George Washington and American War of Independence
George Washington and American War of Independence
George Washington (February 22, 1732 [O.S. February 11, 1731][Note 1][Note 2] – December 14, 1799) was the first President of the United States (1789–1797), the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Sony PCG-41112L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61317L Keyboardand one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and established the position of President. Sony PCG-51311L Keyboard
Washington was elected President as the unanimous choice of the 69 electors in 1788, and he served two terms in office. He oversaw the creation of a strong, well-financed national government that maintained neutrality in the wars raging in Europe, suppressed rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all types. Sony PCG-51312L Keyboard
His leadership style established many forms and rituals of government that have been used since, such as using a cabinet system and delivering an inaugural address. Further, Sony PCG-51412L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61316L Keyboard the peaceful transition from his presidency to the presidency of John Adams established a tradition that continues into the 21st century. Washington was hailed as "father of his country" even during his lifetime.[3][4]
Washington was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia; his wealthy planter family owned tobacco plantations and slaves. After both his father and older brother died when he was young, Washington became personally and professionally attached to the powerful William Fairfax, who promoted his career as a surveyor and soldier. Sony PCG-51113L Keyboard
Washington quickly became a senior officer in the colonial forces during the first stages of the French and Indian War. Chosen by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, Washington managed to force the British out of Boston in 1776, Sony PCG-51211L Keyboard
but was defeated and almost captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the dead of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey and restored momentum to the Patriot cause. Sony PCG-51511L Keyboard
Because of his strategy, Revolutionary forces captured two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. Historians laud Washington for his selection and supervision of his generals, encouragement of morale and ability to hold together the army, coordination with the state governors and state militia units, Sony PCG-51513L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61215L Keyboard relations with Congress and attention to supplies, logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies.
Sony PCG-61312L Keyboard After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as Commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism.
Dissatisfied with the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, in 1787 Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution. Elected unanimously as the first President of the United States in 1789, he attempted to bring rival factions together to unify the nation. Sony PCG-81113L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61311L Keyboard He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to pay off all state and national debt, to implement an effective tax system and to create a national bank (despite opposition from Thomas Jefferson). Sony PCG-81114L Keyboard
Washington proclaimed the United States neutral in the wars raging in Europe after 1793. He avoided war with Great Britain and guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795,
Sony PCG-61511L Keyboard despite intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although he never officially joined the Federalist Party, he supported its programs. Washington's Farewell Address was an influential primer on republican virtue and a warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.
Sony PCG-61611L Keyboard He retired from the presidency in 1797 and returned to his home, Mount Vernon, and his domestic life where he managed a variety of enterprises. He freed all his slaves by his final will.
Washington had a vision of a great and powerful nation that would be built on republican lines using federal power. He sought to use the national government to preserve liberty, improve infrastructure, open the western lands, Sony PCG-81115L Keyboard
Sony PCG-81312L Keyboard promote commerce, found a permanent capital, reduce regional tensions and promote a spirit of American nationalism.[5] At his death, Washington was eulogized as "first in war, Sony PCG-81214L Keyboard
Sony PCG-81311L Keyboard first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen" by Henry Lee.[6]
The Federalists made him the symbol of their party but for many years, the Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument. As the leader of the first successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Sony PCG-71211L Keyboard
Washington became an international icon for liberation and nationalism, especially in France and Latin America.[7] He is consistently ranked among the top three presidents of the United States, according to polls of both scholars and the general public.
Further information: Ancestry of George Washington
The first child of Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789), George Washington was born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Sony PCG-71212L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71316L Keyboard Virginia. According to the Julian calendar and Annunciation Style of enumerating years, then in use in the British Empire, Washington was born on February 11, 1731; when the Gregorian calendar was implemented in the British Empire in 1752, in accordance with the provisions of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, his birth date became February 22, 1732.[8][Note 1][Note 2]
Washington's ancestors were from Sulgrave, England; his great-grandfather, John Washington, had emigrated to Virginia in 1657.[9] George's father Augustine was a slave-owning tobacco planter who later tried his hand in iron-mining ventures.[1Sony PCG-71213L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71314L Keyboard 0] In George's youth, the Washingtons were moderately prosperous members of the Virginia gentry, of "middling rank" rather than one of the leading planter families.[1
Sony PCG-71313L Keyboard 1] At this time, Virginia and other southern colonies had become a slave society, in which slaveholders formed the ruling class and the economy was based on slave labor.[12] Sony PCG-71311L Keyboard
Six of George's siblings reached maturity, including two older half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, from his father's first marriage to Jane Butler Washington, and four full siblings, Samuel, Elizabeth (Betty), Sony PCG-61A11L Battery
John Augustine and Charles. Three siblings died before becoming adults: his full sister Mildred died when she was about one,[13] his half-brother Butler died while an infant,[14] and his half-sister Jane died at the age of 12, Sony PCG-61A12L Battery
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Sony PCG-71318L Battery when George was about 2.[13] George's father died when George was 11 years old, after which George's half-brother Lawrence became a surrogate father and role model. William Fairfax, Lawrence's father-in-law and cousin of Virginia's largest landowner, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, was also a formative influence. Sony PCG-61A14L Battery
Washington spent much of his boyhood at Ferry Farm in Stafford County near Fredericksburg. Lawrence Washington inherited another family property from his father, a plantation on the Potomac River which he named Mount Vernon, in honor of his commanding officer, Sony PCG-61911L Battery
Admiral Edward Vernon. George inherited Ferry Farm upon his father's death and eventually acquired Mount Vernon after Lawrence's death.[15]
The death of his father prevented Washington from crossing the Atlantic to receive the rest of his education at England's Appleby School, as his older brothers had done. He received the equivalent of an elementary school education from a variety of tutors,[16Sony PCG-61913L Battery
] and also a school run by an Anglican clergyman in or near Fredericksburg.[17] Talk of securing an appointment in the Royal Navy for him when he was 15 was dropped when his widowed mother objected.[18Sony PCG-71911L Battery
Sony PCG-71912L Battery
Sony PCG-71315L Battery] Thanks to Lawrence's connection to the powerful Fairfax family, at age 17 in 1749, Washington was appointed official surveyor for Culpeper County, a well-paid position which enabled him to purchase land in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of his many land acquisitions in western Virginia.
Sony PCG-71314L Battery Thanks also to Lawrence's involvement in the Ohio Company, a land investment company funded by Virginia investors, and Lawrence's position as commander of the Virginia militia, Washington came to the notice of the new lieutenant governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. Washington was hard to miss: At exactly six feet, he towered over most of his contemporaries.[19] Sony PCG-71913L Battery
In 1751, Washington travelled to Barbados with Lawrence, who was suffering from tuberculosis, with the hope that the climate would be beneficial to Lawrence's health. Washington contracted smallpox during the trip, which left his face slightly scarred, but immunized him against future exposures to the dreaded disease.[20Sony PCG-71914L Battery
Sony PCG-71312L Battery] Lawrence's health did not improve; he returned to Mount Vernon, where he died in 1752.[21] Lawrence's position as Adjutant General (militia leader) of Virginia was divided into four offices after his death. Washington was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie as one of the four district adjutants in February 1753, Sony PCG-71811L Battery
Sony PCG-71311L Batterywith the rank of major in the Virginia militia.[22] Washington also joined the Freemasons fraternal association in Fredericksburg at this time.[23]
French and Indian War (or 'Seven Years War', 1754–1758)
Main article: George Washington in the French and Indian War
See also: Military career of George Washington, Battle of Jumonville Glen, Battle of Fort Necessity, and Forbes Expedition
Washington's map, accompanying his Journal to the Ohio (1753–1754).
