American RevolutionThe Early Years

Colonials vs BritishAdvantages and Disadvantages

Steps to load & fire a musket

• Pull to half-cocked• Handle cartridge

Soldiers on both sides used flintlock muskets

• Prime w/ powder• About• Draw ramrod• Ram down the

cartridge• Present• Fire

Vermont Militia

First Continental Navy Flag

Sons of Liberty

John Paul Jones Serapis’ Flag

George Washington’s HQ Flag

Early British StrategySeize the

Hudson River ValleyCut off New

England from other colonies

Hope was to keep fighting centralized

Saratoga ended this strategy

Britain in the South• Britain saw it would be difficult

to unite the American colonies back into the British empire

• British efforts concentrated in the South– Large population of Loyalists

– Slave population

– Close to West Indies

• Took over Charleston, S.C.– Worst defeat for Americans

• General Cornwallis stayed & had victory at Camden, S.C.

Patriot Strategy

• Guerrilla Warfare– Hiding in the brush– Hit & run technique– Caught British off guard

• Francis Marion– Most successful

guerrilla leader– Known as “Swamp Fox”

War at Sea

• American Navy was near non-existent– Disadvantage in the Revolutionary– Private ships asked to attack British

merchant ships– Privateers took profit from British

• John Paul Jones– Commander of the Bonhomme Richard– Captured the Serapis – Had great success against the

powerful British navy

Major Events of the Revolutionary War

Lexington and Concord – April 19, 1775Colonial “Minutemen”

(militia) led by Captain John Parker met British soldiers lead by Thomas Gage on the Lexington common (town square)

After tense stand off a shot rang out and the fighting started8 minutemen were

killed

British marched on to Concord

Lexington and Concord – April 19, 1775Minutemen met British

at Concord on the North Bridge

British took heavy losses in short battle

Colonists chased British back to BostonColonists hid behind

trees and fired at soldiers along the road

Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War

General Horatio Gates leads patriot victory

Most of Europe now believes Americans can win

French form alliance in 1778

Spain declares war on Britain the next year

Turning point of the

Revolution

Washington marched his army to Valley Forge (southeast Penn)

Takes place one year after victories at Trenton & Princeton

Army was short of supplies

Some soldiers deserted

Valley Forge became an example of great hardship endured during the War

“The unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything; they had neither coats, nor hats, nor shirts; their feet and their legs froze till they grew black and it was often necessary to amputate them…The Army frequently passed whole days without food.”

- Marquis de Lafayette

• Cornwallis sets up camp at Yorktown

• Washington sends Lafayette south to Yorktown & plans a complex attack of Yorktown– Originally was to attack New

York– General Clinton of Britain was

expecting attacks at New York

• Washington learns of French navy heading to Chesapeake Bay

• 3 groups head south to Virginia– Lafayette’s troops

– Washington & a French army led by Comte de Rochambeau

– French fleet under de Grasse

Yorktown (continued)

• British officers were unaware of the American strategy– 14,000 American/French

– 7,500 British/Hessians trapped

– French naval fleet blockaded the bay

• October 9, 1781– American/French bombard Yorktown

• October 19, 1781– Cornwallis surrenders

• Patriots claimed victory at Yorktown

• Britain thought war was too costly to continue

• British begin talking secretly with Ben Franklin to end the war

Treaty of Paris and the End of the War for Independence

Treaty of Paris (1783)• Congress creates a preliminary treaty

• Main Terms– Britain recognize U.S. as

independent nation

– U.S. extends to Mississippi River in the west…Canada in north...Spanish FL in south

– British withdraw all troops and open coast of Canada

– British merchants can collect U.S. debts

– Loyalists properties that were taken would be returned