attempt to betray the fort to the British failed due to incompetent planning and the plot was revealed when his British contact John Andre was captured and executed Arnold escaped to New York and switched sides an action justified in a pamphlet addressed To the Inhabitants of America the Patriots condemned his betrayal while he found himself almost as unpopular with the British War in the South The British siege of Charleston in May 1780The Continental Army routs the British Legion at the Battle of Cowpens in Cowpens South Carolina in January 1781 The Southern Strategy was developed by Lord Germain based on input from London based Loyalists including Joseph Galloway They argued that it made no sense to fight the Patriots in the north where they were strongest while the New England economy was reliant on trade with Britain On the other hand duties on tobacco made the South far more profitable for Britain while local support meant securing it required small numbers of regular troops Victory would leave a truncated United States facing British possessions to the south north and west with the Atlantic seaboard controlled by the Royal Navy Congress would be forced to agree to terms However assumptions about the level of Loyalist support proved wildly optimistic Germain ordered Augustine Prevost the British commander in East Florida to advance into Georgia in December 1778 Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell an experienced officer captured Savannah on December 29 1778 He recruited a Loyalist militia of nearly 1 100 many of whom allegedly joined only after Campbell threatened to confiscate their property Poor motivation and training made them unreliable troops as demonstrated in their defeat by Patriot militia at the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14 1779 although this was offset by British victory at Brier Creek on March 3 In June 1779 Prevost launched an abortive assault on Charleston before retreating to Savannah an operation notorious for widespread looting by British troops that enraged both Loyalists and Patriots In October a joint French and American operation under d Estaing and General Benjamin Lincoln failed to recapture Savannah Prevost was replaced by Lord Cornwallis who assumed responsibility for Germain s strategy he soon realized estimates of Loyalist support were considerably over stated and he needed far more regular forces Reinforced by Clinton Cornwallis s troops captured Charleston in May 1780 inflicting the most serious Patriot defeat of the war over 5 000 prisoners were taken and the Continental Army in the south effectively destroyed On May 29 Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton s mainly Loyalist force routed a Continental Army force nearly three times its size under Colonel Abraham Buford at the Battle of Waxhaws The battle is controversial for allegations of a massacre which were later used as a recruiting tool by the Patriots Clinton returned to New York leaving Cornwallis to oversee the south despite their success the two men left barely on speaking terms The Southern strategy depended on local support but this was undermined by a series of coercive measures Previously captured Patriots were sent home after swearing not to take up arms against the king they were now required to fight their former comrades while the confiscation of Patriot owned plantations led formerly neutral grandees to side with them Skirmishes at Williamson s Plantation Cedar Springs Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock signaled widespread resistance to the new oaths throughout South Carolina In July 1780 Congress appointed Gates commander in the south he was defeated at the Battle of Camden on August 16 leaving Cornwallis free to enter North Carolina Despite battlefield success the British could not control the countryside and Patriot attacks continued before moving north Cornwallis sent Loyalist militia under Major Patrick Ferguson to cover his left flank leaving their forces too far apart to provide mutual support In early October Ferguson was defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain dispersing organized Loyalist resistance in the region Despite this Cornwallis continued into North Carolina hoping for Loyalist support while Washington replaced Gates with General Nathanael Greene in December 1780 Greene divided his army leading his main force southeast pursued by Cornwallis a detachment was sent southwest under Daniel Morgan who defeated Tarleton s British Legion at Cowpens on January 17 1781 nearly eliminating it as a fighting force The Patriots now held the initiative in the south with the exception of a raid on Richmond led by Benedict Arnold in January 1781 Greene led Cornwallis on a series of countermarches around North Carolina by early March the British were exhausted and short of supplies and Greene felt strong enough to fight the Battle of Guilford Court House on March 15 Although victorious Cornwallis suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Wilmington North Carolina seeking supplies and reinforcements The Patriots now controlled most of the Carolinas and Georgia outside the coastal areas after a minor reversal at the Battle of Hobkirk s Hill they recaptured Fort Watson and Fort Motte on April 15 On June 6 Brigadier General Andrew Pickens captured Augusta leaving the British in Georgia confined to Charleston and Savannah The assumption Loyalists would do most of the fighting left the British short of troops and battlefield victories came at the cost of losses they could not replace Despite halting Greene s advance at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8 Cornwallis withdrew to Charleston with little to show for his campaign Western campaign Province of Quebec Governor Henry Hamilton surrenders to Colonel George Rogers Clark at Vincennes in July 1779 From the beginning of the war Bernardo de Galvez the Governor of Spanish Louisiana allowed the Americans to import supplies and munitions into New Orleans then ship them to Pittsburgh This provided an alternative transportation route for the Continental Army bypassing the British blockade of the Atlantic Coast In February 1778 an expedition of militia to destroy British military supplies in settlements along the Cuyahoga River was halted by adverse weather Later in the year a second campaign was undertaken to seize the Illinois Country from the British Virginia militia Canadien settlers and Indian allies commanded by Colonel George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia on July 4 and then secured Vincennes though Vincennes was recaptured by Quebec Governor Henry Hamilton The Spanish aligned fur trader Francis Vigo an American sympathizer alerted Clark to the threat posed to his control of the west by Hamilton s position and in early 1779 the Virginians counter attacked in the siege of Fort Vincennes and took Hamilton prisoner Clark secured western British Quebec as the American Northwest Territory in the Treaty of Paris as the Revolutionary War came to an end When Spain joined France s war against Britain in the Anglo French War in 1779 their treaty specifically excluded Spanish military action in North America Later that year however Galvez initiated offensive operations against British outposts First he cleared British garrisons in Baton Rouge Louisiana Fort Bute and Natchez Mississippi and captured five forts In doing so Galvez opened navigation on the Mississippi River north to the American settlement in Pittsburgh On May 25 1780 British Colonel Henry Bird invaded Kentucky as part of a wider operation to clear American resistance from Quebec to the Gulf Coast Their advance on New Orleans was repelled by Spanish Governor Galvez s offensive on Mobile Simultaneous British attacks were repulsed on St Louis by the Spanish Lieutenant Governor de Leyba and on the Virginia County courthouse in Cahokia Illinois by Lieutenant Colonel Clark The British initiative under Bird from Detroit was ended at the rumored approach of Clark The scale of violence in the Licking River Valley was extreme even for frontier standards It led to English and German settlements who joined Clark s militia when the British and their hired German soldiers withdrew to the Great Lakes The Americans responded with a major offensive along the Mad River in August which met with some success in the Battle of Piqua but did not end Indian raids French soldier Augustin de La Balme led a Canadian militia in an attempt to capture Detroit but they dispersed when Miami natives led by Little Turtle attacked the encamped settlers on November 5 The war in the west stalemated with the British garrison sitting in Detroit and the Virginians expanding westward settlements north of the Ohio River in the face of British allied Indian resistance In 1781 Galvez and Pollock campaigned east along the Gulf Coast to secure West Florida including British held Mobile and Pensacola The Spanish operations impaired the British supply of armaments to British Indian allies which effectively suspended a military alliance to attack settlers between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains In 1782 large scale retaliations between settlers and Native Americans in the region included the Gnadenhutten massacre and the Crawford expedition The 1782 Battle of Blue Licks was one of the last major engagements of the war News of the treaty between Great Britain and the United States arrived late that year By this time about 7 of Kentucky