lexington & concord –british soldiers march into massachusetts to arrest patriot leaders and...

• Lexington & Concord

– British soldiers march into Massachusetts to arrest Patriot leaders and seize weapons

– Colonist Militia meet them in battle

– First shots of Revolutionary War were fired

– “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”

The Revolutionary WarThe Revolutionary War

• 2nd Continental Congress

– May, 1775 Representatives from colonies meet in Philadelphia

– Created the Continental Army

– Appointed George Washington supreme commander of army

– Sent Olive Branch Petition to the king

– King rejects their request for peace

– Declaration of Independence


• Patriots lose battles early in the war…

– Battle of Bunker Hill

• British win, but lose more soldiers than the colonists

– Battle of Long Island

• Colonists occupied New York until 1776, when the British defeated Washington and took control of New York

– Low point of war for the Patriots


• Washington’s victories

– Trenton and Princeton

• Washington leads his soldiers back against the British on Christmas night, 1776, surprising the British and winning important victories


• Turning Point of the War

– British Strategy

• Seize control of the Hudson River and cut off New England from the other colonies

• A divided America would be easier to defeat

• Three British armies were supposed to meet at the Hudson River



– British Strategy fails

• One of the British armies attacks Philadelphia and is delayed

• Another is delayed

• The third reached Saratoga, but was attacked and defeated by the Continental Army



– Saratoga 1777

• The turning point in the war

• British strategy failed

• This American victory convinced the French to join the fight against the British


• Major Test for Rebels

– Valley Forge

• Washington and his army had to spend the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge

• Army suffered from lack of food, diseases, lack of warm clothing, desertion


• The War moves South

– After Saratoga, the war moved South


• War On the Seas

– The British had a much stronger navy

– The Americans used privateers to attack British ships

– In 1779, John Paul Jones led a new American navy to victory over British ships


• The End of the War

– After several more years of fighting, Washington and his armies had forced Britain’s main general, Cornwallis, into a corner in Yorktown, Virginia

– Siege: The French blocked the British in by sea, while the Continental Army blocked them by land

– In October 1781, Cornwallis and his army was forced to surrender to Washington


BRITISH SURRENDER YORKTOWN 1781

• “The World Turned Upside Down”

– Yorktown was the last major battle of the war

– British still occupied important cities, but Yorktown was a major defeat for them

– Americans and British sent delegates to Paris to work out a treaty

– Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay represented the Americans

– The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, officially ending the war and recognizing the United States as an independent nation


lexington & concord –british soldiers march into massachusetts to arrest patriot leaders and...

Documents

souththe revolutionary

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seasthe british

british defeated washington

defeatthree british

british sent delegates

warbritish strategy

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