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<p>The capture of Fort Ticonderoga, a massive stone-built stronghold, gave American forces a valuable artillery park early in the war. These sixty guns were later moved to Boston for use in the American siege lines of the British garrison in the city, which was forced to evacuate in March 1776. Although situated in a sparsely settled wilderness about 95 miles north of Albany, the fort commanded the important water route from the Saint Lawrence River in Canada to New York City. French forces constructed the fort in the 1750s, and it was crucial to the armies of France to hold it as part of Canada’s defenses. British and American forces suffered a major defeat there in July 1759 during the French and Indian War. During the Revolutionary War, British troops captured the fort and forced its American garrison to flee during the 1777 Saratoga Campaign.</p>

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Alonzo Chappel. Depicts Ethan Allen along with the Green Mountain Boys, demanding the surrender of the fort.

"Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga" by Percy Moran, ca. 1910

National Museum of the United States Army

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<h2>10 May 1775 </h2><h2>Continental victory</h2><p>In May 1775, a small force of American troops called the Green Mountain Boys commanded by Col. Ethan Allen, along with Col. Benedict Arnold of Connecticut, captured Fort Ticonderoga, strategically located where Lake George flows into Lake Champlain in New York. The fifty-man British garrison surrendered with all the fort’s artillery. </p>

Seizure of Fort Ticonderoga

Explore the history of the American Revolution with some of the wars biggest battles. 

<p>The spark lit in Massachusetts soon spread throughout the rest of the colonies. The news that speedy couriers riding horses to exhaustion carried through the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia was of a savage, unprovoked British attack and of farmers rising in the night to protect their lives, their families, and their property. Lexington, like Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, and September 11 in later years, furnished an emotional impulse that led all true patriots to gird themselves for battle. Militia from other New England colonies poured in to join the Massachusetts men; together they soon formed a ring around Boston. Other forces under Ethan Allen of Vermont and Benedict Arnold of Connecticut seized the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, strategic positions on the route between New York and Canada. These posts yielded valuable artillery and other military stores. The Second Continental Congress, which assembled in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, found itself forced to turn from embargoes and petitions to the problems of organizing, directing, and supplying a military effort.  </p>

<h2>19 April 1775</h2><h2>American Victory</h2><p>On 19 April 1775, the British commander in Boston, Massachusetts, ordered troops to seize military supplies stored by the colonists in Lexington and Concord. Message riders such as Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott sent out advance warning to the militia in Middlesex County. British Regulars dispersed the Lexington militia company on its own town green, exchanging fire in a confused affair that marked the first shots of the Revolution. Continuing on to Concord, British Regulars and Colonial Minutemen clashed at North Bridge. Realizing the countryside was alarmed against them, the Regulars began their march back to Boston. This turned into a near rout as thousands of militia and Minutemen poured harassing fire into the column. The Regulars barely made it to the safety of their fleet in Boston harbor. Within days, Boston was surrounded by 20,000 militiamen.</p>

Battle of Lexington and Concord

<p>The creation of a truly American Army on 14 June 1775 was highly significant to the history of our emerging nation. The colonial militias and volunteer Minutemen were invaluable in controlling population and resources in the countryside. Unfortunately, they often melted away as fast as they were raised. In addition, those forces often identified with their own state or region. However, the first ten companies of Continental Army Soldiers were a national force even before the nation was fully formed. The first continentals were recruited from several states and were sent from one end of the thirteen colonies and then states to another. In time a nation would grow out of the seeds planted by each continental Soldier as he signed up not as a "summer Soldier" or "sunshine patriot," to use the immortal words of Thomas Paine, but as an American Soldier in service to his nation whenever and wherever needed.</p>

