The American Revolution was an insurrection carried out by 13 of Great

Britain’s North American colonies that began in 1775 and ended with a
peace treaty in 1783. The colonies won political independence and went on
to form the United States of America. The war followed more than a decade
of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and
influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by
British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having
long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.

Until early in 1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire, but
afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in
1779) joined the colonies against Britain. Meanwhile, the Netherlands,
which provided both official recognition of the United States and financial
support for it, was engaged in its own war against Britain (see Anglo-Dutch
Wars). From the beginning, sea power was vital in determining the course
of the war, lending to British strategy a flexibility that helped compensate
for the comparatively small numbers of troops sent to America and
ultimantely enabling the French to help bring about the final
British surrender at Yorktown in 1781
Setting the stage: The two armies
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The American colonies fought the war on land with essentially two types of
organization: the Continental (national) Army and the state militias. The
total number of the former provided by quotas from the states throughout
the conflict was 231,771 soldiers, and the militias totaled 164,087. At any
given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in
1781 there were only about 29,000 insurgents under arms throughout the
country. The war was therefore one fought by small field armies. Militias,
poorly disciplined and with elected officers, were summoned for periods
usually not exceeding three months. The terms of Continental Army service
were only gradually increased from one to three years, and not even
bounties and the offer of land kept the army up to strength. Reasons for the
difficulty in maintaining an adequate Continental force included the
colonists’ traditional antipathy toward regular armies, the objections of
farmers to being away from their fields, the competition of the states with
the Continental Congress to keep men in the militia, and the wretched and
uncertain pay in a period of inflation.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals.

Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were
introduced. Many of the enlisted men were farm boys, as were most of the
Americans, while others came from cities where they had been unable to
find work. Still others joined the army to escape fines or imprisonment. The
great majority became efficient soldiers as a result of sound training and
ferocious discipline. The officers were drawn largely from the gentry and
the aristocracy and obtained their commissions and promotions by
purchase. Though they received no formal training, they were not so
dependent on a book knowledge of military tactics as were many of the
Americans. British generals, however, tended toward a lack of imagination
and initiative, while those who demonstrated such qualities often were rash.

ecause troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government,
following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from
various German princes. The Lensgreve (landgrave) of Hesse furnished
approximately three-fifths of that total. Few acts by the crown roused so
much antagonism in America as that use of foreign mercenaries.

Conflict begins in Massachusetts

What was the Boston Tea Party?

On December 16, 1773, American patriots dumped 342 chests of black tea off British
boats into Boston Harbor.(more)
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British ships in Boston Harbor

British ships guarding Boston Harbor in 1774.
The colony of Massachusetts was seen by King George III and his ministers
as the hotbed of disloyalty. After the Boston Tea Party (December 16,
1773), Parliament responded with the Intolerable Acts (1774), a series of
punitive measures that were intended to cow the restive population into
obedience. The 1691 charter of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony was abrogated, and the colony’s elected ruling council was replaced
with a military government under Gen. Thomas Gage, the commander of all
British troops in North America. At Gage’s headquarters in Boston, he had
four regiments—perhaps 4,000 troops—under his command, and Parliament
deemed that force sufficient to overawe the population in his
vicinity. William Legge, 2nd earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state for the
colonies, advised Gage that

The violence committed by those, who have taken up arms in Massachusetts, have
appeared to me as the acts of a rude rabble, without plan, without concert, without
conduct.
From London, Dartmouth concluded that

A small force now, if put to the test, would be able to conquer them, with greater
probability of success, than might be expected of a larger army, if the people
should be suffered to form themselves upon a more regular plan.
portrait of Thomas Gage by John Singleton Copley
Thomas Gage, oil on canvas by John Singleton Copley, c. 1768; in the Yale Center for
British Art, New Haven, Connecticut.(more)
Gage, for his part, thought that no fewer than 20,000 troops would be
adequate for such an endeavor, but he acted with the forces he had at hand.
Beginning in the late summer of 1774, Gage attempted to suppress the
warlike preparations throughout New England by seizing stores of weapons
and powder. Although the colonials were initially taken by surprise, they
soon mobilized. Groups such as the Sons of Liberty uncovered advance
details of British actions, and Committees of Correspondence aided in the
organization of countermeasures. Learning of a British plan to secure the
weapons cache at Fort William and Mary, an undermanned army outpost
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Boston’s Committee of Correspondence
dispatched Paul Revere on December 13, 1774, to issue a warning to local
allies.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION EVENTS

keyboard_arrow_left
Battles of Lexington and Concord
April 19, 1775

Siege of Boston
c. April 19, 1775 - March 1776
Battle of Bunker Hill
June 17, 1775

Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge

February 27, 1776
Battle of Long Island
August 27, 1776 - August 29, 1776

Battle of White Plains

October 28, 1776
Battles of Trenton and Princeton
December 26, 1776 - January 3, 1777

Siege of Fort Ticonderoga

July 2, 1777 - July 6, 1777
Battle of Oriskany
August 6, 1777

Battle of Bennington
August 16, 1777
Battle of Brandywine
September 11, 1777

Battles of Saratoga
September 19, 1777 - October 17, 1777
Battle of Germantown
October 4, 1777

Battle of Bemis Heights

October 7, 1777
Battle of Monmouth
June 28, 1778

Wyoming Massacre
July 3, 1778
Capture of Savannah
December 29, 1778
engagement between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis
September 23, 1779

Siege of Charleston
1780
Battle of Camden
August 16, 1780
Battle of Kings Mountain
October 7, 1780
Battle of Cowpens
January 17, 1781
Battle of Guilford Courthouse
March 15, 1781
Battle of the Chesapeake
September 5, 1781

Siege of Yorktown
September 28, 1781 - October 19, 1781
 Gnadenhütten Massacre
March 8, 1782

Battle of the Saintes

April 12, 1782

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The following day, several hundred soldiers assembled and stormed the
fort, capturing the six-man garrison, seizing a significant quantity of
powder, and striking the British colors; a subsequent party removed the
remaining cannons and small arms. That act of open violence against the
crown infuriated British officials, but their attempts to deprive
the incipient rebellion of vital war matériel over the following months were
increasingly frustrated by colonial leaders who denuded British
supply caches and sequestered arms and ammunition in private homes.

