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Section 1

Section 2

• History in Britain
• Coming to America
• The Revolutionary War
• Gaining Independence
• Section 2 Review

Section 3
Section 4

Section 2: The Revolutionary War
Leading Up to the War
Choosing Sides
The Role of the Press
The Personalities
The Involvement of the French
The Revolutionary War
The Strength of Each Side
Paul Revere's Ride
Revolutionary Dates

Leading Up to the War
In just a few years, Britain's influence in America went down the drain. The British had been in the process of creating a new nation in a new part of the world for 300 years. They lost it practically overnight.

The first shots of what would be called the Revolutionary War were fired on April 19, 1775, and by November 15, 1783 -- eight years and seven months later -- the British had left what could have been their major acquisition outside of the British Isles.

The most surprising aspect of all this wasn't that fighting took place, but that the Americans were able to prevail. In retrospect, there seems to have been no way for the Americans to win. In the beginning, they had no standing Army. They had almost no people trained in military ways. They did not produce the armaments necessary to fight the war. America was spread-out. Getting around was difficult.

Nevertheless, the Americans prevailed. Against incredible odds. Not only that, they won only a handful of battles. In the end, the French came to their rescue and helped pen down the British at Yorktown. With no way out, the British were forced to surrender on October 19, 1781. But, they didn't just leave right away. They stayed around another two years until November 15, 1783.

How could this have happened? As we have seen, the British mismanaged the colonies before the war and misjudged them during the war. The Americans were on the defensive. They saw themselves as victims. This helped provide them with the commitment and resolve necessary to carry out the war. Not that it was going to be easy....

Keep in mind that the British instigated the war. They viewed the Americans as rebels -- and ungrateful ones at that. The Americans threatened the very authority of the British, and being British they could have none of that.

The war started on a shaky premise. The British had heard that the Americans were amassing a cache of arms in Concord, a town 16 miles from Boston. The British garrison set out from Boston to capture the arms.

They had to go to Lexington first, en route to Concord. And that's where the war started on April 19, 1775.

Causes of the War
As implausible as it may seem 13 separate colonies joined together in a six-year war to win their independence from what was one of the greatest nations in the world.

Two questions intrigue us: Why did this happen and how did this happen?

It happened because the British threw away an opportunity to gain the greatest available land mass in the world in exchange for taxes related to an overall scheme to enrich the friends and relatives of the people in power in England at that time.

From the British point of view, it was one of the great blunders in history. The British were determined not to allow the colonies to govern themselves.

From the American point of view, the British were oppressive and were acting without regard to the concerns and interests of their relatives and friends here in America.

Starting with the Stamp Act in 1765 and continuing through a host of acts until the Tea Act in 1773 and the Coercive or Intolerable Acts of 1774, the heavy-handedness of the British could not be ignored.

The Americans at first tried negotiation and conciliation. It had worked with the Stamp Act when a Stamp Act congress played a role in getting the British to back down.

A subsequent attempt was made by the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in September 1774. However, the British turned a deaf ear.

The British response to the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773) was what could be expected from a mighty power whose policies had been ignored. They declared Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut to be in rebellion.

They also passed the Restraining Act, barring colonists from fishing off Newfoundland and from trading with anyone except Britain and the British West Indies.

Then to enforce their authority, they sent in troops - 8,000 of them just to start.

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Choosing Sides
Ideas were stirring the Americans. The revolutionary attitude was complete by 1775 and war became the only means of defending these developed attitudes.

Here is where the press of the time played such an important part. In newspapers and pamphlets the passions and arguments of the revolutionaries found expression.

The Stamp Act reporting was the first test of the strength of American newspapers. Until 1765 the influence of the press in America was indirect. In only a few instances had they made any deliberate attempt to mold public opinion. The printers who put out the newspapers had been middlemen who printed news of interest and essays written by factions in the communities.

With the struggle against the Stamp Act, colonial newspapers developed a new strength. The editors/printers began to realize that their papers could be use as organs of protest. Issues emerged for the first time.

The Divisions
Among the people at large, and especially among newspaper editors/printers at the time, were three groupings.

They were the Whigs, the Loyalists/ Tories and a third group who were the agitators/radicals/revolutionaries. Boston was the seat of the radicals. The Tories lived primarily in two areas - New York and around Charleston. The Whigs were scattered throughout.