The Ohio Company was an important vehicle through which British investors planned to expand into the Ohio Valley, opening new settlements and trading posts for the Indian trade[24] In 1753, the French themselves began expanding their military control into the Ohio Country, a territory already claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Sony PCG-91311L Battery
These competing claims led to a war in the colonies called the French and Indian War (1754–62), and contributed to the start of the global Seven Years' War (1756–63). By chance, Washington became involved in its beginning. Sony PCG-71C11L Battery
Robert Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia, was ordered by the British government to guard the British territorial claims including the Ohio River basin. In late 1753, he sent George Washington,
Sony PCG-61317L Battery who in 1752 received his deceased half-brother's post as adjutant general of the Virginia's militia for the Southern District and was eager to prove himself, to deliver a letter asking the French to vacate the Ohio Valley.[24Sony PCG-71C12L Battery
Sony PCG-71411L Battery] During his trip Washington met with Tanacharison (also called "Half-King") and other Iroquois chiefs allied with England at Logstown to secure their support in case of a military conflict with the French; Washington and Tanacharison became friends. Washington delivered the letter to the local French commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who politely refused to leave.[2
Sony PCG-61316L Battery5] Washington kept a diary during his expedition that was printed on Dinwiddie's order and made Washington's name recognizable in Virginia.[26] That helped him to obtain a commission to raise a company of 100 men and start his military career.[27]
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Dinwiddie sent Washington back to the Ohio Country to protect an Ohio Company's crew constructing a fort at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, before he reached the area, a French force drove out colonial traders and began construction of Fort Duquesne. A small detachment of French troops led by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, Sony PCG-71511L Battery
Sony PCG-71317L Batterywas discovered by Tanacharison and a few warriors east of present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Along with their Mingo allies, Washington and some of his militia unit then ambushed the French. What exactly happened during and after the battle is a matter of some controversy,
Sony PCG-61215L Battery but the immediate outcome was that Jumonville was injured in the initial attack and then was killed - whether tomahawked by Tanacharison in cold blood or somehow shot by another onlooker with a musket as the injured man sat with Washington is not completely clear.[28][29]
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The French responded by attacking and capturing Washington at Fort Necessity in July 1754.[30] However, he was allowed to return with his troops to Virginia. Historian Joseph Ellis concludes that the episode demonstrated Washington's bravery, initiative, inexperience and impetuosity.[3
Sony PCG-61312L Battery1] These events had international consequences; the French accused Washington of assassinating Jumonville, who they claimed was on a diplomatic mission.[31] Both France and Great Britain were ready to fight for control of the region and both sent troops to North America in 1755; war was formally declared in 1756.[32] Sony PCG-61611L Battery
Braddock disaster 1755
Main article: Braddock Expedition
In 1755, Washington was the senior American aide to British General Edward Braddock on the ill-fated Braddock expedition. This was the largest British expedition to the colonies, and was intended to expel the French from the Ohio Country. Sony PCG-61511L Battery
The French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded in the Battle of the Monongahela. Sony PCG-61211L Battery
Sony PCG-61311L BatteryAfter suffering devastating casualties, the British retreated in disarray; however, Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnants of the British and Virginian forces to an organized retreat.[33] Sony PCG-41112L Battery
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Commander of Virginia Regiment
Governor Dinwiddie rewarded Washington in 1755 with a commission as "Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and Commander in Chief of all forces now raised in the defense of His Majesty's Colony" and gave him the task of defending Virginia's frontier. The Virginia Regiment was the first full-time American military unit in the coloniesSony PCG-51311L Battery
Sony PCG-81312L Battery (as opposed to part-time militias and the British regular units). Washington was ordered to "act defensively or offensively" as he thought best.[34]
In command of a thousand soldiers, Washington was a disciplinarian who emphasized training. He led his men in brutal campaigns against the Indians in the west; Sony PCG-51312L Battery
Sony PCG-81311L Battery in 10 months units of his regiment fought 20 battles, and lost a third of its men. Washington's strenuous efforts meant that Virginia's frontier population suffered less than that of other colonies; Ellis concludes "it was his only unqualified success" in the war.[35][36] Sony PCG-51411L Battery
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In 1758, Washington participated in the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. He was embarrassed by a friendly fire episode in which his unit and another British unit thought the other was the French enemy and opened fire, Sony PCG-51412L Battery
Sony PCG-81115L Battery with 14 dead and 26 wounded in the mishap. Washington was not involved in any other major fighting on the expedition, and the British scored a major strategic victory, gaining control of the Ohio Valley, when the French abandoned the fort. Following the expedition,
Sony PCG-81114L Battery Washington retired from his Virginia Regiment commission in December 1758. He did not return to military life until the outbreak of the revolution in 1775.[37]
Lessons learned Sony PCG-51111L Battery
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Although Washington never gained the commission in the British army he yearned for, in these years the young man gained valuable military, political, and leadership skills.[38][39] He closely observed British military tactics, gaining a keen insight into their strengths and weaknesses that proved invaluable during the Revolution. Sony PCG-51113L Battery
Sony PCG-51513L Battery He demonstrated his toughness and courage in the most difficult situations, including disasters and retreats. He developed a command presence—given his size, strength, stamina, and bravery in battle, he appeared to soldiers to be a natural leader and they followed him without question.[40][41] Sony PCG-51211L Battery
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Washington learned to organize, train, drill, and discipline his companies and regiments. From his observations, readings and conversations with professional officers, he learned the basics of battlefield tactics, as well as a good understanding of problems of organization and logistics.[42]
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He gained an understanding of overall strategy, especially in locating strategic geographical points.[43] Sony PCG-7191L Battery
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Historian Ron Chernow is of the opinion that his frustrations in dealing with government officials during this conflict led him to advocate the advantages of a strong national government and a vigorous executive agency that could get results;[38] Sony PCG-7192L Battery
Sony PCG-7131L Battery other historians tend to ascribe Washington's position on government to his later American Revolutionary War service.[Note 3] He developed a very negative idea of the value of militia, who seemed too unreliable, too undisciplined, and too short-term compared to regulars.[4
Sony PCG-7113L Battery 4] On the other hand, his experience was limited to command of at most 1000 men, and came only in remote frontier conditions that were far removed from the urban situations he faced during the Revolution at Boston, New York, Trenton and Philadelphia.[45]
Between the wars: Mount Vernon (1759–1774)
A mezzotint of Martha Washington, based on a 1757 portrait by Wollaston
On January 6, 1759, Washington married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis, then 28 years old. Surviving letters suggest that he may have been in love at the time with Sally Fairfax, Sony PCG-7172L Battery
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the wife of a friend.[46] Nevertheless, George and Martha made a compatible marriage, because Martha was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a planter's estate.[47]
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Together the two raised her two children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis; later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. Sony PCG-7181L Battery
Sony PCG-7111L Battery George and Martha never had any children together – his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile.[48][49] The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, where he took up the life of a planter and political figure. Sony PCG-7182L Battery
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Washington's marriage to Martha greatly increased his property holdings and social standing, and made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men. He acquired one-third of the 18,000-acre (73 km2) Custis estate upon his marriage, worth approximately $100,000, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children, for whom he sincerely cared.[50] Sony PCG-7183L Battery
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In 1754, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie had promised land bounties to the soldiers and officers who volunteered to serve during the French and Indian War.[51Dell Precision M4500 Battery
Dell Latitude E4310 Battery] Governor Norborne Berkeley finally fulfilled Dinwiddie's promise in 1769–1770,[51][5Sony PCG-7184L Battery
Sony PCG-7154L Battery 2] with Washington subsequently receiving title to 23,200 acres (94 km2) near where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, in what is now western West Virginia.[
Sony PCG-7153L Battery 53] He also frequently bought additional land in his own name. By 1775,
Dell Inspiron 14R BatteryWashington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6,500 acres (26 km2), and had increased its slave population to over 100. As a respected military hero and large landowner, Sony PCG-7185L Battery
he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses, beginning in 1758.[54]
Washington lived an aristocratic lifestyle—fox hunting was a favorite leisure activity.[55] He also enjoyed going to dances and parties, in addition to the theater, Sony PCG-7171L Battery
Sony PCG-7152L Battery races, and cockfights. Washington also was known to play cards, backgammon, and billiards.[56] Like most Virginia planters, he imported luxuries and other goods from England and paid for them by exporting his tobacco crop.[57] Dell Latitude E6420-ATG Battery
Washington enlarged the house at Mount Vernon after his marriage.
Washington began to pull himself out of debt in the mid-1760s by diversifying his previously tobacco-centric business interests into other ventures[57] and paying more attention to his affairs.[5
8] In 1766, he started switching Mount Vernon's primary cash crop away from tobacco to wheat, a crop that could be processed and then sold in various forms in the colonies, and further diversified operations to include flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, spinning, weaving and (in the 1790s)
Dell Inspiron N5010 Battery] Patsy Custis's death in 1773 from epilepsy enabled Washington to pay off his British creditors, since half of her inheritance passed to him.[59] Dell Precision M4400 Battery
A successful planter, he was a leader in the social elite in Virginia. From 1768 to 1775, he invited some 2000 guests to his Mount Vernon estate, mostly those he considered "people of rank".
Sony VPCF11PFX battery As for people not of high social status, his advice was to "treat them civilly" but "keep them at a proper distance, for they will grow upon familiarity, in proportion as you sink in authority".[60]
Sony VPCF11HGX battery In 1769, he became more politically active, presenting the Virginia Assembly with legislation to ban the importation of goods from Great Britain.[61]
American Revolution (1775–1783) Sony VPCF114FX battery whiskey production.[57
Main articles: George Washington in the American Revolution and Military career of George Washington Dell Precision M2400 Battery
Washington opposed the 1765 Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonies, and began taking a leading role in the growing colonial resistance when protests against the Townshend Acts (enacted in 1767) became widespread. In May 1769, Sony VPCF11MFX battery
Sony VPCF11BFX batteryWashington introduced a proposal, drafted by his friend George Mason, calling for Virginia to boycott English goods until the Acts were repealed.[62] Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770. However, Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as "an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges".[63] Sony VPCF11FGX battery
In July 1774, he chaired the meeting at which the "Fairfax Resolves" were adopted, which called for the convening of a Continental Congress, among other things. Dell Latitude E6430-ATG Battery
Dell Inspiron N5010D BatteryIn August, Washington attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.[64] Sony VPCF113FX battery
Commander in chief
General George Washington at Trenton by John Trumbull, Yale University Art Gallery (1792).