On April 14, 1775, Gage received a letter from Dartmouth informing him
that Massachusetts had been declared to be in a state of open revolt and
ordering him to “arrest and imprison the principal Actors and Abettors in
the [Massachusetts] Provincial Congress.” Gage had received his orders,
but the colonials were well aware of his intentions before he could act.
Paul Revere’s ride and the Battles of
Lexington and Concord

Paul Revere's ride

Paul Revere riding on the night of April 18, 1775, to warn Boston-area residents that
British troops were coming.(more)
On April 16 Revere rode to Concord, a town 20 miles (32 km) northwest of
Boston, to advise local compatriots to secure their military stores in
advance of British troop movements. Two nights later Revere rode
from Charlestown—where he confirmed that the local Sons of Liberty had
seen the two lanterns that were posted in Boston’s Old North Church,
signaling a British approach across the Charles River—to Lexington to warn
that the British were on the march.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
This map depicts significant events around Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on
April 18–19, 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution.(more)
Revolutionary leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams fled Lexington to
safety, and Revere was joined by fellow riders William Dawes and Samuel
Prescott. The trio were apprehended outside Lexington by a British patrol,
but Prescott escaped custody and was able to continue on to Concord.
Revere’s “midnight ride” provided the colonists with vital information about
British intentions, and it was later immortalized in a poem by Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow.

Some 700 British troops spent the evening of April 18, 1775, forming ranks
on Boston Common, with orders to seize the colonial armory at Concord.
The lengthy public display ensured that Gage had lost any chance at
secrecy, and by the time the force had been transported across the Charles
River to Cambridge it was 2:00 AM the following morning.

Battle of Lexington
The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775, oil on canvas by William Barns Wollen, 1910; in
the National Army Museum, London.(more)
The march to Lexington was an exercise in misery. It began in a swamp, and
the British were forced to wade through brackish water that was, in places,
waist deep. By the time the soaked infantry members arrived in Lexington
about 5:00 AM, 77 minutemen were among those who had assembled on the
village green. Officers on both sides ordered their troops to hold their
positions but not to fire their weapons.

It is unclear who fired “the shot heard ’round the world,” but it sparked a
skirmish that left eight Americans dead. The colonial force evaporated, and
the British moved on to Concord, where they were met with determined
resistance from hundreds of militia members. Now outnumbered and
running low on ammunition, the British column was forced to retire to
Boston. On the return march, American snipers took a deadly toll on the
British, and only the timely arrival of 1,100 reinforcements prevented the
retreat from becoming a rout. Those killed and wounded at the Battles of
Lexington and Concord numbered 273 British and 95 Americans.
The Siege of Boston and the Battle of Bunker
Hill
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill and the retreat by American forces took place on a small
peninsula north of Boston. The Americans set up their defenses on Breed's Hill. The site
is built over today, but it was open country in 1775. The British advanced from Boston
by boat. The Charles River was not largely filled then, as it is today, and British warships
could lie between Boston and the site of the battle.(more)
Rebel militia then converged on Boston from all over New England, while
London attempted to formulate a response. Generals Sir William Howe, Sir
Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne were dispatched at once with
reinforcements, and Charles Cornwallis followed later. Those four
commanders would be identified with the conduct of the principal British
operations.

The Continental Congress in Philadelphia, acting for the 13 colonies, voted

for general defensive measures, called out troops, and appointed George
Washington of Virginia commander in chief. Before Washington could take
charge of the 15,000 colonial troops laying siege to the British garrison in
Boston, Gage ordered Howe to drive the Americans from the heights in
Charlestown.

Edward Percy Moran: Battle of Bunker Hill

British grenadiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill, painting by Edward Percy Moran, 1909.
(more)
The Americans provoked the assault by entrenching on Breed’s Hill, the
lower of two hills overlooking the British position. The placement of
American artillery on the heights would have made the British position in
Boston untenable, so on June 17, 1775, Howe led a British frontal assault on
the American fortifications.

In the misleadingly named Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill was the
primary locus of combat), Howe’s 2,300 troops encountered withering fire
while storming the rebel lines. The British eventually cleared the hill but at
the cost of more than 40 percent of the assault force, and the battle was
a moral victory for the Americans.

Washington takes command

George Washington
Gen. George Washington (riding a white horse) and his staff welcoming a provision train
of supplies for the Continental Army.(more)
On July 3, 1775, Washington assumed command of the American forces at
Cambridge. Not only did he have to contain the British in Boston, but he
also had to recruit a Continental army. During the winter of 1775–76
recruitment lagged so badly that fresh drafts of militia were called up to
help maintain the siege.

Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen, with drawn sword, capturing Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775, as
depicted in a 19th-century engraving.(more)
The balance shifted in late winter, when Gen. Henry Knox arrived with
artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in New York. The British fort, which
occupied a strategic point between Lake George and Lake Champlain, had
been surprised and taken on May 10, 1775, by the Green Mountain Boys, a
Vermont militia group under the command of Col. Ethan Allen. The cannons
from Ticonderoga were mounted on Dorchester Heights, above Boston. The
guns forced Howe, who had replaced Gage in command in October 1775, to
evacuate the city on March 17, 1776. Howe then repaired to Halifax to
prepare for an invasion of New York, and Washington moved units
southward for its defense.

Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold fought bravely and successfully against the British during the early
years of the American Revolution. He rose to the level of major general in the
Continental Army, but his discontent over his treatment by superiors and his
connections to loyalists led him in 1780 to ask the British for £20,000 in exchange for
betraying his army post.(more)
Meanwhile, action flared in the North. In the fall of 1775 the Americans
invaded Canada. One force under Gen. Richard
Montgomery captured Montreal on November 13. Another under Benedict
Arnold made a remarkable march through the Maine wilderness to Quebec.
Unable to take the city, Arnold was joined by Montgomery, many of whose
troops had gone home because their enlistments had expired. An attack on
the city on the last day of the year failed, Montgomery was killed, and many
troops were captured. The Americans maintained a siege of the city but
withdrew with the arrival of British reinforcements in the spring.

Pursued by the British and decimated by smallpox, the Americans fell back
to Ticonderoga. British Gen. Guy Carleton’s hopes of moving quickly down
Lake Champlain, however, were frustrated by Arnold’s construction of a
fighting fleet. Forced to build one of his own, Carleton destroyed most of
the American fleet in October 1776 but considered the season too advanced
to bring Ticonderoga under siege.
 Britannica Quiz

A History of War

As the Americans suffered defeat in Canada, so did the British in the

South. North Carolina patriots trounced a body of loyalists at Moore’s Creek
Bridge on February 27, 1776. Charleston, South Carolina, was successfully
defended against a British assault by sea in June.
The battle for New York
New York–New Jersey campaign during the American Revolution
This map shows the battles that took place during the New York–New Jersey campaign
of 1776–77 as well as the routes taken by American and British forces.(more)
Having made up its mind to crush the rebellion, the British government sent
General Howe and his brother, Richard, Admiral Lord Howe, with a
large fleet and 34,000 British and German troops to New York. It also gave
the Howes a commission to treat with the Americans. The British force
sailed on June 10, 1776, from Halifax to New York and on July 5 encamped
on Staten Island. The Continental Congress, which had proclaimed the
independence of the colonies, at first thought that the Howes were
empowered to negotiate peace terms but discovered that they were
authorized only to accept submission and assure pardons.

J.C. Armytage: Retreat at Long Island

Retreat at Long Island, depicting George Washington directing the retreat across the
East River; engraving by J.C. Armytage after a painting by M.A. Wageman.(more)
Their peace efforts getting nowhere, the Howes turned to force.
Washington, who had anticipated British designs, had already marched
from Boston to New York and fortified the city, but his position was far from
ideal. His left flank was thrown across the East River, beyond the village
of Brooklyn, while the remainder of his lines fronted the Hudson River,
making them open to a combined naval and ground attack. The position
was untenable since the British absolutely dominated the waters
about Manhattan. Howe drove Washington out of New York and forced the
abandonment of the whole of Manhattan Island by employing three well-
directed movements upon the American left.

On August 22, 1776, under his brother’s guns, General Howe crossed the
narrows to the Long Island shore with 15,000 troops, increasing the number
to 20,000 on the 25th. He then scored a smashing victory on August 27,
driving the Americans into their Brooklyn works and inflicting a loss of
about 1,400 troops. Washington skillfully evacuated his army from Brooklyn
to Manhattan that night under cover of a fog.
On September 15 Howe followed up his victory by invading Manhattan.
Though checked at Harlem Heights the next day, he drew Washington off
the island in October by a move to Throg’s Neck and then to New Rochelle,
northeast of the city. Leaving garrisons at Fort Washington on Manhattan
and at Fort Lee on the opposite shore of the Hudson River, Washington
hastened to block Howe. The British commander, however, defeated him on
October 28 at Chatterton Hill near White Plains. Howe slipped between the
American army and Fort Washington and stormed the fort on November 16,
seizing guns, supplies, and nearly 3,000 prisoners.

British forces under Lord Cornwallis then took Fort Lee and on November
24 started to drive the American army across New Jersey. Though
Washington escaped to the west bank of the Delaware River, his army
nearly disappeared. Howe then put his army into winter quarters, with
outposts at towns such as Bordentown and Trenton.

Emanuel Leutze: Washington Crossing the Delaware

Washington Crossing the Delaware, oil on canvas by Emanuel Leutze, 1851; in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. It depicts George Washington and his army
dramatically crossing the icy Delaware River for a surprise dawn attack on the British at
Trenton, New Jersey, on December 25, 1776.(more)
On Christmas night Washington struck back with a brilliant riposte.
Crossing the ice-strewn Delaware with 2,400 troops, he fell upon the
Hessian garrison at Trenton at dawn and took nearly 1,000 prisoners.
Though almost trapped by Cornwallis, who recovered Trenton on January 2,
1777, Washington made a skillful escape during the night, won a battle
against British reinforcements at Princeton the next day, and went into
winter quarters in the defensible area around Morristown. The Trenton-
Princeton campaign roused the country and saved the struggle for
independence from collapse.
A British general surrenders, and the French
prepare for war
Discover how British strategy evolved as the scope of the American
Revolution expanded worldwide
Overview of the changes in British strategy in the American Revolution after the Battles
of Saratoga.(more)
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Britain’s strategy in 1777 aimed at driving a wedge between New
England and the other colonies. An army under Gen. John Burgoyne was to
march south from Canada and join forces with Howe on the Hudson. But
Howe seems to have concluded that Burgoyne was strong enough to
operate on his own and left New York in the summer, taking his army by sea
to the head of Chesapeake Bay. Once ashore, Howe defeated Washington
badly but not decisively at Brandywine Creek on September 11.
Northern campaign of 1777
This map shows the major battles of the Northern campaign of 1777 during the
American Revolution and how American and British forces moved through and around
New York.(more)
Then, feinting westward, Howe entered Philadelphia, the American capital,
on September 25. The Continental Congress fled to York. Washington struck
back at Germantown on October 4 but, compelled to withdraw, went into
winter quarters at Valley Forge.

