Desperate Days and New Hope

The Course of Revolution

The Redcoats Arrive in Force

• Even though the Continental Army had seen some success early on in the war, by mid-1776 the tide turned in favor of the British.

• The Arrival of Gen. Howe’s army in New York marked a turning point in the war.

The Redcoats Arrive in Force

• The heavy fighting shifted to the middle states, where the Continental Army saw some seriously hard times.

New York, New Jersey, and Paine

• Gen. Howe landed his troops on Long Island in August. Throughout the autumn of 1776, Washington fought a series of battles with Howe’s army from New York into New Jersey.

The Battle of Long Island

British troops advance on the Americans at the Battle of Long Island.

New York, New Jersey, and Paine

• After losing a string of battles, Washington retreated across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

New York, New Jersey, and Paine

• Things were grim. By December, Washington’s soldiers were sick, dirty, and hungry. Everyday, soldiers fled camp to go home.

• To help inspire people to support the Continental Army, Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis.

New Hope

• Washington knew it would take more than words to stay in the game. He decided to launch a surprise attack on Trenton, New Jersey.

• On Christmas night he led his troops across the Delaware in secret. Washington took Trenton in less than an hour.

New Hope

George Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851Emanuel Leutze

The surrender to General George Washington of the dying Hessian commander, Colonel Rahl, at the Battle of Trenton

New Hope

• British General Cornwallis immediately moved to capture Washington at Trenton, but Washington outsmarted the redcoats, and slipped behind British lines and attacked and took Princeton.

The Empire Strikes Back

• After the British losses at Trenton and Princeton, they came up with a new strategy: capture Albany, New York.

• This would cut New England off from the rest of the colonies.

The Empire Strikes Back

• The Continental Army suffered serious losses at Philadelphia, Brandywine, and Germantown in 1777.

Saratoga

• The Continental Army won a major victory in October of 1777 by defeating Gen. Burgoyne at Saratoga while he was on his way to Albany.

• Surrounded, Burgoyne surrendered his army.

General Burgoyne surrenders to General Gates

Effects of Saratoga

• The victory at Saratoga was a turning point in the war for the colonists. It had three major effects:o It ended the British threat to New England.o It boosted American morale when they desperately

needed it.o Most importantly, it won the support of France and,

later, Spain.

Effects of Saratoga

• The French hated the British, but they were afraid to help the Americans unless they knew they could win. Saratoga was proof enough.

• In February 1778, France became the first nation to sign a treaty with the United States.

Valley Forge

• The French aid did not come soon enough to help the Continental Army in the winter of 1777-1778.

• Washington’s men set up winter camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where they suffered severe hardships.

Valley Forge

General George Washington and Lafayette survey the troops camped at Valley Forge, Pa.,

in the winter of 1777–78, as depicted in a 19th-century lithograph.

Valley Forge

• After help from Americans and better training, the Continental Army got back on its feet and, by spring, was ready to face the British again.

Baron Friedrich Von Steuben

Baron von Steuben (left) walks with Gen. George Washingtonthrough the Continental Army camp at Valley Forge in 1778,shown in an engraving after Howard Pyle.

The Battle of Yorktown

• By 1781, the Patriots were still having a rough time of it. Washington was looking for a way to end the war.

• Cornwallis moved his redcoats to Yorktown to tighten his already strong hold on the South.

The Battle of Yorktown

• With the help of a French naval force, who cut off the Chesapeake Bay from the British, the Continental Army was free to attack.

The Battle of Yorktown

• With the help of other Continental Army groups already in the area, Washington surrounded the British on the peninsula. The redcoats were trapped.

• Washington kept Yorktown under siege for weeks.

The Battle of Yorktown

• Finally, in October 1781, Cornwallis surrendered.

The Treaty of Paris 1783

• After more than two years of negotiations, the Americans and British finally signed a peace treaty.

The Treaty of Paris 1783

• The British agreed to formally recognize the United States as a country, and it defined the new nation’s borders. (See page 215).

• The war was over and Americans began moving west.