Important People

Joseph Warren - Grand Master of Masonic Lodge

• Patriot headed the Committee of Correspondence in Boston

• Orchestrates Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

• Died at Bunker Hill as a hero

Richard Montgomery - unsuccessfully invaded Quebec

Captured Montreal but died on the way to Quebec

Benedict Arnold - you should know this

Paul Revere - https://knowt.com/note/de8de799-e8c2-4c1a-9f99-bcef7e6637f7/Paine

Benjamin Lincoln - General at Charleston (surrendered the city)

-accepted the surrender at Yorktown from Cornwallis (who sent his deputy Charles O’ Hara and said he was sick)

George Rogers Clark -

• Commander of patriot forces

• Wants to get rid of British influence and fight Native Americans

• Leads the Patriots in the West

Too lazy for these :(

John Burgoyne: John Burgoyne was a British general during the American Revolution. He is best known for his role in the Saratoga campaign, where he led British forces in an unsuccessful attempt to divide the American colonies. He surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, which was a turning point in the war.

Thomas Gage: Thomas Gage was a British general and colonial governor during the American Revolution. He played a significant role in the early stages of the conflict, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Gage's attempts to seize colonial weapons and arrest rebel leaders ultimately led to the outbreak of war.

Horatio Gates: Horatio Gates was an American general during the American Revolution. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, where he successfully defeated General Burgoyne's forces. This victory boosted American morale and convinced France to openly support the American cause.

• At Camden, he got inexperienced minutemen and in the losing fight, fled on many horses like a coward

Henry Clinton: Henry Clinton was a British general and commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the American Revolution. He led British forces in several battles, including the successful capture of Charleston in 1780. Clinton also oversaw the British evacuation of troops from New York City in 1783.

William Howe: William Howe was a British general and commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the early years of the American Revolution. He led British forces in major battles such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Battle of Long Island. Howe's strategy focused on capturing key cities, but he ultimately failed to defeat the American forces decisively.

Marquis de Lafayette - inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, he joined the Continental Army as a general

Rochambeau - French commander of army, marches w/ GW during Yorktown

Francis Marion - Swamp fox, “hit and run” ghost

Von Steuben - Drilled Washington’s Army into shape during Valleyforge 1777-1778

John Paul Jones - Pest to the British, circled the coast of the Navy, dropped cannons into some British towns

• captures HMS Serapis (they blow his ship, Bonhomme Richard up), and while he’s sinking he says “I have not yet begun to fight”

• Using grappling hooks, they climb on the boat and beat up the crew of the Serapis

Benjamin Franklin -

• served in the Second Continental Congress

• helped draft the Declaration of Independence

• negotiated Treaty of Paris

• won France over

Lord Dunmore - Loyalist governor of VA, dissolved House of Burgesses

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Why the Americans would win

• Reason to fight

  • (homes, lives, families, and freedom)

• George Washington was on their side

• Fighting on their home turf

• Allies: Ben Franklin got the French to help them

• The inability of British generals to make quick decisions due to fear of the King's disapproval.

• English people got tired of the long war

Why the British would win

• Poorly trained army and no navy

• No money to fight a war

• Weak, inexperienced government

• 2/3 population were Tories or did not care

• Professional English army

• Poor equipment, little food

• Soldiers could leave at will

TIMELINE

1775

Lexington and Concord started the war - April 19

"the shot heard ‘round the world”

• At Lexington, they got stopped by minute men

  • Minutemen- Farmers w/ rifles

• The conflict escalated as the British marched to Concord

  • British soldiers ordered to take military supplies in Concord

  • Patriots drove them back to Boston

Battle of Bunker Hill - June 17

Siege of Boston - 1775(April)-1776(March)

Henry Knox shows up with Ticonderoga canons - March 17🍀

• Washington in the dark feigns troop movement then quickly seizes Dorchester Heights

  • With control of Boston and canons pointed down on the city, Howe surrenders

1776

Common Sense by Thomas Paine written in January

• “British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence”

Washington goes to New York - April 13

• Loyalist assassination plan underway!