In the North the story was different. Burgoyne was to move south
to Albany with a force of about 9,000 British, Germans, Indigenous people,
and American loyalists; a smaller force under Lieut. Col. Barry St.
Leger was to converge on Albany through the Mohawk valley. Burgoyne
took Ticonderoga handily on July 5 and then, instead of using Lake George,
chose a southward route by land. Slowed by the rugged terrain, strewn with
trees cut down by Americans under Gen. Philip Schuyler, and needing
horses, Burgoyne sent a force of Germans to collect them at Bennington,
Vermont. The Germans were nearly wiped out on August 16 by New
Englanders under Gen. John Stark and Col. Seth Warner.

John Trumbull: Surrender of General John Burgoyne

Surrender of General John Burgoyne, oil on canvas by John Trumbull, 1826; in the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. This painting depicts the moment when Burgoyne, a
British general, surrendered to American forces at Saratoga on October 17, 1777. It
represented a major victory for the colonists during the American Revolution.(more)
Meanwhile, St. Leger besieged Fort Schuyler (present-day Rome, New
York), ambushed a relief column of American militia at Oriskany on August
6, but retreated as his forces gave up the siege and American troops under
Arnold approached. Burgoyne himself reached the Hudson, but the
Americans, now under Gen. Horatio Gates, checked him at Freeman’s
Farm on September 19 and, thanks to Arnold’s battlefield leadership,
decisively defeated him at Bemis Heights on October 7. Ten days later,
unable to get help from New York, Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.

The most significant result of Burgoyne’s capitulation was the entrance

of France into the war. The French had secretly furnished financial and
material aid to the Americans since 1776. Now they prepared fleets and
armies, although they did not formally declare war until June 1778.

After a hungry winter at Valley

Forge

Edward Percy Moran: Washington at Valley Forge

Washington at Valley Forge, print of the painting (c. 1911) by Edward Percy Moran.
(more)
Meanwhile, the Americans at Valley Forge survived the hungry winter of
1777−78, which was made worse by quartermaster and commissary
mismanagement, graft of contractors, and unwillingness of farmers to sell
produce for paper money. Order and discipline among the troops were
improved by the arrival of the Freiherr von (baron of) Steuben, a Prussian
officer in the service of France. Steuben instituted a training program in
which he emphasized drilling by officers, marching in column, and using
firearms more effectively.
Molly Pitcher
Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, lithograph by Nathaniel Currier.
Accounts of the battle assert that when her husband, artilleryman William Hays, was
incapacitated, she took his place in the gun crew. She was later immortalized in
patriotic prints and literature.(more)
The program paid off at Monmouth Court House, New Jersey, on June 28,
1778, when Washington attacked the British, who were withdrawing from
Philadelphia to New York. Although Sir Henry Clinton, who had replaced
Howe, struck back hard, the Americans stood their ground, as exemplified
by Molly Pitcher, whose legend as the heroine of the battle spread
afterward. Thereafter (except in the winter of 1779, which was spent at
Morristown) Washington made his headquarters at West Point on the
Hudson, and Clinton avowed himself too weak to attack him there.

French aid now materialized with the appearance of a strong fleet under
the comte d’Estaing. Unable to enter New York harbor, d’Estaing tried to
assist Maj. Gen. John Sullivan in dislodging the British
from Newport, Rhode Island. Storms and British reinforcements thwarted
the joint effort.
Setbacks in the North
Action in the North was largely a stalemate for the rest of the war. The
British raided New Bedford, Massachusetts, and New Haven and New
London, Connecticut, while loyalists and Indigenous forces attacked
settlements in New York and Pennsylvania. The Americans under “Mad”
Anthony Wayne stormed Stony Point, New York, on July 16, 1779,
and “Light-Horse Harry” Lee took Paulus Hook, New Jersey, on August 19.

More From Britannica

United States: The American Revolution and the early federal republic

More lasting in effect was Sullivan’s expedition of August 1779

against Britain’s Indigenous allies in New York, particularly the destruction
of their villages and fields of corn. Farther west, Col. George Rogers
Clark campaigned against British posts on the northwest frontier. With a
company of volunteers, Clark captured Kaskaskia, the chief post in
the Illinois country, on July 4, 1778, and later secured the submission
of Vincennes. The latter was recaptured by Gen. Henry Hamilton, the
British commander at Detroit, but, in the spring of 1779, Clark raised
another force and retook Vincennes from Hamilton. That expedition did
much to free the frontier from raids by Indigenous peoples, gave American
settlers a hold upon the northwest, and encouraged expansion into the Ohio
valley.
Find out why Benedict Arnold colluded with the British during the American
Revolutionary War
Overview of Benedict Arnold's service during the American Revolution and his
subsequent betrayal of the American cause.(more)
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Benedict Arnold and John André