The Tories
We are likely to think of the American Tory as something of a traitor because of the refusal to bear arms against his king in the War for Independence. Actually, it was the Tory who remained loyal to his country when others rebelled. Only defeat in the war made the Tory a traitor. Many sincere and honest Americans believed in the British cause. The goal of the Tories was to retain the basic structure of colonial society. They wished to continue governing by right of property, heredity, position and tradition.

The Tories stood for government "by the better sort."

The alternative was to let the people choose their own leaders. The Tories didn't agree with this. To allow ignorants a voice in government was the worst kind of tyranny. Men of education and leisure who had time to study government made the best leaders, the Tories believed. They also believed in the protection of property as the best insurance against the abuses of human rights. They were concerned that a takeover by the masses might endanger the right of property.

New York became the center of Tory influence and activities in this period. Here lived wealthy royalist sympathizers and representatives of the king. By 1775 the town of New York had 20,000 people (180,000 were in the colony). During the revolution four Tory papers were issued there. After May 1778, military authorities arranged a schedule by which each paper appeared on a different day.

Colonial Whigs
The American Tory was opposed by a rising capitalist faction -- it could not as yet be called a party -- often referred to as the Colonial Whigs. The Whig had a rather narrow idea of liberty. The great battle cry of the Whig was "no taxation without representation." That is, their views were strictly economic.

The Whig had no great interest in the rise of the common man. He had only the vaguest of ideas regarding the "natural rights" philosophy of social reform, for he thought more in terms of property rather than in terms of human rights. The greatest rival of the American Whig was his counterpart in England, who was responsible for the imposition of taxes.

When the Revolution came, the American Whig had to choose between loyalty to the crown, which provided the law and order he so prized, or loyalty to his local government, which held the promise of the unrestricted enterprise he coveted. The Whig had to decide. This was not a time to hesitate. Compromise was not possible.

The Radicals
The weakest group at the beginning of the conflict and the most important at the end was the radical. The Tory was concerned with hereditary rights, the Whig preoccupied with economic issues. The radicals were the only ones seriously interested in social change. The headquarters for the radicals was Boston and their leader was Samuel Adams.

Background on Whigs and Tories
Whig is short for the word wiggamore, a Scottish word once used to describe a driver of horses. In the late 1600s Scottish and English opponents of the growing power of the crown were called Whigs.

The party was strong in England until the 1850s when the name was changed to liberal. The term was first used in New York City about 1768. The Whigs were mostly middle class, protestants (usually Calvinists/Presbyterians). Their names were Livingston, Morris and Alexander.

The term Whig fell into disuse after the Revolutionary War. It was revived in the 1830s and 1840s. At that time the Whigs ran several candidates for president including William Harrison, Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Harrison and Taylor were elected.

Tory comes from a Gaelic word meaning pursued, or a pursued man. It was first used during the 1600s as a name for Irish outlaws or robbers. The Tories and the Whigs agreed that government should be both the king and parliament. But the Tories emphasized the supremacy of the king rather than parliament.

The colonies were supervised until independence by Tories, or rather strong supporters of the British government. Those who favored independence used the epithet Tory to describe those who were opposed to independence. The supporters of Britain called themselves loyalists.

In England the Tory party became the Conservative party in 1832. The word now means any conservative or reactionary person, especially in England.

Margaret Thatcher was the most famous Tory of all time. John Major followed her as prime minister of Britain. He was defeated by the Labor Party candidate, Tony Blair.

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The Role of the Press
On April 19, 1775, when the Revolutionary War began with the battle at Lexington, 37 newspapers were published in the colonies:

Pennsylvania 9
Massachusetts 7
Connecticut and New York 4
South Carolina 3
Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia 2
Georgia and New Hampshire 1

23 of the papers in the colonies supported the revolution.
7 were Tory. 7 had no discernible policy.

(These figures here vary somewhat from source to source. These are taken from Isaiah Thomas' History of Printing in America.)

Conclusion
The most interesting aspect of this is that including pamphlets and newspapers, America had a host of voices by the time of the Revolutionary War. The newspapers came to be heavily oriented toward the side of the patriots or revolutionaries. Still, America had considerable freedom of speech and of the press. It was this freedom that helped us choose from various points of view among us as a country and eventually to decide by a kind of national consensus what would be best for us.

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The Personalities
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) was the greatest orator of his time. He is most remembered for his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech before the Virginia Provincial Convention in 1775. It is one of the most famous speeches in American history.