<h2>19 April 1775 to 17 March 1776</h2><h2>American Victory</h2><p>Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, New England militia units surrounded Boston, Massachusetts, trapping 6,000 British troops and thousands of Loyalists. The siege of Boston had begun. On 14 June 1775, the Continental Congress voted to take on the New England Army of Observation as a Continental Army. They sent General George Washington to take command of the militia forces around the city on 3 July 1775. Continental troops blocked the Charlestown Neck, the only land access to Charlestown and Boston. American control of the land route forced the British to resupply their forces by sea. This was not difficult because the rebellious colonies lacked a navy. Col. Henry Knox conducted a hazardous winter mission to bring cannon from Fort Ticonderoga, New York to Boston. Knox provided Washington’s Army with crucial artillery to reinforce Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston harbor in early March 1776. General William Howe realized that his position in Boston was untenable, and withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 March 1776. In their haste to leave the city, the British left behind stores of cannons and ammunition for the American arsenal.</p>

Siege of Boston

<p>Historian Allen French aptly characterized the Battle of Bunker Hill as a "tale of great blunders heroically redeemed." The American command structure violated the principle of unity of command from the start. In moving onto Breed’s Hill, the patriots exposed an important part of their force in an indefensible position. This move violated the principles of concentration of force, mass, and maneuver. Gage and Howe, for their parts, sacrificed all the advantages the American blunders gave them, violating the principles of maneuver and surprise by undertaking a frontal attack on a fortified position. Their gamble to end the rebellion with a single stroke had failed.</p><p>Bunker Hill was a Pyrrhic victory, its strategic effect practically nil since the two armies remained in virtually the same positions before. Its consequences, nevertheless, cannot be ignored. Although often depicted as a force of farmers and townsmen, fresh from their fields and shops, with hardly a semblance of orthodox military organization, the New Englanders used their militia training to create forces modeled on the British. Led by officers with, in some case, more direct combat experience than many of Gage’s, the Americans had fought on equal terms with a professional British Army. This astonishing feat had a sobering effect on many senior British commanders. They realized that American resistance was not to be easily overcome; never again would British commanders lightly attempt such an assault on Americans in fortified positions. Many Americans, on the other hand, misread the battle. Bunker Hill, along with Lexington and Concord, created an American myth that the patriotic citizen-soldier is more than a match for the trained professional, a tradition reflected in American military policy for generations afterward.  </p>

<h2>17 June 1775</h2><h2>British Victory </h2><p>On the night of 16 June 1775, Col. William Prescott led 1,200 men to fortify Breed’s Hill overlooking Boston Harbor. The plan was to occupy Bunker Hill, but an advance party of militiamen built fortifications on Breed's Hill. Under the direction of engineer Richard Gridley, the troops constructed a redoubt and additional entrenchments. Royal Navy ships in Boston Harbor opened fire on the redoubt at dawn on 17 June while Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage prepared an assault force. Maj. Gen. William Howe led a three-pronged assault against Prescott’s position. Twice the Americans held, but a third assault forced them off the hill as they ran out of ammunition. The British Regulars took the redoubt and drove the New England troops back. However, the British lost 40 percent of their force, including a high percentage of officers. It was a British victory, but the Americans had shown that they would stand and fight.  </p>

Battle of Bunker Hill

<p>Benedict Arnold was one of the most talented American generals of the Revolutionary War, a man whose energy was matched only by his ego. He was instrumental in defeating the British at Saratoga, a victory that gained the fledgling United States the open support of France. In 1780 Arnold commanded West Point, a fort situated on a bluff overlooking a tricky double bend in the Hudson River. All vessels had to pass the guns of West Point, and its possession would have assured the British easy communication between their forces in Canada and those occupying New York City. Smarting at Congress’ lack of appreciation for his role at Saratoga three years earlier, Arnold plotted with Maj. John André of the British Army to deliver West Point to the enemy. André, wearing civilian clothes, was captured after one of their meetings and subsequently hanged as a spy; Arnold escaped to command British coastal expeditions during the closing years of the war.</p><p>He died in London in 1801.</p>