After the Battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston in April 1775, the colonies went to war. Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress in a military uniform, signaling that he was prepared for war.[6Sony VPCF11DGX battery
Sony VPCF1190X battery5] Washington had the prestige, military experience, charisma and military bearing of a military leader and was known as a strong patriot. Virginia, the largest colony, deserved recognition, and New England—where the fighting began—realized it needed Southern support.
Sony VPCF119GX battery Washington did not explicitly seek the office of commander and said that he was not equal to it, but there was no serious competition.[6Dell Latitude E6430S Battery
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6] Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. Nominated by John Adams of Massachusetts, Washington was then appointed General and Commander-in-chief.[67] Sony VPCF117FX battery
Washington had three roles during the war. In 1775–77, and again in 1781 he led his men against the main British forces. Although he lost many of his battles, he never surrendered his army during the war, and he continued to fight the British relentlessly until the war's end. He plotted the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress.[68] Sony VPCF112FX battery
Second, he was charged with organizing and training the army. He recruited regulars and assigned Baron and General Friedrich von Steuben, Sony VPCF11KFX battery
Sony VPCF111FX batterya veteran of the Prussian general staff, to train them. The war effort and getting supplies to the troops were under the purview of Congress,[69] but Washington pressured the Congress to provide the essentials.[70] Sony VPCF11CGX battery
In June 1776, Congress' first attempt at running the war effort was established with the committee known as "Board of War and Ordnance", succeeded by the Board of War in July 1777, a committee which eventually included members of the military.[69Sony PCG-7191L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7133L Keyboard ] The command structure of the armed forces was a hodgepodge of Congressional appointees (and Congress sometimes made those appointments without Washington's input) Dell Latitude E6410 ATG Battery
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Dell Latitude E5420 Battery with state-appointments filling the lower ranks and of all of the militia-officers. The results of his general staff were mixed, as some of his favorites (like John Sullivan) never mastered the art of command.[6Sony PCG-7173L Keyboard
Eventually, he found capable officers, like General Nathanael Greene and his chief-of-staff Alexander Hamilton. Dell Latitude E6520N Battery
Dell Inspiron N7010 BatteryThe American officers never equaled their opponents in tactics and maneuver, and consequently they lost most of the pitched battles. The great successes, at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781), Sony PCG-7172L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7131L Keyboard came from trapping the British far from base with much larger numbers of troops.[68]
Third, and most important, Washington was the embodiment of armed resistance to the Crown—the representative man of the Revolution. His enormous stature and political skills kept Congress, the army, the French, Sony PCG-7174L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7113L Keyboard the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. By voluntarily stepping down and disbanding his army when the war was won, he permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs. Dell Latitude E5220 Battery
Dell Inspiron N4010R BatteryAnd yet his constant reiteration of the point that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice as much as erratic amateurs helped overcome the ideological distrust of a standing army.[71] Sony PCG-7182L Keyboard
Victory at Boston
Washington taking Control of the Continental Army, 1775.
Washington assumed command of the Continental Army in the field at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1775, during the ongoing siege of Boston. Realizing his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Sony PCG-7183L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7111L Keyboard Washington asked for new sources. American troops raided British arsenals, including some in the Caribbean, and some manufacturing was attempted. They obtained a barely adequate supply (about 2.5 million pounds) by the end of 1776, Sony PCG-7184L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7162L Keyboard mostly from France.[72Dell Latitude E5430 Battery
Washington reorganized the army during the long standoff, and forced the British to withdraw by putting artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and Washington moved his army to New York City.[73] Sony PCG-7185L Keyboard
Although highly disparaging toward most of the Patriots, British newspapers routinely praised Washington's personal character and qualities as a military commander. These articles were bold, as Washington was an enemy general who commanded an army in a cause that many Britons believed would ruin the empire.[74] Sony PCG-7171L Keyboard
Defeat at New York City and Fabian tactics
Washington Crossing the Delaware, December 25, 1776, by Emanuel Leutze, 1851
In August 1776, British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign designed to seize New York. Sony PCG-7152L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7153L Keyboard The Continental Army under Washington engaged the enemy for the first time as an army of the newly independent United States at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire war. The Americans were heavily outnumbered, many men deserted, Dell XPS 14D Battery
Sony PCG-71C11M Keyboard and Washington was badly beaten. Subsequently, Washington was forced to retreat across the East River at night. He did so without loss of life or materiel.[75] Sony VPC EL series Keyboard
Washington retreated north from the city to avoid encirclement, enabling Howe to take the offensive and capture Fort Washington on November 16 with high Continental casualties. Washington then retreated across New Jersey; the future of the Continental Army was in doubt due to expiring enlistments and the string of losses.[76] Sony VPCEL3S1E Keyboard
Sony 9Z.N5CSW.A0U Keyboard On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington staged a comeback with a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost in western New Jersey. He led his army across the Delaware River to capture nearly 1,000 Hessians in Trenton, Sony VPCEL2S1E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCEL2S1E Keyboard New Jersey. Washington followed up his victory at Trenton with another over British regulars at Princeton in early January. The British retreated back to New York City and its environs, which they held until the peace treaty of 1783. Sony VPCEL2S1E/W Keyboard
Sony VPCEL3S1E/W Keyboard Washington's victories wrecked the British carrot-and-stick strategy of showing overwhelming force then offering generous terms. The Americans would not negotiate for anything short of independence.[77] Sony VPCS13L9E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCS12D7E Keyboard These victories alone were not enough to ensure ultimate Patriot victory, however, since many soldiers did not reenlist or deserted during the harsh winter. Washington and Congress reorganized the army with increased rewards for staying and punishment for desertion, which raised troop numbers effectively for subsequent battles.[78] Sony VPCS12V9E/B Keyboard
Historians debate whether or not Washington preferred a Fabian strategy[Note 4] to harass the British with quick, sharp attacks followed by a retreat so the larger British army could not catch him, or whether he preferred to fight major battles.[Note 5] Sony VPCS12L9E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCS12B7E Keyboard While his southern commander Greene in 1780–81 did use Fabian tactics, Washington did so only in fall 1776 to spring 1777, Dell XPS 15D Battery
Dell Inspiron N3010 Battery after losing New York City and seeing much of his army melt away. Trenton and Princeton were Fabian examples. By summer 1777,
Sony VPCS12A7R Keyboardhowever, Washington had rebuilt his strength and his confidence; he stopped using raids and went for large-scale confrontations, as at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown.[79] Sony VPCS11B7E Keyboard
1777 campaigns
In the late summer of 1777, the British under John Burgoyne sent a major invasion army south from Quebec, with the intention of splitting off rebellious New England. General Howe in New York took his army south to Philadelphia instead of going up the Hudson River to join with Burgoyne near Albany. It was a major strategic mistake for the British, Sony VPCS11C5E Keyboard
Sony VPCS11V9E/B Keyboardand Washington rushed to Philadelphia to engage Howe, while closely following the action in upstate New York. Dell XPS 15-L502X Battery
Dell Inspiron N3010R Battery In pitched battles that were too complex for his relatively inexperienced men, Washington was defeated. At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777,
Sony VPCS11M9R/B Keyboard Howe outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into the American capital at Philadelphia unopposed on September 26. Washington's army unsuccessfully attacked the British garrison at Germantown in early October. Sony VPCS11D7E Keyboard
Sony VPCS11M1E/W KeyboardMeanwhile, Burgoyne, out of reach from help from Howe, was trapped and forced to surrender his entire army at Saratoga, New York.[80] It was a major turning point militarily and diplomatically.
Sony VPCS11J7E KeyboardFrance responded to Burgoyne's defeat by entering the war, openly allying with America and turning the Revolutionary War into a major worldwide war. Dell XPS 17 Battery
Dell Inspiron N5010R BatteryWashington's loss of Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to discuss removing Washington from command. This attempt failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him.[81]
Valley Forge
Main article: Valley Forge
General Washington and Lafayette look over the troops at Valley Forge.
Washington's army of 11,000[82] went into winter quarters at Valley Forge north of Philadelphia in December 1777. Over the next six months, the deaths in camp numbered in the thousands (the majority being from disease),[8Sony VPCS11E7E Keyboard
Sony VPCS11F7E Keyboard3] with historians' death toll estimates ranging from 2000[83] to 2500,[84][85] to over 3000 men.[86] The next spring, however, Dell XPS L702X Battery
y
Dell Inspiron N5110 Batterythe army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a full-scale training program supervised by General von Steuben.[87] The British evacuated Philadelphia to New York in 1778,[8Sony VPCEB1B4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1Z1E Keyboard8] shadowed by Washington. Washington attacked them at Monmouth, fighting to an effective draw in one of the war's largest battles.[89] Afterwards, the British continued to head towards New York, and Washington moved his army outside of New York.[88]
Victory at Yorktown Sony VPCEB1C5E Keyboard
General Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, 1781.
