battles

Battle of Brooklyn Heights (Long Island), New York (August 27, 1776) 

• One of the first battles after Americans declared independence

• Americans had high hopes going into this battle 

• William Howe was main British general

• George Washington was main American general

• Results:

  • In two days of fighting, the British lost 337 men, while the Americans lost 1,407 (30,000 soldiers fought in total)

  • Major loss for the Continental Army

    • First of many defeats for the Americans early in the war 

  • British troops gained control of New York 

    • British troops chased Americans out of New York, through New Jersey, and finally across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania

  • Largest battle of the war

Battle of Trenton, New Jersey (December 25-26, 1776) 

• Took place the night of Christmas into the following morning

• Cold, icy, snow on the ground, freezing temperatures

• Late on December 25, 1776, George Washington’s troops rowed across the Delaware River to New Jersey 

• From there, they marched to Trenton to surprise the Hessians, some of whom were sleeping after their Christmas Celebrations 

  • About 2,400 continental soldiers against 1,400 Hessian soldiers

• Results:

  • The americans captured around 900 Hessians, killed 22, wounded 83, and gained needed supplies

  • 2 Americans died and 5 were wounded (more died afterwards due to harsh conditions and exhaustion)

  • A week later, the Americans captured another 270 British troops at Princeton, New Jersey

War Strategies Change for the Americans… 

• At the start of the war, both sides wanted to defeat the enemy in one big battle

• At this point in the war, Washington decides that rather than defeating the British, he wanted to just let them tire themselves out

Battles of Saratoga, New York (September 19-October 17, 1777) 

• British General John Burgoyne and his troops intended to meet up with British General William Howe and his troops to take control of with the Hudson River valley, but Howe took his men to attock Philadelphia instead

• When Burgoyne and his troops got to Saratoga Springs on the Hudson River, there were more militiamen than expected

• Starting September 19, 1777, British general john burgoyne and his troops attacked american forts near saratoga

• American Generals Horatio Gates and Benedict arnold led attacks on the british until burgoyne surrendered on october 17, 1777

• Results:

  • American victory that was seen as a turning point of the war because it showed Europeans that Americans could win the war

  • Some European nations that were hostile to Great Britain decided to help Americans

    • France - Marquis de Lafayette was called “the soldier’s friend”

    • Spain, Poland, and German states (Baron de Kalb) also came to Washington's aid

Winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (late 1777)

• Washington’s soldiers lacked supplies

• While camping at Valley Forge, the soldiers grew weak from not having enough food or warm clothing

• About 25% of the troops died from malnutrition, exposure to cold weather, or diseases such as smallpox and typhoid fever (2,000 troops died from diseases)

• To help his men, Washington put Prussian Baron von Steuben in charge of training

• French Marquis de Lafayette chose to share the hardships of Valley Forge and bought men warm clothing

• On New Year’s Day 1778, a group of Philadelphia women brought oxen, supplies, and shirts

Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey (June 28, 1778) 

• British General Henry Clinton had replaced William Howe as commander of the British forces

• Henry Clinton was heading to New York City, but Washington followed him

• Results:

  • British slipped away to safety, while Washington camped with his army nearby

  • Neither side won

  • Ended the war in the North

WAR IN THE SOUTH

• Attack on & Siege of Savannah, Georgia (December 29, 1778 & Sept.-Oct. 1779)

  • British captured the port of Savannah, Georgia, in December 1778

  • In the fall of 1779, American troops under Benjamini Lincoln tried to recapture Savannah (Siege of Savannah)

    • Franco-American allies

    • Polish cavalry mastermind Casimir Pulaski was mortally wounded

    • Lincoln lifted the siege

    • Americans were unsuccessful

  • Savannah remained in British hands until the end of the war. 

Moral Support for Americans

• People like Francis Marion showed that the British did not control the Carolinas

  • Military officer known as “Swamp Fox”

  • One of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare (soldiers who were not part of a regular army)

  • Marion’s band of rebels harassed the British with hit-and-run raids by attacking and the fading into the seams and forests like foxes

Siege of Charleston, South Carolina (March 29, 1780-May 12, 1780)

• British army led by General Henry Clinton trapped American forces in Charleston, the largest southern city, and the city surrendered

• Americans lost most of their southern army - seen as the worst American defeat of the war

• General Horatio Gates was assigned to form a new southern army to challenge the British General Charles Cornwallis

Battle of Camden, South Carolina (August 16, 1780)

• Americans were defeated again

• Devastating loss for the Americans

  • De Kalb died 

  • Tarleton pursued the Patriots for 20 miles before turning back

• After Horatio Gates’s defeat at Camden, Washington put Nathanael Greene in charge of the southern army

British “Southern Strategy” 

• The loss at Camden had left American morale in the South at a low and under British control

• British were having trouble controlling the South because the countryside was filled with more rebels than loyalists - not what the British expected!

• The “Southern Strategy” focused on economics 

  • While the New England colonies produced the same goods as the British Isles, the South produced cash crops that could not be produced in the British Isles

    • Prices of southern products were low because of chattel slavery 

    • British recruited and freed enslaved workers

• Greene built the Continental forces back up in early 1781

Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina (January 17, 1781)

• American Generals Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan led the Americans to a victory against British General Banastre Tarleton

• Critical victory due to skilled leadership and military prowess

  • This victory weakened British attempts to wrest the southern colonies from American control

  • This victory proved that Americans had mastered the formal battle tactics of the British 

Siege of Yorktown, Virginia (September 28-October 19, 1781)

• British General Charles Cornwallis believed that southern rebels were relying on Virginia for their supplies

• Without waiting for orders, he marched north into Virginia and set up his base at Yorktown, Virginia, on the tip of the Chesapeake bay, so that he could receive supplies by ship from New York

• Washington had a perfect opportunity to trap the British on the peninsula

• Lafayette’s, Washington’s, and Rochambeau’s troops surrounded Yorktown and prevented the British from escaping, and the American and French cannons bombarded Yorktown, turning its buildings to rubble 

• On October 19, 1781, Charles Cornwallis surrendered his force of about 8,000 soldiers

• Although fighting continued in the South and on the frontier, Yorktown was the last major battle of the war.