Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About®) (14 page)

Before adjourning, they provided for a second session to meet if their grievances had not been corrected by the British. While they had not yet declared for independence, the First Congress had taken a more or less unalterable step in that direction. In a very real sense, the Revolution had begun. It needed only for the shooting to start.

Must Read:
A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution
by Theodore Draper.

What was “the shot heard ’round the world”?

Now governor of Massachusetts, General Gage wanted to cut off the rebellion before it got started. His first move was to try to capture hidden stores of patriot guns and powder and arrest John Hancock and Sam Adams, the patriot ringleaders in British eyes. The Sons of Liberty had been expecting this move, and across Massachusetts the patriot farmers and townspeople had begun to drill with muskets, ready to pick up their guns on a minute’s notice, giving them their name, Minutemen.

In an increasingly deserted Boston, Paul Revere, silversmith and maker of false teeth, waited and watched the British movements. To sound an early warning to Concord, Revere set up a system of signals with a sexton at Christ Church in Boston. One lantern in the belfry meant Gage’s troops were coming by land; two lanterns meant they were crossing the Charles River in boats. Late on the night of April 18, 1775, as expected, it was two lanterns. Revere and another rider, Billy Dawes, started off to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams and alert the Lexington Minutemen that the British regulars were coming. Continuing on to Concord, Revere and Dawes were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young patriot doctor. A few minutes later a British patrol stopped the three men. Revere and Dawes were arrested and held briefly, while Prescott was able to escape and warn Concord of the British advance.

Meanwhile, in Lexington, the group of seventy-seven Minutemen gathered on the green to confront the British army. The British tried to simply march past the ragtag band when an unordered shot rang out. Chaos ensued, and the British soldiers broke ranks and returned fire. When the volleying stopped, eight Minutemen lay dead.

Warned by Prescott, the Concord militia was ready. Farmers from the nearby countryside responded to the church bells and streamed toward Concord. The resistance became more organized, and the Concord Minutemen attacked a troop of British holding a bridge leading into Concord, and later took up positions behind barns, houses, stone walls, and trees, pouring fire down on the British ranks. Unused to such unfair tactics as men firing from hiding, the British remained in their standard formations until they reached Lexington again and were met by reinforcements.

By the day’s end, the British tallied 73 dead and 174 wounded.

The Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, had come to the crisis point. The bloodshed at Lexington meant war. With swift action, the patriots could bottle up the whole of the British army in Boston. To John Adams, all that needed to be done was to solidify the ranks of Congress by winning the delegates of the South. The solution came in naming a Southerner as commander of the new Continental Army. On June 15, 1775, George Washington, a delegate from Virginia who had hinted at his ambitions by wearing his old military uniform to the Philadelphia meetings, received that appointment.

MILESTONES IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1775

April 18–19
Seven hundred British troops march on Concord, Massachusetts, to secure a rebel arsenal. They are met on the Lexington village green by a small force of colonial Minutemen, and an unordered shot—the “shot heard ’round the world”—leads to the killing of eight Americans. During a pitched battle at Concord and on their return to Boston, the British are harassed constantly by colonial snipers and suffer heavy losses.

May 10
Under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, a colonial militia force takes the British arsenal at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, capturing cannon and other supplies; in a separate attack, the British garrison at Crown Point on Lake Champlain is seized.

June 15
The Second Continental Congress decides to raise an army and appoints George Washington to lead it.

June 17
In the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually fought on Breed’s Hill), the British sustain heavy losses, with more than 1,100 killed or wounded, before forcing a rebel retreat. Nathanael Greene, an American commander, comments, “I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price.” In the wake of this costly victory, General Gage is replaced by Howe as the British commander in America.

1776

January
Tom Paine publishes the pamphlet
Common Sense
, a persuasive and widely read argument for independence.

March 4–17
Rebel forces capture Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston Harbor. Cannon captured by the Americans at Ticonderoga are brought in, forcing a British evacuation of Boston.

May
King Louis XVI of France authorizes secret arms and munitions assistance for the Americans.

June 11
Congress appoints a committee to compose a declaration of independence.

June 28
Under General Charles Lee, American forces in Charleston, South Carolina, fend off a British attack, damaging the British fleet. The British suspend operations in the South for another two years.

July 2
British General Sir William Howe lands an army at Staten Island, New York, eventually amassing 32,000 troops, including 9,000 German mercenaries.

July 4
The Declaration of Independence is formally adopted by Congress.