General George Washington Resigning His Commission by John Trumbull, Capitol Rotunda (commissioned 1817)
In the summer of 1779 at Washington's direction, General John Sullivan carried out a scorched earth campaign that destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages in central and upstate New York; the Indians were British allies who had been raiding American settlements on the frontier.[90
Sony VPCEB1S8E Keyboard] In July 1780, 5,000 veteran French troops led by General Comte Donatien de Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island to aid in the war effort.[91Sony VPCEB1E0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1S1R Keyboard] The Continental Army having been funded by $20,000 in French gold, Washington delivered the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia. Sony VPCEB1E8E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1M1R KeyboardThe surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, marked the end of major fighting in continental North America.[92]
Demobilization
Washington could not know that after Yorktown, the British would not reopen hostilities. They still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston and Savannah, together with a powerful fleet. The French army and navy departed, Sony VPCEB1E9E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1M0E Keyboard so the Americans were on their own in 1782–83. The treasury was empty, and the unpaid soldiers were growing restive, almost to the point of mutiny or possible coup d'état. Dell XPS 17-L701X Battery
Dell Inspiron N7010D BatterWashington dispelled unrest among officers by suppressing the Newburgh Conspiracy in March 1783, and Congress came up with the promise of a five-year bonus.[93] Sony VPCEB1E9J Keyboard
With the initial peace treaty articles ratified in April, a recently formed Congressional committee under Hamilton, was considering needs and plans for a peacetime army. On May 2, 1783, the Commander in Chief submitted his Sentiments on a Peace Establishment[94Sony VPCEB2A4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2H4E Keyboard] to the Committee, essentially providing an official Continental Army position. The original proposal was defeated in Congress in two votes (May 1783, October 1783) with a truncated version also being rejected in April of 1784.[95] Sony VPCEB2B4E Keyboard
By the Treaty of Paris (signed that September), Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. Washington disbanded his army and, on November 2, gave an eloquent farewell address to his soldiers.[96] Sony VPCEB2C5E Keyboard
On November 25, the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession. At Fraunces Tavern on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, Sony VPCEB2E4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB1A4E Keyboardhe resigned his commission as commander-in-chief. Historian Gordon Wood concludes that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies—an act that stunned aristocratic Europe.[9Dell XPS 17-L702X Battery
Dell Inspiron N7110 Battery7] King George III called Washington "the greatest character of the age" because of this.[98] Sony VPCEB2E9R Keyboard
Historian John Shy says that by 1783 Washington was "a mediocre military strategist but had become a master political tactician with an almost perfect sense of timing and a developed capacity to exploit his charismatic reputation, using people who thought they were using him".[99] Dell XPS L501X Battery
United States Constitution
Washington at the Signing of the United States Constitution, September 17, 1787, by Howard Chandler Christy, 1940.
Main article: Constitutional Convention (United States)
Washington's retirement to Mount Vernon was short-lived. He made an exploratory trip to the western frontier in 1784,[ Sony VPCEB2G4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB4E0E Keyboard67] was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and was unanimously elected president of the Convention. He participated little in the debates (though he did vote for or against the various articles), Dell XPS L701X Battery
Sony VPCEB4D4E Keyboardbut his high prestige maintained collegiality and kept the delegates at their labors. The delegates designed the presidency with Washington in mind, and allowed him to define the office once elected.[100] After the Convention, his support convinced many to vote for ratification; the new Constitution was ratified by all thirteen states.[101]
Presidency (1789–1797)
Lansdowne portrait
of George Washington
painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796
Main article: Presidency of George Washington
The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously as the first president in 1789,[Note 6] and again in the 1792 election; he remains the only president to have received 100 percent of the electoral votes.[Note 7] Sony VPCEB2M0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB4C4E Keyboard John Adams, who received the next highest vote total, was elected Vice President. At his inauguration, Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States of America on April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City.[103]
The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, Sony VPCEB2M1R Keyboard
Sony VPCEB3S1R Keyboard he ultimately accepted the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be perceived as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary.[104Sony VPCEB2S1R Keyboard
Sony VPCEB3H4E Keyboard] The president, aware that everything he did set a precedent, attended carefully to the pomp and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title "Mr. President" to the more majestic names suggested.[105] Sony VPCEB3A4E Keyboard
Washington proved an able administrator. An excellent delegator and judge of talent and character, he talked regularly with department heads and listened to their advice before making a final decision.[106
Sony VPCEB3F4E Keyboard] In handling routine tasks, he was "systematic, orderly, energetic, solicitous of the opinion of others ... but decisive, intent upon general goals and the consistency of particular actions with them".[107] Sony VPCEB3A4R Keyboard
Washington reluctantly served a second term. He refused to run for a third, establishing the customary policy of a maximum of two terms for a president.[108]
Domestic issues
George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, De Young Museum (ca. 1850)
See also: Whiskey Rebellion
Washington was not a member of any political party and hoped that they would not be formed, fearing conflict that would undermine republicanism.[109] Sony VPCEB3B4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB3E1R Keyboard His closest advisors formed two factions, setting the framework for the future First Party System. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton had bold plans to establish the national credit and build a financially powerful nation, and formed the basis of the Federalist Party. Secretary of the State Thomas Jefferson, Sony VPCEB3B4R Keyboard
Sony VPCEB3D4R Keyboardfounder of the Jeffersonian Republicans, strenuously opposed Hamilton's agenda, but Washington typically favored Hamilton over Jefferson, and it was Hamilton's agenda that went into effect. Jefferson's political actions, his support of Philip Freneau's National Gazette,[1111Sony VPCEB3C4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB3C4R Keyboard 0] and his attempt to undermine Hamilton, nearly led George Washington to dismiss Jefferson from his cabinet.[
Sony VPCEB3D4E Keyboard1] Though Jefferson left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him, and never spoke to him again.[111]
The Residence Act of 1790, which Washington signed, authorized the President to select the specific location of the permanent seat of the government, which would be located along the Potomac River. Sony VPCEB2H4E Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X201S Keyboard The Act authorized the President to appoint three commissioners to survey and acquire property for this seat. Washington personally oversaw this effort throughout his term in office. In 1791, the commissioners named the permanent seat of government "The City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia" to honor Washington. In 1800, IBM Thinkpad E525 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X201 Keyboardthe Territory of Columbia became the District of Columbia when the federal government moved to the site according to the provisions of the Residence Act.[112]
In 1791 partly as a result of the Copper Panic of 1789, Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, which led to protests in frontier districts, especially Pennsylvania. By 1794, IBM Thinkpad E520S Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X200 Keyboard after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turned into full-scale defiance of federal authority known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The federal army was too small to be used, so Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792 to summon militias from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.[11IBM Thinkpad E520 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL300 Keyboard3] The governors sent the troops and Washington took command, marching into the rebellious districts. The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting, as Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. These events marked the first time under the new constitution that the federal government used strong military force to exert authority over the states and citizens.[114IBM Thinkpad E425 Keyboard
Foreign affairs
Miniature Portrait of Washington by Robert Field (1800)
In February 1793 a major war broke out between conservative Great Britain and its allies and revolutionary France, launching an era of large-scale warfare that engulfed Europe until 1815. Washington, with cabinet approval, IBM Thinkpad E420S Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL500 Keyboardproclaimed American neutrality. The revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, called "Citizen Genêt", to America. Genêt was welcomed with great enthusiasm and propagandized the case for France in the French war against Great Britain, IBM Thinkpad E120 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad SL510 Keyboardand for this purpose promoted a network of new Democratic Societies in major cities. He issued French letters of marque and reprisal to French ships manned by American sailors so they could capture British merchant ships. IBM Thinkpad E220S Keyboard
Washington, warning and mistrustful of the influence of Illuminism that had been so strong in the French Revolution (as recounted by John Robison and Abbé Augustin Barruel) and its Reign of Terror, demanded the French government recall Genêt, and denounced the societies.[115] IBM Thinkpad E220 Keyboard
Hamilton and Washington designed the Jay Treaty to normalize trade relations with Great Britain, remove them from western forts, and resolve financial debts left over from the Revolution.[116] John Jay negotiated and signed the treaty on November 19, 1794. Dell Inspiron 1521 Keyboard
Dell Inspiron 14V Keyboard The Jeffersonians supported France and strongly attacked the treaty. Washington's strong support mobilized public opinion and proved decisive in securing ratification in the Senate by the necessary two-thirds majority.[11Dell Inspiron 1526 Keyboard
Dell XPS M1730 Keyboard 7] The British agreed to depart from their forts around the Great Lakes, subsequently the United States-Canadian boundary had to be re-adjusted, numerous pre-Revolutionary debts were liquidated, Dell Inspiron 1520 Keyboard
Dell XPS M1721 Keyboard and the British opened their West Indies colonies to American trade. Most importantly, the treaty delayed war with Great Britain and instead brought a decade of prosperous trade with Great Britain. Dell Inspiron N4110 Keyboard
Dell XPS M1720 Keyboard The treaty angered the French and became a central issue in many political debates.[118] Relations with France deteriorated after the treaty was signed, leaving his successor, John Adams, with the prospect of war.[119][120]
Farewell Address
Main article: George Washington's Farewell Address
Washington's Farewell Address (September 19, 1796)
Washington's Farewell Address (issued as a public letter in 1796) was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, Dell Inspiron 1764 Keyboard
the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper virtues of a republican people. He called morality "a necessary spring of popular government". He said,
Dell Precision M2400 Keyboard "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."[121] Dell Inspiron N4010 Keyboard
Washington's public political address warned against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in European affairs. He warned against bitter partisanship in domestic politics and called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good. He warned against "permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world",[122] Dell Inspiron N4050 Keyboard
Dell Precision M6500 Keyboard saying the United States must concentrate primarily on American interests. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but warned against involvement in European wars and entering into long-term "entangling" alliances. The address quickly set American values regarding foreign affairs.[123]
Retirement (1797–1799)
After retiring from the presidency in March 1797, Washington returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief. He devoted much time to his plantations and other business interests, including his distillery which produced its first batch of spirits in February 1797.[124
Dell Precision M4400 Keyboard ] As Chernow (2010) explains, his plantation operations were at best marginally profitable. The lands out west yielded little income because they were under attack by Indians and the squatters living there refused to pay him rent. Most Americans assumed he was rich because of the well-known "glorified façade of wealth and grandeur" at Mount Vernon.[12Dell Inspiron N5030 Keyboard
Dell Precision M2400 Keyboard 5] Historians estimate his estate was worth about $1 million in 1799 dollars, equivalent to about $18 million in 2009 purchasing power.[126]
By 1798, relations with France had deteriorated to the point that war seemed imminent, and on July 4, 1798, President Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant general and Commander-in-chief of the armies raised or to be raised for service in a prospective war.
