Revolution and War Notes

Battle of York Town


1763—Proclamation Act
It was a imaginary line that seperated the Native Americans land from the colonists land.


1764—Grenville Acts (direct tax)
These taxes were the result of a strategy by Grenville to make him more popular in Britian by lowering the taxes.

Sugar (molasses, wine)
Stamp
Quartering
Currency

Virtual/ Direct Representation

1765—Stamp Act Congress

The act required colonists to pay a little extra for legal documents, diplomas, almanacs, broadsides, newspapers and playing cards.

• Sons of Liberty
• Samuel Adams
• Paul Revere
• John Hancock
• Propaganda
• Boycotts
• Lobsters (Lobster-backs, Thomas Lobster)
  

1766—Declaratory Act

The Declaratory act made is so that parliament had full power to make laws in any case they wanted.

1767—Townsend Acts (indirect tax)

The townsend act was named after Charles Townsend. These laws placed new taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea.

• Charles Townsend
• Writs of Assistance (search warrants)
• Revenue used to pay Royal officials in the colonie
• Tea Act (glass, paper, paint) support British East India Company

1770—Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre only killed 5 people but it got so famous just to get at the king. It was a fight between Britian and the colonists.

• March 5, 1770
• Local reaction (primarily)
• 5 dead colonists
• John Adams defends British soldiers/5 exonerated-2 convicted
• Convicted men discharged and thumbs branded

1773—Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was where they dumped 342 crates into the water in response to a parliamentary act which had restrictions on the purchase of tea in the colonies.

• November 30, 1773--Dartmouth sails into Boston Harbor
• December 16, 1773--Tea dumped into harbor
• 340 chests of tea dumped (value of 10,000 British pounds)
  

1774—Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts in Britain)

The Intolerable Acts was an American label for the laws sponsored by Lord North's ministry and enacted by the British Parliament in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party.

• Close the port of Boston
• Shut down Provincial and Town Governments
• All offices appointed
• Named General Thomas Gage as Governor
• Gave all western lands north of the Ohio R. to Quebec, allowed Catholic Church to practice
  

1774—1^st Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress brought together representatives from each of the colonies, except for Georgia, to discuss what they thought of the British Intolerable Acts.

• September to October (7 weeks)
• Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia
• New England—John Adams, Paul Revere, Silas Deane
• Virginia—Washington, Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee
• Pennsylvania—John Dickenson, Joseph Galloway (Plan for American council under Parliament, to avoid war)
• New York—John Jay, James Duane
• Maryland—Samuel Chase (future Supreme Court Justice), Charles Carroll (richest man in Maryland, Catholic)
• Declaration of Rights—rejects Parliamentary authority over internal colonial affairs, colonies manage own defense, united aid to Boston if Intolerable Acts continue, absolute boycott of British goods to be enforced rigidly
  

1775— January

• William Pitt urges Parliament to withdraw troops from America because the idea of managing the colonies through force was “too ridiculous to take up a moment of your lordships’ time

1775—April 19 Lexington and Concord

This was the battle of Lexington and Concord. The British wanted to march to Concord because the Americans had stockpiled weapons there. There was a shot heard around the world.

• Gen. Gage sends 700 men to Concord to seize the powder supplies
• Paul Revere and William Dawes raise alarm the night before
• Town of Lexington is on the way to Concord
• Minutemen are assembled on the town common
• “Shot heard round the world”
  

18 colonials killed and the rest run away

• British march on to Concord and find the munitions were moved overnight
• Minutemen ambush the British the whole way back to Boston
• 430 Redcoats make it back to Boston
• 30,000 Colonists surround Boston
  

1775—May

• Gen. Howe, Gen. Clinton, Gen. Burgoyne
• 5,000 British troops
• Ethan Allen, “Green Mountain Boys” seize Fort Ticonderoga
• Henry Knox uses canon to lay siege on Boston
• Benedict Arnold (Connecticut) takes Fort Crown Point to impede an invasion from Canada

1775—May 10, 2^nd Continental Congress

The Congress met to talk about the past two battles. Another thing the Congress discussed was if they were going to print paper money.

