LT1h.
I can describe major battles of the American Revolution.
** If you were absent today, complete Task 1, 2, and 3 and submit when you return to school.
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DO NOW: Take your little slip and determine WHERE you belong in our human timeline (use what you know to help you).
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POD:
1. Do Now- Human Timeline and Timeline Review
2. Task 1: The First Continental Congress Text-Code and Questions
3. Task 2: Battles of the Northern Phase
**MENTAL BREAK (if done before 10:50AM with Task 1 and 2)**
4. Task 3: Utilizing PRIMARY Sources for your Research (Boston work)
5. Exit Ticket: Completed Tasks 1, 2, and 3.
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TASK 1(NLT 10:20): Using your timeline, text-code the 1st Continental Congress and address the questions on the reverse. This is indie. If you perform well (meet deadlines and follow HP expectations), you can work as a pair on the next task.
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TASK 2 (NLT 10:50): Using the Battles worksheet and the digital resource linked here, complete the interactive by providing a brief summary of each battle. If you hate that resource, use the info below:
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TASK 3: STEP 6 in the Eight Steps of Historical Research
Suggested Resource: http://www.masshist.org/search/?goto=search
Step 6: Analyzing and Interpreting Sources and the Topic's Significance in History
Historians
do more than describe events. They analyze and interpret information
gathered from their sources to draw conclusions about a topic's
significance in history. They
also evaluate whether that source is an accurate depiction of the
events, just as you have with your research for sources in Steps 4, 5.
(There will be homework prep before this step).
Find
ONE historical document that was made during the Revolutionary Period
that refers to your historical site. Copy and paste in the link here to
the right.
| |
How does this resource help you to understand the economic, political, social and cultural atmosphere of the time period?
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Who created the source?
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When was the source created?
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What was the intent or purpose of the source?
|
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HW:
1. Complete ANY of the worksheets you did not complete today. These are LT grades (AKA AfLs), so be sure to take care of your BUSINESS.
2. If you haven't turned in your HW from the weekend, please do so tomorrow.
***PERMISSION SLIP IS OVERDUE!!
Next Class:
Th/F- The War Moves South and the Second Continental; 30 minutes Boston prep.
LT1h.
I can describe major battles of the American Revolution Name:
Resource:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/americanrevolution/ar_1.swf
It is Boston
where the revolution can truly be said to have been born, as it was the center
of opposition to British tax and trade policies in North America. Ever
since 1768 British troops had been stationed in the city, and their presence
was deeply resented. After several violent incidents, the British
government announced in 1774 that to punish the unruly Bostonians the port of
Boston would be closed until further notice.
19 April
1775- _________________________________________
On April 18, 1775, General Thomas
Gage, commander of the British force in Boston, ordered his subordinate,
Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith, to lead a detachment of troops to the town of
Concord. Gage had received word that arms, ammunition, and other supplies
were being gathered in Concord for an uprising against the British Crown.
Smith’s orders were to “seize and distroy all Artillery, Ammunition,
Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all Military Stores whatever.”
Under orders from General Gage,
Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith led a detachment of roughly 900 British
soldiers to seize military supplies that were being assembled by members of the
Massachusetts Militia in the town of Concord. However, the militia
leaders had received word—in part through the efforts of Paul Revere—that the
British were on their way, and they prepared an ambush.
As they passed through the village
of Lexington, the British came under fire from a small force of militiamen.
The British heavily outnumbered this group, though, and the militiamen
were forced to retreat. A more substantial skirmish erupted as the
British crossed a bridge just outside Concord. The Massachusetts militia
inflicted heavy damage on the enemy, and while the British managed successfully
to withdraw to Boston, Smith’s mission had been a complete failure.
17 June
1775- _________________________________________
After the American victory at
Concord, a force of roughly 10,000 Massachusetts militiamen advanced on Boston
and declared the city under siege. Actually it was an incomplete siege,
since the British were freely able to move troops and supplies into and out of
the city by sea. Nevertheless, the presence of rebel forces just outside
Boston was a great embarrassment to British pride, so General Gage ordered an
amphibious assault against American forces north of the city, in the hope of
seizing the rebel headquarters and breaking the siege. Suspecting that
the British might attempt something along these lines, the Americans began to
fortify Bunker Hill, which overlooked the coast.
Once Gage learned that new
fortifications were going up, he ordered an assault against Bunker Hill as well
as the nearby Breed’s Hill. The British launched two attacks, both of
which were repulsed by American fire. However, the British had nearly a
two-to-one numerical advantage, and a third assault finally drove the rebels
from the two hills. Yet the battle was extremely costly for the British;
out of a total of about 2,600 engaged, more than a thousand were killed or
wounded. Gage, therefore, did not press the attack, the siege of Boston
continued until March 17, 1776, when the British withdrew to Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
It was the Battle of Bunker Hill
that convinced the British government that this was no minor rebellion.