In it, he said:

The date was March 22, 1775 - almost a month before the war began. Henry was speaking in support of a motion he had made urging that the Virginia militia be armed for defense of the colony against England. The speech is much longer. All if it is interesting. This is just the most famous part. Part of the passage refers to the opponents of his motion. The motion passed.

This is only one of the famous speeches Henry was known for. In 1765 he had made a speech against the Stamp Act in which he said:

So admired was Patrick Henry that he became the first governor of Virginia after the commonwealth was established.

Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was John Adams' cousin and was 13 years older than John. He was a propagandist who wrote on the ideas of Locke regarding a political compact: Every man is born free and no man can be subject to any commonwealth unless he makes himself one.

Adams met regularly with the Caucus Club, founded by his father and others. The club sponsored a newspaper, the Independent Advertiser. He became editor of the paper in 1748 at the age of 26, but the paper died two years later. Adams was recognized as the leader of a small but vociferous group of radicals.

Two others were Benjamin Edes and John Gill, boyhood friends who owned the Gazette. By 1764 the newspaper was the center of the Boston Radicals. It was in the Gazette that the Caucus Club (including by now John Hancock) planned the Boston Tea Party.

In 1772 Adams convinced the Boston town meeting to set up a committee of correspondence. The committee published Adams' declaration of colonial rights and sent it to other towns.

Isaiah Thomas
Another influential paper was the Massachusetts Spy, founded by printer Isaiah Thomas on August 7, 1770. The circulation was 3,500.

It was Thomas who wrote about Paul Revere and his ride in his newspaper.

Thomas was a significant printer. He was the first American to publish Blackstone's Commentaries, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in book form. He printed the first Greek grammar in America, the first printed music and the first novel by a native writer -- William Hill Brown's Power of Sympathy. He brought out the first American dictionary (by William Perry) and sold more than 50,000 copies. He also brought out a speller by Perry.

Thomas produced more than 100 children's books, including the first American version of Mother Goose. He also produced a two-volume History of Printing in America in 1810.

During the war Thomas was one of the 12 colonials on the list of rebels to be excluded from amnesty to be offered by the British. Four were journalists: Thomas, Benjamin Edes, John Gill and Samuel Adams.

Paul Revere
Paul Revere (1735-1818) made the ride that inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride.

He engraved political cartoons and is especially known for his engraving depicting the Boston Massacre. He also took part in the Boston Tea Party. After the war he returned to his silversmith trade and did work still recognized today.

Revere drew a cartoon based on Franklin's that said Join or Die.

James Rivington
The best-known Tory paper in the colonies was James Rivington's Rivington's New York Gazeteer, or the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson River and Quebec Advertiser.

Rivington was an aristocrat born in England. He was a member of a famous English printing house by that name. He became wealthy in England, but lost heavily on horse races. His fortune collapsed and he came to America.

Recognizing the need for a New York newspaper with British sympathies, he launched his New York Gazetteer on April 12, 1773.

The circulation reached 3,600 and it was distributed throughout the colonies and abroad. He was a man of literary talent who presented the cause of the Tories with skill and force. Typographically, the paper was one of the best in the colonies. It had ornamental borders, woodcuts and attractive advertisements.

When in 1774 many American publishers were withdrawing British headings from their front pages, Rivington put some on his. He poured it on. He was not without fault, printing lies and false rumors about the Patriots. On May 10, 1775, a mob attacked him, but he was let go or escaped. He promised to be fair to all and was allowed to publish again.

But on November 23, 1775, a raiding party of Liberty Boys came down from Connecticut and destroyed his printing plant.

Rivington returned to England. He was appointed the king's printer for New York. He returned with new equipment and resumed publication on October 18, 1777, calling the paper Rivington's New York Royal Gazette. On May 19, 1778, the paper became a semi-weekly (every two weeks).

In 1783 the British evacuated the city and Rivington dropped the Royal title and returned the paper to its old name. He allowed the paper to expire at the end of 1783. He chose to remain in New York after the war. According to some unsupported evidence he had been a paid spy for George Washington and had supplied him with important information.

John Dickinson
An articulate Whig was John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, sometimes called "The Penman of the Revolution." Although not a printer or publisher, Dickinson spread his political faith in articles he wrote for newspapers and in pamphlets.