settlers had been killed in battles against Native Americans contrasted with 1 of the population killed in the Thirteen Colonies Lingering resentments led to continued fighting in the west after the war officially ended British defeat A French Navy fleet left engages the British in the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5 1781British general Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown in October 1781 Clinton spent most of 1781 based in New York City he failed to construct a coherent operational strategy partly due to his difficult relationship with Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot In Charleston Cornwallis independently developed an aggressive plan for a campaign in Virginia which he hoped would isolate Greene s army in the Carolinas and cause the collapse of Patriot resistance in the South This strategy was approved by Lord Germain in London but neither informed Clinton Washington and Rochambeau discussed their options Washington wanted to attack the British in New York and Rochambeau wanted to attack them in Virginia where Cornwallis s forces were less established Washington eventually gave way and Lafayette took a combined Franco American force into Virginia Clinton misinterpreted his movements as preparations for an attack on New York and instructed Cornwallis to establish a fortified sea base where the Royal Navy could evacuate British troops to help defend New York When Lafayette entered Virginia Cornwallis complied with Clinton s orders and withdrew to Yorktown where he constructed strong defenses and awaited evacuation An agreement by the Spanish Navy to defend the French West Indies allowed Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse to relocate to the Atlantic seaboard a move Arbuthnot did not anticipate This provided Lafayette naval support while the failure of previous combined operations at Newport and Savannah meant their coordination was planned more carefully Despite repeated urging from his subordinates Cornwallis made no attempt to engage Lafayette before he could establish siege lines Expecting to be withdrawn within a few days he also abandoned the outer defenses which were promptly occupied by the besiegers and hastened British defeat On August 31 a Royal Navy fleet under Thomas Graves left New York for Yorktown After landing troops and munitions for the besiegers on August 30 de Grasse remained in Chesapeake Bay and intercepted him on September 5 although the Battle of the Chesapeake was indecisive in terms of losses Graves was forced to retreat leaving Cornwallis isolated An attempted breakout over York River at Gloucester Point failed due to bad weather Under heavy bombardment with dwindling supplies on October 16 Cornwallis sent emissaries to General Washington to negotiate surrender after twelve hours of negotiations the terms of surrender were finalized the following day Responsibility for defeat was the subject of fierce public debate between Cornwallis Clinton and Germain Clinton ultimately took most of the blame and spent the rest of his life in relative obscurity Subsequent to Yorktown American forces were assigned to supervise the armistice between Washington and Clinton made to facilitate British departure following the January 1782 law of Parliament forbidding any further British offensive action in North America British American negotiations in Paris led to signed preliminary agreements in November 1782 which acknowledged U S independence The enacted Congressional war objective a British withdrawal from North America and cession of these regions to the U S was completed in stages in East Coast cities In the U S South Generals Greene and Wayne observed the British remove their troops from Charleston on December 14 1782 Loyalist provincial militias of whites and free Blacks and Loyalists with slaves were transported to Nova Scotia and the British West Indies Native American allies of the British and some freed Blacks were left to escape unaided through the American lines On April 9 1783 Washington issued orders that all acts of hostility were to cease immediately That same day by arrangement with Washington Carleton issued a similar order to British troops As directed by a Congressional resolution of May 26 1783 all non commissioned officers and enlisted were furloughed to their homes until the definitive treaty of peace when they would be automatically discharged The U S armies were directly disbanded in the field as of Washington s General Orders on June 2 1783 Once the Treaty of Paris was signed with Britain on September 3 1783 Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army The last British occupation of New York City ended on November 25 1783 with the departure of Clinton s replacement General Sir Guy Carleton Strategy and commandersA map of principal campaigns in the American Revolutionary War with British movements in red and American movements in blue the timeline shows the British won most battles in the war s first half but Americans won the most in the second To win their insurrection Washington and the Continental Army needed to outlast the British will to fight To restore British America the British had to defeat the Continental Army quickly and compel the Second Continental Congress to retract its claim to self governance Historian Terry M Mays of The Citadel identifies three separate types of warfare during the Revolutionary War The first was a colonial conflict in which objections to imperial trade regulation were as significant as taxation policy The second was a civil war between American Patriots American Loyalists and those who preferred to remain neutral Particularly in the south many battles were fought between Patriots and Loyalists with no British involvement leading to divisions that continued after independence was achieved The third element was a global war between France Spain the Dutch Republic and Britain with America serving as one of several different war theaters After entering the Revolutionary War in 1778 France provided the Americans money weapons soldiers and naval assistance while French troops fought under U S command in North America While Spain did not formally join the war in America they provided access to the Mississippi River and captured British possessions on the Gulf of Mexico that denied bases to the Royal Navy retook Menorca and besieged Gibraltar in Europe Although the Dutch Republic was no longer a major power prior to 1774 they still dominated the European carrying trade and Dutch merchants made large profits by shipping French supplied munitions to the Patriots This ended when Britain declared war in December 1780 and the conflict proved disastrous to the Dutch economy American strategy The Second Continental Congress stood to benefit if the Revolution evolved into a protracted war Colonial state populations were largely prosperous and depended on local production for food and supplies rather than on imports from Britain The thirteen colonies were spread across most of North American Atlantic seaboard stretching 1 000 miles Most colonial farms were remote from the seaports and control of four or five major ports did not give Britain control over American inland areas Each state had established internal distribution systems Motivation was also a major asset each colonial capital had its own newspapers and printers and the Patriots enjoyed more popular support than the Loyalists Britain hoped that the Loyalists would do much of the fighting but found that the Loyalists did not engage as significantly as they had hoped Continental Army A 1776 portrait of Washington by Charles Willson Peale now housed in the Brooklyn Museum When the Revolutionary War began the Second Continental Congress lacked a professional army or navy However each of the colonies had a long established system of local militia which were combat tested in support of British regulars in the French and Indian War The colonial state legislatures independently funded and controlled their local militias Militiamen were lightly armed had little training and usually did not have uniforms Their units served for only a few weeks or months at a time and lacked the training and discipline of more experienced soldiers Local county militias were reluctant to travel far from home and were unavailable for extended operations To compensate for this the Continental Congress established a regular force known as the Continental Army on June 14 1775 which proved to be the origin of the modern United States Army and appointed Washington as its commander in chief However it suffered significantly from the lack of an effective training program and from largely inexperienced officers Each state legislature appointed officers for both county and state militias and their regimental Continental line officers although Washington was required to accept Congressional appointments he was permitted to choose and command his own generals such as Greene his chief of artillery Knox and Alexander Hamilton the chief of staff One of Washington s most successful general officer recruits was Steuben a veteran of the Prussian general staff who wrote the Revolutionary War Drill Manual The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress and Washington used both his regulars and state militias throughout the war when properly employed the combination allowed them to overwhelm smaller British forces as they did in battles at Concord Boston Bennington and Saratoga Both sides used partisan