<h2>31 December 1775</h2><h2>British Victory</h2><p>On 31 December 1775, in an evening snowstorm, 1,200 American Soldiers attempted to storm the defenses of Quebec City. Lacking enough men for a siege, facing expiring enlistments, and with limited supplies, the Americans were running out of time. Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery and Col. Benedict Arnold determined this was their best chance to take Quebec City before spring brought British reinforcements. With a small force acting as a demonstration in front of the walls, Montgomery led a column against the southern edge of the city while Arnold led a column through the lower city. Arnold’s force made a lodgment but Montgomery’s force met with disaster when he was killed in the first volley. Discouraged, his column faltered and fell back. After its initial success, Arnold’s column was driven from the town and he was wounded. The survivors settled in for a siege through the winter as reinforcements from the Continental Army arrived. However, the new troops brought smallpox that ravaged the Northern Army through the winter and spring of 1776. This defeat ended American attempts to carry their revolution into Canada.</p>

Battle of Quebec

<p>Patriot forces in South Carolina built Charleston’s defenses wisely. The fort’s construction of soft Palmetto logs absorbed the British solid shot instead of splintering to pieces and sending out clouds of deadly splinters as hard wood logs would have done. The British land attack was poorly planned and executed as well, and never came close to threatening Fort Sullivan. British ships surrounded Sullivan's Island but uncharted sand bars hindered the assault. For three years following the fiasco at Charleston the British left the south unmolested. Overconfident Americans decided they did not need to raise any large regular forces in the South, creating a weakness that would come back to haunt them. Loyalist refugees in London and New York, however, continued to insist that large numbers of loyal subjects of the King were still waiting for the British in the south, ready to rise again if only British troops returned.</p>

<h2>28-29 June 1776</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>The initial British military campaign in the South focused on Charleston, South Carolina. On 28 June 1776, British forces attempted to seize Fort Sullivan, the key to the defenses of Charleston. Naval gunfire from their vessels damaged the fort but could not destroy it. Unable to sustain the attack, the British withdrew, temporarily ending British efforts to invade the South.</p>

Battle of Charleston

<p>Had Howe pushed his advantage immediately, he might have taken Brooklyn Heights and destroyed half of the American Army then and there. Instead, perhaps rendered cautious by his repulse the previous year at Bunker Hill, he halted at nightfall and began to dig trenches. Washington managed to evacuate his forces across the East River on the night of 29 August. According to one theory, wind and weather stopped the British warships from entering the river to prevent the escape; according to another, the Americans had placed impediments in the river that effectively barred their entry. In any case, it was a narrow escape, made possible by the skill, bravery, and perseverance of Col. John Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, infantrymen recruited from Massachusetts fishing villages, who manned the boats.</p><p>Washington had two weeks to prepare his defenses on Manhattan before Howe struck again. On 15 September, Howe landed a force at Kip’s Bay above the city of New York under the cover of a devastating naval bombardment. Raw Connecticut militia posted here behind shallow trenches broke and ran "as if the Devil was in them," despite Washington's efforts to halt them. Howe once again had an opportunity to split the American Army in two and destroy half, but again he chose to wait until his entire force had landed. This allowed General Israel Putnam to bring extra troops to the new fortifications on Harlem Heights. There, the Americans held out for another month and even won a morale-enhancing skirmish; but this position was vulnerable.</p>

<h2>26-29 August 1776</h2><h2>British Victory</h2><p>On 22 August 1776, 22,000 British soldiers landed on Long Island, New York. General George Washington rushed reinforcements to its defense. The next day the British routed the Americans, forcing their retreat to their last entrenchments. Washington's forces fought valiantly, but were outnumbered and overwhelmed by a wide flanking attack by the British. The British commander, Sir William Howe elected not to pursue. Instead, he decided to use slow siege tactics rather than conduct a quick attack. On 29 August, bad weather allowed Washington to evacuate to Manhattan and save his Army. This move ensured the survival of his Army and the cause of independence. Howe attacked New York City in September 1776 and drove Washington's Army out of New York and New Jersey. The British gained control over New York, which they retained for the duration of the war.</p>

Battle of Long Island

<p>After the Battle of Trenton, Washington expected a strong British counterattack. He established a solid defensive position south of Assunpink Creek as British Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis led about 5,000 Crown troops south toward Trenton. American skirmishers slowed the enemy advance. When Cornwallis arrived at Trenton, he launched three attacks but they failed to break the strong American defensive works each time. Late on the evening of 2 January Cornwallis held a council of war to determine if he should continue the attack that evening or give his men rest and resume the offensive in the morning. Cornwallis said that he had the “old fox,” referring to Washington, bagged and that they would collect him in the morning. A few British commanders disagreed and suggested that Washington would be gone by then. They were correct. By the morning, Washington and his Army had slipped away and were marching on Princeton, frustrating Cornwallis.</p>