The gist of his philosophy appeared in a series of articles entitled Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. The first of the letters was printed in the Pennsylvania Chronicle in 1767. Eleven others were printed in 1767 and 1768. They were widely reprinted. The letters have been called the policy of the colonials at the time.

Dickinson was the author of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances issued at the Stamp Act Congress and he was co-author of the Articles of Confederation. Dickinson was a conservative. He had no desire to bring on a war of independence. But through his writings he helped to prepare public opinion for the revolution.

In the end Dickinson could not bring himself to stand outright for independence and he refused to sign the Declaration of Independence. Neither could he accept the role of a loyalist. He carried a musket during the war in defense of his home. Little was heard of him during the war. Afterwards he emerged as a supporter of the Federalist views.

His contribution, according to Edwin Emery in The Press and America, had to do with the nature of the revolution. Dickinson was largely responsible for indoctrinating the more conservative members of his group with the need for home rule. Therefore, extremists do not take over completely as they usually do in a revolution. Dickinson lured the property group into taking a stand against Britain by convincing them that all the repressive trade acts were deliberate attempts to keep the colonies in an economically depressed state.

Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) arrived in Philadelphia in 1774 on the eve of the war at the age of 37. He had met Benjamin Franklin in London and Franklin gave him a letter of introduction to friends in America. Franklin was America's chief diplomat in Europe the time. When he got here Paine served as editor of Robert Aitken's Pennsylvania Magazine and began writing pamphlets.

Common Sense, issued in 1776, was an immediate success. Excerpts were printed in many colonial newspapers. It sold 120,000 copies in three months and eventually 500,000. It is still selling today. The essay also appeared as a series in the Pennsylvania Packet.

Paine enlisted in the colonial army. Observing the condition of the army, especially its low morale, he wrote The Crisis, which first appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal on December 17, 1776.

The Crisis begins:

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The Involvement of the French
From the beginning Americans realized they could not sustain a long conflict without outside help. The ability of the colonials to make arms and weaponry would be severely hampered if and when the British occupied Eastern cities. For that reason, the Americans turned to foreign countries for help.

They were rebuffed in Germany and Holland. But, they found a receptive if reluctant ally in the French. The French were still smarting from the long and costly war with the British known as the Seven Years War. Also, the French had ample holdings in the new world and they saw the British as a potential threat to those.

Volunteers from France arrived first, among them the Marquis de Lafayette. Although not yet 20 years old, he was given the rank of major general and assigned to Washington's staff. He and Washington developed a friendship that was to last until Washington's death.

The original American diplomat sent to deal with the French was Silas Deane. He had some success. For example, the French provided supplies valued at about $200,000 a year for the first two years of the war, 1775 and 1776. But the French remained unconvinced that it would be in their best interest to support the Americans with a treaty and to send troops.

The Second Continental Congress then sent America's leading diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, to Paris in hopes they could nudge the French into greater involvement.

Franklin could be described as homespun. But he had a captivating personality. He was 70 years old. He had seen more of the world than any other American. He came with a reputation as a diplomat and as a scientist. He was known for his experiments with lightning. Although he spoke French poorly, he was a big hit with the French people.

One of the reasons the French had been reluctant to get involved in the conflict was their concern that the Americans did not have the willpower or the firepower to fight on equal terms with the British. However, the Americans' decisive victory at the battle of Saratoga on October 14, 1777, changed their minds.

In 1776 the American congress had authorized a treaty of commerce and amity with the French. The treaty to which the French agreed in 1778 - after much encouragement by Franklin - added military provisions. The treaty was signed on February 6, 1778, and made public on March 20. Ultimately the French were to play the major role in the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown in 1781.

The French had had troops in America earlier. They were involved in the unsuccessful siege of Savannah in September 1779. But it was at Yorktown that the contribution of the French became most significant.

Here's how that happened: The French had a fleet of 28 ships standing by in the Caribbean. In the late summer of 1781 the fleet sailed into the Chesapeake Bay. This move effectively foiled the British plan to have their ships come from New York to resupply their troops at Yorktown. The French ships blocked the British, making the resupply impossible.

Meanwhile French troops began arriving from the north. Some of them were stationed across the Chesapeake Bay to thwart the planned British escape route. Other French troops joined the Americans in their siege of the British, now effectively hemmed in at Yorktown. In all, more than 8,000 French troops were involved - the same number as the American force. With no place to go, the British capitulated.

Several interesting footnotes remain.