warfare but the state militias effectively suppressed Loyalist activity when British regulars were not in the area Washington designed the overall military strategy in cooperation with Congress established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs personally recruited his senior officer corps and kept the states focused on a common goal Washington initially employed the inexperienced officers and untrained troops in Fabian strategies rather than risk frontal assaults against Britain s professional forces Over the course of the war Washington lost more battles than he won but he never surrendered his troops and maintained a fighting force in the face of British field armies By prevailing European standards the armies in America were relatively small limited by lack of supplies and logistics The British were constrained by the logistical difficulty of transporting troops across the Atlantic and their dependence on local supplies Washington never directly commanded more than 17 000 men and the combined Franco American army in the decisive American victory at Yorktown was only about 19 000 At the beginning of 1776 Patriot forces consisted of 20 000 men with two thirds in the Continental Army and the other third in the state militias About 250 000 American men served as regulars or as militia for the revolutionary cause during the war but there were never more than 90 000 men under arms at any time On the whole American officers never equaled their British opponents in tactics and maneuvers and they lost most of the pitched battles The great successes at Boston 1776 Saratoga 1777 and Yorktown 1781 were won by trapping the British far from base with a greater number of troops After 1778 Washington s army was transformed into a more disciplined and effective force mostly as a product of Baron von Steuben s military training Immediately after the Continental Army emerged from Valley Forge in June 1778 it proved its ability to match the military capabilities of the British at the Battle of Monmouth including a Black Rhode Island regiment fending off a British bayonet attack and then counter charging the British for the first time as part of Washington s army After the Battle of Monmouth Washington came to realize that saving entire towns was not necessary but preserving his army and keeping the revolutionary spirit alive was more important Washington informed Henry Laurens then president of the Second Continental Congress that the possession of our towns while we have an army in the field will avail them little Although the Continental Congress was responsible for the war effort and provided supplies to the troops Washington took it upon himself to pressure Congress and the state legislatures to provide the essentials of war there was never nearly enough Congress evolved in its committee oversight and established the Board of War which included members of the military Because the Board of War was also a committee ensnared with its own internal procedures Congress also created the post of Secretary of War appointing Major General Benjamin Lincoln to the position in February 1781 Washington worked closely with Lincoln to coordinate civilian and military authorities and took charge of training and supplying the army Continental Navy USS Ranger commanded by Captain John Paul Jones During the first summer of the war Washington began outfitting schooners and other small seagoing vessels to prey on ships supplying the British in Boston The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Navy on October 13 1775 and appointed Esek Hopkins as its first commander for most of the war the Continental Navy included only a handful of small frigates and sloops supported by privateers On November 10 1775 Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Marines which ultimately evolved into the United States Marine Corps John Paul Jones became the first American naval hero when he captured HMS Drake on April 24 1778 the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters The last such victory was by the frigate USS Alliance commanded by Captain John Barry On March 10 1783 the Alliance outgunned HMS Sybil in a 45 minute duel while escorting Spanish gold from Havana to the Congress in Philadelphia After Yorktown all US Navy ships were sold or given away it was the first time in America s history that it had no fighting forces on the high seas Congress primarily commissioned privateers to reduce costs and to take advantage of the large proportion of colonial sailors found in the British Empire In total they included 1 700 ships that successfully captured 2 283 enemy ships to damage the British effort and to enrich themselves with the proceeds from the sale of cargo and the ship itself About 55 000 sailors served aboard American privateers during the war France At the beginning of the war the Americans had no major international allies since most nation states waited to see how the conflict unfolded Over time the Continental Army established its military credibility Battles such as the Battle of Bennington the Battles of Saratoga and even defeats such as the Battle of Germantown proved decisive in gaining the support of powerful European nations including France Spain and the Dutch Republic the Dutch moved from covertly supplying the Americans with weapons and supplies to overtly supporting them The decisive American victory at Saratoga convinced France which was already a long time rival of Britain to offer the Americans the Treaty of Amity and Commerce The two nations also agreed to a defensive Treaty of Alliance to protect their trade and also guaranteed American independence from Britain To engage the United States as a French ally militarily the treaty was conditioned on Britain initiating a war on France to stop it from trading with the U S Spain and the Dutch Republic were invited to join by both France and the United States in the treaty but neither was responsive to the request On June 13 1778 France declared war on Great Britain and it invoked the French military alliance with the U S which ensured additional U S private support for French possessions in the Caribbean Washington worked closely with the soldiers and navy that France would send to America primarily through Lafayette on his staff French assistance made critical contributions required to defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 British strategy The British military had considerable experience fighting in North America However in previous conflicts they benefited from local logistics and support from the colonial militia In the American Revolutionary War reinforcements had to come from Europe and maintaining large armies over such distances was extremely complex ships could take three months to cross the Atlantic and orders from London were often outdated by the time they arrived Prior to the conflict the colonies were largely autonomous economic and political entities with no centralized area of ultimate strategic importance This meant that unlike Europe where the fall of a capital city often ended wars that in America continued even after the loss of major settlements such as Philadelphia the seat of Congress New York and Charleston British power was reliant on the Royal Navy whose dominance allowed them to resupply their own expeditionary forces while preventing access to enemy ports However the majority of the American population was agrarian rather than urban supported by the French navy and blockade runners based in the Dutch Caribbean their economy was able to survive Lord North Prime Minister since 1770 delegated control of the war in North America to Lord George Germain and the Earl of Sandwich who was head of the Royal Navy from 1771 to 1782 Defeat at Saratoga in 1777 made it clear the revolt would not be easily suppressed especially after the Franco American alliance of February 1778 With Spain also expected to join the conflict the Royal Navy needed to prioritize either the war in America or in Europe Germain advocated the former Sandwich the latter North initially backed the Southern strategy attempting to exploit divisions between the mercantile north and slave owning south but after the defeat of Yorktown he was forced to accept that this policy had failed It was clear the war was lost although the Royal Navy forced the French to relocate their fleet to the Caribbean in November 1781 and resumed a close blockade of American trade The resulting economic damage and rising inflation meant the US was now eager to end the war while France was unable to provide further loans Congress could no longer pay its soldiers The geographical size of the colonies and limited manpower meant the British could not simultaneously conduct military operations and occupy territory without local support Debate persists over whether their defeat was inevitable one British statesman described it as like trying to conquer a map While Ferling argues Patriot victory was nothing short of a miracle Ellis suggests the odds always favored the Americans especially after Howe squandered the chance of a decisive British success in 1776 an opportunity that would never come again The US military history speculates the additional commitment of 10 000 fresh troops in 1780 would have placed British victory within the realm of possibility British Army Sir Thomas Gage British Army Commander from 1763 to 1775 The expulsion of France from North America in 1763 led to a drastic reduction in British troop levels in the