Dell Latitude E5400 Keyboard He reluctantly accepted, and served as the senior officer of the United States Army between July 13, 1798, and December 14, 1799. He participated in the planning for a Provisional Army to meet any emergency that might arise, but avoided involvement in details as much as possible; he delegated most of the work, including leadership of the army, to Hamilton.[127][128] Dell Inspiron N7010 Keyboard
Death
Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon, Virginia
On Thursday, December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his plantation on horseback, in snow, hail, and freezing rain—later that evening eating his supper without changing from his wet clothes. [12
Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard 9] That Friday he awoke with a severe sore throat and became increasingly hoarse as the day progressed, yet still rode out in the heavy snow, marking trees on the estate that he wanted cut. Sometime around 3 a.m. that Saturday, he suddenly awoke with severe difficulty breathing and almost completely unable to speak or swallow. Dell Inspiron N7110 Keyboard
A firm believer in bloodletting, a standard medical practice of that era which he had used to treat various ailments of enslaved Africans on his plantation, he ordered one of the estate overseers to remove half a pint of his blood. Several hours later, when Washington's personal physician, Dr. James Craik, and two other prominent physicians arrived to attend to him,
Dell Latitude E6510 Keyboard they bled him again several times, such that, cumulatively, a massive volume of blood — half or more of his total blood content — was removed over the course of just a few hours.[129][1
Dell Latitude E5510 Keyboard 30][131] Recognizing that the bloodletting and other treatments were failing, one of the three physicians proposed performing an emergent tracheotomy, a procedure that few American physicians were familiar with at the time, as a last-ditch effort to save Washington's life; but the other doctors rejected this proposal.[129][132] Dell Inspiron N4020 Keyboard
Washington died at home around 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 1799, aged 67. The last words in his diary were "'Tis well."
The diagnosis of Washington's final illness and the immediate cause of his death have long been subjects of debate.[131][1Dell Latitude E4200 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard 29] In the days immediately following his death, the physicians who had attended him on his final day wrote that they felt his symptoms had been consistent with what they called cynanche trachealis or inflammatory quinsy, terms describing severe inflammation of the structures of the upper airway. Even at that early date, HP V112846AS1 keyboard
Dell Pk1303i0a50 keyboardthere were accusations of medical malpractice, and many believed Washington had been bled to death.[131][132] Various modern medical authors have speculated that Washington probably died from acute bacterial epiglottitis complicated by the treatments given (all of which were accepted medical practice of that era) HP V112846AS1 keyboard
— most notably the massive deliberate bloodloss, which almost certainly caused hypovolemic shock.[Note 8]
Throughout the world, men and women were saddened by Washington's death. Napoleon ordered 10 days of mourning throughout France; in the United States, thousands wore mourning clothes for months.[13HP 597635-031 keyboard
Dell Pk130af2b05 keyboard3] To protect their privacy, Martha Washington burned the correspondence between her husband and her following his death. Only a total of five letters between the couple are known to have survived, two letters from Martha to George and three from him to Martha.[134][135] HP 593296-031 keyboard
On December 18, 1799, a funeral was held at Mount Vernon, where his body was interred.[136] Congress passed a joint resolution to construct a marble monument in the United States Capitol for his body, supported by Martha. In December 1800, HP 641499-031 keyboard
Dell NSK-DB101 keyboardthe United States House passed an appropriations bill for $200,000 to build the mausoleum, which was to be a pyramid that had a base 100 feet (30 m) square. Southern opposition to the plan defeated the measure because they felt it was best to have his body remain at Mount Vernon.[137] Dell RX221 keyboard
In 1831, for the centennial of his birth, a new tomb was constructed to receive his remains. That year, an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal the body of Washington.[13Dell ORX221 keyboard
Dell NSK-DB00U keyboard8] Despite this, a joint Congressional committee in early 1832 debated the removal of Washington's body from Mount Vernon to a crypt in the Capitol, built by Charles Bulfinch in the 1820s. Southern opposition was intense, antagonized by an ever-growing rift between North and South. Congressman Wiley Thompson of Georgia expressed the fear of Southerners when he said: Dell 0FM760 keyboard
Remove the remains of our venerated Washington from their association with the remains of his consort and his ancestors, from Mount Vernon and from his native State, and deposit them in this capitol, and then let a severance of the Union occur, and behold the remains of Washington on a shore foreign to his native soil.[137] Dell 0UK717 keyboard
His remains were moved on October 7, 1837 to the new tomb constructed at Mount Vernon, presented by John Struthers of Philadelphia.[139] After the ceremony, the inner vault's door was closed and the key was thrown into the Potomac.[140] Dell HT517 keyboard
Legacy
Main article: George Washington's legacy
The Constable-Hamilton Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (1797) Dell P0XM3 keyboard
As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hero of the revolution and the first president of the United States, George Washington's legacy remains among the greatest in American history. Congressman Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington:[141] Dell FM760 keyboard
First in war—first in peace—and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and enduring scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting. Dell HT514 keyboard
Dell NSK-DB301 keyboard To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender; correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand;
Dell NSK-DB001 keyboardthe purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life—although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost—such was the man for whom our nation mourns. Dell Latitude E4310 Keyboard
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Lee's words set the standard by which Washington's overwhelming reputation was impressed upon the American memory. Washington set many precedents for the national government, and the presidency in particular, Dell Latitude E4320 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6420-ATG Keyboard and was called the "Father of His Country" as early as 1778.[Note 9][142][143][144] Washington's Birthday (celebrated on Presidents' Day), is a federal holiday in the United States.[145]
During the United States Bicentennial year, George Washington was posthumously appointed to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by the congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 passed on January 19, 1976, Dell Latitude E4200 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6330 Keyboard with an effective appointment date of July 4, 1976.[67] This restored Washington's position as the highest-ranking military officer in U.S. history.[Note 10]
See also: Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States and Cultural depictions of George Washington
Cherry tree Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard
See also: Parson Weems#The cherry-tree anecdote
The most famous story about Washington's childhood is that he chopped down his father's favorite cherry tree and admitted the deed when questioned: "I can't tell a lie, Pa." The anecdote was first reported by biographer Parson Weems, Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6220 Keyboard who after Washington's death interviewed people who knew him as a child over a half-century earlier. The Weems text was very widely reprinted throughout the 19th century, for example in McGuffey Readers. Dell Latitude E5400 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6120 Keyboard Adults wanted children to learn moral lessons from history, especially as taught by example from the lives of great national heroes like Washington. After 1890 however, historians insisted on scientific research methods to validate every statement, Dell Latitude E5410 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5530 Keyboard and there was no documentation for this anecdote apart from Weems' report that he learned it in an interview with an old person. Joseph Rodman in 1904 noted that Weems plagiarized other Washington tales from published fiction set in England, but no one has found an alternative source for the cherry tree story.[146][147] Dell Latitude E5500 Keyboard
Monuments and memorials
Washington Monument
Starting with victory in their Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the national capital, but the decision was reversed when the Republicans took control of Congress in 1801. Dell Latitude E5510 Keyboard
The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party; furthermore, the values of Republicanism seemed hostile to the idea of building monuments to powerful men.[14
Dell Latitude E6420 Keyboard 8] Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, blocked the completion of the Washington Monument until the late 19th century. By that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, Dell Latitude E5420 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5520 Keyboard and memorials to him were no longer controversial.[149] Predating the obelisk on the National Mall by several decades, the first public memorial to Washington was built by the citizens of Boonsboro, Maryland, in 1827.[150]
George Washington's likeness under construction on Mount Rushmore
Today, Washington's face and image are often used as national symbols of the United States.[151] He appears on contemporary currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter coin, and on U.S. postage stamps. Along with appearing on the first postage stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1847,[15Dell Latitude E6430S Keyboard
Dell Precision M6500 Keyboard 2] Washington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Keyboard
Dell Precision M6400 Keyboard The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States.[153][154]
Lieutenant General George Washington by Clark Mills, Washington Circle, Washington, D.C. (1860)
Many places and entities have been named in honor of Washington. Washington's name became that of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., one of two national capitals across the globe to be named after an American president (the other is Monrovia, Liberia). The state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States President.[1Dell Latitude E5220 Keyboard
Dell Precision M4500 Keyboard 55] George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis were named for him, as was Washington and Lee University (once Washington Academy), which was renamed due to Washington's large endowment in 1796. Dell Latitude E5420M Keyboard
Dell Precision M6600 Keyboard Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland (established by Maryland state charter in 1782) was supported by Washington during his lifetime with a 50 guineas pledge,[156] and with service on the college's Board of Visitors and Governors until 1789 (when Washington was elected President).[157Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard
Dell Precision M4600 Keyboard ] According to the US Census Bureau's 1993 geographic data, Washington is the 17th most common street name in the United States,[158] and the only person's name so honored.[Note 11] Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Keyboard
There are many "Washington Monuments" in the United States, including two well-known equestrian statues, one in Manhattan and one in Richmond, Virginia. The first statue to show Washington on horseback was dedicated in 1856 and is located in Manhattan's Union Square.[159] The second statue is known as either the Virginia Washington Monument or as the George Washington Equestrian Statue[16Dell Latitude E6400-XFR Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5430 Keyboard 0] and was unveiled in 1858.[160][161] It was the second American statue of Washington on horseback[161] but figures prominently in the official seal of the Confederate States of America.[160][162] Dell Latitude E6410 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Keyboard
A marble statue of Washington was made from life by sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, and now sits in the Rotunda of the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia. A duplicate, one of 22 bronze exact replicas,[163] was given to the British in 1921 by the Commonwealth of Virginia and now stands in front of the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.[164] Dell Latitude E4310 Battery
In 1917, the 886 Washingtonia asteroid was named in his honor.