Without the involvement of the French, the U.S. victory (especially at the time and in the way that it happened) would have been in doubt. But, the Americans almost from the first failed to give adequate recognition to the French for what they had done. In fact, by 1798 the United States was fearful of a possible invasion by the French. This became one of the justifications for the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The involvement in the American cause turned out to be quite costly for the French government. It was never clearly established that the supplies were loans and not gifts - an issue never settled. As a result, the involvement in America and the unpaid monies turned out to be one of the factors that soon plunged the government into the chaos that resulted in the French Revolution.

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The Revolutionary War
Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775
In the spring of 1775 the British became concerned about a possible uprising in Massachusetts. The government in London sent orders to the commander of the British troops stationed in Boston to confiscate weapons of the Americans.

On April 18, 1775, Lt. Gen. Thomas Gage, the commander, sent troops to destroy a supply depot the Americans had assembled at Concord, west of Boston. About 700 troops were sent. They marched throughout the night in an attempt to surprise the Americans.

The British also intended to arrest two leading Americans who lived in Boston but had fled after learning they would be arrested. They were Samuel Adams and John Hancock and they were at an inn in Lexington.

Word had been sent by Paul Revere and others to Adams and Hancock.

The British troops arrived in Lexington, 16 miles from Boston, just before dawn on April 19, 1775. As a result of the warnings, the entire town of Lexington knew the British were coming. American militiamen, who were also called minutemen, were awaiting the British on the Lexington green. The village green is an area in the central part of New England towns.

Shots were fired. No one can say for sure who fired first.

Eight Americans were killed and 10 wounded. One of the British was wounded.

After that skirmish, the British continued their march to Concord, six miles away. In Concord they found the arms they were looking for and either confiscated or destroyed them.

While this was happening, a large group of militiamen arrived in Concord and caught the British off guard. The Americans fired on the British. The results are somewhat confusing since the word casualties is used to indicate the number of people killed and wounded.

At Concord, casualties numbered 95 American, 273 British.

The British limped back to Boston. En route they were fired upon by Americans who hid in underbrush along the road and ambushed the British.

Washington Takes Command
On June 15, 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as general and commander-in-chief of the American forces. The nomination of Washington was made by John Adams. Adams surprised his fellow Massachusetts delegate John Hancock, who had hoped to become the commander in chief.

Why Washington? First, he was one of the few Americans who had actually had wartime experience. Washington had served as a colonel in the British Army during the French and Indian War of 1754. He and the British were unsuccessful in almost all the fighting he was involved in. Nevertheless, he was the most experienced native-born American soldier.

Also, by putting him in charge, Congress ensured the involvement of the most important of the colonies, Virginia. Without Virginia and its money and men, the war could not have been undertaken.

Washington agreed to serve on the condition he would not receive any financial compensation. He assumed command in Boston on July 3.

Early Battles of the War
After Lexington and Concord, the next battle was on June 17, 1775, at Breed's Hill (always referred to as Bunker Hill), where 15,000 New England militiamen showed up. The British suffered more casualties in the battle, but the Americans had to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition.

The Americans did not win many major battles during the war. For the most part they avoided direct confrontation with the British. In the end, this turned out to be the best strategy although Washington was at times criticized for it.

On Christmas night in 1776, Washington's led his forces across the Delaware River to Trenton, New Jersey, and surprised the mercenary Hessians (from Hesse-Kassel, a German state). A week later Washington and his forces were successful against the British at Princeton, New Jersey.

The attack at Trenton was the most dramatic incident of the war and was a major factor in the elevation of Washington as the American hero of the war. The painting of the event, although not accurate, adds to his legend. The attack occurred at night during a snowstorm. The river was very rough. Washington wouldn't have stood in the boat.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze executed the painting in 1851 in Dusseldorf, Germany. Histories of the event and of the painting can be readily seen on the Internet. The painting is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That site is:

The painting is perhaps the most recognizable painting in American history. The crossing itself endures in part because it was the one event during the war that more famous Americans were involved in than any other. They were James Madison, James Monroe, John Marshall, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

Two other paintings were made of the event, one by George Caleb Bingham and another by Thomas Sully. They can be seen at:

In June 1777, almost 10,000 British soldiers headed toward New York City from Canada. They came down the Hudson River Valley with the intent of cutting off the New England colonies from the rest of the country. At Saratoga, New York, just north of Albany, regular American troops and militiamen surprised the British and won a decisive battle. The British army surrendered on October 14, 1777.