colonies in 1775 there were only 8 500 regular soldiers among a civilian population of 2 8 million The bulk of military resources in the Americas were focused on defending sugar islands in the Caribbean Jamaica alone generated more revenue than all thirteen American colonies combined With the end of the Seven Years War the permanent army in Britain was also cut back which resulted in administrative difficulties when the war began a decade later Over the course of the war there were four separate British commanders in chief The first was Thomas Gage appointed in 1763 whose initial focus was establishing British rule in former French areas of Canada Many in London blamed the revolt on his failure to take firm action earlier and he was relieved after the heavy losses incurred at the Battle of Bunker Hill His replacement was Sir William Howe a member of the Whig faction in Parliament who opposed the policy of coercion advocated by Lord North Cornwallis who later surrendered at Yorktown was one of many senior officers who initially refused to serve in North America The 1775 campaign showed the British overestimated the capabilities of their own troops and underestimated the colonial militia requiring a reassessment of tactics and strategy and allowing the Patriots to take the initiative Howe s responsibility is still debated despite receiving large numbers of reinforcements Bunker Hill seems to have permanently affected his self confidence and lack of tactical flexibility meant he often failed to follow up opportunities Many of his decisions were attributed to supply problems such as his failure to pursue Washington s beaten army Having lost the confidence of his subordinates he was recalled after Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga Following the failure of the Carlisle Commission British policy changed from treating the Patriots as subjects who needed to be reconciled to enemies who had to be defeated In 1778 Howe was replaced by Sir Henry Clinton Regarded as an expert on tactics and strategy like his predecessors Clinton was handicapped by chronic supply issues In addition Clinton s strategy was compromised by conflict with political superiors in London and his colleagues in North America especially Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot replaced in early 1781 by Rodney He was neither notified nor consulted when Germain approved Cornwallis s invasion of the south in 1781 and delayed sending him reinforcements believing the bulk of Washington s army was still outside New York City After the surrender at Yorktown Clinton was relieved by Carleton whose major task was to oversee the evacuation of Loyalists and British troops from Savannah Charleston and New York City German troops Hessian troops surrender after Washington s victory at the Battle of Trenton in December 1776 During the 18th century states commonly hired foreign soldiers including Britain When it became clear additional troops were needed to suppress the revolt in America it was decided to employ professional German soldiers There were several reasons for this including public sympathy for the Patriot cause a historical reluctance to expand the British army and the time needed to recruit and train new regiments Many smaller states in the Holy Roman Empire had a long tradition of renting their armies to the highest bidder The most important was Hesse Kassel known as the Mercenary State The first supply agreements were signed by the North administration in late 1775 30 000 Germans served in the American War Often generically referred to as Hessians they included men from many other states including Hanover and Brunswick Sir Henry Clinton recommended recruiting Russian troops whom he rated very highly having seen them in action against the Ottomans however negotiations with Catherine the Great made little progress Unlike previous wars their use led to intense political debate in Britain France and even Germany where Frederick the Great refused to provide passage through his territories for troops hired for the American war In March 1776 the agreements were challenged in Parliament by Whigs who objected to coercion in general and the use of foreign soldiers to subdue British subjects The debates were covered in detail by American newspapers in May 1776 they received copies of the treaties themselves provided by British sympathizers and smuggled into North America from London The prospect of foreign German soldiers being used in the colonies bolstered support for independence more so than taxation and other acts combined the King was accused of declaring war on his own subjects leading to the idea there were now two separate governments By apparently showing Britain was determined to go to war it made hopes of reconciliation seem naive and hopeless while the employment of what was regarded as foreign mercenaries became one of the charges levelled against George III in the Declaration of Independence The Hessian reputation within Germany for brutality also increased support for the Patriot cause among German American immigrants The presence of over 150 000 German Americans meant both sides felt the German soldiers might be persuaded to desert one reason Clinton suggested employing Russians was that he felt they were less likely to defect When the first German troops arrived on Staten Island in August 1776 Congress approved the printing of handbills promising land and citizenship to any willing to join the Patriot cause The British launched a counter campaign claiming deserters could be executed Desertion among the Germans occurred throughout the war with the highest rate of desertion occurring between the surrender at Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris German regiments were central to the British war effort of the estimated 30 000 sent to America some 13 000 became casualties Revolution as civil warLoyalists American Patriots routed Loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780 raising Patriot morale Wealthy Loyalists convinced the British government that most of the colonists were sympathetic toward the Crown consequently British military planners relied on recruiting Loyalists but had trouble recruiting sufficient numbers as the Patriots had widespread support Approximately 25 000 Loyalists fought for the British throughout the war Although Loyalists constituted about twenty percent of the colonial population they were concentrated in distinct communities Many of them lived among large plantation owners in the Tidewater region and South Carolina When the British began probing the backcountry in 1777 1778 they were faced with a major problem any significant level of organized Loyalist activity required a continued presence of British regulars The available manpower that the British had in America was insufficient to protect Loyalist territory and counter American offensives The Loyalist militias in the South were constantly defeated by neighboring Patriot militia The Patriot victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain irreversibly impaired Loyalist militia capability in the South When the early war policy was administered by Howe the Crown s need to maintain Loyalist support prevented it from using the traditional revolt suppression methods The British cause suffered when their troops ransacked local homes during an aborted attack on Charleston in 1779 that enraged both Patriots and Loyalists After Congress rejected the Carlisle Peace Commission in 1778 and Westminster turned to hard war during Clinton s command neutral colonists in the Carolinas often allied with the Patriots Conversely Loyalists gained support when Patriots intimidated suspected Tories by destroying property or tarring and feathering A Loyalist militia unit the British Legion provided some of the best troops in British service It was commanded by Tarleton and gained a fearsome reputation in the colonies for brutality and needless slaughter better source needed Women Nancy Hart single handedly captured six Loyalist soldiers who barged into her home intending to ransack it Women played various roles during the Revolutionary War they often accompanied their husbands when permitted For example throughout the war Martha Washington was known to visit and provide aid to her husband George at various American camps Women often accompanied armies as camp followers to sell goods and perform necessary tasks in hospitals and camps and numbered in the thousands during the war Women also assumed military roles some dressed as men to directly support combat fight or act as spies on both sides Anna Maria Lane joined her husband in the Army The Virginia General Assembly later cited her bravery she fought while dressed as a man and performed extraordinary military services and received a severe wound at the battle of Germantown with the courage of a soldier On April 26 1777 Sybil Ludington is said to have ridden to alert militia forces to the British s approach she has been called the female Paul Revere Whether the ride occurred is questioned A few others disguised themselves as men Deborah Sampson fought until her gender was discovered and she was discharged as a result Sally St Clair was killed in action African Americans Continental Army soldiers including one from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment on the left When war began the population of the Thirteen Colonies included an estimated 500 000 slaves predominantly used as labor on Southern plantations In