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Battles of Lexington and Concord
Near dawn on 19 April Thomas Gage and the British of about 700 grenadiers arrived at the crossroads in Lexington. There they found Captain John Parker's company of 60 to 70 minutemen assembled in two ranks on the village green. Major John Pitcairn, a Royal Marine officer in charge of the lead companies, ordered the militia to disperse. The battles of Lexington and Concord demonstrated the patriots' willingness to fight for their principles and for their property. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Surrounding the city, some 1,000 colonial militiamen under Colonel William Prescott built earthen fortifications on top of Breed’s Hill. 2,200 British forces under the command of Major General William Howe and Brigadier General Robert Pigot landed on the Charlestown Peninsula then marched to Breed’s Hill. The British had won The Battle of Bunker Hill. Despite losing their strategic positions, the battle was a significant morale-builder for the inexperienced Americans -
Battle of Trenton/Princeton
George Washington realized that the Continental Army was likely doomed, so he planned a daring assault on the Hessian garrison at Trenton. The Hessian force at Trenton numbered 1,400 under the leadership of Colonel Johann Rall. The Continental Army basked in its achievements—at Princeton they had defeated a regular British army in the field. Moreover, Washington had shown that he could unite soldiers from all the colonies into an effective national force. -
Fort Ticonderoga
In September, a fifteen-hundred-man American detachment under Col. John Brown sneaked in behind Burgoyne and raided Ticonderoga. At dawn on September 18, the Americans attacked, easily seizing all the posts surrounding the fort itself on the western side of Lake Champlain. While the material gain from the raid was slight, the bold move gave a boost to the troops of the main American army lying in wait for Burgoyne at Saratoga. -
Battle of Saratoga
British General John Burgoyne achieved a small, but costly victory over American forces led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. A stupendous American victory in October 1777, the success at Saratoga gave France the confidence in the American cause to enter the war as an American ally. -
Siege of Charleston
The British under the control of Sir Henry Clinton was able to defeat Benjamin Lincoln and his army. The loss of the city and its 5,000 troops was a serious blow to the American cause. It was the largest surrender of an American armed force until the 1862 surrender of Union forces at Harper's Ferry during the Antietam Campaign. -
Battle of King's Mountain
Major Ferguson’s Tory force was the western wing of General Lord Cornwallis’ North Carolina invasion force. One thousand American frontiersmen under Colonel Campbell of Virginia gathered in the backcountry to resist Ferguson’s advance. The significance of the conflict was that it became evident to the British that the American colonists in the South would not back the British. -
Battle of Yorktown
The battle was a decisive victory by a combined force of General George Washington's army and Comte de Rochambeau French Army over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War. A significant victory for George Washington's colonial army, it disheartened the British, encouraged the Americans and French, and prompted negotiations to end the war.
