War for Independence

Chapter 11

Section 1

• minutemen • Ordinary citizens that armed themselves and trained to fight

• Massachusetts • Gov. ordered to destroy the guns and gunpowder that minutemen had hidden.

• John Hancock & Samuel Adams were in Lexington about 20 miles NW of Boston

• Weapons thought to be stored in nearby Concord.

• April 18, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched toward Lex.

• 3 messengers, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Sam Prescott, rode diff. routes to warn citizens.

• Revere and Dawes were captured but Prescott reached Concord to warn colonists.

• No one knows who fired first.

• 15 minute battle• 8 minutemen dead

• British moved onto Concord, but found few guns.

• When the Brits headed back to Boston, hundreds of minutemen were 7hidden , killing 73 Brits

• “Shot heard round the world”

• Revolution began

• Second Continental Congress

• June 14, 1775

• To create an American Army, called the Continental Army

• George Washington to lead it

• Battle of Bunker Hill • June 17, 1775• One of fiercest battles

of the war• Breed’s Hill• Brits shot cannons• Americans fought

bravely but ran out of gunpowder and had to retreat

• 200 Brits killed• 140 Americans killed• Despite their loss,

Americans proved they could fight a trained powerful army.

• Battle of Moores Creek Bridge

• Feb, 27, 1776• NCs first battle

• Patriots hid along the road to Wilmington. They took planks off the bridge and greased its supporting logs with soap and animal fat.

• Three min. battle. 50 Brits were killed. Only 1 patriot was killed.

• Halifax Rsolves • Recommended that NC declare independence and urged all colonists to do so together.

• Declaration of Independence

• Drafted by 5 men

• Approved on July 4, 1776

• Created free and independent states

• War not over yet.

Section 2

• War in the North • British lost Boston• Washington lost New

York to the British. The Brits won 3 battles at Long Island, Brooklyn Heights, & Harlem Heights.

• By Nov. 1776, even much of New Jersey was under Brit. Control.

• Washington and most Patriots thought the war was nearly over at this point.

• Badly beaten and discouraged

• Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet to encourage troops to continue fighting. “The American Crisis”

• Christmas night 1776, Americans won a victory in New Jersey. Washington crossed the icy Delaware river, surprising the British.

• Brits plan for the north failed

• Battle of Saratoga, Patriots won.

• Turning point for the war.

• War in the West • Americans led by George Rogers Clark, sent to protect the settlers.

• Captured British forts• Gave America control

over much of the land east of the Miss. River

• War at Sea • Brits had over 400 ships sailing from Mass. To Georgia

• Beg. Of war, Amer. Used trade ships or privateers to fight.

• By 1775, $ was raised for 12 warships

• War in the South • By 1778, we had lost more battles than we won, but refused to give up.

• Brit. General Cornwallis was in charge, wanted to wait for autumn of 1780 to fight-not used to southern heat.

• While he waited, people in NC prepared for battle

• Raised $ and gathered supplies

• Once he began marching towards Charlotte, bands of partisans (Patriot followers) slowed him down.

• Eventually moved down to SC after being chased out of the Charlotte and Kings Mtn. area

• Last significant battle in NC

• Guilford Court House near Greensboro

• Patriots led by Nathanial Greene

• British held the field, not retreating but lost one quarter of their men and many of their best officers.

• Corn. Moved army to Wimington

Section 3 End of War

• After the Battle of Guilford Co. Courthouse, Cornwallis left Wilmington and took his army to Virginia, camping at a port called Yorktown.

• Brit. Soldiers dug ditches & built sandbanks to protect them from inland attack.

• Corn. Counted on Brit. Ships anchored in Chesapeake Bay to prevent sea attacks.

• Cornwallis had fallen into a trap.

• 7000 French troops joined the American army stationed in New York.

• 20 French warships arrived.

• F & A ground troops marched to VA before Cornwallis knew they left New York, blocking the land route off the peninsula.

• French ships blocked the Bay entrance.

• Surrender Formal ceremony Oct. 19,1781

• Against the odds• How did the

Americans win?

• Defending homeland• More familiar with

climate, land, bodies of water

• Surprise attacks • Great leader (GW)

• How did Britain lose? • Soldiers far from home (wanted to go home)

• Many Brit. Soldiers were hired (no personal reason to fight)

• Brits were used to orderly fighting on the battlefield

• Brit leaders made mistakes

• Too confident

• Although the Brits surrendered in the fall of 1781, fighting was not over in the South

• Nathanial Green had to force Brits out of GA and SC.

• Civil war took place in NC (small bands of armed men pretending to be Loyalists or Patriots robbed and killed people and burned homes.

• One of the groups, pretending to be a Loyalist group, even captured the gov. of NC and 200 other prisoners in Hillsborough.

• The last of the Brit. Forces did not leave New York until 1783.

• Treaty of Paris, 1783• Formal peace

agreement

• Held in Paris• Britain formally

recognized the independence of all 13 colonies

• Borders of new country were set.

• US would reach from Atlantic to Mississippi

• And from the Great Lakes to the north of Florida

• Americans agreed that Loyalists would not be punished for their part in the war.

• Loyalists would get back any property lost

• Both Britain and America agreed to pay back any & owed to the other

• Britain agreed to end the fighting and leave US ASAP

• Now huge task is before them

• Creating a new government to guarantee the people’s right to rule themselves.