November 1775 Lord Dunmore the royal governor of Virginia issued a proclamation that promised freedom to any Patriot owned slaves willing to bear arms Although the announcement helped to fill a temporary manpower shortage white Loyalist prejudice meant recruits were eventually redirected to non combatant roles The Loyalists motive was to deprive Patriot planters of labor rather than to end slavery Loyalist owned slaves were returned The 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation issued by Clinton extended the offer of freedom to Patriot owned slaves throughout the colonies It persuaded entire families to escape to British lines many of which were employed growing food for the army by removing the requirement for military service While Clinton organized the Black Pioneers he also ensured fugitive slaves were returned to Loyalist owners with orders that they were not to be punished As the war progressed service as regular soldiers in British units became increasingly common Black Loyalists formed two regiments of the Charleston garrison in 1783 Estimates of the numbers who served the British during the war vary from 25 000 to 50 000 excluding those who escaped during wartime Thomas Jefferson estimated that Virginia may have lost 30 000 slaves to escapes In South Carolina nearly 25 000 slaves about 30 percent of the enslaved population either fled migrated or died which significantly disrupted the plantation economies both during and after the war Black Patriots were barred from the Continental Army until Washington convinced Congress in January 1778 that there was no other way to replace losses from disease and desertion The 1st Rhode Island Regiment formed in February included former slaves whose owners were compensated however only 140 of its 225 soldiers were Black and recruitment stopped in June 1788 Ultimately around 5 000 African Americans served in the Continental Army and Navy in a variety of roles while another 4 000 were employed in Patriot militia units aboard privateers or as teamsters servants and spies After the war a small minority received land grants or Congressional pensions many others were returned to their masters post war despite earlier promises of freedom As a Patriot victory became increasingly likely the treatment of Black Loyalists became a point of contention after the surrender of Yorktown in 1781 Washington insisted all escapees be returned but Cornwallis refused In 1782 and 1783 around 8 000 to 10 000 freed Blacks were evacuated by the British from Charleston Savannah and New York some moved onto London while 3 000 to 4 000 settled in Nova Scotia White Loyalists transported 15 000 enslaved Blacks to Jamaica and the Bahamas The free Black Loyalists who migrated to the British West Indies included regular soldiers from Dunmore s Ethiopian Regiment and those from Charleston who helped garrison the Leeward Islands Native Americans Colonel Joseph Brant of the British led Iroquois Mohawks in the war Most Native Americans east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war and many tribes were divided over how to respond A few tribes were friendly with the colonists but most Natives opposed the union of the Colonies as a potential threat to their territory Approximately 13 000 Natives fought on the British side with the largest group coming from the Iroquois tribes who deployed around 1 500 men Early in July 1776 Cherokee allies of Britain attacked the short lived Washington District of North Carolina Their defeat splintered both Cherokee settlements and people and was directly responsible for the rise of the Chickamauga Cherokee who perpetuated the Cherokee American wars against American settlers for decades after hostilities with Britain ended Muscogee and Seminole allies of Britain fought against Americans in Georgia and South Carolina In 1778 a force of 800 Muscogee destroyed American settlements along the Broad River in Georgia Muscogee warriors also joined Thomas Brown s raids into South Carolina and assisted Britain during the siege of Savannah Many Native Americans were involved in the fight between Britain and Spain on the Gulf Coast and along the British side of the Mississippi River Thousands of Muscogee Chickasaw and Choctaw fought in major battles such as the Battle of Fort Charlotte the Battle of Mobile and the siege of Pensacola The Iroquois Confederacy was shattered as a result of the American Revolutionary War The Seneca Onondaga and Cayuga tribes sided with the British members of the Mohawks fought on both sides and many Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the Americans To retaliate against raids on American settlement by Loyalists and their Indian allies the Continental Army dispatched the Sullivan Expedition throughout New York to debilitate the Iroquois tribes that had sided with the British Mohawk leaders Joseph Louis Cook and Joseph Brant sided with the Americans and the British respectively which further exacerbated the split In the western theater conflicts between settlers and Native Americans led to lingering distrust In the 1783 Treaty of Paris Great Britain ceded control of the disputed lands between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River but Native inhabitants were not a part of the peace negotiations Tribes in the Northwest Territory joined as the Western Confederacy and allied with the British to resist American settlement and their conflict continued after the Revolutionary War as the Northwest Indian War Peace negotiationsTreaty of Paris by Benjamin West portrays the American mission of left right John Jay John Adams Benjamin Franklin Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin The portrait was never completed because the British commissioners refused to pose Laurens pictured was actually in London at the time it was painted Washington enters New York City at British evacuation November 1783 St Paul s Chapel is on left The parade route in 1783 went from Bull s Head Tavern on Bowery then continued down Chatham Pearl Wall and ended at Cape s Tavern on Broadway The terms presented by the Carlisle Peace Commission in 1778 included acceptance of the principle of self government Parliament would recognize Congress as the governing body suspend any objectionable legislation surrender its right to local colonial taxation and discuss including American representatives in the House of Commons In return all property confiscated from Loyalists would be returned British debts honored and locally enforced martial law accepted However Congress demanded either immediate recognition of independence or the withdrawal of all British troops they knew the commission were not authorized to accept these bringing negotiations to a rapid end On February 27 1782 a Whig motion to end the offensive war in America was carried by 19 votes North resigned obliging the king to invite Lord Rockingham to form a government a consistent supporter of the Patriot cause he made a commitment to U S independence a condition of doing so George III reluctantly accepted and the new government took office on March 27 1782 however Rockingham died unexpectedly on July 1 and was replaced by Lord Shelburne who acknowledged American independence When Lord Rockingham was elevated to Prime Minister Congress consolidated its diplomatic consuls in Europe into a peace delegation at Paris The dean of the delegation was Benjamin Franklin He had become a celebrity in the French Court but he was also influential in the courts of Prussia and Austria Since the 1760s Franklin had been an organizer of British American inter colony cooperation and then served as a colonial lobbyist to Parliament in London John Adams had been consul to the Dutch Republic and was a prominent early New England Patriot John Jay of New York had been consul to Spain and was a past president of the Continental Congress As consul to the Dutch Republic Henry Laurens had secured a preliminary agreement for a trade agreement Although active in the preliminaries he was not a signer of the conclusive treaty The Whig negotiators included long time friend of Franklin David Hartley and Richard Oswald who had negotiated Laurens release from the Tower of London The Preliminary Peace signed on November 30 met four key Congressional demands independence territory up to the Mississippi navigation rights into the Gulf of Mexico and fishing rights in Newfoundland British strategy was to strengthen the U S sufficiently to prevent France from regaining a foothold in North America and they had little interest in these proposals However divisions between their opponents allowed them to negotiate separately with each to improve their overall position starting with the American delegation in September 1782 The French and Spanish sought to improve their position by creating the U S dependent on them for support against Britain thus reversing the losses of 1763 Both parties tried to negotiate a settlement with Britain excluding the Americans France proposed setting the western boundary of the U S along the Appalachians matching the British 1763 Proclamation Line The Spanish suggested additional concessions in the vital Mississippi River Basin but required the cession of Georgia in violation of the Franco American alliance Facing difficulties with Spain over claims involving the Mississippi River and from France who was still reluctant to agree to American independence until all her demands were met John Jay told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them