Papers
Main article: The Papers of George Washington
The serious collection and publication of Washington's documentary record began with the pioneer work of Jared Sparks in the 1830s, Life and Writings of George Washington (12 vols., 1834–1837).
Dell Latitude E6530 Battery The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799 (1931–44) is a 37 volume set edited by John C. Fitzpatrick. It contains over 17,000 letters and documents and is available online from the University of Virginia.[165] Dell Latitude E4320 Battery
The definitive letterpress edition of his writings was begun by the University of Virginia in 1968, and today comprises 52 published volumes, with more to come. It contains everything written by Washington, or signed by him, together with most of his incoming letters. Part of the collection is available online from the University of Virginia.[166]
Personal property auction recordDell Latitude E4300 Battery
Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Battery
On June 22, 2012, George Washington‘s personal annotated copy of the “Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America” from 1789, which includes The Constitution of the United States and a draft of the Bill of Rights, was sold at Christie's for a record $9,826,500, with fees the final cost, to The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. This was the record for a document sold at auction.[167] Dell Latitude E5400 Battery
Personal life
The Washington Family by Edward Savage, painted between 1789 and 1796, shows (from left to right): George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington, Eleanor Parke Custis, Martha Washington, and an enslaved servant: probably William Lee or Christopher Sheels. Dell Latitude E5410 Battery
Dell Latitude E6430-ATG Battery
Along with Martha's biological family, George Washington had a close relationship with his nephew and heir, Bushrod Washington, son of George's younger brother, John Augustine Washington. After his uncle's death, Bushrod became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. George, however, Dell Latitude E5500 Battery
Dell Latitude E6430 Batteryapparently did not get along well with his mother, Mary Ball Washington (Augustine's second wife), who was a very demanding and difficult person.[168] Dell Latitude E5510 Battery
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As a young man, Washington had red hair.[169] A popular myth is that he wore a wig, as was the fashion among some at the time. However, Washington did not wear a wig; instead, he powdered his hair,[170
Dell Latitude E6230 Battery] as is represented in several portraits, including the well-known, unfinished Gilbert Stuart depiction, The Athenaeum portrait.[171] Dell Latitude E5420 Battery
Washington had unusually great physical strength that amazed younger men. Jefferson called Washington "the best horseman of his age", and both American and European observers praised his riding; the horsemanship benefited his hunting, a favorite hobby. Washington was an excellent dancer and frequently attended the theater, often referencing Shakespeare in letters.[172]
Dell Latitude E6220 Battery He drank in moderation and precisely recorded gambling wins and losses, but Washington disliked the excessive drinking, gambling, smoking, and profanity that was common in colonial Virginia.
Dell Latitude E6120 BatteryAlthough he grew tobacco, he eventually stopped smoking, and considered drunkenness a man's worst vice; Washington was glad that post-Revolutionary Virginia society was less likely to "force [guests] to drink and to make it an honor to send them home drunk."[173]
Washington suffered from problems with his teeth throughout his life. He lost his first adult tooth when he was twenty-two and had only one left by the time he became President.[174] John Adams claims he lost them because he used them to crack Brazil nuts but modern historians suggest the mercury oxide,
Dell Latitude E6520 Battery which he was given to treat illnesses such as smallpox and malaria, probably contributed to the loss. He had several sets of false teeth made, four of them by a dentist named John Greenwood.[174Dell Latitude E5520 Battery
Dell Latitude E6420 Battery ] Contrary to popular belief, none of the sets were made from wood. The set made when he became President was carved from hippopotamus and elephant ivory, held together with gold springs.[17Dell Latitude E6400 Battery
Dell XPS L701X Battery 5] Dental problems left Washington in constant pain, for which he took laudanum.[176] This distress may be apparent in many of the portraits painted while he was still in office,[176] including the one still used on the $1 bill.[171][Note 12]
Slavery
Main article: George Washington and slavery
Washington was the only prominent Founding Father to arrange in his will for the manumission of all his slaves following his death.[17Dell Latitude E6500 Battery
7] He privately opposed slavery as an institution which he viewed as economically unsound and morally indefensible. He also regarded the divisiveness of his countrymen's feelings about slavery as a potentially mortal threat to the unity of the nation.[178Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Battery
Dell XPS L501X Battery ] Yet, as general of the army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and the first president of the United States, he never publicly challenged the institution of slavery,[179] possibly because he wanted to avoid provoking a split in the new republic over so inflammatory an issue.[180] Dell Latitude E6400-XFR Battery
Washington had owned slaves since the death of his father in 1743, when at the age of eleven, he inherited 10 slaves. At the time of his marriage to Martha Custis in 1759, he personally owned at least 36 slaves, which meant he had achieved the status of a major planter (historians defined this in the Upper South as owning 20 or more slaves). Dell Latitude E6410 Battery
Dell XPS 17-L701X Battery The wealthy widow Martha brought at least 85 "dower slaves" to Mount Vernon by inheriting a third of her late husband's estate. Using his wife's great wealth, Washington bought more land, tripling the size of the plantation at Mount Vernon, and purchased the additional slaves needed to work it. Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Battery
Dell XPS L702X Battery By 1774, he paid taxes on 135 slaves (this figure does not include the "dowers"). The last record of a slave purchase by him was in 1772, although he later received some slaves in repayment of debts.[181Dell Precision M2400 Battery
Dell XPS 17 Battery ] Washington also used some hired staff[124] and white indentured servants; in April 1775, he offered a reward for the return of two runaway white servants.[182]
Washington came to oppose slavery on both moral and economic grounds. Before the American Revolution, he had expressed no moral reservations about slavery. But by 1779, Dell Precision M4600 Battery
Dell XPS 15Z Battery he would tell his manager at Mount Vernon that he wished to sell his slaves when the war ended, if the Americans were victorious.[183] He concluded that maintaining a large, and increasingly elderly, slave population at Mount Vernon was no longer economically profitable, and that people who were compelled to work would never work hard.[184] Washington could not legally sell the "dower slaves",Dell Precision M6600 Battery
Dell XPS 15-L502X Battery and because they had long intermarried with his own slaves, he could not sell his slaves without breaking up families, which he wanted to avoid.[185] In 1786, Washington wrote to Robert Morris, Dell Precision M4500 Battery
Dell XPS 15-L501X Battery saying, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."[186] Still, according to historian John Ferling, Washington also wanted the material benefits of owning slaves and wanted to leave his wife's family a large inheritance.[187] Dell Precision M6400 Battery
As president, following the transfer of the national capital to Pennsylvania in 1790, Washington brought eight enslaved people to work for him in the President's House in Philadelphia, where state law would have automatically granted freedom to any slaves who had resided in the state for more than 6 months.