<h2>26 December 1776</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>After the retreat from New York, General George Washington and his Continental Army fell back from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. Casualties, disease, desertion, and expiring enlistments brought his strength to only about 3,000 men. With the cause of independence at an all-time low, Washington resolved on one bold stroke. American troops crossed the dangerous, ice-choked Delaware River on Christmas night. The Army then marched nine miles south to strike at Hessian-held Trenton, New Jersey, taking them by surprise. In heavy street fighting, Continentals outmaneuvered the Hessians. They swept up nearly 900 prisoners as they captured Trenton. This shocking victory ignited the spirit of the Continental Army and the nascent nation.</p>

Battle of Trenton

<p>Trenton and Princeton not only offset the worst effects of the disastrous defeats in New York but also restored Washington’s prestige as a commander with friend and foe alike. In the execution of the two strokes east of the Delaware, Washington had applied the principles of offensive, surprise, and maneuver with great success and finally achieved stature as a military commander. If these victories did not assure him that he could recruit such an army as Congress had voted, they did at least guarantee that he would be able to field a force the following year. Sir William Howe found that, despite his smashing rout of the Americans in New York, he was left with little more than that city, a foothold in New Jersey, and the port of Newport in Rhode Island. The rebellion was far from being crushed.</p>

<h2>3 January 1777</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>On 31 December 1776, General George Washington returned to Trenton. He planned to fight a defensive battle and selected a position along the south bank of Assunpink Creek. Lord Charles Cornwallis marched 6,000 Redcoats and Hessians against the Americans. On the evening of 2 January 1777, Cornwallis launched three unsuccessful assaults. That night, Washington slipped around Cornwallis and headed north to Princeton. Outside Princeton 6,600 Americans engaged with 800 British reinforcements for Cornwallis. After fierce fighting, the Americans defeated the British and stormed into the village. Washington marched away before Cornwallis could catch up to him. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton rekindled flagged American spirits nationwide.</p>

Battle of Princeton

<p>British plans in 1777 called for an attack on Philadelphia, the de facto capital of the new United States. Simultaneously, a large British army was to advance from Canada to Albany, and be met there by reinforcements from New York City, to cut off New England from the rest of the American colonies. The British commander in chief in North America, Sir William Howe, led a large force by sea to the top of the Chesapeake Bay, disembarking the 15,000 soldiers at Head of Elk (now Elkton), Maryland on 27 August. In a slow advance harassed by small American units, Howe eventually found the Continental Army of 15,000 troops under Washington defending Philadelphia in a line behind Brandywine Creek. While part of Howe’s army under General Wilhelm von Knyphausen attacked the American position at Chadds Ford, Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis led about 8,000 troops around Washington’s right flank by crossing Brandywine Creek at an unguarded ford. Surprised by Howe’s bold move, Washington’s troops managed to put up a strong fight but eventually had to retire from the field northeast toward Philadelphia.</p>

<h2>11 September 1777</h2><h2>British victory</h2><p>The Battle of Brandywine took place at and around Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, as British Lt. Gen. Sir William Howe attacked General George Washington’s Army that blocked Howe’s advance on Philadelphia. Howe ordered a large force to distract the Americans with a demonstration at Chadds Ford. Meanwhile, the British made a 17-mile flank march around the American right. After putting up a stiff resistance, the American forces were eventually forced to retreat.</p>

Battle of Brandywine

<p>Shortly before the Battles of Saratoga, in early September, Burgoyne knew he could not expect help from General Sir William Howe or Col. Barry St. Leger. Disillusioned, he wrote to Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the Colonies: "The great bulk of the country is undoubtedly with Congress in principle and zeal; and their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be equaled. Wherever the King’s forces point, militia in the amount of three or four thousand assemble in twenty-four hours; they bring with them their subsistence, etc., and the alarm over, they return to their farms."</p>

