The American Revolution

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The American Revolution

• Sizing Up The Armies
• The Strategy of War

A World Turned Upside Down
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Princeton

• After the Battle of Trenton, the British send
  General Charles Cornwallis to retake the city.
• Outside of Princeton, he sees the lights of
  Washingtons campfires.
• At last we have run down the old fox and we will
  bag him in the morning.
• Washington had fooled Cornwallis by leaving the
  fires burning as he marched his troops behind
  British lines, winning another surprise victory.
• The army has new hope and confidence.

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The Battle of Saratoga, August- October 1777

• The British are harassed by colonial guerilla
  forces which stretches their supply lines.
• The British will surrender to the Colonial forces
  led by General Horatio Gates
• Saratoga is important because it is a major
  defeat for the British and shows the French that
  the colonies may be able to win the war

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Saratoga Turning Point of the War
A modern-day re-enactment
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The Battle of Saratoga, August- October 1777
(3020 4522)

• Saratoga is considered the turning point of the
  war. The French will begin to supply arms, men
  and their navy to help the colonies.

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Valley Forge and Baron Von Steuben 844 1506
Washingtons Army camped for the winter at Valley
Forge. There they suffered horribly from cold,
hunger, disease, and despair. More men died from
disease during this winter than had died in
battle during the entire war. Something had to
change. Baron Von Steuben, a Prussian, was
enlisted to train the Continental Army and to
make them a professional fighting force.
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A personal view of the American Revolution

• The ball first cut off the head of Smith, a
  stout heavy man, and dashed it open, then took
  Taylor across the bowels it then struck Sergeant
  Garret of our company on the hip, took off the
  point of the hip bone . Oh, What a sight it was
  to see within a distance of six rods those men
  with their legs and arms and guns and packs all
  in a heap!
• Connecticut Soldier, 1777

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Phase III The Southern Strategy 1780-1781
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Southern Campaign1158 1550Late 1778

• More Loyalists live in the South
• Southern resources more valuable
• British win small victories but unable to pacify
  countryside
• Nat Greene vs. Cornwallis
• Greene sacrificed mass for maneuver
• Smaller forces more easily could live off land
• Provided rally points for local militia
• Tempted Cornwallis to split his forces

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The Swamp Fox

• In the southern battles, Americans began to
  employ hit and run, or guerrilla, tactics.
• Francis Marion of South Carolina led a small band
  of men who slept by day and traveled by night.
• He was known as the Swamp Fox because he appeared
  suddenly out of the swamps, attacked the British,
  and then retreated back to the swamps.
• His actions kept the British off balance ?

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John Paul Jones

• Although the American navy remained small,
  Americans attacked and captured British ships at
  sea.
• John Paul Jones, in command of the Bonhomme
  Richard, finds a British warship, the Serapis,
  guarding 39 merchant ships in the North Sea off
  the coast of Britain.
• He attacks, even though the Serapis is larger.
• When told to surrender, Jones states, I have not
  yet begun to fight!
• His men board the warship and defeat the men in
  hand-to-hand fighting.

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Tale of a Traitor3244 4420

• By 1780, one of Washingtons most talented and
  successful generals, Benedict Arnold, was in
  command of the American fort at West Point.
• He was angry at what he felt was a lack of credit
  given to him for his victories. He also had
  married a beautiful Loyalist who influenced his
  choices.
• He offered to turn the fort over to the British!
• His plot almost succeeded but soldiers caught the
  messenger taking the offer to the British.
• Arnold escaped and joined the British and, to
  this day, a synonym for traitor is a Benedict
  Arnold.

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The Battle of Yorktown, October 17813009 4335

• The French are helping the Continental Army with
  men, weapons and warships
• The Americans and the French will corner the
  British on a small peninsula and bombard them
  with cannon fire.
• The British will surrender and end the American
  Revolution.
• The colonists will win the American Revolution
  with this victory.

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The Battle of Yorktown (1781)
Count de Rochambeau
AdmiralDe Grasse
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The Battle of Yorktown, October 1781
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Cornwallis Surrender at Yorktown
The World Turned Upside Down!
Painted by John Trumbull, 1797
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The Treaty of Paris, 17831530 1915

• THE WAR ENDS WITH THESE CONDITIONS
• free, sovereign and independent states
• British must remove all troops from forts
• Boundary for United States is the Mississippi
• Loyalists would have rights and property
  protected
• captured slaves must be returned to owners

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North America After theTreaty of Paris, 1783