Dell XPS 15D Battery He circumvented that provision of the law by maintaining that he was not a Pennsylvania resident and ensuring that neither he nor any of his slaves stayed in the state for more than six months at a time.[188] When one of the slaves, Oney Judge, a personal attendant to Martha, escaped,
Dell XPS 15 Battery Washington complained that the slave had fled "without the least provocation," and he secretly sent agents to hunt her down. Martha urged Washington to advertise a reward for her capture, Dell Precision M4400 Battery
Dell XPS 14D-L401X Battery and the ad was placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 24, 1796. When the escaped former slave was spotted in New Hampshire, she said that she would agree to return out of affection for the Washington family, but only if they would guarantee her freedom, a proposal the Washingtons refused. Dell XPS 14 Battery
Dell XPS 14D Battery They were still trying, surreptitiously, to recapture her two years later.[189][190] Another slave, Hercules who served as Washington's chef in the Presidential House in Philadelphia, managed to escape from Mount Vernon despite Washington's suspicions that he had been planning it.[191][1Dell Inspiron 14V battery
Dell Inspiron 14R battery92] Washington would eventually replace the slaves at the President's House with immigrant German indentured servants.
By 1794, as he contemplated retirement, Washington began organizing his affairs so that in his will he could free all the slaves whom he owned outright.[193] As historian Gordon S. Wood writes in his review of Joseph Ellis' biography of Washington, Dell Inspiron N4020 battery
Dell Inspiron 13R battery"He did this in the teeth of opposition from his relatives, his neighbors, and perhaps even Martha. It was a courageous act, and one of his greatest legacies."[184] At the time of Washington's death in 1799, 317 slaves lived at Mount Vernon: 123 were owned by Washington himself, 154 were held by his wife as "dower slaves", and 40 others were rented from a neighbor.[19
Dell Inspiron N4110 battery4] Washington's will provided for all of his slaves to be freed upon the death of his widow, but she chose to free them about 12 months after his death. The will also provided for the training of the younger former-slaves in useful skills and for the creation of an old-age pension fund for the older ones.[195] Dell Inspiron N4030 battery
Religion
Main article: George Washington and religion
Stained glass window of Washington kneeling in prayer, Capitol Prayer Room, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
The exact nature of Washington's religious beliefs has been debated by historians and biographers for over two hundred years. Although he visited several denominations in his public life, he was primarily affiliated with the Anglican and, later, Episcopal church. He served as a vestryman and as church warden for both Fairfax Parish in Alexandria and Truro Parish,[1
Dell Inspiron N5010D battery96] administrative positions that, like all positions in Virginia while it had an official religion, required one to swear they would not speak or act in a way that did not conform to the tenets of the Church. Dell Inspiron N7110 battery
Like the deists Washington avoided the word "God" and instead used the term "Providence".[1] He never spoke of Jesus, though he did refer to Christianity as the religion of Christ.
Eyewitness accounts exist of Washington engaging in private devotions.[197] Dell Inspiron N7010D battery
Washington frequently accompanied his wife to church services. Although third-hand reports say he took communion,[198] he is usually characterized as never or rarely participating in the rite.[199][2
Dell Inspiron 17R battery00] He would regularly leave services before communion with the other non-communicants (as was the custom of the day), until, after being admonished by a rector, he ceased attending at all on communion Sundays.[201] Dell Inspiron N5110 battery
Chernow, in a 2010 podcast, summed up Washington's religious views:
There has been a huge controversy, to put it mildly, about Washington's religious beliefs. Before the Revolutionary War he was Anglican – Church of England – which meant after the war, he was Episcopalian. So, he was clearly Christian . Dell Inspiron N5030 battery
.. He was quite intensely religious, because even though he uses the word Providence, he constantly sees Providence as an active force in life, particularly in American life. I mean, every single victory in war he credits to Providence. The miracle of the Constitutional Convention he credits to Providence.
Dell Inspiron N4010R batteryThe creation of the federal government and the prosperity of the early republic, he credits to Providence ... I was struck at how frequently in his letters he's referring to Providence, and it's Providence where there's a sense of design and purpose, which sounds to me very much like religion ... Unfortunately, this particular issue has become very very politicized.[2]
Freemasonry
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia
Washington was initiated into Freemasonry in 1752.[20Dell Inspiron N5010R battery
Dell Inspiron N4010 battery2] He had a high regard for the Masonic Order and often praised it, but he seldom attended lodge meetings. He was attracted by the movement's dedication to the Enlightenment principles of rationality, reason and fraternalism; the American lodges did not share the anti-clerical perspective that made the European lodges so controversial.[2Dell Inspiron N3010R battery
Dell Inspiron N3010 battery03] In 1777, a convention of Virginia lodges recommended Washington to be the Grand Master of the newly established Grand Lodge of Virginia; however, Washington declined, due to his necessity to lead the Continental Army at a critical stage, and because he had never been installed as Master or Warden of a lodge, HP Pavilion dv6-6000 Keyboard
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he did not consider it Masonically legal to serve as Grand Master.[204] In 1788, Washington, with his personal consent, was named Master in the Virginia charter of Alexandria Lodge No. 22.[205]
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The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the American War of Independence,[8] or simply the Revolutionary War in the United States, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies, HP Pavilion DV6-6B06SA Keyboard
but gradually grew into a world war between Britain on one side and the newly formed United States, France, Netherlands and Spain on the other. The main result was an American victory and European recognition of the independence of the United States, with mixed results for the other powers. HP Pavilion DV6-6B08SA Keyboard
The war was the result of the political American Revolution. The British Parliament insisted it had the right to tax colonists to finance the colonies' military defense, which had become increasingly expensive due to the French and Indian Wars. HP Pavilion DV6-6B09SA Keyboard
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The colonies argued that they already spent much through local government to maintain their place in the British Empire, with Benjamin Franklin appearing before the British Parliament testifying "The Colonies raised, clothed, and paid, during the last war, near twenty-five thousand men, and spent many millions."[ HP Pavilion DV6-6B50SA Keyboard
9] The colonists claimed that, as they were British subjects, imposing laws in Parliament upon the colonists, and particularly taxation without representation, was illegal. The American colonists formed a unifying Continental Congress and a shadow government in each colony, though at first wishing to remain in the Empire and loyal to the Crown. HP Pavilion DV6-6B51SA Keyboard
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The American boycott of taxed British tea led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when shiploads of tea were destroyed. London responded by ending self-government in Massachusetts and putting it under the control of the British army with General Thomas Gage as governor. In April 1775 Gage learned that weapons were being gathered in Concord, and he sent British troops to seize and destroy them.[10HP Pavilion DV6-6C57EA Keyboard
] Local militia confronted the troops and exchanged fire (see Battles of Lexington and Concord).
After repeated pleas to the British monarchy for intervention with Parliament, any chance of a compromise ended when the Congress were declared traitors by royal decree, HP Pavilion DV6-6C75EA Keyboard
and they responded by declaring the independence of a new sovereign nation, the United States of America, on July 4, 1776. American Loyalists rejected the Declaration, and sided with the king; they were excluded from power everywhere. American attempts to expand the rebellion into Quebec and the Floridas were unsuccessful. HP Pavilion DV6-6002SA Keyboard
France, Spain and the Dutch Republic all secretly provided supplies, ammunition and weapons to the revolutionaries starting early in 1776. By June 1776 the Americans were in full control of every state, but then the British Royal Navy captured New York City and made it their main base. The war became a standoff. HP Pavilion DV6-6004EA Keyboard
The Royal Navy could occupy other coastal cities for brief periods, but the rebels controlled the countryside, where 90 percent of the population lived. British strategy relied on mobilizing Loyalist militia and was never fully realized. A British invasion from Canada in 1777 ended in the capture of the British army at the Battles of Saratoga. HP Pavilion DV6-6052SA Keyboard
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That American victory persuaded France to enter the war openly in early 1778, balancing the two sides' military strength. Spain and the Dutch Republic—French allies—also went to war with Britain over the next four years, threatening an invasion of Great Britain and severely testing British military strength with campaigns in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. HP Pavilion DV6-6B50EA Keyboard
Spain's involvement resulted in the expulsion of British armies from West Florida, securing the American southern flank. The British naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes thwarted a French and Spanish plan to drive Britain out of the Caribbean and preparations for a second attempt were halted by the declaration of peace. A long Franco-Spanish siege of the British stronghold at Gibraltar also resulted in defeat. HP Pavilion DV6-6B51EA Keyboard
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French involvement proved decisive[11] yet expensive, ruining France's economy and driving the country into massive debt.[12] A French naval victory just outside Chesapeake Bay led to a siege by combined French and Continental armies that forced a second British army to surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. HP Pavilion DV6-6B59EA Keyboard
Fighting continued throughout 1782, while peace negotiations began.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.[13][ HP Pavilion DV6-6B60EA Keyboard
14] A wider international peace was agreed, in which several territories were exchanged.
