[45] With the exception of Virginia and others deprived of rights to western lands, the colonial legislatures agreed on the boundaries but disagreed on where to set them. "Printed by authority of the Legislature.". [158], Burgoyne supplied several alternatives, all of which gave him responsibility for the offensive, with Howe remaining on the defensive. Organized between February 7 - May 18, 1776 at Elizabethtown to consist of 8 companies. [331] After the surrender at Yorktown, Clinton was relieved by Carleton, whose major task was to oversee the evacuation of Loyalists and British troops from Savannah, Charleston, and New York City. July to November 1776 - Took part in the retreat from Canada to Crown Point and then to Fort Ticonderoga, NY. The Virginia General Assembly later cited her bravery: she fought while dressed as a man and "performed extraordinary military services, and received a severe wound at the battle of Germantown with the courage of a soldier". [277][ad], Washington designed the overall military strategy of the Revolutionary War in cooperation with Congress, established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs, personally recruited his senior officer corps, and kept the states focused on a common goal. Although victorious, Cornwallis suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Wilmington, North Carolina seeking supplies and reinforcements. [356][aj] It was commanded by Banastre Tarleton and gained a fearsome reputation in the colonies for "brutality and needless slaughter". [388], North initially backed the Southern strategy attempting to exploit divisions between the mercantile north and slave-owning south, but after the defeat of Yorktown, he was forced to accept the fact that this policy had failed. [139], In London, news of the victorious Long Island campaign was well received with festivities held in the capital. [306][ah], The British military had considerable experience of fighting in North America, most recently during the Seven Years' War which forced France to give up New France in 1763. October 4, 1777 - At the Battle of Germantown, Washington's army assaulted the British encamped outside of Philadelphia. Fron 8 to 22 June the brigade kept watch on British forces encamped behind their fortifications at Elizabethtown. From 1775 to 1776, the committee shared information and built alliances through secret correspondence, as well as employing secret agents in Europe to gather intelligence, conduct undercover operations, analyze foreign publications, and initiate Patriot propaganda campaigns. [54] Dominated by smaller landowners and merchants, these assemblies now established ad-hoc provincial legislatures, variously called congresses, conventions, and conferences, effectively replacing royal control. Fighting began at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775. The war became a stalemate in the north in 1779, so the British initiated their southern strategy, which aimed to mobilize Loyalist support in the region and occupy American patriot-controlled territory north to Chesapeake Bay. Scope and Content Note. After the war, a small minority received land grants or Congressional pensions in old age; many others were returned to their masters post-war despite earlier promises of freedom. [213] Morale was poor, public support fell away in the long war, the Continental dollar was virtually worthless, the army was plagued with supply problems, desertion was common, and mutinies occurred in the Pennsylvania Line and New Jersey Line regiments over the conditions in early 1780. The British wars with France and Spain continued for another two years, but Britain's forces in America were largely confined to several harbors and forts in Great Lakes, and fighting largely ceased in America. NJDARM: Collection Guide - file:///M|/highpoint/webdocs/state/darm/darm2011/guides/guides%20for%20pdf/sdea0003.html[5/16/2011 9:36:14 AM] Bohannan, John Miller . [246] The Americans responded with a major offensive along the Mad River in August which met with some success in the Battle of Piqua but did not end Indian raids. [142] In the meantime, the British established winter quarters in the New York City area and anticipated renewed campaigning the following spring.[143]. Jesse also took Lauren to the prom. [71] To draft the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. [238] This provided an alternative transportation route for the Continental Army, bypassing the British blockade of the Atlantic Coast.[239]. [281], John Paul Jones became the first American naval hero when he captured the HMS Drake on April 24, 1778, the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters. [230] Despite this, Cornwallis continued into North Carolina hoping for Loyalist support, while Washington replaced Gates with General Nathanael Greene in December 1780. The Loyalists' motive was to deprive Patriot planters of labor rather than to end slavery; Loyalist-owned slaves were returned. When the first German troops arrived on Staten Island in August 1776, Congress approved the printing of handbills, promising land and citizenship to any willing to join the Patriot cause. As General Horatio Gates retreated, his troops blocked roads, destroyed bridges, dammed streams, and stripped the area of food. The regiment was furloughed, on June 6, 1783, at Newburgh, New York and disbanded November 3 1783. [427] With support from Benjamin Franklin, in 1790 the Quakers petitioned Congress to abolish slavery;[428] the number of abolitionist movements greatly increased, and by 