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Second Continental Congress begins meeting
Times had taken a sharp turn for the worse. Lexington and Concord had changed everything. When the Redcoats fired into the Boston crowd in 1775, the benefit of the doubt was granted. Now the professional imperial army was attempting to arrest patriot leaders, and minutemen had been killed in their defense. In May 1775, with Redcoats once again storming Boston, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. -
Common Sense
Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
British retreat from Boston
On this day in 1776, British forces are forced to evacuate Boston following General George Washington’s successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights, which overlooks the city from the south. -
Decalaration Of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. -
Battle of Long Island
On August 27, 1776 the British Army successfully moved against the American Continental Army led by George Washington. The battlewas part of aBritish campaign to seize control of New York and thereby isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Washington’s defeat could have led to the surrender of his entire force, but his ingenuity instead allowed him to escape and continue the fight. -
The American Crisis
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Battle of Trenton
For the battle that took place in Trenton, New Jersey on January 2, 1777, see Battle of the Assunpink Creek.
Battle of Trenton
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Battle of Trenton by Charles McBarron.jpg
Battle of Trenton, by H. Charles McBarron, Jr., 1975
Date Morning of December 26, 1776
Location Trenton, New Jersey
Result Decisive American victory[1]
Belligerents
United States Hesse-Kassel
Commanders and leaders
George Washington
Nathanael Greene Johann Rall †
Strength
2,400
18 guns[ -
Battle of Saratoga
A large army --about 10,000 soldiers, Native forces, loyalists, camp followers, and others-- were to invade south from Canada into New York. Making their way along Lake Champlain to the Hudson River, they would continue south, eventually reaching Albany (a mid-sized port city and convenient meeting point). Once in Albany, they would set up winter quarters and open communications lines with the City of New York, also in British hands. -
Valley Forge
Valley Forge was the military camp in southeastern Pennsylvania, approximately 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Philadelphia,[1] where the American Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–1778 during the American Revolutionary War. Starvation, disease, malnutrition, and exposure killed over 2,500 American soldiers by the end of February 1778.[2] With winter almost setting in, and with the prospects for campaigning greatly diminishing, General George Washington sought quarters for his men. Washin