cutting off France and Spain and Prime Minister Lord Shelburne in charge of the British negotiations agreed Key agreements for the United States in obtaining peace included recognition of US independence all of the territory east of the Mississippi River north of Florida and south of Canada and fishing rights in the Grand Banks off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence The United States and Great Britain were each given perpetual access to the Mississippi River An Anglo American Preliminary Peace was formally entered into in November 1782 and Congress endorsed the settlement on April 15 1783 It announced the achievement of peace with independence and the conclusive treaty was signed on September 2 1783 in Paris effective the following day when Britain signed its treaty with France John Adams who helped draft the treaty claimed it represented one of the most important political events that ever happened on the globe Ratified respectively by Congress and Parliament the final versions were exchanged in Paris the following spring On November 25 the last British troops remaining in the U S were evacuated from New York to Halifax AftermathTerritory The expanse of territory that was now the U S included millions of sparsely settled acres south of the Great Lakes line between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River much of which was part of Canada The tentative colonial migration west became a flood during the war Britain s extended post war policy for the U S continued to try to establish an Indian barrier state below the Great Lakes as late as 1814 during the War of 1812 The formally acquired western American lands continued to be populated by Indigenous tribes that had mostly been British allies In practice the British refused to abandon the forts on territory they formally transferred Instead they provisioned military allies for continuing frontier raids and sponsored the Northwest Indian War 1785 1795 British sponsorship of local warfare on the U S continued until the Anglo American Jay Treaty authored by Hamilton went into effect on February 29 1796 Of the European powers with American colonies adjacent to the newly created U S Spain was most threatened by American independence and it was correspondingly the most hostile to it Its territory adjacent to the U S was relatively undefended so Spanish policy developed a combination of initiatives Spanish soft power diplomatically challenged the British territorial cession west to the Mississippi River and the previous northern boundaries of Spanish Florida It imposed a high tariff on American goods then blocked American settler access to the port of New Orleans At the same time the Spanish also sponsored war within the U S by Indian proxies in its Southwest Territory ceded by France to Britain then Britain to the Americans Casualties and losses Mass graves from the Battles of Saratoga in Salem New York The total loss of life throughout the conflict is largely unknown As was typical in wars of the era diseases such as smallpox claimed more lives than battle Between 1775 and 1782 a smallpox epidemic throughout North America killed an estimated 130 000 Historian Joseph Ellis suggests that Washington having his troops inoculated against the disease was one of his most important decisions Up to 70 000 American Patriots died during active military service Of these approximately 6 800 were killed in battle while at least 17 000 died from disease The majority of the latter died while prisoners of war of the British mostly in the prison ships in New York Harbor The number of Patriots seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been estimated from 8 500 to 25 000 The French suffered 2 112 killed in combat in the United States The Spanish lost 124 killed and 247 wounded in West Florida A British report in 1781 puts their total Army deaths at 6 046 in North America 1775 1779 Approximately 7 774 Germans died in British service in addition to 4 888 deserters among those labeled German deserters however it is estimated that 1 800 were killed in combat Legacy The U S motto Novus ordo seclorum meaning A New Age Now Begins is paraphrased from Thomas Paine s Common Sense published January 10 1776 We have it in our power to begin the world over again Paine wrote in it The American Revolution set an example to overthrow both monarchy and colonial governments The United States has the world s oldest written constitution which was used as a model in other countries sometimes word for word The Revolution inspired revolutions in France Haiti Latin America and elsewhere Although the Revolution eliminated many forms of inequality it did little to change the status of women despite the role they played in winning independence Most significantly it failed to end slavery While many were uneasy over the contradiction of demanding liberty for some yet denying it to others the dependence of southern states on slave labor made abolition too great a challenge Between 1774 and 1780 many of the states banned the importation of slaves but the institution itself continued In 1782 Virginia passed a law permitting manumission and over the next eight years more than 10 000 slaves were given their freedom The number of abolitionist movements greatly increased and by 1804 all the northern states had outlawed it However slavery continued to be a serious social and political issue and caused divisions that would ultimately end in civil war Historiography The body of historical writings on the American Revolution cite many motivations for the Patriot revolt American Patriots stressed the denial of their constitutional rights as Englishmen especially no taxation without representation Contemporaries credit the American Enlightenment with laying the intellectual moral and ethical foundations for the American Revolution among the Founding Fathers who were influenced by the classical liberalism of John Locke and other Enlightenment writers and philosophers Two Treatises of Government has long been cited as a major influence on Revolutionary era American thinking but historians David Lundberg and Henry F May contend that Locke s Essay Concerning Human Understanding was far more widely read Historians since the 1960s have emphasized that the Patriot constitutional argument was made possible by the emergence of an American nationalism that united the Thirteen Colonies In turn that nationalism was rooted in a Republican value system that demanded consent of the governed and deeply opposed aristocratic control In Britain on the other hand republicanism was largely a fringe ideology since it challenged the aristocratic control of the British monarchy and political system Political power was not controlled by an aristocracy or nobility in the 13 colonies instead the colonial political system was based on the winners of free elections which were open at the time to the majority of white men In analysis of the Revolution historians in recent decades have often cited three motivations behind it The Atlantic history view places the American story in a broader context including subsequent revolutions in France and Haiti It tends to reintegrate the historiographies of the American Revolution and the British Empire The new social history approach looks at community social structure to find cleavages that were magnified into colonial cleavages The ideological approach that centers on republicanism in the United States Republicanism dictated there would be no royalty aristocracy or national church but allowed for continuation of the British common law which American lawyers and jurists understood and approved and used in their everyday practice Historians have examined how the rising American legal profession adopted British common law to incorporate republicanism by selective revision of legal customs and by introducing more choices for courts Revolutionary War commemoration stamps After the first U S postage stamp was issued in 1849 the U S Postal Service frequently issued commemorative stamps celebrating people and events of the Revolutionary War The first such stamp was the Liberty Bell issue of 1926 Selected issues The Liberty Bell stamp issued on the 150th anniversary of American independence in 1926 150th anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga stamp featuring Burgoyne s surrender issued in 1927 Washington at prayer at Valley Forge stamp issued in 1928 150th anniversary of the siege of Yorktown stamp featuring Rochambeau Washington and de Grasse issued in 1931See also1776 in the United States events births deaths and other years Timeline of the American RevolutionTopics of the Revolution Committee of safety American Revolution Diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War Flags of the American Revolution Naval operations in the American Revolutionary WarSocial history of the Revolution Black Patriot Christianity in the United States American Revolution The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution History of Poles in the United States American Revolution List of clergy in the American Revolution List of Patriots American Revolution Quakers in the American Revolution Scotch Irish Americans American RevolutionOthers in the American Revolution Nova Scotia in the American Revolution Watauga AssociationLists of Revolutionary military List of American Revolutionary War battles List of British Forces in the American Revolutionary War List of Continental Forces in the American Revolutionary