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War Moves to Middle States
Previously retreated Boston in March 1776, Britian moved the war to the middle states. Part of a plan to stop relillion, they isolated New Endlgancd and seized in New York City. -
Defeat in New Yrok
Summer 1776; General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe sailed in New York Harbor with the largest British force ever made. -
Battle for New York Ends
The battle ends in late August with America having a heavy loss. Michael Graham, a Continetal army voluneteer, described the chaotic "A Personal Voice". -
Push Across the River
By the late fall, British pushed Washington's army across the Delaware River inot Pennslyvania. -
Battle of Trenton
Washington prepared the risk, when facing a fierce storm and leading 2,400 en acorss the ice-chocked Delaware River -
Day After Christmas
Next Morning, the men had marched nine miles through sleek snow and sleet to Trenton. -
Victory agianst British
The Americans wer rallied by a victory of the British at Princeton. -
The Fight of Philadelphia
Howe began his campaign to seize the American capital. -
Victory at Saratoga
Massed American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered his battered army to General Gates on October 17, 1777. -
A Turning Point
Still bitter from their defeat by the British in the French and
Indian War, the French had secretly sent weapons to the Patriots since early 1776. -
Valley Forge
Albigense Waldo worked as a surgeon at Valley Forge outside Philadelphia, which served as the site of the Continental Army’s camp during the winter of 1777–1778. While British troops occupied Philadelphia and found quarters inside
warm homes, the underclothed and underfed Patriots huddled in makeshift huts in the freezing, snow-covered Pennsylvania woods. Waldo, who wrote of his stay at Valley Forge, reported on what was a common sight at the camp. -
Coroparation with French
French realizes Americans Independance. -
Allies Shift the Balance
February 1778, in the midst of the frozen winter at Valley Forge, American troops began an amazing transformation. -
To the South
summer of 1778 they began to shift their operations to the South. -
Period: to
British Success in the South
British took over Savannah, Georgia.
Royal governer commaned again. -
Lafayette and the French
The young Lafayette joined Washington’s staff and bore the misery of Valley Forge, lobbied for French reinforcements in
France in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. -
Henry Clinton
In 1780, General Henry Clinton, who had replaced Howe in New York, along with the ambitious general Charles Cornwallis sailed south with 8,500 men. -
South Carolina
British captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780 and marched 5,500 American soldiers off as prisoners of war -
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Forts Across the State
In August, Cornwallis’s army smashed American forces at Camden, South Carolina, and within three months the British had established forts across the state. However, when Cornwallis and his forces advanced into North Carolina, Patriot bands attacked them and cut British communication lines. The continuous harassment forced the redcoats to retreat to South Carolina. -
Accept Surrender
On October 19, a triumphant Washington, the French generals, and their troops assembled to accept the British surrender. -
Clinton Leaves New York
Clinton then left for New York, leaving Cornwallis to command the British forces in the South and to conquer South and North Carolina. For most of 1780, Cornwallis succeeded. -
Forces Meet
When the forces met in January 1781 at Cowpens, South Carolina, the British expected the outnumbered Americans to flee; but the Continental Army fought back, and forced the redcoats to surrender. -
Finance
Congress hired Robert Morris to hold finance. -
Cornwallis Attacks Greene
Angered by the defeat at Cowpens, Cornwallis attacked Greene two months later at Guilford Court House, North Carolina. -
Letter to Lafayette
Greene had weakened the British, but he worried about the fight for the South. On April 3, 1781, he wrote a letter to Lafayette, asking for help. -
Financing the War
Troops finally paid -
Victory at Yorktown
On October 17, 1781, with his troops outnumbered by more than two to one and exhausted from constant shelling, Cornwallis finally raised the white flag of surrender -
Winning the War
British Surrender -
Treaty of Paris
In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed 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.