Declaration of Independence 🇺🇸🦅

• Adopted July 4, signed August 2

  John Adams (MA), Ben Franklin (PA), Robert R. Livingston (NY), Roger Sherman (CA), Thomas Jefferson (VA)

• Written to each colony individually, “united” is not emphasized

• Ideas on the Declaration (from European Enlightenment)

  • Thomas Hobbes- The government should have power + dominance

  • John Locke- The government is beholden to the good people

    • The government should work to protect people/work for the people

Battle of Brooklyn- August 27

• The greatest retreat of the war (9-10K)

• Providence is in their favor (fog)

• NYC civilian population- 25K

• Largest battle (30-40k soldiers)

Battle for Harlem Heights- Soldiers end up in lower Manhatten and begin digging trenches

• morale boost

Then they go up to White Plains

and down to Fort Lee

Battle of Trenton - December 25🎄❄

• Orders campfires to be lit and maintained through the night

• His army quietly marched towards Princeton to surprise Hessian troops

1777

Battle of Princeton - January 3

• Territory regained, morale boost

𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐚: 1777-1778

Brandy Wine - Americans fought well, but still lost

German Town - October 4

• Goes down to protect Philadelphia, and splits his men but fog rolls in

• FRIENDLY FIRE 🔥😶‍🌫🔫 (they shoot each other)

2 weeks after Brandy Wine, Howe comes into PA unopposed (and takes control of the territory), but this was not part of the British plan!!

“Howe does not so much take Philadelphia as Philadelphia takes Howe”

-Ben Franklin

Why?

because…

SARATOGA- October 17🥳🤠🎊🎉 MAJOR TURNING POINT

• the Three-Pronged Plan goes wrong

  St. Leger, Burgoyne, and Howe are supposed to surround Saratoga

Howe- goes to take Philadelphia

St. Leger- can’t make it (fended off by Arnold)

Burgoyne underestimated the Americans and surrendered at Saratoga

• Whigs have been firing on his March which weakened his army

• Howe also has a petty squabble with Burgoyne… is this why Howe did not follow the plan?

• Burgoyne’s army (Loyalists and Native Americans) tried to invade New York 

  • Via Lake Champlain and the Hudson River

  • Moving equipment through marshy, woody terrain slowed him down

  Americans stop his advance → Burgoyne advances to Albany

  Americans were waiting for him → Burgoyne fell back into Saratoga

  Americans were vastly superior and surrounded him

1) John Paul Jones reports the American win to Ben Franklin

• (reference “important people” for more info)

2) Ben Franklin tells France

British lose 9K men, and Burgoyne is credited with the loss

FRANCE AND SPAIN JOIN THE WAR

• French give money, equipment, and training to the troops

• Britain is now surrounded by enemies and is forced to fight in their homeland

• 1/3 of British troops go back to the homeland, which is why Howe pulls out of Pennsylvania

1777-1778

Valley Forge Winter Camp

Conway Cabal- efforts to remove GW and other officers from command (Granny Gates, Sam Adams, John Adams all start to doubt)

• Thomas Conway, Richard Henry Lee, and General Charles Lee want to kick him out

• Why? At Valley Forge, GW loses 2000 men to disease and they suffer from a lack of supplies

• Very cold

• Lowest point in the war, but eventually became a turning point

1778

Battle of Monmouth - June 28

Longest and biggest Artillery Battle

General Cornwallis is trying to evacuate to Sandy Hook because he is afraid of Gates

• The Americans fight the Rear Guard of Cornwallis’s Army

• Charles Lee tries to retreat from the battle which leads to an exchange with Washington

  • gets court-martialed later

• They win against the rear guard… but Washington chooses not to press against the main army

  • British successfully flee, but the patriots win against the rear end, so who really won?