What they faced was a full-scale revolution, one that would require a
large army, and probably the hiring of foreign troops as well.
13 November
1775- _________________________________________
While the main British force in
America remained bottled up in Boston, the Continental Congress, meeting in
Philadelphia, organized a Continental Army under the command of George
Washington. The Congress also hoped to take advantage of the British
army’s inactivity by launching an invasion of Canada. Many residents of
the Thirteen Colonies believed that Canadians also sought to rid themselves of
British rule, and hoped to spark a popular rebellion there by invading.
In September 1775 an American force
under the command of General Richard Montgomery marched northward from Fort
Ticonderoga in New York. In early November they reached the city of
Montreal, which fell with virtually no resistance on November 13.
Montgomery then turned to the northeast, advancing with his men along the
St. Lawrence River toward Quebec, which was at that time the capital of British
Canada.
31 December
1775- _________________________________________
Two American forces converged to
attack Quebec, the capital of British Canada. The first, 300 men
commanded by General Montgomery, proceeded up the St. Lawrence River from
Montreal. The second, 1,100 men under the command of General Benedict Arnold,
marched 350 miles northward from Boston, through a wilderness that is today the
state of Maine.
Arnold’s force arrived first, in
November. Despite having arrived with only 600 of his original 1,100 men,
and with virtually no supplies, Arnold ordered an attack on the city.
With fewer than 100 defenders, it seemed possible even for Arnold’s
expedition to capture Quebec even in its weakened condition. However,
Quebec was heavily fortified, and Arnold lacked cannon. When the city’s
garrison refused to surrender, the general called off the assault and decided
to wait for reinforcements.
Montgomery arrived in early December
with his 300 men, and, more importantly, much-needed supplies. The two
commanders immediately began planning for a new attack, and this occurred on
the morning of December 31. This soon proved disastrous, as a snowstorm
blew up, rendering the Americans’ muskets useless. Within a short time
Montgomery had been killed, and Arnold wounded, and by 10:00 a British
counterattack had resulted in nearly half the Americans being captured.
Arnold and his remaining forces pulled back, but refused to evacuate the
area.
Early in 1776 a substantial British
force arrived in Quebec, under the command of General John Burgoyne. The
Americans finally withdrew, with the British on their heels, all the way back
to Fort Ticonderoga. The invasion of Canada had been a miserable failure.
29 June
1776—_________________________________________
Having abandoned Boston in March
1776, the British decided to focus their efforts on New York. This they
entrusted to two remarkable brothers of the Howe family; Rear Admiral Richard
Howe was commander of all British naval forces in North America, while a large
force of troops—roughly a third of which were Hessian mercenaries, from
modern-day Germany—was placed under the command of General William Howe.
This massive invasion force appeared off the coast of New York on June
29. The Howes’ orders were to take New York City, then proceed northward
along the Hudson River, eventually meeting up with General Burgoyne’s force
heading south from Canada.
On July 3 General Howe and his men
landed on Staten Island, which he planned to use as a base for his assault on
New York City. There was little indication that the Continental Congress
was intimidated by this move, as on the very next day in Philadelphia the
Declaration of Independence was formally approved.
27 August
1776 - _________________________________________
On August 22 General Howe began
sending his forces across the narrow channel that separates Staten Island from
Long Island, and within a few days there were over 20,000 British and Hessian
troops in Brooklyn. General George Washington, commander of the
Continental Army, sent roughly 10,000 men under the command of Israel Putnam to
slow down the British advance, while Washington and the rest of the Continental
Army prepared for an expected attack on Manhattan. In the action that
followed over 300 of Putnam’s men were killed, and another 1,400 captured or
missing. Total British losses were fewer than 400.
Three days later, under the cover of
darkness, Putnam’s remaining forces evacuated Long Island to join Washington’s
army in Manhattan. On September 15 Howe landed in on Manhattan.
Recognizing that the Continental Army was insufficient to prevent the
British from taking New York City, Washington ordered a withdrawal.
28 October
1776- _________________________________________
Having abandoned Manhattan to the
British, Washington reestablished his lines on high ground, near the village of
White Plains. On October 28 General Howe launched an attack which drove
the Continental Army from the field at a cost of some 230 men. At this
point Howe missed his best chance to destroy Washington’s army once and for
all; instead of pursuing, he stopped and ordered construction of artillery
batteries on the heights. This gave Washington the opportunity to retreat
further north, taking his supplies and his wounded with him.