American Gen. Benedict Arnold (seated), commander of West Point, persuading British
Maj. John André to conceal in his boot plans regarding the surrender of the garrison. In
the notorious meeting of September 21, 1780, Arnold agreed to betray his post in
exchange for £20,000.(more)
Potentially serious blows to the American cause were Benedict Arnold’s
efforts to surrender his army post to the British in 1780 and the
army mutinies of 1780 and 1781. Arnold’s attempt to betray West
Point miscarried, and his British contact, Maj. John André, was captured by
the Americans and hanged as a spy. Mutinies were sparked by
misunderstandings over terms of enlistment, poor food and clothing, gross
arrears of pay, and the decline in the purchasing power of the dollar.
Suppressed by force or negotiation, the mutinies shook the morale of the
army.
Final campaigns in the South and the
surrender of Cornwallis
final Southern campaigns of the American Revolution
This map shows the major battles and troop movements during the final campaigns of
the American Revolution in the South during 1780−81, culminating in the Siege of
Yorktown and British surrender in October 1781.(more)
British strategy since 1778 had called for offensives that were designed to
take advantage of the flexibility of sea power and the loyalist sentiment of
many of the people. British forces from New York and St.
Augustine, Florida, occupied Georgia by the end of January 1779. Gen.
Augustine Prevost, who had commanded in Florida, made Savannah his
headquarters and defended that city in the fall against d’Estaing and a
Franco-American army. Hrabia (count) Kazimierz Pułaski, a Polish officer
who was serving on the American side, was mortally wounded in an
unsuccessful assault on Savannah on October 9, 1779.

Having failed to achieve any decisive advantage in the North in 1779,

Clinton headed a combined military and naval expedition southward. He
evacuated Newport on October 25, left New York under the command of
German Gen. Wilhelm, Freiherr von Knyphausen, and in December sailed
with some 8,500 soldiers to join Prevost in Savannah. Cornwallis
accompanied him, and later Lord Rawdon joined him with an additional
force.

Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln, mezzotint on paper by John Rubens Smith after Henry Sargent, 1811;
in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. After long service as an officer in the
Continental Army during the American Revolution, he surrendered to British forces at
Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1780, seriously damaging the American war effort.
(more)
Marching on Charleston, Clinton cut off the city from relief and, after a
brief siege, compelled Gen. Benjamin Lincoln to surrender on May 12, 1780.
The loss of Charleston and the 5,000 troops of its garrison—virtually the
entire Continental Army in the South—was a serious blow to the American
cause. Learning that Newport was threatened by a French expeditionary
force under the comte de Rochambeau, Clinton returned to New York in
June, leaving Cornwallis at Charleston.

Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene, engraving by J.B. Forrest, 19th century. Greene played an important
role as a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.(more)
Cornwallis, however, took the offensive. On August 16 he shattered General
Gates’s army at Camden, South Carolina, and German Continental Army
officer Johann Kalb was mortally wounded in the fighting. The destruction of
a force of loyalists at Kings Mountain on October 7 led Cornwallis to move
against the new American commander, Gen. Nathanael Greene. When
Greene put part of his force under Gen. Daniel Morgan, Cornwallis sent his
cavalry leader, Col. Banastre Tarleton, after Morgan.

At Cowpens on January 17, 1781, Morgan destroyed practically all of

Tarleton’s column. Subsequently, on March 15, Greene and
Cornwallis fought at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Cornwallis won
but suffered heavy casualties. After withdrawing to Wilmington, he marched
into Virginia to join British forces sent there by Clinton.
Francis Marion
Francis Marion was a solider who led bands of guerrillas against British forces during the
American Revolution. The British called him “the Swamp Fox” because of his bold raids
and elusive movements in the swamps of South Carolina.(more)
Greene then moved back to South Carolina, where he was defeated
by Rawdon at Hobkirk’s Hill on April 25 and at Ninety Six in June and by
Lieut. Col. Alexander Stewart at Eutaw Springs on September 8. In spite of
that, the British—harassed by partisan leaders such as Francis
Marion (whose guerrilla tactics earned him the nickname “the Swamp
Fox”), Thomas Sumter, and Andrew Pickens—soon retired to the coast and
remained locked up in Charleston and Savannah.

Meanwhile, Cornwallis entered Virginia, reaching Petersburg on May 20,

1781. Sending Tarleton on raids across the colony, the British asserted a
sphere of control as far north as Fredericksburg and west to Charlottesville.
There Thomas Jefferson, then the governor of Virginia, barely escaped
capture by Tarleton’s troops. Cornwallis started to build a base
at Yorktown, at the same time fending off American forces under Wayne,
Steuben, and the marquis de Lafayette.
Siege of Yorktown
Painting depicting the assault on Redoubt 10, during the Siege of Yorktown, October 14,
1781.(more)
Learning that the comte de Grasse had arrived in the Chesapeake with a
large fleet and 3,000 French troops, Washington and Rochambeau moved
south to Virginia. By mid-September the Franco-American forces had placed
Yorktown under siege, and British rescue efforts proved fruitless.
Cornwallis surrendered his army of more than 7,000 soldiers on October 19,
1781. For the second time during the war, the British had lost an entire
army.

Thereafter, land action in America died out, though the war persisted in
other theaters and on the high seas. Eventually Clinton was replaced by
Sir Guy Carleton. While the peace treaties were under consideration and
afterward, Carleton evacuated thousands of loyalists from America,
including many from Savannah on July 11, 1782, and others from
Charleston on December 14.

The last British forces finally left New York on November 25, 1783.
Washington then reentered the city in triumph.

How the war was fought at sea

Bonhomme Richard and Serapis

The American warship Bonhomme Richard in battle with the British frigate Serapis,
September 23, 1779.(more)
Although the colonists ventured to challenge Britain’s naval power from the
outbreak of the conflict, the war at sea in its later stages was fought mainly
between Britain and America’s European allies, the American effort being
reduced to privateering.

