Main
events from 1775 - 1783: from the Battle at Lexington and
Concord on April 19, 1775, to the signing of the final peace
treaty at Paris on September 13, 1783.
Canada: In an attempt to add
Canada to the rebellion as a 14th state, the Continental
Congress authorized a two pronged invasion of the British
province.
Under command of Montgomery, American forces seized Montreal in
1775 but were forced to fall back in retreat after an
unsuccessful attack on Quebec in 1776.
The Wilderness: The
Americans launched two significant offensives here. A ragged and
freezing group of soldiers under the command of Clark seized the
British outpost
at Vincennes in 1779 and helped to support American postwar
claims to the Ohio River Valley. Washington launched a second
military expedition under the command of
Sullivan in the summer of 1779 against Britain's chief allies in
New York, the Iroquois Indians.
New York: Believing that the
rebellion was strongest in New England, the British attempted a
three pronged assault on the Hudson River Valley with the intent
of
separating and isolating New England from her sister colonies in
the south. American victories at Saratoga and Oriskany blunted
these drives and defeated this strategy.
The American victory at Saratoga had the added effect of
bringing the French into the war on the American side.
The Carolinas: Stalemated in the North, the British
shifted their attention to the South where they anticipated
significant Loyalist support for their cause. After defeating
American forces at Charlestown and Camden in 1780. British
forces were repulsed at Kings Mountain and Cowpens in 1780 and
1781. Following a drawn battle at Guilford
Courthouse in 1781, Cornwallis shifted his operations to
Virginia while his opponent, Greene, began the process of
reducing those British outposts still remaining to the South.
Pennsylvania / New Jersey:
Driven from Long Island early in the war, Washington moved the
area of conflict south of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Key
victories at Trenton
and Princeton kept American hopes alive in late 1776 and early
1777. Washington's major accomplishment in this theater was his
ability to consistently pressure the British
while avoiding a pitched battle that could have threatened the
existence of his army.
Virginia: Cornwallis'
decision to move his forces into Yorktown in order to link-up
with the British fleet ultimately proved his undoing. After a
successful feint towards New York,
Washington shifted his army to the south and laid siege to the
British at Yorktown. With the French fleet closing the lone
remaining escape route, a joint American/French
force under Washington forced the surrender of Cornwallis and
his army in the fall of 1781.
