American Revolution 1775-1781

1. American Revolution1775-1781 Chapter 8 P. 121-141 America Secedes from the Empire 1775-1783

2. DVDs • America: The Story of Us • Disc 1 Revolution • Chapter 4 Saratoga • Founding Fathers Volume 2 • You Say You Want a Revolution

3. American Revolution British Colonists • 7.5 million • Wealth/naval power • Army 50,000 • Hired mercenaries • Hessians • 50,000 American Tories/Loyalists • Served in British army • Some as spies • Older generation • Many fled to England • @ 80,000 left • Indians • 2.5 million • No funds • Wretched militia • Patriots • Outstanding leadership • Washington • Franklin • Adamses • Jefferson • Marquis de Lafayette

4. American Revolution British Colonists • London—inept/confused • Generals second rate • Soldiers capable but brutally treated • Provisions scarce • 3,000 miles away • Orders three-month delays • American geography • 1,000 x 600 miles • No main city • Self-sustaining • Tough, resilient • Marksmen • Moral advantage • Belief in a just cause • Poorly organized • Lacked unity • Jealousy among the states • Money problems • Military supplies few • Manufactured goods in short supply • Profiteering

5. Colonial Army • Poorly clothed and fed • A few thousand regulars • General Baron Friedrich von Steuben • Recruited by Franklin • Organizational genius • Trained the troops • February 23, 1778 arrived in the camp at Valley Forge • Held their own against the British • Blacks at Trenton, Brandywine, Saratoga • Profiteering hurt the army • Some colonials sold to British because British paid in gold • Benedict Arnold/traitor Baron von Steuben

6. Baron Friedrich Von Steuben (1730-1794) German officer who served with the Continental Army by training the forces stationed at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778

7. Second Continental CongressMay 10, 1775 • Philadelphia • All thirteen colonies • Agreed to raise a Continental Army in case the petition failed • Elected George Washington commander of the army • Immense moral strength of character • Patience, courage, discipline, justice • Served without pay • July 1775 • Wrote an “Olive Branch” petition • Loyalty to crown • Last ditch effort to reconcile with the King • The Great Seal of the United States • Created in 1782 • “E Pluribus Unum” • Out of many, one.

8. George Washington

9. Independence Hall May 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened at the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

10. Washington Taking Command of the Army at Cambridge July 1775, General George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts

11. Marquis de Lafayette Gave America not only his military services but $200,000 of his private funds. He returned to France after the American Revolution to play a role in the French Revolution.

12. Following the Continental Congress • August 1775 George III proclaimed • Colonies in rebellion • Thus treason if continue • September 1775 • Arranged to hire Hessian mercenaries • November, 1775 Congress learned • George III once again refused to look at the colonial petition • Americans still affirmed loyalty to the king, however • Raised an army • Shot king’s troops • War of “inconsistency” fought from • April 1775 to July 1776

13. Portrait of King George (1738-1820) by Thomas Gainsborough King George III ruler of Great Britain during the American Revolution

14. Battles of Ticonderoga and Crown Point May 1775 • Upper New York • Benedict Arnold • Ethan Allen • Henry Knox • Led a small force and • Surprised and captured the British garrisons and gunpowder and artillery that would have been used against Boston • Thus Boston protected Major General Henry Knox

15. Major General Henry Knox (1750-1806) by John Francis Eugene Prud'homme American general during the Revolution, the first Secretary of War under the U.S. Constitution. Knox is well known for bringing captured British artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in 1776.

16. Revolution in the North 1775-1776

17. Battle of Bunker HillJune 1775 • Breed’s Hill • Seized by sharpshooting colonials • Mowed down British • Ran out of ammunition • British took the hill, however • Cost was frightful slaughter of British troops • Moral victory for colonials • After Bunker Hill George III proclaimed colonies in rebellion

18. Bunker Hill Monument The first major battle of the Revolution June 1775 Saw over 1,000 British and 450 American casualties

19. Common SenseThomas Paine • January, 1776 • 75 page pamphlet • Called for independence and creation of a new political society—democratic republic • Power flowed from the people • Popular consent • Written to convince people why the colonies should be independent of Britain • Used Enlightenment ideas to convince the common man that separation was necessary • Directly answered the arguments that loyalists gave for why we should not separate

20. Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

21. Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Siffred Duplessis Thomas Jefferson

22. Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 • Richard Henry Lee June 1776 • “These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states…” • Continental Congress assigned a • Five man committee • Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman • Ben Franklin and John Adams did not want to write it • Thomas Jefferson (33 years old) got the job • Borrowed from John Locke • Radical • Formal statement against a king and a legitimate government • Heated debate over nine months • Made with an eye to foreign opinion • John Hancock first to sign • 55 others signed

23. Declaration of IndependenceJuly 4, 1776 • Thomas Jefferson of Virginia • Chosen to write a declaration separating the colonies from Great Britain • June 10-28, 1776-Jefferson wrote the Declaration • June 28, 1776-Declaration presented to Congress • June 28-July 2, 1776-Delegates edited the document • July 2, 1776-Continental Congress voted for independence • July 4, 1776-Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence • July 5, 1776- 100-200 broadsides (poster size copies) made in Philadelphia

24. Declaration of IndependenceJuly 4, 1776 • When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. • We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed: that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…

25. Declaration of Independence • Signers • All protestant and white • Only one Catholic • One third were slave holders • Washington had the Declaration read aloud in camp • New Yorkers marking the adoption of the Declaration brought down the George III statue

26. Pulling Down the Statue of George III by William Walcutt A statue of George III, standing in the Bowling Green in New York City, was one of the first casualties of the American Revolution; colonists marked the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by pulling it down. Much of the metal was melted to make bullets, but in the twentieth century the head--largely intact--was unearthed in Connecticut.