The onset of the Revolution found the colonies with no real naval forces but
with a large maritime population and many merchant vessels employed in
domestic and foreign trade. That merchant service was familiar not only
with the sea but also with warfare. Colonial ships and sailors had taken part
in the British naval expeditions against Cartagena, Spain,
and Louisburg, Nova Scotia, during the nine years of war between Britain
and France from 1754 to 1763. Colonists also had engaged in privateering
during the French and Indian War, the American phase of that broader
conflict (the European phase of which was known as the Seven Years’ War).

The importance of sea power was recognized early. In October 1775

the Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental
Navy and established the Marine Corps in November. The navy, taking its
direction from the naval and marine committees of the Congress, was only
occasionally effective. In 1776 it had 27 ships against Britain’s 270. By the
end of the war, the British total had risen close to 500, and the American
total had dwindled to 20. Many of the best sailors available had gone off
privateering, and Continental Navy commanders and crews both suffered
from a lack of training and discipline.
Early engagements and privateers

John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones, painted after an etching by Moreau made from life in 1780;
lithographed by Forbes Lith. Mfg. Co., Boston. Jones, an American naval captain, is best
known for leading his ship Bonhomme Richard against the British frigate Serapis in
1779, during the American Revolution. “I have not yet begun to fight!” he declared
when asked by the British to surrender; he went on to capture the Serapis.(more)
The first significant blow by the American navy was struck by
Commodore Esek Hopkins, who captured New Providence (Nassau) in the
Bahamas in 1776. Other captains, such as Lambert Wickes, Gustavus
Conyngham, and John Barry, also enjoyed successes, but the Scottish-
born John Paul Jones was especially notable. As captain of the Ranger, Jones
scourged the British coasts in 1778, capturing the man-of-war Drake. As
captain of the Bonhomme Richard in 1779, he intercepted a timber convoy
and captured the British frigate Serapis.

More injurious to the British were the raids by American privateers on their
shipping. During peace, colonial ships had traditionally traveled the seas
armed as a protection against pirates, so, with the outbreak of war, it was
natural that considerable numbers of colonial merchant vessels should turn
to privateering. That practice was continued on a large scale until the close
of the war under legal authorization of individual colonies and of the
Continental Congress. Records are incomplete but indicate that well over
2,000 private armed vessels were so employed during the course of the war,
carrying more than 18,000 guns and some 70,000 crew members. In
addition, several of the colonies organized state navies which also preyed
upon hostile commerce.

Those operations were of such a scale that they must be regarded as one of
the significant American military efforts of the war. Together with the
operations of a few Continental vessels, they constituted the only sustained
offensive pressure brought to bear by the Americans, which materially
affected the attitude of the British people toward peace.

By the end of 1777 American ships had taken 560 British vessels, and by the
end of the war they had probably seized 1,500. More than 12,000 British
sailors also were captured. Such injury was done to British commerce that
insurance rates increased to unprecedented figures, available sources of
revenue were seriously reduced, and British coastal populations became
alarmed at the prospect of Yankee incursions. By 1781 British merchants
were clamoring for an end to hostilities.

Most of the naval action occurred at sea. The significant exceptions were
Arnold’s battles against Carleton’s fleet on Lake Champlain at Valcour
Island on October 11 and off Split Rock on October 13, 1776. Arnold lost
both battles, but his construction of a fleet of tiny vessels, mostly gondolas
(gundalows) and galleys, had forced the British to build a larger fleet and
hence delayed their attack on Fort Ticonderoga until the following spring.
That delay contributed significantly to Burgoyne’s capitulation at Saratoga
in October 1777.

French intervention and the

decisive action at Virginia Capes
Vladimir Zveg: Battle of the Virginia Capes
Battle of the Virginia Capes, oil on canvas by Vladimir Zveg, 1962.
The entrance of France into the war, followed by that of Spain in 1779
and the Netherlands in 1780, produced important changes in the naval
aspect of the American Revolution. The Spanish and Dutch were not
particularly active, but their role in keeping British naval forces tied down
in Europe was significant. The British navy could not maintain an effective
blockade of both the American coast and the enemies’ ports. Because of
years of neglect, Britain’s ships of the line were neither modern nor
sufficiently numerous.

An immediate result was that France’s Toulon fleet under d’Estaing got
safely away to America, where it appeared off New York and later assisted
Sullivan in the unsuccessful siege of Newport. A fierce battle off Ushant,
France, in July 1778 between the Channel fleet under Adm. Augustus
Keppel and the Brest fleet under the comte d’Orvilliers proved inconclusive.
Had Keppel won decisively, French aid to the Americans would have
diminished and Rochambeau might never have been able to lead his
expedition to America.

In the following year England was in real danger. Not only did it have to
face the privateers of the United States, France, and Spain off its coasts, as
well as the raids of John Paul Jones, but it also lived in fear of invasion.
The combined fleets of France and Spain had acquired command of
the English Channel, and a French army of 50,000 waited for the propitious
moment to board their transports. Luckily for the British, storms, sickness
among the allied crews, and changes of plans terminated the threat.

George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney

George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, mezzotint after a painting by Joshua
Reynolds. By the time of the American Revolution, Rodney was a distinguished admiral
in the British navy, and he achieved his greatest victories during that conflict.(more)
Despite allied supremacy in the Channel in 1779, the threat of invasion, and
the loss of islands in the West Indies, the British maintained control of the
North American seaboard for most of 1779 and 1780, which made possible
their Southern land campaigns. They also reinforced Gibraltar, which the
Spaniards had brought under siege in the fall of 1779, and sent a fleet
under George Rodney to the West Indies in early 1780. After fruitless
maneuvering against the comte de Guichen, who had replaced d’Estaing,
Rodney sailed for New York.

