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Since the beginning of 1776, the French were secretly sending weapons to the Patriots considering they were still angry from their war with the British.
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The British left their camp in Boston and decided to move the war to the middle states in order to capture New York City.
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General William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard Howe sailed into New York harbor in the summer with more than 32,000 soldiers.
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Washington gathered 23,000 men, but it wasn't enought to beat Howe's army. The Americans retreated and lost New York in this battle.
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By late fall, the British had pushed the Continental Army across the Deleware River into Pennsylvania. Fewer than 8,000 ment remained.
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On Christmas night, Washington led 2,400 soldiers across the Deleware in row boats during a storm. The next morning, they marched to Trenton NJ, and surpried the British with a successful attack.
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Back in Pennsylvania, the 8,000 remaining soldiers of Washington's army were due for the end of their enlistment. Washington needed something to keep them going.
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Eight days later, Washington's army had another victory over the 1,200 British soldiers in Princeton, NJ.
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In August, General Howe landed near the American capital of Philadelphia. Washington's army tried to hold them off at Brandywine Creek, but the British ended up capturing it.
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General John Burgoyne of the British army had a plan to meet up with General Howe and his troops in Albany, NY. General Howe was too preoccupied with Philapelphia to come to meet him and in Saratoga, American troops surrouned Burgoyne and he was forced to surrender to American General Horatio Gates.
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Valley Forge in Philadelphia was the camp for the Continental Army. The patriots spent the winter of 1777-1778 here under harsh conditions. They lived in the freezing woods and 2,000 out of 10,000 soldiers died.
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In the winter at Valley Forge, Friedrich Von Steuben, a Prussian captain volunteered his his services to General George Washington and began teaching the soldiers fighting techniques that would effectively help.
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The win at Saratoga supported the French trust in the American army and agreed to support the Revolution. The French couldnt make peace with Britain unless America was independant.
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After a bad loss at Saratoga, the British moved South with hope of reclaiming their Southern colonies with support from the loyalists. Then they planned to slowly move North.
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By the end of 1778, the British took Savannah, Georgia during an expedition. Then by the spring of 1779, a British govenor controlled it again.
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A 20 year old French arisocrat, Marquis de Lafayette, also offered his assistance to George Washington at Valley Forge. He got French reinforcements in 1779 and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war.
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General Henry Clinton who had replaced General Howe moved south with 8,500 British troops and General Charles Cornwallis.
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The British captured Charles Town, South Carolina and captured 5,000 American troops as prisonors of war.
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For most of 1780, the British were advancing and joining thousands of African Americans who had escaped their Patriot slave owners.
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In 1780, a French army of 6,000 were now stationed at Newport, Rhode Island. Marquis de Lafayette had heard of Cornwallis' troops in Yorktown, Virginia and had suggested that the French and American forces join to attack the British there.
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By August, the British had captured Camden, South Carolina and procceded to build forts across the state. But when Cornwallis went into North Carolina, Patriots forced them back into South Carolina.
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General Daniel Morgan was sent by Nathanael Greene under General George Washington to harrass the British. Cornwallis sent Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to attack the Continental troops. When they met in Cowpens, SC, the Americans forced the British to surrender.
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Two months later, Cornwallis attacked Greene at the Guilford Courth House in North Carolina after the loss in Cowpen. The victory cost Cornwallis about a fourth of his troops.
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Greene wrote a letter to Lafayette asking for help when he was worried about the fight for the South
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Congress appointed Robert Morris to become superintendant of finance and he raised money for the Continental Army.
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The American troops were finally paid in specie or gold coin after help from Robert Morris and his associate Haym Solamon.
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A French naval force blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay while 17,000 French and American soldiers surrounded the British at the Yorktown penninsula. The captured lasted about 3 weeks.
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In a road near Yorktown, Virginia, the American and French armies stood to witness the surrender of the British and the final end to the Revolutionary War. General Charles O'Hara represented Cornwallis and gave in his sword.
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Representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France and Spain began meeting to discuss their interests. Britain didnt want to give America full independance but France supported it and Spain wanted part of the land.
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The delegates finally accepted America's full independance and signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The United States was now independant and stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Missisippi River and from Canada down to Florida.