War List of infantry weapons in the American Revolution List of United States militia units in the American Revolutionary WarLegacy and related American Revolution Statuary Commemoration of the American Revolution Founders Online Independence Day United States The Last Men of the Revolution List of plays and films about the American Revolution Museum of the American Revolution Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution List of wars of independence Bibliography of the American Revolutionary WarNotesIncluding the United Colonies period from 1776 to 1781 and the Confederation period from 1781 to 1783 Two independent COR Regiments the Congress s Own Regiments were recruited among British Canadiens The 1st Canadian Regiment formed by James Livingston of Chambly Quebec and the 2nd Canadian Regiment formed by Moses Hazen of Saint Jean sur Richelieu Quebec Augustin de La Balme independently marched on Detroit under a French flag with British Canadien militia recruited from western Quebec Illinois County Virginia at the county seat of Kaskaskia Cahokia and Vincennes until 1779 Sixty five percent of Britain s German auxiliaries employed in North America were from Hesse Kassel 16 000 and Hesse Hanau 2 422 flying this same flag Twenty percent of Britain s German auxiliaries employed in North America were from Brunswick Wolfenbuttel 5 723 flying this flag The British hired over 30 000 professional soldiers from various German states who served in North America from 1775 to 1782 Commentators and historians often refer to them as mercenaries or auxiliaries terms that are sometimes used interchangeably from 1779 A cease fire in North America was proclaimed by Congress on April 11 1783 under a cease fire agreement between Great Britain and France on January 20 1783 The final peace treaty was signed on September 3 1783 and ratified on January 14 1784 in the U S with final ratification exchanged in Europe on May 12 1784 Hostilities in India continued until July 1783 Arnold served on the American side from 1775 to 1780 after defecting he served on the British side from 1780 to 1783 The total in active duty service for the American Cause during the American Revolutionary War numbered 200 000 5 000 sailors peak manning privateers an additional 55 000 total sailors In 1780 General Rochambeau landed in Rhode Island with an independent command of about 6000 troops and in 1781 Admiral de Grasse landed nearly 4000 troops who were detached to Lafayette s Continental Army surrounding British General Cornwallis in Virginia at Yorktown An additional 750 French troops participated with the Spanish assault on Pensacola For five months in 1778 from July to November the French deployed a fleet to assist American operations off of New York Rhode Island and Savannah commanded by Admiral d Estaing with little result In September 1781 Admiral de Grasse left the West Indies to defeat the British fleet off Virginia at the Battle of the Chesapeake then offloaded 3 000 troops and siege cannon to support Washington s siege of Yorktown Governor Bernardo de Galvez deployed 500 Spanish regulars in his New Orleans based attacks on British held locations west of the Mississippi River in Spanish Luisiana In later engagements Galvez had 800 regulars from New Orleans to assault Mobile reinforced by infantry from regiments of Jose de Ezpeleta from Havana In the assault on Pensacola the Spanish Army contingents from Havana exceeded 9 000 For the final days of the siege at Pensacola siege Admiral Jose Solano s fleet landed 1 600 crack infantry veterans from that of Gibraltar Admiral Jose Solano s fleet arrived from the Mediterranean Sea to support the Spanish conquest of English Pensacola West Florida British 121 000 global 1781 Of 7 500 men in the Gibraltar garrison in September including 400 in hospital some 3 430 were always on duty Royal Navy 94 ships of the line global 104 frigates global 37 sloops global 171 000 sailors Contains a detailed listing of American French British German and Loyalist regiments indicates when they were raised the main battles and what happened to them Also includes the main warships on both sides and all the important battles Beyond the 2112 deaths recorded by the French Government fighting for U S independence additional men died fighting Britain in a war waged by France Spain and the Dutch Republic from 1778 to 1784 overseas from the American Revolution as posited by a British scholar specify in his War of the American Revolution Clodfelter reports that the total deaths among the British and their allies numbered 15 000 killed in battle or died of wounds These included estimates of 3 000 Germans 3 000 Loyalists and Canadians 3 000 lost at sea and 500 Native Americans killed in battle or died of wounds Resolved 4 That the foundation of English liberty and of all free government is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures where their right of representation can alone be preserved in all cases of taxation and internal polity subject only to the negative of their sovereign But we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament as are bonafide restrained to the regulation of our external commerce for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country and the commercial benefits of its respective members excluding every idea of taxation internal or external without the consent of American subjects quoted from the Declarations and Resolves of the First Continental Congress October 14 1774 To learn when and where the attack would occur Washington asked for a volunteer among the Rangers to spy on activity behind enemy lines in Brooklyn Young Nathan Hale stepped forward but he was only able to provide Washington with nominal intelligence at that time On September 21 Hale was recognized in a New York City tavern and was apprehended with maps and sketches of British fortifications and troop positions in his pockets Howe ordered that he be summarily hung as a spy without trial the next day Tallmadge s cover name became John Bolton and he was the architect of the spy ring The American prisoners were subsequently sent to the infamous prison ships in the East River where more American soldiers and sailors died of disease and neglect than died in every battle of the war combined The mandate came by way of Benjamin Rush chair of the Medical Committee Congress had directed that all troops who had not previously survived smallpox infection be inoculated In explaining himself to state governors Washington lamented that he had lost an army to smallpox in 1776 by the Natural way of immunity Bird s expedition numbered 150 British soldiers several hundred Loyalists and 700 Shawnee Wyandot and Ottawa auxiliaries The force skirted into the eastern regions of Patriot conquered western Quebec that had been annexed as Illinois County Virginia His target was Virginia militia stationed at Lexington As they approached downriver on the Ohio River rumor among the natives spread that the feared Colonel Clark had discovered their approach Bird s natives and Loyalists abandoned their mission 90 miles upriver to loot settlements at the Licking River At the surrender of Ruddles Station safe passage to families was promised but 200 were massacred by Indian raiders Grenier maintains that The slaughter the Indians and rangers perpetrated was unprecedented Most Native Americans living in the area remembered the French better than any of the British they had met Despite the British military nearby the Miami people sought to avoid fighting with either Virginian Clark or Frenchman La Balme On La Balme s horseback advance on Detroit he paused two weeks to ruin a local French trader and loot surrounding Miami towns La Balme might have treated them as allies but he pushed Little Turtle into warrior leadership converting most Miami tribes into British military allies and launching the military career of one of the most successful opponents of westward settlement over the next 30 years Governor Bernardo de Galvez is only one of eight men made honorary US citizens for his service in the American Cause see Bridget Bowman 29 December 2014 Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid s Very Good Year Roll Call The Economist Group Retrieved April 25 2020 In Nova Scotia a province that had been a Massachusetts county in the 1600s British settlement of freed black Loyalists from the American Revolutionary War secured its Canadian claim there Britain continued its last Bourbon War with the French and Spanish primarily amidst their mutually conflicting territorial claims adjacent the Caribbean Sea including Jamaica adjacent the Mediterranean Sea including Gibraltar and Isla Mallorca and adjacent the Indian Ocean during the Second Mysore War Three branches of the United States Military trace their roots to the American Revolutionary War the Army comes from the Continental Army the Navy comes from the Continental Navy appointing Esek Hopkins as the Navy s first commander The Marine Corps links to the Continental Marines created by Congress on November 10 1775 Laurens was president of the Second Continental Congress at this time In what was known as the Whaleboat War American privateers mainly from New Jersey Brooklyn and Connecticut attacked and robbed British merchant ships and raided and robbed coastal communities of Long Island reputed to have Loyalist sympathies King George III feared that the war s prospects would make it unlikely he could reclaim the North American colonies During the