While Rodney had been in the West Indies, a French squadron slipped out
of Brest and sailed to Newport with Rochambeau’s army. Rodney, instead of
trying to block the approach to Newport, returned to the West Indies,
where, upon receiving instructions to attack Dutch possessions, he
seized Sint Eustatius, the Dutch island that served as the principal depot for
war materials shipped from Europe and transshipped into American vessels.
He became so involved in the disposal of the enormous booty that he dallied
at the island for six months.

In the meantime, a powerful British fleet relieved Gibraltar in 1781, but the
price was the departure of the French fleet at Brest, part of it to India, the
larger part under François-Joseph-Paul, comte de Grasse, to the West
Indies. After maneuvering indecisively against Rodney, de Grasse received a
request from Washington and Rochambeau to come to New York or the
Chesapeake.

Earlier, in March, a French squadron had tried to bring troops from

Newport to the Chesapeake but was forced to return by Adm. Marriot
Arbuthnot, who had succeeded Lord Howe. Soon afterward Arbuthnot was
replaced by Thomas Graves, a conventional-minded admiral.

Informed that a French squadron would shortly leave the West Indies,
Rodney sent Samuel Hood north with a powerful force while he sailed for
England, taking with him several formidable ships that might better have
been left with Hood. Soon after Hood dropped anchor in New York, de
Grasse appeared in the Chesapeake, where he landed troops to help
Lafayette contain Cornwallis until Washington and Rochambeau could
arrive.

Battle of the Chesapeake

This map, which dates from the 1780s, depicts the French and British fleets at the
Battle of the Chesapeake, which occurred off the Virginia Capes on September 5, 1781,
during the American Revolution. The French won what one naval historian has called
“the decisive battle of the war.”(more)
Fearful that the comte de Barras, who was carrying Rochambeau’s artillery
train from Newport, might join de Grasse and hoping to intercept him,
Graves sailed with Hood to the Chesapeake. Graves had 19 ships of the line
against de Grasse’s 24. Though the battle that began on September 5 off the
Virginia Capes, known as the Battle of the Chesapeake, was not a skillfully
managed affair, Graves had the worst of it and retired to New York, thus
sealing the fate of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown.

Graves ventured out again on October 17 with a strong contingent of troops

and 25 ships of the line, while de Grasse, reinforced by Barras, now had 36
ships of the line. No battle occurred, however, when Graves learned that
Cornwallis had surrendered.
Although Britain subsequently recouped some of its fortunes, by Rodney
defeating and capturing de Grasse in the Battle of the Saints off Dominica in
1782 and British land and sea forces inflicting defeats in India, the turn of
events did not significantly alter the situation in America as it existed after
Yorktown. A new government under Lord Shelburne tried to get the
American commissioners to agree to a separate peace, but, ultimately, the
treaty negotiated with the Americans was not to go into effect until the
formal conclusion of a peace with their European allies.
The end of the war and the terms of the
Peace of Paris (1783)

Peace of Paris
Signing the Preliminary Treaty of Peace at Paris, November 30, 1782, print reproduction
of a painting by Carl Seiler. John Jay (far left) and Benjamin Franklin are depicted
standing.(more)
Preliminary articles of peace were signed on November 30, 1782. The Peace
of Paris, which was signed on September 3, 1783, ended the U.S. War of
Independence.
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, made final on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolution.
(more)
Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States (with
western boundaries to the Mississippi River) and ceded Florida to Spain.
Other provisions called for payment of U.S. private debts to British citizens,
American access to the Newfoundland fisheries, and fair treatment for
American colonials loyal to Britain. Great Britain and the United States also
agreed that they would share access to the Mississippi.

The text of the treaty agreed to by the new United States and the colonial
power Great Britain begins with the two countries pledging to reset their
relationship after years of grinding war. George III and the United States,
the treaty states, together seek

To forget all past Misunderstandings and Differences that have unhappily

interrupted the good Correspondence and Friendship which they mutually wish to
restore; and to establish such a beneficial and satisfactory Intercourse between
the two countries upon the ground of reciprocal Advantages and mutual
Convenience as may promote and secure to both perpetual Peace and Harmony….
Did that express that genuine feeling? Or empty diplomatic platitudes? Or a
mix of both? Benjamin West provided one answer with a painting known
as American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Negotiations with
Great Britain. He began it in 1783, but only Americans would sit for him. He
left the rest of his painting blank, because the British negotiators he
intended to include did not make themselves available to him. West’s
painting became a telling symbol of the continuing rivalry between the two
countries, which would erupt again in the War of 1812.

France received Tobago and Senegal from Britain as a result of the

American Revolution. The Dutch gave up to the British the Indian port
of Nagapattinam and allowed British access to the Moluccas.
How did the American colonies win the war?
In explaining the outcome of the war, scholars have pointed out that the
British never contrived an overall general strategy for winning it. Also, even
if the war could have been terminated by British power in the early stages,
the generals during that period, notably Howe, declined to make a prompt,
vigorous, intelligent application of that power. They acted, to be sure,
within the conventions of their age, but in choosing to take minimal risks
(for example, Carleton at Ticonderoga and Howe at Brooklyn Heights and
later in New Jersey and Pennsylvania) they lost the opportunity to deal
potentially mortal blows to the rebellion. There was also a grave lack of
understanding and cooperation at crucial moments (as with Burgoyne and
Howe in 1777). Finally, the British counted too strongly on loyalist support
they did not receive.