26 December
1776- _________________________________________
In November 1776 Washington and his
Continental Army managed to slip back into Pennsylvania, with British forces in
hot pursuit. However, in early December General Howe ordered his army to
cease operations for the winter. The Continental Army, he concluded, was
no longer worth the trouble; he could wait until spring to resume his advance
on Philadelphia.
With the British pursuit called off,
the Continental Army encamped in the town of Valley Forge, just outside
Philadelphia. By this time Washington had fewer than 5,000 men fit for
duty, and he realized that all but 1,400 of these were likely to head for home
after their enlistments expired at the end of the year. Thomas Paine, who
had accompanied the army during its retreat, called these weeks “the times that
try men’s souls.”
Washington then tried the
unexpected. On Christmas Day he and his men quietly crossed the Delaware
River and headed toward Trenton, where three regiments of Hessian mercenaries
were stationed for the winter. On the morning of the 26th the Continental
Army attacked, taking the enemy completely by surprise. By 9:30 am the
fighting was over; roughly 100 Hessians had been killed, nearly 900 others
captured, with only a handful of American losses. By noon Washington and
his men had withdrawn back across the river into Pennsylvania, carrying their
prisoners and captured supplies with them.
3 January
1777- _________________________________________
General Washington sought to follow
up his victory at Trenton by attacking the British in New Jersey before ceasing
operations for the winter, so on December 30 the Continental Army crossed the
Delaware once more. For a moment it appeared that this foray, however,
might end in disaster, as a much larger British force under General Cornwallis
nearly trapped him at Trenton. But on January 3 Washington skillfully
eluded Cornwallis and headed north toward Princeton. There the
Continental Army encountered a smaller British force, and inflicted 500 more
casualties on the enemy. In a matter of days Washington managed to drive
the British from much of southern New Jersey. More importantly his
exploits reenergized the revolutionary cause, leading some 8,000 new recruits
to join the Continental Army in the coming months.
5-6 July
1777- _________________________________________
Although Washington’s victories at
Trenton and Princeton were welcome news for supporters of the revolutionary
cause, they did little to change the basic situation. In 1777 the British
resumed their efforts in New York, which aimed at separating the New England
states from the rest of the country. To carry out this plan 10,000
British regulars under the command of General John Burgoyne headed south from
Canada and along the shore of Lake Champlain. Meanwhile a smaller force
under General Barry St. Leger was to proceed through the Mohawk River valley,
to meet up with Burgoyne at Albany.
The most formidable obstacle
standing between Burgoyne and Albany was Fort Ticonderoga, whose 3,500-man
garrison was commanded by General Arthur St. Clair. St. Clair was
confident that Ticonderoga could hold off Burgoyne’s army, but the fort
suffered from one major weakness—if an enemy held the heights of a nearby
mountain called Sugar Loaf, he could pour cannon fire down on the interior of
the fort. St. Clair had believed that Sugar Loaf was too high for the
British to move cannon to its peak. He was wrong.
The Americans inside Fort
Ticonderoga awoke on the morning of July 5 to find the British already setting
up their artillery on the heights of Sugar Loaf. Realizing that once the
battery was completed the British cannon would be able to pound the fort to
rubble, General St. Clair ordered an evacuation that night under cover of
darkness. The British met with no resistance when they entered
Ticonderoga on the following morning.
4-23 August
1777- _________________________________________
While General Burgoyne was advancing
south along Lake Champlain, a smaller British force was heading east.
This force consisted of 2,000 men, roughly half of which were Iroquois
Indians, and was commanded by General Barry St. Leger. On August 4 St.
Leger’s troops surrounded Fort Stanwix, and two days later ambushed and
destroyed a column of 800 local militia that were on their way to relieve the
fort. Nevertheless, the defenders of Fort Stanwix refused to surrender,
and as time passed St. Leger’s Indian warriors—unaccustomed to sitting around
and waiting for the other side to give up—began to desert.
Meanwhile General Benedict Arnold
was frantically trying to put together a new force to relieve the fort.
In the end he could raise only 100 men for the purpose, so he resorted to
trickery. He sent agents into the Mohawk Valley to spread the rumor that
Arnold was on his way with a very large force. Ultimately St. Leger
became convinced that the rumor was true, lifted the siege of Fort Stanwix on
August 20, and headed back to Canada.