August 27–29
Battle of Long Island. Howe forces withdrawal of Washington’s army from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan. Before Howe can finish off the rebel army, a miraculous retreat saves Washington and the army. In September, Washington evacuates New York.

September 22
Nathan Hale, captured by the British in Long Island, is hanged, without trial, as a spy. He goes to his death bravely and is reported to have said, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”

October–November
Crushing American defeats at the battles of White Plains (New York) and Fort Lee (New Jersey) force Washington to move westward through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. Again, Howe fails to pursue Washington vigorously, and the army is saved.

December 25
In a surprise Christmas Day attack, Washington leads troops across the Delaware River for a successful attack on British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. Although a small victory, it boosts American morale. It is followed by a second victory, at Princeton.

Must Read:
The Winter Soldiers
by Richard M. Ketchum.

1777

April 27
Benedict Arnold defeats the British at Ridgefield, Connecticut.

June
The American seaman John Paul Jones is given command of the
Ranger
and begins raiding English shipping.

July 6
The British retake Fort Ticonderoga.

July 27
The Marquis de Lafayette, a twenty-year-old French nobleman, arrives in America to volunteer his services to the Revolution.

August 16
Battle of Bennington (Vermont). Americans wipe out a column of General Burgoyne’s men.

September 9–11
Battle of Brandywine (Pennsylvania). Howe drives Washington’s army toward Philadelphia; Congress is forced to flee.

September 19
First Battle of Saratoga. An American victory.

September 26
General Howe occupies Philadelphia.

October 4–5
Battle of Germantown (Pennsylvania). A costly American defeat, the battle is inconclusive as Howe fails again to finish Washington.

October 7–17
Second Battle of Saratoga. British are routed and 5,700 surrender. A major turning point for the American cause as Europe is encouraged to aid the revolution, including formal French recognition of American independence.

December 17
Washington’s Continental Army enters winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, remaining there until June 1778. The horrors of that winter cannot be told in simple statistics, but an estimated 2,500 soldiers out of 10,000 died during these six months, but it was most often due to American mismanagement, graft, speculation, and indifference. Pennsylvania farmers sold their produce to the British in Philadelphia, and the same was true elsewhere in New England and New York, where farmers sought hard cash for their crops.

1778

February
Franco-American treaties of alliance and commerce are signed.

February 23
The Prussian Baron von Steuben arrives and assists Washington in drilling and training the army at Valley Forge. By the end of the difficult winter, the Continental Army is a cohesive, disciplined fighting force.

May 8
Howe is replaced by Henry Clinton as the British commander in America.

July 8
Continental Army headquarters are established at West Point.

July 9
The Articles of Confederation are signed by Congress.

July 10
A French fleet arrives; France declares war against Britain.

December 29
The British capture Savannah, Georgia, from American General Robert Howe.

1779

January 10
The French give a dilapidated ship to John Paul Jones. It is refitted and renamed
Bonhomme Richard
in honor of Ben Franklin, internationally renowned as Poor Richard of
Almanac
fame.

January 29
British forces capture Augusta, Georgia.

February 25
Americans under George Rogers Clark defeat the British at Vincennes, Indiana.

May 10
Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, captured and burned by the British.

June 16
Spain declares war on England, but makes no American alliances.

July 15
American general Anthony Wayne recaptures Stony Point, New York, and takes some 700 prisoners while suffering 15 casualties.

August 19
American general Henry Lee drives the British from Paulus Hook, New Jersey.

August 29
American generals John Sullivan and James Clinton defeat combined loyalist and Indian forces at Newton (Elmira, New York).

September 3–October 28
An attempt to recapture Savannah results in a disastrous loss for the American-French combined forces.

September 23
In a naval battle off the coast of England, John Paul Jones captures the British warship
Serapis
, although he loses the
Bonhomme Richard
. A French vessel takes another British ship.

September 27
Congress appoints John Adams to negotiate peace with England.

October 17
The Continental Army returns to winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, where it will suffer a winter even worse than the year before at Valley Forge. Desertions and mutiny are commonplace. Record-breaking cold creates an ordeal of unbelievable suffering.

1780

January 28
A fort is established on the Cumberland River to defend North Carolina from Indian attack. It is later named Nashville.

February 1
A British fleet carrying 8,000 men from New York and Newport, Rhode Island, reaches Charleston, South Carolina.

May 6
Fort Moultrie falls to the British, and with it Charleston. In the heaviest single American defeat of the war, 5,400 Americans are captured along with ships, munitions, and food supplies.

May 25
A major mutiny in Morristown is put down by Pennsylvania troops, and two leaders of the mutiny are hanged.