<h2>19 September to 7 October 1777</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>In the summer of 1777, British Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne led 8,000 troops along Lake Champlain through the New York wilderness in an attempt to reach Albany. This would allow him a secure position to advance toward New York City or into New England. Hampered by the logistics of sustaining an army so far from its base, Burgoyne’s advance was slow and tortuous. On 19 September, British Regulars and Continental troops ran into each other at Freeman’s Farm, just in advance of the Northern Army’s lines. Although it was a British victory, Burgoyne was still outnumbered by the forces of Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates. On 7 October, Burgoyne sent part of his army on a foraging expedition. The Continentals soon overran the British defensive positions. Burgoyne retreated toward Saratoga and surrendered a month later. This marked the first surrender of a British field army. When news of the victory reached Paris, the French decided to recognize American independence and joined the war with Great Britain.</p>

Battles of Saratoga

<p>After Germantown Howe once again concentrated his army and moved to confront Washington at Whitemarsh, hoping to lure the Virginian into a rash attack. The ploy failed, so he withdrew to winter quarters in Philadelphia without giving battle. Washington chose the site for his own winter quarters at a place called Valley Forge, twenty miles northwest of the city. Howe had gained his objective, but it proved of no lasting value to him. Congress fled west to York, Pennsylvania. No swarms of Loyalists rallied to the British standards. And Howe had left Burgoyne to lose a whole British army in the north.</p>

<h2>4 October 1777</h2><h2>British Victory</h2><p>On 26 September 1777, the British captured Philadelphia, the capital of the nascent United States. However, General George Washington refused to quit. When his intelligence indicated that 4,000 British soldiers occupied nearby Germantown, Pennsylvania, he decided to attack. Washington’s plan called for four independent columns simultaneously striking at dawn. The attack required a complex night march over unfamiliar terrain with an amateur Army. This movement would have been difficult to coordinate in any conditions but a thick fog that set in during the attack made it even harder. The two militia columns made little contact while Continental Army troops attacked at different times. Nonetheless, the initial assault on the morning of 4 October 1777, surprised the defenders, causing some British troops to flee the field. After the dense fog confused two American divisions causing them to fire into each other, and a third division exhausted its ammunition, General Charles, Lord Cornwallis counterattacked, forcing the Continental Army to retreat.</p>

Battle of Germantown

<p>Lee and Washington disagreed about the best strategy for the Battle of Monmouth. Lee, feeling that his force was in an untenable position and underestimating the training transformation of the American Army during the encampment at Valley Forge, fell back in confusion. Washington rode up and, exceedingly irate to find the advance guard in retreat, exchanged harsh words with Lee. He then assumed a defensive position against a British counterattack. For the first time the Americans fought well with the bayonet as well as with the musket and rifle, and their battlefield behavior generally reflected the Valley Forge training. Nevertheless, Washington failed to strike a telling blow at the British Army, for General Sir Henry Clinton slipped away in the night and retreated to New York.</p><p>Lee demanded and got a court-martial at which he was judged, perhaps unjustly, guilty of disobedience of orders, poor conduct of the retreat, and disrespect for the Commander in Chief. As a consequence, he retired from the Army, though the controversy over his actions at Monmouth went on for years.</p>

<h2>28 June 1778</h2><h2>Inconclusive</h2><p>France’s entry into the war led the British to send reinforcements to the West Indies, leaving them too weak to continue occupying Philadelphia. In mid-June 1778, 12,000 British soldiers and a 12-mile-long wagon train left the city and headed for New York. General George Washington followed cautiously. He gave his second in command, Maj. Gen. Charles Lee, command of the advance section of the Army. On 28 June, in intense heat, Lee attacked the British rearguard near Monmouth, New Jersey. The British strongly counterattacked. Lee retreated but was reinforced by the main Continental Army. British rearguard commander Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis went on the offensive but Washington’s timely arrival on the battlefield with more troops halted the Crown attacks. Though the battle was inconclusive, it demonstrated the increasing professionalism and organization of the Continental Army.</p>

