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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. -
The British had previously retreated from Boston, moving the theater of the war to the middle states.
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Two brothers, General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe, joined forces on Staten Island and sailed into New York harbor.
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Michael Graham, a Continental Army volunteer, described the
chaotic withdrawal -
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 stroke set for Christmas night.
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By 8 the next morning, the men had marched nine miles through sleet and snow to the objective Trenton.
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The Americans were rallied by another astonishing victory eight days later against 1,200 British stationed at Princeton.
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General Howe began his campaign to seize the American capital at
Philadelphia. -
American troops surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered his army to General Gates.
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Served as the site of the Continental Army's camp.
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The French recognized American independence and signed an alliance, or treaty of cooperation, with the Americans.
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In the midst of the frozen winter at Valley Forge, American troops
began an amazing transformation. -
After their devastating defeat at Saratoga, the British changed their military strategy, they began to shift their operations to the South.
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At the end of 1778, a British expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia.
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Lafayette joined Washington’s staff and bore the misery of Valley Forge, lobbied for French reinforcements in France in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war.
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By the spring of 1779, a royal governor once again commanded Georgia.
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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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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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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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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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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 Courthouse, North Carolina. Cornwallis won the battle, but it costed him his troop.
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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 coins.
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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. -
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. -
Peace talks began in Paris. Representatives of four
nations the United States, Great Britain, France, and Spain joined the negotiations, with each nation looking out for its own interests. -
The delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.