11 September
1777- _________________________________________
With New York City firmly in British
control, and Burgoyne making his way steadily to the Hudson River, General Howe
sought to capture Philadelphia, which he hoped would bring an end to the
rebellion once and for all. In late July an armada of more than 250 ships
carried him and 17,000 British regulars through the Chesapeake Bay, and landed
them less than fifty miles from Philadelphia. Fortunately for the
Americans, however, the landing area was muddy from recent rains, so the act of
unloading took far longer than expected.
General Washington used the time to
his advantage, rushing with his Continental Army—now about 11,000 men strong—to
set up a line of defenses at Chadds Ford on the Brandywine River.
However, rather than making a direct attack, Howe divided his forces.
He sent only 5,000 to advance toward Washington, while the rest of the
British army moved toward the right flank of the Continental Army. A
dense fog on the morning of September 11 helped to hide Howe’s movements, and
in a matter of hours Washington was forced to retreat.
Losses suffered at Brandywine were
considerable—1,000 Americans killed or wounded, and another 400 captured, while
the British sustained nearly 600 casualties. However, the most immediate
result of the battle was that nothing now stood between Howe and Philadelphia.
The Continental Congress fled the city for York, Pennsylvania, and on
September 26 the British marched unopposed into the American capital.
19 September
and 7 October 1777- _________________________________________
The capture of Fort Ticonderoga was
a great success for General Burgoyne, but it was the last bit of good news he
would receive. In August he dispatched a raiding party of nearly 1,000
Hessian mercenaries to nearby Bennington, Vermont, but the mission ended in
disaster when they encountered a larger force of local militia and were forced
to surrender. This was followed by the news that Barry St. Leger had
abandoned the siege of Fort Stanwix, and that Howe had shifted his focus away
from New York in an effort to capture Philadelphia. Nevertheless Burgoyne
pressed onward, even though he now had only 7,000 men under his command.
On September 13 he crossed the Hudson River near the town of Saratoga,
where the American General Horatio Gates was waiting with an army of close to
10,000 men.
What is usually called the “Battle
of Saratoga” today actually consists of two separate battles, fought nearly
three weeks apart. In the first—sometimes called the Battle of Freeman’s
Farm—Benedict Arnold was able to hold off a British attack, but the result was
otherwise inconclusive. Burgoyne’s troops then dug entrenchments, hoping
that they would be joined by soldiers from New York City. When this
relief failed to materialize, Burgoyne ordered one final attack. In this
second battle of Saratoga—sometimes called the Battle of Bemis Heights—not only
was the British assault repulsed, but it was followed up by an American
counterattack that drove Burgoyne’s army from the field.
Burgoyne withdrew into the town of
Saratoga, but with fewer than 6,000 men remaining under his command he realized
that the situation was hopeless. He opened negotiations with Gates, and
on October 17 he and his army laid down their arms.
Saratoga is generally thought to
have been the turning point of the American War for Independence.
Although British forces still held New York and Philadelphia, the victory
convinced the French monarchy that the Continental Army had at least a decent
chance of winning the war. In February 1778 France became the first
foreign country to recognize the United States of America, and this paved the
way for active French involvement in the conflict.
28 June
1778- _________________________________________
Although the victory at Saratoga had
restored the hopes of the revolutionary cause, the winter of 1777-1778 was a
miserable one for George Washington’s Continental Army. While British
troops were quartered in comfort in Philadelphia, Washington and his men spent
the winter in nearby Valley Forge, desperately short of food and supplies. There
were only two bright spots to this scenario. One was the announcement in
February that France had recognized the independence of the United States; the
other was the work of a German volunteer named Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von
Steuben. Baron von Steuben, a former general in the Prussian Army, spent
much of that winter teaching military discipline and tactics to Washington’s
army.
By June General Henry Clinton—who
had succeeded William Howe after the Saratoga campaign as commander of British
troops in North America—had become concerned that his position in Philadelphia
was vulnerable to a French attack, so on the 18th he evacuated the city and
headed back toward New York. Washington decided to attack the British
during their march, and on June 28 the two armies clashed near Monmouth, New
Jersey.
The battle nearly ended in disaster
for the Continental Army when one general prematurely called a retreat.
Washington, however, personally rallied the troops, inspiring them to
repel two British counterattacks. In the end the battle was inconclusive,
and both sides lost as many men to heat stroke (the temperature that day may
have exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit) as to combat, but ultimately the British
lost nearly 1200 soldiers, compared to fewer than 500 casualties on the
American side.
In terms of numbers of participants,
Monmouth was largest single battle of the war, with over 13,000 soldiers on
each side. It was also the last major battle in the northern theater.
While the British continued to occupy New York City, General Clinton soon
received orders for a new offensive in the Carolinas.
END OF THE
NORTHERN PHASE of the REVOLUTION….
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