But British mistakes alone could not account for the success of the United
States. Feeble as their war effort occasionally became, the Americans were
able generally to take advantage of their enemies’ mistakes. The
Continental Army, moreover, was by no means an inept force even before
Steuben’s reforms. The militias, while usually unreliable, could perform
admirably under leaders who understood them, such as Arnold, Greene, and
Morgan, and often reinforced the Continentals in crises. Furthermore,
Washington, a rock in adversity, learned slowly but reasonably well the art
of generalship. The supplies and funds furnished by France from 1776 to
1778 were invaluable, while French military and naval support after 1778
was essential. The outcome, therefore, resulted from a combination of
British blunders, American efforts, and French assistance.

Gustavus Conyngham
American Revolution
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Gustavus Conyngham (born c. 1747, County Donegal, Ire.—died Nov. 27,
1819, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) was an American naval officer who fought the
British in their own waters during the American Revolution.

Conyngham was taken to America in his youth and apprenticed to a captain

in the West Indian trade. Advancing to shipmaster, he was stranded in the
Netherlands at the outbreak of the American Revolution. The American
commissioners in France supplied him with a commission and sent him
forth from Dunkirk, France, in May in an armed lugger. He captured two
ships, but Britain protested the flagrant violation of French neutrality.
Conyngham and his crew were imprisoned; his captain’s commission was
confiscated. The commissioners, with French contrivance, secured his
release and supplied him with a new commission and the cutter Revenge.
Operating around the British Isles, off Spain, and in the West Indies, he took
27 prizes and sank another 30 ships in the next 18 months.

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Understanding the American Revolution

Despite this achievement, when Conyngham landed in Philadelphia in 1779,

he was accused of corruption arising from his relationship with the
American commissioners in France. The Revenge was confiscated, sold, and
repurchased—still under Conyngham’s command but now as a privateer. It
was promptly taken by the British, and Conyngham, never especially
concerned with either paperwork or neutral rights, was threatened with
death as a pirate for being unable to produce his original commission.
Imprisoned in England, Conyngham escaped to the Netherlands, where in
1780 he joined John Paul Jones in a cruise in the frigate Alliance. Acquiring
his own ship, Conyngham was once again captured (May 17, 1780).
Released nine months later, he spent the rest of the war on the beach.

From the end of the war in 1783 until his death in Philadelphia in 1819,
Conyngham waged a futile fight to gain compensation from Congress.
Almost a century after his death, the commission that could
have substantiated his claim was found in the collection of a Parisian
autograph dealer.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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John Montagu, 4th earl of

Sandwich
British first lord of Admiralty
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Also known as: John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich, Viscount
Hinchingbrooke, Baron Montagu of Saint Neots
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John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich

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Category: History & Society
In full:

John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, Baron Montagu of

Saint Neots
Born:

November 13, 1718

Died:
 April 30, 1792, London, England (aged 73)
Title / Office:

House of Lords (1739-1792), Great Britain

Role In:

American Revolution
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John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich (born November 13, 1718—died
April 30, 1792, London, England) British first lord of the Admiralty during
the American Revolution (1776–81) and the man for whom the sandwich
was named.

Having succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, the 3rd earl, in 1729,
he studied at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and traveled abroad and
then took his seat in the House of Lords in 1739. He served as postmaster
general (1768–70) and secretary of state for the northern department
(1763–65, 1770–71). In the latter capacity he took a leading part in the
prosecution (1763) of John Wilkes, the British politician and agitator, whose
friend he once had been, thereby earning the sobriquet of “Jemmy
Twitcher,” after a treacherous character in John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera. He
also was first lord of the Admiralty (1748–51, 1771–82). During the latter
period his critics accused him of using the office to obtain bribes and to
distribute political jobs. Although he was frequently attacked for corruption,
his administrative ability has been recognized. However, during the
American Revolution he insisted upon keeping much of the British fleet in
European waters because of the possibility of French attack, and he was
subjected to considerable criticism for insufficient naval preparedness.

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Understanding the American Revolution

His interest in naval affairs and his promotion of exploration led the English
explorer Capt. James Cook to name the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) after him
in 1778. His Voyage Round the Mediterranean was published in 1799. In his
private life, Sandwich was a profligate gambler and a rake.
The sandwich was named after him; however, the story that ties the origin
of the name to a specific incident in 1762 in which Sandwich (according to
an account in a French travel book) spent 24 hours at a gaming table
without other food is widely thought to be apocryphal.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and
updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.
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History & Society

Sir Frederick Haldimand

British general
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Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 • Article History

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Category: History & Society
Born:

Aug. 11, 1718, Yverdon, Switz.

Died:

June 5, 1791, Yverdon (aged 72)

Title / Office:

governor (1778-1786), Quebec

Role In:

American Revolution
See all related content →
Sir Frederick Haldimand (born Aug. 11, 1718, Yverdon, Switz.—died June
5, 1791, Yverdon) was a British general who served as governor
of Quebec province from 1778 to 1786.

Haldimand entered British service in 1756 as a lieutenant colonel in the

Royal American Regiment. He served in Jeffery Amherst’s expedition (1760)
against Montreal during the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and
France, then stayed there as second in command after the French
capitulation. In 1762 he became lieutenant governor of Trois-Rivières and in
1767 commander at Pensacola, Fla.
 Britannica Quiz

Understanding the American Revolution

Haldimand served as commander in chief of the British Army in North

America at Boston in 1773–74 and then was recalled to England, denied
higher command because of his foreign birth. In 1778, however, during
the American Revolution, he succeeded Sir Guy Carleton as governor-in-
chief of Quebec. Haldimand conducted no major operations during the war
but helped settle loyalist refugees and Native American (First Nations)
allies in Canada. His resistance to political pressure from English speakers
made him unpopular with the English in Quebec. He returned to England in
1784 and was knighted in 1785.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.