TheAMERICAN

Revolutionary War1775-1783

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS Philadelphia - September, 1774

• Prepare colonies for possible revolt

• Begin to create militias

• Most colonists don’t want a total split…yet

• Just don’t want to be taxed unfairly

• “No taxation w/out Representation”

KEEPING THE CLIMATE RIPE FOR REVOLUTIONSons of Liberty

Colonial Populations

• PATRIOTS – • Want Independence /

War

• TORY – • British Loyalists / NO

Independence

• Undecided

• 33%

• 33%

• 33%

The Opening of the Revolt

• King George III interprets colonists’ actions as rebellion

• Sends Redcoats to supress

• Brits learn where John Hancock & Sam Adams are (Lexington)

• Also learn where secret militia storage supply is (Concord)

• 700 British troops secretly set out to capture both

• BUT…

Patriots learn of British Plan

“TWO IF BY LAND, ONE IF BY SEA”

• Need to send someone to ride out to Lexington and Concord & to Philadelphia

• Warn of the coming British ambush

• Who???

PAUL REVERE’S MIDNIGHT RIDE???• Riders: Sam Prescott,

William Dawes, Israel Bissell & Revere

• Revere and Dawes captured after 20 miles

• Prescott made it to Concord

• Only Bissell made it to Philadelphia to warn

• Killed his horse he rode so hard

Why Revere so Famous???

• Jump to 1860• USA on brink of Civil

War• Need something to unify

people• Poet Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow wants to sell a book

• Writes “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”

• Becomes a hit – legend becomes truth

• “LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.”

The Midnight Ride of William Dawes

• I am a wandering, bitter shade,Never of me was a hero made;Poets have never sung my praise,Nobody crowned my brow with bays;And if you ask me the fatal cause,I answer only, "My name was Dawes“

• When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,Paul Revere was waiting about,But I was already on my way.The shadows of night fell cold and grayAs I rode, with never a break or a pause;But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!

MINUTEMEN UNITS

THE BRITISH REDCOATS

BATTLE OF LEXINGTONAPRIL 19, 1775

“THE SHOTS HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD”

• First battles of war• British looking to

capture rebel leaders and supplies

• Brits meet 70 Militia, who begin to disperse

• Someone fires?• British gun down

militiamen• 8 killed, 10 wounded

BATTLE OF CONCORDAPRIL 19, 1775 (later that day)

• Word spreads about the “murders”

• Patriots want revenge

• Assemble 300 on North Bridge

• Kill 14 British, who are exhausted

• Brits retreat back to Boston

NORTH BRIDGE OVER CONCORD RIVER

BATTLE MAP

• Patriots keep attacking from trees the whole march back. 250 British killed. (90 minutemen)

THE BRITISH SEIGE OF BOSTON

SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS Philadelphia - MAY 10, 1775

• Continental Army officially created

• Washington named C in C of Army

• Accepts w/ no pay• Still No Call for

Independence from “Gov’t”

• Olive Branch Petition – plea to King to work it out

Characters at the Continental Congress

• FOR INDEPENDENCE

• John Adams (MA)• Sam Adams (MA)

• KEYS TO INDEP. VOTE• Richard Henry Lee (VA)• Thomas Jefferson (VA)• George Washington (VA)

• Ben Franklin (PA)

• AGAINST INDEPENDENCE

• John Dickenson (PA)• Edward Rutledge (SC)• James Duane (NY)

• PRESIDENT OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

• John Hancock

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILLJUNE 17, 1775

• British foolishly advance up hill numerous times – thought Patriots would run

• They didn’t• 1,000 British Killed• 250 Patriots killed

• Compromise now unreachable to King• Colonial Gov’t STILL not want total

independence!!! • Until…

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

BUNKER HILL BATTLE“Don’t fire until you can see the Whites of their Eyes”

- Patriot William Prescott

BUNKER HILL MEMORIAL

GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON

• On the day he is commissioned General…

Common Sense by:THOMAS PAINE

THOMAS PAINE MEMORIALS

• Convinced colonists to use common sense and declare Independence

THOMAS JEFFERSON

WRITING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

(WITH BEN FRANKLIN & JOHN ADAMS)

• Independence Vote taken…• July 2, 1776

• SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE…

• JULY 4, 1776

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

National Archives in DC

So we are at war…How can we win???

• American Strategy: • Can’t go head to head with British

Empire• Must make war last as long as possible • Make British give it up• Use guerilla tactics – quick strikes and

get out BUT…• GW did want a traditional army and

trained for it

After a while…

• War NOT going well at all• Morale very low in Continental Army• Washington has not yet won a battle• Enlistments will expire end of 1776• Sooooooo…• Washington plans to deliver Xmas

Victory• Attack a Hessian camp at Trenton, NJ

WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE RIVEREmanuel Leutze 1851

XMAS Campaigns, 1776

• Trenton Battle

• Small Victory, but gave Army HOPE

• GW gets new enlistments

• Tells British colonists are tough and this will be a long fight

Army Grinds it out for another year

• October 17, 1777 – Battle of Saratoga, NY

• Continentals win, but more importantly• Win convinces France to intervene in the War

on Patriots side

• British want to negotiate, Colonists Don’t

SUFFERING AT VALLEY FORGE

WASHINGTON PRAYER

Continental Army Problems

• Only GW holds it together – his strength and personality

• Army size always changing

• Very short of supplies

• (Never know what if anything will get from Congress)

BATTLE OF YORKTOWN

SEIGE OF YORKTOWNWAR ENDS WITH PEACE OF PARIS 1781

BRITISH SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN 1781

October 17, 1781

• Treaty (PEACE OF PARIS) signed 2 years later on Sept. 3, 1783

• Ends the American Revolution

Why did America win???

• Colonials able to drag out the war

• British Gave it up

• Became too Expensive to keep fighting

• French Alliance

• American strategy pays off…

• NOW THERE IS A NEW COUNTRY!!!!