Chapter 7
The War for America
The Second Continental Congress
• Two contradictory tasks
• Raise and supply an army
• Reconciliation with Britain
• Why pursue both?
• Fighting had already occurred
• Apprehension of armed conflict with Britain
• Independence?
• Parliamentary power
• Legitimacy of the monarchy
• The end of peaceful reconciliation
• “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
• Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775)
• Americans force British evacuation of Boston (Mar 1776)
• War or peace?
• Parliamentary power
• Independence
• The Olive Branch Petition
• Declaration of Independence
• Who is a ‘traitor’?
• Loyalists
• Patriots
The First Year of the War, 1775-1776
• The American Military Forces
• The British Strategy
• Quebec, New York and New Jersey
• American Invasion of Canada
• Battle of Long Island
• Kip’s Bay
• Battle of Harlem
• Battle of White Plains
• Forts Washington and Lee
• Trenton and Princeton Campaign
The Northern Theatre: 1776-1777
Campaigns
• British force Continentals to leave New York
• British drive Continentals across New Jersey
• Battle of Trenton (Dec 1776)
• Winter quarters at Morristown
• The Saratoga Campaign (map)
• Burgoyne, Howe & St. Leger
• Howe and Philadelphia
• Battle of Brandywine (Sep 1777)
• Saratoga (Oct 1777)
• French Alliance
• International conflict
The Southern Theatre: 1780-1781
Campaigns
• Lord Germain and the Southern Strategy (map)
• Rebels were small minority
• Siege of Charlestown, SC (May 1780)
• British hegemony
• Royal governments reinstated
• Loyalist militias
• Battle of King’s Mountain (Oct 1780)
• Battle of Cowpens (Jan 1781)
• Race to the Dan (Jan-Feb 1781)
• Battle of Guilford C.H. (Mar 1781)
The End Game - Finis
• Allied Siege of Yorktown (Sep-Oct 1781)
• Cornwallis’ Surrender (Oct 19, 1781)
• International continuation of the American Revolution
• Cuddalore, India (June 1783)
• The Treaty of Paris (Sep 1783)
• How/why did the British lose?
• Extensive supply lines
• Misuse of Loyalists
• French alliance with Americans
• What did the American Revolution really mean?
• New vocabulary becomes part of American lexicon
• A new dynamic that forms the basis of American life
Unabashed, shameless self-
promotion