These three encounters at Trenton, Princeton and Saratoga were the main American victories early in the war.

The victory at Saratoga was extremely important. Benjamin Franklin was in Paris trying to persuade the French to enter the war on behalf of the Americans. The French had been hesitant to do so. They did not think the Americans had a good chance of winning. But news of the America victory at Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans did have a chance to win.

After Saratoga, the Americans didn't win any major battles for a long time. They lost at Quebec, Brandywine, Savannah, Charleston and Camden. George Rogers Clark did capture Kaskaskia and Vincennes, two western outposts.

In addition, Washington and his troops camped at Valley Forge had to endure the terrible winter of 1777-78. This was considered the coldest winter of the century. One of Washington's great accomplishments was holding the army together under such trying circumstances.

Meanwhile, the British had occupied New York City since September 15, 1776. The city and Long Island became the stronghold of the British. That's where they received and housed their troops and supplies. They even put out their own newspapers in New York.

During the war the British were to occupy at one time or another every city on the East Coast from Savannah to Boston.

France had been providing supplies and ammunition to the Americans and the United States and France signed a Treaty of Alliance on February 6, 1778. After that, France helped even more and provided the naval support that in the end was the key factor in bringing the war to an end.

Spain declared war against Britain in 1779 and Holland did in 1780.

Kings Mountain and The Cowpens
As the war dragged on, both sides concentrated their efforts on the South. The intent of the British was to cut the country in half and isolate Americans on both sides of line that could be drawn somewhere in Virginia.

This seemed like a good strategy for the British. They could mobilize a large number of loyalists from the South Carolina Low Country who were allies of the British.

The Americans could counter with militiamen from along the Blue Ridge Mountains. Most of these people were Scots-Irish and they had no love for the British. More than likely, these Scots-Irish had been angry at the British from the time they had arrived in the United States. Actions by the British since confirmed what they already felt. These Americans were particularly incensed over the British attempts to limit western expansion.

Many frontiersmen had already moved beyond the mountains into what became Tennessee and Kentucky.

The turning point of the war occurred at two battles on the border between South Carolina and North Carolina in the fall and winter of 1780 and 1781. Both were unexpected victories for the Americans and surprising defeats for the British.

On October 7, 1780, frontiersmen defeated loyalists at Kings Mountain.

The British force was 1,100, all loyalists, most in uniform but not all. They were from the low country of South Carolina. They were commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, a Scotsman. He was the only British soldier involved in the fighting.

The Americans were led by Isaac Shelby, Charles McDowell, John Sevier and William Campbell. Many Americans were from over the mountains in Tennessee. Others were from northern South Carolina and central and western North Carolina. Their number totaled about 800.

On the loyalists side, 225 men were killed, 163 were wounded and 716 taken prisoner. Ferguson, the commander, was killed in the battle.

The Americans had 28 killed and 62 wounded.

The one-sided victory occurred when Ferguson had his men advance to the top of the mountain thinking that was a better vantage point from which to fight. Instead, the sharpshooting Americans were able to advance up the mountain and pick off the loyalists as they went.

Three months later another decisive battle occurred at The Cowpens, an open area where cattle grazed just below the border between the Carolinas.

By now, the militiamen were joined by regular troops and were led by seasoned veterans. They were under the command of Daniel Morgan. His plan was so well executed that the regulars and militiamen won a decisive victory. The date was January 17, 1781.

The British force was made up of veteran calvarymen and infantrymen and numbered about 1,100. They were commanded by the infamous Banastre Tarleton. The British were marching from south to the northeast with the intent of linking up with other British troops on the coast of Virginia. There they would be resupplied by incoming ships and force to war to a stalemate.

The outcome at The Cowpens: The British had 110 killed, more than 200 wounded and 500 captured. The Patriots had 12 killed and 60 wounded.

The British encountered resistance from time to time as they continued northward. The most significant battle occurred on March 15, 1781, at the Guilford Court House in what is now Greensboro, North Carolina.

In keeping with the battle plan, British troops from the north were en route to a site on the Chesapeake Bay where they planned to join up with the troops from the South. They converged on Yorktown expecting ships from the north to meet them there with much needed supplies.

But that September the French navy blocked Chesapeake Bay, preventing British ships from entering. Americans, now under the command of Washington, and their French allies took up favorable positions on both sides of the York River. In all the size of the joint forces was about 16,000. A standoff ensued that lasted a month.

