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The British and previously retreated from Boston, moving the theater of war to the Middle states.As part of grand plan to stop rebellion by isolating New England, the British decided to seize NYC.
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Still bitter from their defeat by the British in the French and Indian War, the French had secretly sent weapons to the Patriots since early 1776
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Brothers General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe, joined forces on Staten Island and sailed into New York harbor, with the largest British force ever assembled---32,000 soldiers, including thousands of German mercenaries, or soldiers who fight solely for money.
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When the battle of New York ended, with an American retreat following heavy looses.
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Michael Graham, a Continental Army volunteer, described the chaotic withdrawal.
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By late fall, the British had pushed Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.
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Washington resolved to risk everything on one bold set, in face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River.
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Fewer than 8,000 men remained under Washington's command, and the terms of their enlistment were due to end. Washington needed some kind of victory for his men to keep them from going home.
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As the muddy fields dried out in spring of 1777, General Howe began his campaign to seize the American capital at Philadelphia.
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Late August: General Howe's troops sailed from New York to the head of Chesapeake Bay, and land near the capital
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Massed American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where General John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, surrendered his battered army to General Gates
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Albigense Waldo worked as a surgeon at Valley Forge outside Philadelphia, which served as the site of the Continental Army's camp during the winter of 1777-1778.
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The French recognized American independence and signed an alliance, or treaty of cooperation, with the Americans. According to the terms, France agreed not to make peace with Britain unless Britain also recognized American independence.
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In the midst of the frozen winter at Valley Forge, American troops began an amazing tranformation.Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, volunteered his services to General Washington and went to work "to make regular soldiers out of country bumpkins".
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In the summer of 1778, after the devastating defeat at Saratoga, the British changed their military strategy; they began to shift their operations to the south. At the end of 1778, a British expediton easily took Savannah Georgia.
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In France 1779, the young Lafayette joined Washington's staff and bore the misery of Valley Forge, lobbied for French reinforcements, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war.
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In the spring of !779, a royal governor once again commanded Georgia.
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In 1780, General Henry Clinton, who had replaced Howe in New York, along with the ambitious General Charles Cornwallis sailed south with 8,500 men.
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For most of 1780, Cornwallis succeeded. As the redcoats advanced, they were joined by thousands of African Americans who had escaped from Patriot slave owners to join the British and win their freedom.
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In their greatest victory of the war, the British captured Charles Town, South Carolina, and marched 5,500 American soldiers off as prisoners of war.
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In August, Cornwallis's army smashed American forces at Camden, South Carolina, and within three months the British had established forts across the state.
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In 1780, a French army of 6,000 had landed in Newport, Rhode Island, after the British left the city to focus on the south.
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Morgan and his men led the British on a grueling chase through rough countryside. When forces met in January 1781 at Cowpens, South Carolina, the British expected the outnumbered Americans to flee; but the Continental Army fought back, and forced the redcoats to surrender.
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Angered by the defeat at Cowpens, Cornwallis attacked Greene two months later at Guilford Court House, North Carolina.
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Greene wrote a letter to Lafayette, asking for help
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In 1781, the congress appointed a rich Philadelphia merchant named Robert Morris as superintendent of finance.
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Due to the efforts of Morris and Salomon, the troops were finally paid in specie, or gold coin.
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With Cornwallis's troops outnumbered by more than two to one and exhausted from constant shelling, Cornwallis finally raised the white flag of surrender.
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Colonial William Fontaine of the Virginia militia stood with the American and French armies lining a road near Yorktown, Virginia, to witness the formal British surrender.
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A triumphant Washington, the French generals, and their troops assembled to accept the British surrender.
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The delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. Independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.