1804 all the northern states had outlawed it. [79], When the British began probing the backcountry in 17771778, they were faced with a major problem: any significant level of organized Loyalist activity required a continued presence of British regulars. [160] This slowed Burgoyne's progress and forced him to send out large foraging expeditions; on one of these, more than 700 British troops were captured at the Battle of Bennington on August 16. [158] Reasonable in principle, this did not account for the logistical difficulties involved and Burgoyne erroneously assumed Howe would remain on the defensive; Germain's failure to make this clear meant he opted to attack Philadelphia instead. The British launched a counter-campaign claiming deserters could well be executed for meddling in a war that was not theirs. [363], On April 26, 1777, Sybil Ludington is said to have ridden to alert militia forces of Putnam County, New York, and Danbury, Connecticut, to warn them of the British's approach; she has been called the "female Paul Revere". The first was a colonial conflict in which objections to imperial trade regulation were as significant as taxation policy. A selection of works relating to the war not listed above; Many primary sources are available at Princeton University Law School's Avalon Project and at the Library of Congress' Digital Collections. [193], When the war started, Britain tried to borrow the Dutch-based Scots Brigade for service in America, but pro-Patriot sentiment led the States General to refuse. During the Revolutionary War Benjamin was a private soldier in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Line under the command of Colonel Israel Shreve. [132] The remaining American regiments on Long Island fell back four days later. Particularly in the south, many battles were fought between Patriots and Loyalists with no British involvement, leading to divisions that continued after independence was achieved. Two independent "COR" Regiments, the Congress's Own Regiments, were recruited among British Canadiens. Thomas Jefferson estimated that Virginia may have lost 30,000 slaves in total escapes. September 11, 1777 Battle of Brandywine. [98], Beginning in August 1775, American privateers raided towns in Nova Scotia, including Saint John, Charlottetown, and Yarmouth. [104], British pursuit was initially blocked by American naval vessels on Lake Champlain until victory at Valcour Island on October 11 forced the Americans to withdraw to Fort Ticonderoga, while in December an uprising in Nova Scotia sponsored by Massachusetts was defeated at Fort Cumberland. October 9, 1775 - The 2nd NJ Battalion is authorized as part of the first establishment of the Continental Army. Holly. Jesse is a character from The Secret Life of an American Teenager. [432] American patriots stressed the denial of their constitutional rights as Englishmen, especially "no taxation without representation." Twenty percent of Britain's German auxiliaries employed in North America were from. Reinforcements had to come from Europe, and maintaining large armies over such distances was extremely complex; ships could take three months to cross the Atlantic, and orders from London were often outdated by the time they arrived. With the army's right flank defeated, the battle was lost and the Americans retreated to Chester, PA. During the fighting on Birmingham hill, Colonel Israel Shreve was wounded in the thigh and did not return to duty until November. P.O. Box 307. Unentitled. With the exception of Georgia, twelve colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress to agree on a unified response to the crisis. This article is about military actions primarily. [183] Charles III of Spain was invited to join on the same terms but refused, largely due to concerns over the impact of the Revolution on Spanish colonies in the Americas. Simultaneous British attacks were repulsed on St. Louis by the Spanish Lieutenant Governor de Leyba, and on the Virginia County courthouse in Cahokia, Illinois by Lieutenant Colonel Clark. [291] Congress evolved in its committee oversight and established the Board of War, which included members of the military. They were a necessary part of eighteenth-century armies, and numbered in the thousands during the war. Many of them lived among large plantation owners in the Tidewater region and South Carolina who produced cash crops in tobacco and indigo comparable to global markets in Caribbean sugar. At the end of May, the rest of Maxwell's Brigade joined them at Mt. [83], During 1778, Washington prevented the British army from breaking out of New York City, while militia under George Rogers Clark conquered Western Quebec, supported by Francophone settlers and their Indian allies, which became the Northwest Territory. Since the 1760s, Franklin had been an organizer of British American inter-colony cooperation, and then served as a colonial lobbyist to Parliament in London. [30] Although Loyalists constituted about twenty percent of the colonial population,[79] they were concentrated in distinct communities. In spite of their efforts, the city fell to the British. [360] Women often accompanied armies as camp followers to sell goods and perform necessary tasks in hospitals and camps. Matthias attended the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) as did his brother Aaron. [392] North now resigned, obliging the king to invite Lord Rockingham to form a government; a consistent supporter of the Patriot cause, he made a commitment to US independence a condition of doing so.