The British Surrender
Two Americans made two attacks on redoubts in advance of the French garrison. One was led by the youthful Alexander Hamilton, by now a confidant of Washington. Other than those attacks, both sides just waited. With supplies running out, the British were not in an enviable position.

On October 19, 1781, the British force of 8,000 surrendered at Yorktown. This was not the end of the war, but it was the end of the fighting.

The surrender is one of four John Turnbull paintings of the events of the time. It can be seen at:

A preliminary peace treaty was signed in Paris on November 30, 1782. The treaty was approved by the United States on April 19, 1783. The final peace treaty was signed at Paris on September 3, 1783.

The British left Charleston and Savannah on December 14, 1782. They didn't leave New York City until November 25, 1783 and didn't leave Staten Island and Long Island until December 4, 1783.

After the war, as many as 100,000 British supporters left America -- including about 50,000 in the New York City/Long Island area. Some went to England, others to Canada and to the Bahamas. About half of the 30,000 Hessian troops who had come to America as British mercenaries stayed here after the war.

A Footnote
This was a war in which almost the entire country was involved in one way or another. Fighting extended from Concord in Massachusetts to Savannah, Georgia, and also to Kaskaskie and Vincennes in the present states of Illinois and Indiana. The only war America was ever involved in that was longer than this was the Vietnam War.

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The Strength of Each Side
At the start of the war the Americans had no standing army and no navy. They did not have a central government, and they had no way of raising money to fight a war. The chance of the Americans succeeding in a war with Britain seemed to be impossible.

Estimates are all over the place as to the numbers of troops involved. Perhaps as many as 20,000 men served in the Continental Army at one time or another during the war. The state militias varied greatly in size. And, some people showed up for a battle or two - like the over the mountain men who fought at Kings Mountain. The Continental Navy at its height had 50 ships and about 2,000 others owned privately.

How many British soldiers and sailors were involved is even more difficult to discern. Perhaps the total number was as high as 50,000. In addition, about 30,000 mercenaries fought for the British at various times. They were primarily Hessians from Hesse-Kassel, a German state. The British had more than 400 ships at their disposal.

The fighting lasted six and a half years from April 19, 1775, to October 19, 1781. The British rotated soldiers during that time. Still, at the end they had more than 30,000 of their own soldiers on American soil and a sizable number of mercenaries.

During the war many Americans remained loyal to Britain. How many of them actually engaged in combat is impossible to estimate. The British controlled New York for most of the war, and by war's end were in control of Charleston and Savannah. The British could count on Indian tribes from time to time.

It was the French participation that brought the war to a conclusion at Yorktown. French soldiers had fought on the American side early, primarily at Savannah. Besides the 24 ships that turned away the British in Chesapeake Bay, the French had about 8,000 troops in the area at the end - the same number as the Americans.

7,247 British troops and 840 naval personnel surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. This was the end of the fighting, although no peace treaty had been worked out. The British will to continue the fight had been broken at Yorktown.

An interesting question is how many African Americans fought on either side. Free blacks were encouraged to enlist in the Continental Army and many did. The British offered freedom to slaves who would join their cause and many did. In the end, maybe as many as 3,000 to 4,000 African Americans left with the British at the end of the war. Many slaves were freed or became free during the disruptions that accompanied the war. Again, estimates of how many this could have been range greatly.

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Paul Revere's Ride
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

[The opening stanzas]

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five,
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, 'If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, --

One if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

See the entire poem at:

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Revolutionary Dates
March 5, 1770 - The Boston Massacre
December 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party
April 19, 1775 - Revolutionary War begins, Lexington and Concord
June 15, 1775 - Washington takes command
July 4, 1776 - Declaration of Independence
December 24, 1776 - Battle of Trenton
October 14, 1777 - British surrender at Saratoga
February 6, 1778 - France signs a Treaty of Alliance with America
Winter, 1777/1778 - Washington and his soldiers winter at Valley Forge
October 7, 1780 - Battle at Kings Mountain
January 17, 1781 - Battle at Cowpens
October 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
November 30, 1782 - Preliminary peace treaty signed in Paris
April 19, 1783 - U.S. ratifies peace treaty
September 3, 1783 - Britain and United States sign peace treaty
November 25, 1783 - Last British troops leave New York City

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