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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.
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The British had previously retreated from Boston, moving the theater of war to the Middle States.
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General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe, joined forces on Staten Island and sailed into New York harbor with the largest British expeditionary force ever assembled.
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The Battle of New York ended in late August with an American retreat following heavy losses.
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The British had pushed Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The vast majority of Washington's men had either deserted or had been killed or captured.
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Washington resolved to risk everything on one bold stroke set. In the 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. Also, Washington desperately needed some kind of victory for his men to keep them from going home.
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By 8 o'clock AM, the men marched nine miles through sleet and snow to the objective-Trenton, New Jersey, held by a garrison of Hessians.
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General Howe began his campaign to seize the American capital at Philadelphia.
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Massed American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered his battered army to General Gates.
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Albigense Waldo worked as a surgeon at Valley Forge.
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The French recognized American independence ad signed an alliance, or treaty of cooperation, with the Americans.
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American troops began an amazing transformation. Friedrich von Steuben volunteered his services to General Washington.
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After the defeat at Saratoga, the British changed their military strategy; they began to shift their operations to the South.
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A British expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia.
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A royal governor once again commanded Georgia.
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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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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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The British captured Charles Town, South Carolina and marched 5,500 American soldiers off as prisoners of war.
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Cornwallis' army smashed American forces at Camden, South Carolina, and within three months the British had established forts across the state.
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When the forces met 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 at Guilford Court House, North Carolina.
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Greene wrote a letter to Lafayette, asking for help.
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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' troops outnumbered by more than two or one an exhausted from constant shelling, he finally raised the white flag of surrender.
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Colonel 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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Representatives of four nations- the United States, Great Britain, France, and Spain- joined the negotiations, with each nation looking out for it's own interests.
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The delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.