Battle of Bunker (Breeds) Hill

• After Concord, 1000’s of militia set up outside of Cambridge

• Brits send new troops led by Sir William Howe

• June 16, 1775, Americans occupy the heights overlooking Boston and the Mystic River

The Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place on the hill next to it, Breed Hill

June 17, 1775

Brit moves

• Howe decides to have them removed

• He believes that the militia will run

• Leads three charges up Breeds Hill

• Over ½ of his troops are killed

• Americans eventually forced to run when they ran out of ammo

Second Continental Congress (Spring/summer 75)

• Some believe it is worth making amend with British

– Olive Branch Petition

• Some believe it is time to start forming a Continental Army

– George Washington selected as leader of army

Merits of GW as army commander

• Experience

• From VA, many southerners think it’s a NE fight

• Aristocrat, many middle colonies feel it is a fight caused by rabble.

Continental Army problems

• Trouble finding numbers to join army

• Very little money to pay people

• Many don’t want to leave their home

• Tries to reorganize, and steps on many toes

• At times, pays troops with his own money

• Not much fighting for the rest of 75.

At this stage, most are fighting out of

anger, not for

freedom

Fort Ticonderoga

• Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen gather troops and attack this New York fort.

• Force British to surrender, and take over the fort.

• Gain valuable arms from the British.

Fort Ticonderoga: Taken by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in the Spring of 75

Arnold pushes up into Canada and attacks Quebec

• Christmas day, 75

• Come very close to winning, but don’t know it.

• Arnold eventually forced to surrender.

Winter 75-76

• Cannons from Ticonderoga brought to Boston

• In March, they took the high ground around Boston, and forced the British to move out of the city.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

• Winter of 75-76, a pamphlet is published.

• Every family had access to it

• It argues that it is foolish for people to be ruled by a “Divine Right King”, and that it only makes since to fight for independence.

• Forces people to make a decision

April 76

• North Carolina delegates vote for independence at Continental Congress

• Virginia follows

June 76, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes a

declaration of independence

• Several reject the request to write it (John Adams, Ben Franklin)

• Middle Colonies don’t want to stick their neck out too far

• Thomas Jefferson agrees, and writes the whole thing on his own.

Declaration of Independence

• Ideas borrowed from George Mason and John Locke

• Added eloquence (great phrase maker)

• Brings it back to congress for debate (July 2nd)

– Condemnation of slavery taken out

• In one day, a scribe wrote it, and it was signed first by president John Hancock (July 4th, 1776)

State of the people after the revolution:

• No longer any middle ground.

– Many American clergy from Anglican church in a tight spot

– Gov. officials and wealthy concerned about the breakdown of social order

– Loyalists or tories (people still loyal to the King (approx. ¼ were open or quiet about this.

– Quakers reluctant to fight

– Back country southern farmers resent the aristocrats leading the war effort

– A lot depended on how close the British were to the people.

Blacks and the revolution

• First real opportunity for their status to change

• Both sides promise freedom for those willing to fight.

– Approx 5000 join British army

– Approx 5000 join continental army

• Declaration made it difficult for many to justify continuing slavery

– 1777, Vermont outlaws slavery

Quok Walker

• Black slave in Massachusetts took his case to court.

• Court agreed with him, freeing him and others

• NY and Penn create laws freeing slave children at the age of 25.

Back to the War

• A timeline of highlights from the war

76-77

• Continental Army suffers many demoralizing defeats

• Fighting in New York forces GW to retreat in December of 76 back across NY, NJ, and across the Delaware river into Pennsylvania.

Battles of Princeton and Trenton

• Christmas day, Washington surprises Hessian troops. In the next week they also sneak up and capture Princeton.

• By end of 76, British have won most battles, but only own NY.

1777

• British attempt to Divide New England from the rest of the states.

• Troops converge from Hudson River towards Philadelphia.

• Continental army is pesky and stalls both sides long enough.

• Gen. Burgoyne surrenders 7000 troops in September at Saratoga (considered by most as one of the most significant turning points in the war).

Brandywine Creek

• Other side (not captured at Saratoga) led by Howe, takes Navy, headed towards Philadelphia.

• WA chases him, they meet at Brandywine Creek.

• No one wins,

– Moral victory for Cont. Army

– Howe sidesteps GW, and takes Philadelphia

Benjamin Franklin

• Goes to France to recruit help

• Puts out ads for people to fight. Gets more than French help (Germans, Polish as well)

– Casimer Puloski (cavalry expert)

– Thadeus Kosciusko (military engineer)

– Count von Steuben (lied about rank, but proved to be an invaluable resource)

– Lafayette (French general)

Thadeus Kosciusko

Casimer Puloski Count von Steuben

Marquis de Lafayette

Winter of 77-78

• Howe in hostile Philadelphia

• Amer. Troops forced to spend winter in the cold, several miles away at camp, Valley Forge.

– Difficult times, many almost froze to death

– Discipline learned from survival and the drills brought by von Steuben

78-79

• Howe pulls out of Philly and heads toward NY.

• Smaller army holds the British off in NY

• British, take a new tact, moving from the South.

– Take Georgia, and begin to move north

– After humiliating defeats, Nathaniel Greene put in charge of S. Armies.

– Guerilla warfare used, as cont. army pecked away at British

– Forts in the Illinois country were attacked and taken over by frontiersman, George Rogers Clark.

80-81

• Brit. General Cornwallis retreated to Yorktown (on Ches. Bay) to await supplies

• French Admiral de Grasse was freed up from the W. Indies to join in trapping Corwallis.

– GW, accompanied by Rochambeau’s French Army pinned Cornwallis in

– He surrendered his 7,000 troops on Oct. 19, 1781

• War would continue for over a year

• Leadership of GW held American army together

• Reread the last pages of Chapter 8, and list the terms of the “Treaty of Paris”