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Lexington
The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonist began to move out without laying down their muskets. The Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted only 15 minutes. -
Concord
The British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. -
Bunker Hill
British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed's Hill, north of the city and near Bunker Hill. By the time smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. -
New York
They included thousands of German mercenaries, or hired soldiers, known as Hessians because many of them came from the German region of Hesse. The British force about 32,000 soldiers. -
Trenton
They then marched to their objective Trenton, New Jersey and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
While he was fighting the colonial troops, Burgoyne didn't realize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with Philadelphia and weren't coming to meet. The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most important events of the war. -
Valley Forge
While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris, Washington and his Continental Army desperately low on food and supplies fought to stay alive at winter camp. More than 2,000 soldiers dies, yet the survivors didn't desert. -
Marquis De Lafayette
Lafayette lobbied France for french reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. With the help of such European military leaders, the raw Continental Army became an effective fighting force. -
Philadelphia
The demands of war also affected civilians. Thousands of slaves escaped to freedom in the chaos of war. -
Yorktown
By late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, Cornwallis finally surrendered. -
Treaty Of Paris
U.S independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
