The American Revolutionary War…

The American Revolutionary War which started in 1775 and ended in 1783, also called the American War of Independence. It was a war that was between the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the thirteen British colonies. The war was caused by the combination of the political American Revolution, which is where the colonists took over the British rule. And In 1775, Revolutionaries took control of all of the thirteen colonial governments which is what set up the second continental congress and also formed a huge army. The next year they officially announced themselves as a new nation (the United States of America). From 1778 going forward, other Europeans would fight on the American side during the war.

In 1777, the Continentals captured one of the British army’s, which ended up making France come into the war on the Americans side. Early in 1778, Britain’s army had become much stronger, in the next couple years, Spain and the Dutch also went to war with Britain on the French side.

All throughout the war, the British controlled most of the cities on the coast. And they also controlled the countryside, where most of the residents avoided them because of their ground army. The French seemed to be becoming a bigger and bigger part in the war, because in 1771, the French had won a battle in Chesapeake, which made the second British army in a town called Yorktown surrender. At the start of 1775, the British army had about 35,000 soldiers die. But they were recruiting more and more soldiers so they always had more soldiers to make up for the deaths.

While the war was going on, the British made a bunch of treaties with the Germans which gave the British over 30,000 soldiers. The Germans made up about one third of the British army. And in 1779, the amount of the British and also the German soldiers that were deployed in North America grew to over 65,000 troop, these soldiers were scattered all throughout Canada through Florida. Before the war even began, something called the Massachusetts Government Act had been created in 1774. During the night of April 18 of 1775, a General named Gage sent about 700 soldiers to set the explosives held by the militia in Concord, Massachusetts. The British soldiers went into a town named Lexington on the morning of April 19th, and they discovered 77 solders above them on the green village. They began firing at each other and the British killed the soldiers.

The British soldiers split into three different groups, one of them going to the Northern Bridge in Concord where there was over 500 enemy soldiers. The British retreated going back to Boston, but on their way, they were attacked by thousands of soldiers on the roads which hurt the British pretty bad. The war had basically started with the fights in Lexington and Concord. The British got about 5,000 reinforcements that came in through the sea, but the soldiers surrounded them in the City. In June 17, 1775, British soldiers had taken over the Charlestown Peninsula in a battle named the Battle of Bunker Hill. At that point the American army had fallen back, but the British had taken too much damage to push forward, so they held their ground. After withdrawing his soldiers from Boston, Howe turned to focusing on trying to capture New York City.

While defending that city, General Washington decided to split up his 20,000 men between Long Island and the Manhattan. While the British soldiers were all grouping up at Staten Island. General Washington had the newly created Declaration of Independence, which he read to his men then. During August 27, 1776, about 20,000 soldiers landed on Long island. Then, the British drove the American army all the way back to Brooklyn Heights, which turned into the biggest fight in the whole Revolution. On September 15th, Howe put around 13,000 men on the lower part of Manhattan. He then took control of New York City without too much damage done.

The American army then was forced to fall back to the Harlem Heights. They then fought the next day, Howe moved strategically to surround General Washington’s soldiers. During October, the American army decides to retreat once again, and a battle was fought at the White Plains during October 28th. Washington then was forced to retreat yet again, and then Howe returned to Manhattan and recaptured the Fort of Washington in the middle of November. Howe went on to take around 2,000 American prisoners along with about 1,500 captured at the battle for Long Island. It was in October of 1781, that the war finally had come to an end once a general named Cornwallis got surrounded and had to surrender the British base in Yorktown. Two years later, the Treaty of Paris finally made America Independent.