Battle of Monmouth

<p>Late in 1778 the British began to turn their main effort to the south. The King’s ministers hoped to bring the southern states into the fold one by one. From bases there, they would strangle the recalcitrant north. A small British force operating from Florida cooperated with the first reinforcements sent by General Sir Henry Clinton and quickly overran thinly populated Georgia in the winter of 1778–79. Alarmed by this development, Congress sent Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln south to Charleston in December 1778 to command the Southern Army and organize the southern effort. It hoped that he could repeat his performance during the Saratoga campaign as a leader who could mix Continental regulars and militiamen. Lincoln gathered 3,500 continentals and militiamen; but in May 1779, while he maneuvered along the Georgia border, Prévost slipped around him.</p>

<h2>16 September 1779</h2><h2>British Victory</h2><p>Early in September 1779, the British learned that a French fleet had arrived at Tybee Island, Georgia. It generated a sizeable recruiting effort by British Maj. Gen. Augustine Prévost to bolster his defensive positions and garner Loyalist supporters. On 10 September 1779, a 1,500-man detachment of the Continental forces in the south and a French fleet with 5,000 soldiers attacked 3,200 Crown soldiers at Savannah, Georgia. The combined American and French armies sent multiple demands that the British surrender the city and its fortifications. French V. Adm. Comte d’Estaing feared leaving his ships exposed to a possible British fleet action and was concerned about the rising cases of disease among his sailors. Consequently, he insisted on a premature attack, which failed in a bloody shambles on 9 October—d’Estaing himself was twice wounded and Continental cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski was killed. Neither the Americans nor the French were happy with their ally’s performance as they lifted the siege. The British remained in control of the city until July 1782.</p>

Siege of Savannah

<p>General Sir Henry Clinton remembered Kings Mountain as "the first… of a Chain of Evils that… at last ended in the total loss of America." Cowed by the fate of their compatriots, North Carolina Tories began to wane in their support of Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis and the British cause. The victory at Kings Mountain not only gave the patriots time to regroup for the campaign that eventually led to Yorktown but also proved a major patriot victory in the vicious struggle for political allegiances in the south. The frontier militia had turned the tide; but having done so, they returned to their homes. Instead, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene was tasked to keep the tide moving against the British.</p>

<h2>7 October 1780</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>In the Fall of 1780, British Maj. Patrick Ferguson led a group of 1,000 Loyalists and Provincial troops on raids throughout the back country of South Carolina. In early October, Ferguson captured a rebel and released him, directing him to notify the community that Ferguson would lay waste to the countryside with “fire and sword” if they did not stop supporting rebels. Ferguson threatened to hang all the rebel leaders and abuse the wives and daughters of all involved. However, this threat did not work as he intended. Infuriated, Patriot militia organized for an attack. Col. William Campbell, commander of the militia units, led 900 men to surround Kings Mountain and engaged Ferguson’s men on 7 October. Ferguson ordered repeated bayonet attacks to drive the rebels back, but they kept returning, gaining footholds on the heights. Ferguson was struck by several rounds and killed, and his men collapsed. It was a major blow to Loyalist support for the British in the backcountry.</p>

Battle of Kings Mountain

<p>Morgan's use of a classic double envelopment was a clever use of the terrain and troops by one of the American Army’s most intuitive and inspirational commanders. Having struck this fatal blow against Tarleton, Morgan still had to move fast to escape Cornwallis. Covering 100 miles and crossing two rivers in five days, he rejoined General Nathanael Greene early in February.</p><p>At this point, Cornwallis was too heavily committed to the campaign in North Carolina to withdraw. Hoping to match the swift movement of the Americans, he destroyed all his superfluous supplies, baggage, and wagons and set forth in pursuit of Greene’s army. The American general retreated through North Carolina into southern Virginia and crossed to safety behind the Dan River. Cornwallis’ exhausted forces began to retreat into North Carolina to reach their depot and replenish their supplies. As the British started south, Greene recrossed the Dan and followed, keeping just out of reach of his adversary to avoid any battle he did not wish.</p>