27. Declaration • Copies rushed to the 13 colonies and the sites of the Continental Army to be read aloud to the people • July 19, 1776 Congress ordered an official copy to be printed on parchment paper • August 2, 1776 most members of Congress signed the Declaration • Historians are not sure if King George himself ever received a copy of the Declaration • Declaration was not so much to tell the King but for the Congress to let the colonists know that their delegates had agreed on independence and to get ready to fight for it   • No longer fighting for rights as Englishmen, from • July 4, 1776, Americans fighting for creation of a separate nation

28. Drafting the Declaration of Independence • by Jean Leon Ferris • Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson • Jefferson drafted the Declaration drawing from established political philosophy • justifying the need for independence. • Franklin and Adams helped revise.

29. Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1817 Jefferson delivers the Declaration, July 4, 1776 to the Continental Congress

30. Liberty Bell Rung to celebrate the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776 in Philadelphia

31. Battle of Long IslandNew York July 1776 • Battle to protect New York • British fleet arrived • 500 ships • 35,000 men • Largest armed force in America • General William Howe led the British • General George Washington • Outnumbered—18,000 ill-trained • Outmaneuvered • Humiliating defeat • Disaster—lost 1,500 men • Washington managed to evacuate 10,000 troops in the fog • General Howe failed to finish the job • A storm came in

32. War in the North 1775-1777 The early phase of the Revolutionary War was dominated by British troop movements in the Boston area, the redcoats' evacuation to Nova Scotia in the spring of 1776, and the subsequent British invasion of New York and New Jersey.

33. Burgoyne’s Campaign 1776Britain’s failed invasion • British planned an invasion from Canada to • Capture the Hudson Valley • Led by General John Burgoyne • American General Benedict Arnold planned • 15 boats • Recruited 800 men to blockade Lake Champlain • Oct 1776 British flotilla attacked • American fleet shattered • All boats damaged • But bought the patriots’ time • Arnold bought the country another season to fight General Benedict Arnold

34. Washington Crossing The Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1851 Driven out of New York and into Pennsylvania General George Washington regrouped his army and crossed the Delaware River to launch a victorious surprise attack on Hessian troops. The attack took place in Trenton, New Jersey around Christmas, 1776

35. Battle of Princeton by James Peale At the Battle of Princeton in early 1777, American forces under George Washington cemented the victory they had won a few days earlier at Trenton. This view was painted in 1787 by James Peale, who fought in the battle.

36. George Washington and General Mercer at Princeton By John Trumbull 40 Patriots and 275 British soldiers died in the Battle of Princeton. Washington proved victorious and the British abandoned New Jersey.

37. The American CrisisDecember 1776 • Thomas Paine • Brilliant essays, The Crisis • Communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals • Creating prose that stirred the hearts of the fledgling United States • THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. • Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. • Washington had it read to his troops

38. Battle of Saratoga October 1777 • Upstate New York along Hudson River • British bogged down and surrounded • Burgoyne surrendered his entire command • One of the decisive battles in world history • Major turning point in the Revolutionary War • Convinced the French to join the war and take sides with the Americans • Formal alliance 1778 • Americans successful in destroying the British hopes to split the colonies in two • Reinvigorated the colonial cause • General Benedict Arnold—a hero

40. Burgoyne Surrenders to Gates October 1777 by John Trumbull Battle of Saratoga/Turning point in the war British General John Burgoyne (on the left) surrendered to American General Horatio Gates

41. General Horatio Gates By Gilbert Stuart

42. The Burgoyne Campaign • Battle of Saratoga • Defeat of General John Burgoyne • Major turning point in the war • Led to the recognition of • American independence by • France and later by Spain

43. Valley Forge Dec. 1777- June 1778 • 10,000 troops camped on the Schuylkill River twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia • High ground and position near the river easily defensible • Close enough to the Philadelphia to maintain pressure on the British • General Friedrich von Steuben • Trained the troops • Washington in February 1778 sent • Brigadier General Anthony Wayne to New Jersey • To gather food and cattle for the men • Returned with 50 head of cattle and 30 horses • In March 1778 disease struck • Influenza, typhus, typhoid, and dysentery all erupted

44. Results of Valley Forge • Turning point for those who survived • Ill-equipped irregulars became a genuine army of professional soldiers • General Von Steuben • 2,000 men died at Valley Forge • Over two-thirds were killed by disease • Outbreaks were eventually contained through • Sanitation regulations • Inoculations and the work of surgeons • Surviving Valley Forge was a moral victory

45. Washington and Lafayette at Winter Quarters Shows the commander and his friend, the young aristocrat from France, sharing a moment of conversation while soldiers huddle together around a fire. While British officers enjoyed the social life of Philadelphia, General Washington, his officers, and his men suffered from inadequate food, supplies, firewood, and shelter in their winter encampment, a situation due, in part, to the corruption and greed of military suppliers and the incompetence of the quartermaster corps.

46. Statue of General Anthony WayneValley Forge National Historical ParkValley Forge, Pennsylvania

47. Line of Cannons at Valley Forge By winter of 1777-1778, Washington's forces had relinquished Philadelphia to the British, setting up winter camp in Valley Forge

48. The Prayer at Valley Forge Troops were low on supplies, starving, and freezing in Valley Forge. Washington said his men displayed “patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled.”

49. Original Stars and Stripes 1777 Continental Congress adopted the "Stars and Stripes" as the national flag of the United States.

50. Campaign of 1777 • Fought on two fronts: • Along the upper Hudson • and Mohawk River valleys, • In vicinity of Philadelphia • The rebels won in the north. • Capture of Philadelphia • did the redcoats little good, • and they abandoned the city • the following year. • The British triumphed--at least nominally--in the south.