later years of the Revolution the British were drawn into numerous other conflicts about the globe The final elements for US victory over Britain and US independence was assured by direct military intervention from France as well as ongoing French supply and commercial trade over the final three years of the war On militia see Boatner 1974 p 707 Weigley 1973 ch 2 For the thirteen years prior to the Anglo American commercial Jay Treaty of 1796 under President George Washington the British maintained five forts in New York state two forts at northern Lake Champlain and three beginning at Fort Niagara stretching east along Lake Ontario In the Northwest Territory they garrisoned Fort Detroit and Fort Michilimackinac There had been native born Spanish hidalgo uprisings in several American colonies during the American Revolution contesting mercantilist reforms of Carlos III that had removed privileges inherited from the Conquistadors among encomiendas and they also challenged Jesuit dominance in the Catholic Church there American ship captains were known to have smuggled banned copies of the Declaration of Independence into Spanish Caribbean ports provoking Spanish colonial discontent In addition to as many as 30 deaths in port cities and especially high rates among the closely confined prisoner of war ships scholars have reported large numbers lost among the Mexican population and large percentage losses among the American Indian along trade routes Atlantic to Pacific Eskimo to Aztec If the upper limit of 70 000 is accepted as the total net loss for the Patriots it would make the conflict proportionally deadlier than the American Civil War Uncertainty arises from the difficulties in accurately calculating the number of those who succumbed to disease as it is estimated at least 10 000 died in 1776 alone Elsewhere around the world the French lost another approximately 5 000 total dead in conflicts 1778 1784 During the same time period in the Fourth Anglo Dutch War the Dutch suffered around 500 total killed owing to the minor scale of their conflict with Britain British returns in 1783 listed 43 633 rank and file deaths across the British Armed Forces In the first three years of the Anglo French War 1778 British list 9 372 soldiers killed in battle across the Americas and 3 326 in the West Indies 1778 1780 In 1784 a British lieutenant compiled a detailed list of 205 British officers killed in action during British conflicts outside of North America encompassing Europe the Caribbean and the East Indies Extrapolations based upon this list puts British Army losses in the area of at least 4 000 killed or died of wounds outside of its North American engagements Around 171 000 sailors served in the Royal Navy during British conflicts worldwide 1775 1784 approximately a quarter of whom had been pressed into service Around 1 240 were killed in battle while an estimated 18 500 died from disease 1776 1780 The greatest killer at sea was scurvy a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency It was not until 1795 that scurvy was eradicated from the Royal Navy after the Admiralty declared lemon juice and sugar were to be issued among the standard daily grog rations of sailors Around 42 000 sailors deserted worldwide during the era The impact on merchant shipping was substantial 2 283 were taken by American privateers Worldwide 1775 1784 an estimated 3 386 British merchant ships were seized by enemy forces during the war among Americans French Spanish and Dutch CitationsYear dates enclosed in brackets denote year of original printingSmith 1907 p 86 Everest 1977 p 38 Seineke 1981 p 36 fn Tortora Daniel J February 4 2015 Indian Patriots from Eastern Massachusetts Six Perspectives Journal of the American Revolution Bell 2015 Essay Axelrod 2014 p 66 Eelking 1893 p 66 Duchy of Brunswick until 1918 Germany www crwflags com Flags of the World Retrieved February 5 2024 Atwood 2002 pp 1 23 Lowell 1884 pp 14 15 Avalon Project British American Diplomcay Proclamation Declaring the Cesssation of Arms April 11 1783 Simms 2009 pp 615 618 Duncan L 1931 p 371 Lanning 2009 pp 195 196 Greene amp Pole 2008 p 328 U S Merchant Marine 2012 Privateers and Mariners Simmons 2003 Paullin 1906 pp 315 316 Keiley 1912 Rochambeau Rochambeau Dictionary of American Biography Beerman 1979 p 181 Britannica 1911 C H Estaing F J P de Grasse Encyclopaedia Britannica Dull 1987 p 110 Gayarre 1867 pp 125 126 Beerman 1979 pp 177 179 Rinaldi British Army 1775 1783 Chartrand 2006 p 63 Winfield 2007 Mackesy 1993 1964 pp 6 176 Savas amp Dameron 2006 p xli Knesebeck 2017 1845 p 9 Greene amp Pole 2008 p 393 Burrows 2008a Patriots or Terrorists Peckham ed 1974 Clodfelter 2017 pp 133 134 Rignault 2004 pp 20 53 Clodfelter 2017 pp 75 135 Otfinoski 2008 p 16 Archuleta 2006 p 69 Clodfelter 2017 p 134 Burrows 2008b Forgotten Patriots Lawrence S Kaplan The Treaty of Paris 1783 A Historiographical Challenge International History Review Sept 1983 Vol 5 Issue 3 pp 431 442 Wallace 2015 American Revolution Calloway 2007 p 4 Lass 1980 p 3 Calloway 2007 p 12 Watson and Clark 1960 pp 183 184 Kay Marvin L Michael April 1969 The Payment of Provincial and Local Taxes in North Carolina 1748 1771 The William and Mary Quarterly 26 2 218 240 doi 10 2307 1918676 JSTOR 1918676 Retrieved September 1 2024 Watson and Clark 1960 pp 116 187 Morgan 2012 p 40 Ferling 2007 p 23 Morgan 2012 p 52 The Weare NH Historical Society wearehistoricalsociety 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1903 pp 100 101 Ferling 2003 p 183 Alden 1969 pp 188 190 Smith J 1907 vol 1 p 293 Glatthaar 2007 pp 91 93 Greene amp Pole 2008 pp 504 505 Randall 1990 pp 38 39 Lanctot 1967 pp 141 246 Stanley 2006 pp 127 128 Smith J 1907 vol 1 p 242 Watson and Clark 1960 p 203 Lefkowitz 2007 pp 264 265 Levy 2007 p 74 Russell 2000 p 73 McCrady 1901 p 89 Landrum 1897 pp 80 81 Wilson 2005 p 33 Hibbert 2008 p 106 Bicheno 2014 pp 154 158 Field 1898 p 104 Field 1898 pp 114 118 Field 1898 pp 120 125 Fischer D 2004 pp 78 76 Ketchum 2014 1973 p 104 Johnston 1897 p 61 Burke 1975 p 134 Baker 2014 Chap 11 Baker 2014 Chap 12 CIA 2011 Historical Document Fischer D 2004 pp 89 381 Adams 1963 1895 96 p 657 McCullough 2005 pp 184 186 McGuire 2011 pp 165 166 Fischer D 2004 pp 102 107 Fischer D 2004 pp 102 111 Ketchum 2014 1973 pp 111 130 Fischer D 2004 pp 109 125 McCullough 2005 p 122 Lowenthal 2009 pp 61 131 Tucker 2002 pp 22 23 Schecter 2003 pp 266 267 Fischer D 2004 pp 138 142 Morris R B Morris 1983 1965 p 139 McCullough 2005 p 195 Adams 1963 1895 96 pp 650 670 Schecter 2003 pp 259 263 Stryker 1898 p 122 Fischer 2006 pp 248 255 Fischer D 2004 pp 206 208 254 Wood 1995 pp 72 74 Mauch 2003 p 416 Fischer D 2004 p 307 McCullough 2005 p 290 Lengel 2005 p 208 Washington 1932 Writings v 7 pp 38 130 131 Washington 1932 Writings v 7 pp 131 130 Fischer D 2004 pp 345 358 Lecky 1891 Vol 4 p 57 Ketchum 1997 pp 79 80 Ketchum 1997 pp 81 82 Ketchum 1997 p 84 Ketchum 1997 pp 85 86 Ketchum 1997 pp 244 249 Gabriel 2012 p x Ketchum 1997 p 332 Ketchum 1997 pp 337 339 Ketchum 1997 pp 368 369 Ferling 2007 pp 238 239 Ketchum 1997 pp 421 424 Stedman 1794 Vol 1 pp 317 319 Adams 1911 p 43 Ward C 1952 pp 361 362 Taaffe 2003 pp 95 100 Daughan 2011 pp 148 155 McGeorge 1905 pp 4 8 Cadwalader 1901 p 20 Cadwalader 1901 p 22 Cadwalader 1901 pp 22 27 Fiske 1891 p 332 Chernow 2010 2011 pp 327 328 Lockhart 2008 p page needed Risch 1981 pp 322 417 418 Ferling 2007 p 117 Jones 2002 pp 5 6 Ferling 2007 pp 117 119 Chambers 1999 Chambers 2004 Eclov 2013 pp 23 24 Stockley 2001 pp 11 14 Renouf Stephen Spain in the American Revolution PDF Spain Society SAR sar org Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Retrieved December 7 2020 Davenport 1917 pp 145 146 Davenport 1917 p 146 Weeks 2013 p 27 Chernow 2010 p 298 Horn 1989 pp 24 25 30 Axelrod 2009 pp 234 235 Edler 2001 1911 pp 28 32 Scott 1988 pp 572 573 Syrett 1998 p 2 Syrett 1998 pp 18 19 Ferling 2007 p 294 Syrett 1998 p 17 Syrett 1998 p 18 Higginbotham 1983 1971 pp 175 188 Chernow 2010 2011 p 343 Morrissey 2004 pp 77 78 Daughan 2011 2008 pp 174 176 Goos Hazard 1829 p 54 Nelson 1999 p 170 Bicheno 2014 p 149 Fischer J 2008 p 86 Soodalter Ron July 8 2011 Massacre amp Retribution The 1779 1780 Sullivan Expedition History Net Retrieved May 8 2024 The Clinton Sullivan Campaign of 1779 National Park Service Retrieved April 8 2024 Tolson 2008 Washington s Savvy Won the Day Chandler 2017 pp 363 380 Fleming 2005 1973 pp 174 175 Fleming 2005 1973 pp 232 302 Palmer 2010 pp 340 342 Palmer 2010 pp 376 377 Pearson 1993 pp 16 19 Wilson 2005 p 87 Morrill 1993 pp 46 50 Wilson 2005 p 112 Pearson 1993 pp 22 23 Piecuch 2004 pp 4 8 Borick 2003 pp 127 128 Gordon and Keegan 2007 pp 101 102 Gordon and Keegan 2007 pp 88 92 Rankin 2011 1996 p Buchanan 1997 p 202 Ferling 2007 pp 459 461 Buchanan 1997 p 275 Golway 2005 pp 238 242 Peterson 1975 1970 pp 234 238 Buchanan 1997 p 241 Greene F 1913 pp 234 237 Reynolds 2012 pp 255 277 Pancake 1985 p 221 Narrett 2015 p 81 Chavez 2002 p 108 Nester 2004 p 194 Shepherd Joshua February 17 2015 George Rogers Clark at Vincennes You May Expect No Mercy Journal of the American Revolution Retrieved February 27 2025 Harrison 2001 pp 58 60 Chavez 2002 p 170 Don Jaun Carlos I 1979 speech Deane 2018 Spanish New Orleans helped America Grenier 2005 p 159 Nelson 1999 p 118 Gaff 2004 p 85 Hogeland 2017 pp 88 89 Skaggs 1977 p 132 Raab 2007 p 135 O Brien 2008 p 124 Ferling 2007 p 444 Ketchum 2014b pp 423 520 Ketchum 2014b p 139 Ferling 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