• Sam Adams pushes for Independent
• John Dickenson (Penn.) urges restraint
• Agree to form Colonial Army
• Delegates unanimously agree to Washington as Commander of Continental Army (John Adams suggestion)

1775—June 17, “Battle of Bunker Hill”

The major part of the engagement was actually fought on Breed's Hill nearby. The place for this battle was in Charlestown, Massachusetts across the Charles River from Boston.

• Actually fought on Breed’s Hill
• Gen. Howe leads assault without canon support (his canon had been matched with wrong-sized cannonballs [Amherst at Ticonderoga])
• Militia waited to within 30 yards (some say 15 yards)
• Militia target British officers
• Militia ran extremely low on ammunition
• On the third assault, led by Gen. Howe, British troops overtake the colonial position
• Britain losses almost 1000 men (about half the attacking force)
• Colonials lose about 500 men

1776—January, Common Sense

It challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy.

• Gen. William Howe evacuates Boston
• July 2, lands in Staten Island, New York (Loyalist base)

1776—Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument.

• June 7, Richard Henry Lee (Virginia) introduces legislation to declare independence from Britain
• Before voting on Lee’s proposal Congress appoints five-man committee to draft a formal Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson, 33, does most of the writing)
• June 28, Declaration presented to Congress
• July 2, Congress approves Lee’s legislation to declare the United States of America independent of Great Britain
• July 4, Congress officially adopts the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration intended to:

1. Undermine loyalty to King George III
2. Outline basic principles of representative government
3. Establish the “right” of rebellion
   
   War

1776—August, Brooklyn Heights, New York

1. Largest Naval group Britain will launch until the 20^th century
2. British victory, city falls to England
3. As winter came “sunshine patriots” left the American Army
4. Initial colonial enlistments due to expire

1776—December, Battle of Trenton
It was a crucial victory for the Amercian forces in the American Revolution.

• Howe believes war almost won
• 1,400 Hessians stationed at Trenton
• Colonel Rall (Hessian) builds no fortifications
• Washington “Crosses the Delaware” Christmas night
• 2,500 men; 18 artillery guns
• Surprise attack at dawn
• 106 Hessians killed, 918 capture
• No colonial casualties
• Washington retreats in secret to avoid Gen. Cornwallis counter-a
  

1777—January, Princeton

During the Revolutionary War about 200 British troops took refuge in Nassau Hall after being repelled by Washinton's troops on Princeton Battlefield, there miles south of the campus.

• Washington ambushes British troops
• Colonial victory establishes this will not be a quick war for Britain

1777—September-October, Saratoga

The battles of Saratoga were decisive American victories resulting in the surrender of an entire British army of 9.000 men invading New York from Canada during the Revolutionmary War.

• Gen. Burgoyne plans a three-prong attack on colonials at Albany
• Plan does not consider the terrain, forcing British troops to march through swamps, lakes, hills and forests full of rebels
• Two of the three “prongs” never arrive (Howe goes to Philadelphia instead, St. Leger retreats to New York afraid of Benedict Arnold)
• Sept. Burgoyne crosses Hudson River
• Oct. 17, Burgoyne surrenders
• Establishes American Army as real threat
• Helps secure open French Alliance
• Turning Point of the War
• 1777-1778—Winter at Valley Forge

Under-funded troops

• Low morale
• 10,000+ troops
• 4,000 troops listed as “unfit for duty” due to poor supplies (boots, blankets, coats, etc.)
• 2,500 troops die of disease (typhus, typhoid fever, dysentery, pneumonia)
• George Washington mentioned a lack of shoes so severe that the men's "marches might be tracked by the blood from their feet”
• Local farmers would sell produce to Brits who could pay cash

1779—February, Vincennes


1780—August, Camden

1780—October, Kings Mountain

1781—October, Yorktown

• British Gen. Cornwallis
• American Gen. Washington (also “Mad” Anthony Wayne, Baron von Steuben)
• French Gen. Rochambeau (also Marquis de Lafayette)
• Essentially a French Naval victory
• Last significant battle of the war

1783—Sept. 3, Treaty of Paris

• Britain recognizes American independence
• America gets all land from Atlantic coast to Miss. River, Great Lakes to Florida
• Fishing rights to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and off the coast of Newfoundland
• America must pay debts to Britain
• American congress would “earnestly recommend” all Loyalist property returned (States ignore this request)