<h2>17 January 1781</h2><h2>Continental Victory</h2><p>General Lord Charles Cornwallis directed his most trusted subordinate Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton to engage Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan’s Army which he thought would threaten the British outpost at Ninety Six, South Carolina. Throughout early January 1781, Tarleton and his legion of infantry and cavalry pursued Morgan and his men, although he was unsuccessful in bringing them to battle for weeks. Morgan decided to make a stand at Hannah’s Cowpens on 17 January, placing his militia in the first line, Continentals in the second, and riflemen on the flanks. Tarleton attacked immediately, only to have his cavalry driven back by accurate fire. When Tarleton’s infantry advanced, they drove back the militia, but then ran up against the main line of Continentals. As the advancing British force became disorganized, Morgan turned and attacked on both flanks, overwhelming the British. Tarleton fled the field with the survivors of his force. This engagement cost the British 30 percent in killed and wounded, with 55 percent of Tarleton’s force captured or missing.</p>

Battle of Cowpens

<p>After the British had in effect conquered South Carolina and established several outposts there by late summer of 1780, Cornwallis decided to move into North Carolina to further destroy American forces and supplies in the South. Following his victory at Camden, South Carolina, on 16 August, he and his troops advanced into North Carolina at Charlotte. However, a Patriot defeat of Carolina Loyalists at nearby Kings Mountain on 7 October, temporarily halted his campaign. Reinforced in mid-January, Cornwallis again advanced toward North Carolina, despite part of his forces being annihilated at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, on 17 January 1781. Undeterred, British forces marched into North Carolina by the end of January. Opposing Cornwallis was a small army of militia and Continentals, led by Greene. A period of several weeks of maneuvering by both armies in the Piedmont did not bring about a battle until 15 March 1781, at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. By this time, the British army numbered just less than 2,000 troops, facing Greene’s Army of approximately 4,400 men. Greene aligned his troops in three lines, with militia in the first line, Virginia state troops behind them in a second line, and finally a third line occupied by Continental infantry and artillery. After a hard fought struggle of several hours, Cornwallis forced Greene to retreat from the battlefield, but the Redcoats suffered tremendous casualties. </p>

<h2>15 March 1781</h2><h2>British Victory</h2><p>General Charles, Lord Cornwallis and his British army of 1,900 troops attacked General Nathanael Greene’s 4,400-man army at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, at the end of a campaign that spanned seven months and hundreds of miles. Although the American army retreated from the field to end the battle, casualties in the British ranks were so high that Cornwallis was compelled to move to Wilmington and failed to subdue the state.</p>

Battle of Guilford Courthouse

<p>So far as active campaigning was concerned Yorktown ended the war, though neither side realized it at the time. Both Washington and General Nathanael Greene maintained their armies in positions near New York and Charleston for nearly two years more, but with only some minor skirmishing in the south. Cornwallis’ defeat led to the resignation of the British Cabinet and the formation of a new government that decided the war in America was lost. With some success, Britain devoted its energies to trying to salvage what it could in the West Indies and in India. The independence for which Americans had fought thus virtually became a reality when Cornwallis’ command marched out of its breached defenses at Yorktown.</p>

<h2>28 September to 19 October 1781</h2><h2>American/French Victory</h2><p>Continental forces, led by General George Washington, and French forces, led by Lt. Gen. Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau, formed an allied Army of 8,845 Continentals and militia and 7,800 French Regulars and Marines. The allies began siege operations against Yorktown, Virginia, where General Lord Charles Cornwallis’s army was entrenched. The Battle of the Virginia Capes between France and England in early September and prevented Cornwallis from being resupplied or evacuated. The lack of the British navy left Cornwallis to battle the combined force alone. The Allies constructed the first parallel of trench and bombarded the British fortifications. On 14 October, Washington sent two columns to capture the last major British outer defenses at Redoubts 9 and 10. The British situation deteriorated as the Allies pushed their guns closer. On 17 October, Cornwallis asked for 1000capitulation terms and surrendered his command of about 8,000 men, ending all British hopes for victory in America.</p>

Army Trails

Seizure of Fort Ticonderoga

Introduction

10 May 1775

Continental victory

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information