Monmouth Courthouse battle - High heat (you don’t really need to know)

Savannah GA falls in 1778

Charleston falls 1780

• Benjamin Lincoln captured

  • Wanted to leave the city but the city officials threatened to turn sides to make him stay

• Escape routes cut off

• British demand unconditional surrender

Camden falls in 1780 (Gates loses here, and is replaced by Greene)

Post Saratoga (~1778), the British moved South, thinking most Southerners were Loyalists

1780-1781

British in the South

• THEY THOUGHT loyalists and freed slaves would be significant

  • Counterintuitive, why would the loyalists let their slaves be freed?

• Reprisals and atrocities make even more Americans rally against the British (killing for no reason)

• Pardon terms for Whigs changed (from lay down your arms to, you must help us fight the Americans)

War in the West 1775-1783

• George Rogers Clark (Patriot) wants to go out West where the tribes are

• Convinces Patrick Henry (Gov of VA) to provide supplies to help fight the British

• Won territories in the West

  • all the land to the West to the Mississippi

• Important for treaties (negotiating land)

1780

King’s Mountain - October 7

• Loyalist army on Cornwallis’s flank fighting on the King’s Mountain

  • Suicidal charge- cut down harshly

1781

Cowpens- January 17

Commander Daniel Morgan uses UNCONVENTIONAL TACTICS

• Significant American win

• Stat- lure Brits into the trap

  • Open fire when they come in between the two hills

  • after they scatter, shoot twice and lead them further in

  • Patriots surround from either side and fire down on them

  I meant to make them fire down on the two small stick figures not on the teammate running

Yorktown- September 28

• 6000 Frenchmen sent under Comte Jeane de Rochambeau

• Troops from NY meet up with Marquis de Lafayette and his men at Williamsburg

  • Lafayette + men had been shadowing Cornwallis

• With the army assembled, Rochambeau and GW begin marching to Yorktown

  • Another Franco-American force, led by the Comte de Choissey, was sent across York River to fight the British on Gloucester Point

• Deployed Americans on the right, French on the left

• Cornwallis goes to Yorktown, VA hoping to find relief but instead finds the American and French forces

• Trapped at Yorktown

• Outnumbered, Cornwallis orders his men to abandon the outer edges and fall back to the center (this decision is later criticized heavily)

  • If he hadn’t done this, it would’ve taken the French/American forces a WHILE to push them back into the center themselves

• FR/AM forces start building the first siege line

• Cornwallis writes for help from Henry Clinton

• construction of a second line begins but is interrupted by two British fortifications, Redoubts #9 and #10 (forts)

  • Capture of these was assigned to General Count William Deux-Ponts and Colonel Alexander Hamilton

  • The French take down 9, Americans take down 10

  • Immediately after they’re taken down, construction of the second line resumes

• Cornwallis writes for help again

• Cornwallis is pressured into launching an attack (led by Robert Abercrombie)

  • Works (takes down some stuff) but isn’t wholly successful

• Cornwallis attempts to move 1,000 men and his wounded to Gloucester Point, aiming to retreat north

• Scattered by a storm, fails

• Decides to open negotiations with GW

• At 9 am on October 17, the British waved the white flag of surrender

• Surrenders with his army of 8,000 men

  • 🎵The World Turned Upside Down 🎵

• Did not IMMEDIATELY end the war–dragged on for ~two years

• In 1782, the new British government started pursuing peace negotiations in Paris

  • Americans represented by Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay

Treaty of Paris

signed 1783, ratified 1784

• Key negotiator: John Adams

why?

• all countries were broke - no one could afford war

• Domestic opposition in all countries

• for all, a defeat was unacceptable

• protect territorial and commercial interests

Concessions

British Concessions

• recognize American independence

• American fishing rights

• cede all territory to the US up to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi (Minnesota too)

American Concessions

• stop persecuting loyalists

• give back property