When the war began, the 13 colonies lacked a professional army or navy. Each colony sponsored local militia. Militiamen were lightly armed, had little training, and usually did not have uniforms. HP Pavilion DV6-6C01EA Keyboard
Their units served for only a few weeks or months at a time, were reluctant to travel far from home and thus were unavailable for extended operations, and lacked the training and discipline of soldiers with more experience. If properly used, HP Pavilion DV6-6C01SA Keyboard
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however, their numbers could help the Continental armies overwhelm smaller British forces, as at the battles of Concord, Bennington and Saratoga, and the siege of Boston. Both sides used partisan warfare but the Americans effectively suppressed Loyalist activity when British regulars were not in the area.[15] HP Pavilion DV6-6C04EA Keyboard
Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army on June 14, 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington used both his regulars and state militia throughout the war. HP Pavilion DV6-6C05SA Keyboard
The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the war, formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775, a date regarded and celebrated as the birthday of the Marine Corps. At the beginning of 1776, HP Pavilion DV6-6C05EA Keyboard
Washington's army had 20,000 men, with two-thirds enlisted in the Continental Army and the other third in the various state militias.[16] At the end of the American Revolution in 1783, both the Continental Navy and Continental Marines were disbanded. HP Pavilion DV6-6C11SA Keyboard
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About 250,000 men served as regulars or as militiamen for the Revolutionary cause in the eight years of the war, but there were never more than 90,000 men under arms at one time.
Armies were small by European standards of the era, largely attributable to limitations such as lack of powder and other logistical capabilities on the American side.[17HP Pavilion DV6-6C40SA Keyboard
] It was also difficult for Great Britain to transport troops across the Atlantic and they depended on local supplies that the Patriots tried to cut off. By comparison, Duffy notes that Frederick the Great usually commanded from 23,000 to 50,000 in battle.[citation needed] Both figures pale in comparison to the armies that would be fielded in the early 19th century, where troop formations approached or exceeded 100,000 men. HP Pavilion DV6-6C41SA Keyboard
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Main article: Loyalist (American Revolution)
Historians[18] have estimated that approximately 40 to 45 percent of the colonists supported the rebellion, while 15 to 20 percent remained loyal to the Crown. The rest attempted to remain neutral and kept a low profile. HP Pavilion DV6-6000EA Keyboard
At least 25,000 Loyalists fought on the side of the British. Thousands served in the Royal Navy. On land, Loyalist forces fought alongside the British in most battles in North America. Many Loyalists fought in partisan units, especially in the Southern theater.[19] HP Pavilion DV6-6001SA Keyboard
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The British military met with many difficulties in maximizing the use of Loyalist factions. British historian Jeremy Black wrote, "In the American war it was clear to both royal generals and revolutionaries that organized and significant Loyalist activity would require the presence of British forces."[20] HP Pavilion DV6-6006EA Keyboard
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In the South, the use of Loyalists presented the British with "major problems of strategic choice" since while it was necessary to widely disperse troops in order to defend Loyalist areas, it was also recognized that there was a need for "the maintenance of large concentrated forces able" to counter major attacks from the American forces.[21] HP Pavilion DV6-6051EA Keyboard
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In addition, the British were forced to ensure that their military actions would not "offend Loyalist opinion", eliminating such options as attempting to "live off the country", destroying property for intimidation purposes, or coercing payments from colonists ("laying them under contribution").[22] HP Pavilion DV6-6053EA Keyboard
British armies and auxiliaries
Further information: History of the British Army: American War of Independence
Early in 1775, the British Army consisted of about 36,000 men worldwide, but wartime recruitment steadily increased this number. Great Britain had a difficult time appointing general officers, however. General Thomas Gage, HP Pavilion DV6-6055EA Keyboard
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in command of British forces in North America when the rebellion started, was criticized for being too lenient (perhaps influenced by his American wife).[citation needed] General Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst turned down an appointment as commander in chief due to an unwillingness to take sides in the conflict.
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[23] Similarly, Admiral Augustus Keppel turned down a command, saying "I cannot draw the sword in such a cause." The Earl of Effingham publicly resigned his commission when his 22nd Regiment of foot was posted to America, HP Pavilion DV6-6060SA Keyboard
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and William Howe and John Burgoyne were members of parliament who opposed military solutions to the American rebellion. Howe and Henry Clinton stated that they were unwilling participants in the war and were only following orders.[24] HP Pavilion DV6-6077SA Keyboard
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Over the course of the war, Great Britain signed treaties with various German states, which supplied about 30,000 soldiers.[citation needed] Germans made up about one-third of the British troop strength in North America.
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The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel contributed more soldiers than any other state, and German soldiers became known as "Hessians" to the Americans. Revolutionary speakers called German soldiers "foreign mercenaries," and they are scorned as such in the Declaration of Independence. HP Pavilion DV6-6102SA Keyboard
By 1779, the number of British and German troops stationed in North America was over 60,000, although these were spread from Canada to Florida.[25] HP Pavilion DV6-6103SA Keyboard
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Initially, several German principalities offered military support to Great Britain but these offers were rejected. However, as the war dragged on it became clear that Great Britain would need the extra manpower of the German states and led to Great Britain seeking support from German principalities such as Hesse-Kassel and Ansbach-Bayreuth.[26] HP 634139-031 Keyboard
The Secretary of State at War Lord Barrington and the Adjutant-General Edward Harvey were both strongly opposed to outright war on land. In 1766 Barrington had recommended withdrawing the army from the 13 Colonies to Canada, Nova Scotia and Florida. At the beginning of the war he urged a naval blockade, which would quickly damage the colonists' trading activities.[27]
Black Americans
1780 drawing of American soldiers from the Yorktown campaign shows a black infantryman from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. HP 644363-031 Keyboard
African Americans—slave and free—served on both sides during the war. The British recruited slaves belonging to Patriot masters and promised freedom to those who served by act of Lord Dunmore's Proclamation. Because of manpower shortages, George Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776. HP Pavilion DV7-1105EA Battery
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Small all-black units were formed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; many slaves were promised freedom for serving (some of the men promised freedom were sent back to their masters, after the war was over, out of political convenience. HP Pavilion DV7-1130EA Battery
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HP Pavilion DV7-4180SA KeyboardGeorge Washington received and ignored letters from the re—enslaved soldiers) . Another all-black unit came from Haiti with French forces. At least 5,000 black soldiers fought for the Revolutionary cause.[28] HP Pavilion DV7-1213EA Battery
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Tens of thousands of slaves escaped during the war and joined British lines; others simply moved off into the chaos. For instance, in South Carolina, nearly 25,000 slaves (30% of the enslaved population) fled, migrated or died during the disruption of the war. HP Pavilion DV7-1212EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4150EA Battery [29] This greatly disrupted plantation production during and after the war. When they withdrew their forces from Savannah and Charleston, the British also evacuated 10,000 slaves, now freedmen. HP Pavilion DV7-1214EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4144EA Battery [30] Altogether, the British were estimated to evacuate nearly 20,000 freedmen (including families) with other Loyalists and their troops at the end of the war. More than 3,000 freedmen were resettled in Nova Scotia; others were transported to the West Indies of the Caribbean islands, and some to Great Britain.[31] HP Pavilion DV7-2110SA Battery
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Further information: Book of Negroes
Native Americans
Most Native Americans east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war, and many communities were divided over the question of how to respond to the conflict. Though a few tribes were on friendly terms with the Americans, most Native Americans opposed the United States as a potential threat to their territory. HP Pavilion DV7-2120SA Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4141SA Battery Approximately 13,000 Native Americans fought on the British side, with the largest group coming from the Iroquois tribes, who fielded around 1,500 men.[32] The powerful Iroquois Confederacy was shattered as a result of the conflict; although the Confederacy did not take sides, the Seneca, Onondaga, HP Pavilion DV7-2230SA Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4140EA Battery and Cayuga nations sided with the British. Members of the Mohawk fought on both sides. Many Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the colonists. The Continental Army sent the Sullivan Expedition on raids throughout New York to cripple the Iroquois tribes which had sided with the British. HP Pavilion DV7-3000 Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4132EA BatteryBoth during and after the war friction between the Mohawk leaders Joseph Louis Cook and Joseph Brant, who had sided with the Americans and the British respectively, further exacerbated the split.
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A watercolor painting depicting a variety of Continental Army soldiers.
Creek and Seminole allies of Britain fought against Americans in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1778, a force of 800 Creeks destroyed American settlements along the Broad River in Georgia. Creek warriors also joined Thomas Brown's raids into South Carolina and assisted Britain during the Siege of Savannah.[
HP Pavilion DV7-4130SA Battery3] Many Native Americans were involved in the fighting between Britain and Spain on the Gulf Coast and up the Mississippi River—mostly on the British side. Thousands of Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws fought in or near major battles such as the Battle of Fort Charlotte, the Battle of Mobile, and the Siege of Pensacola.[34] 3HP Pavilion DV7-3001EA Battery
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Sex, race, class
Pybus (2005) estimates that about 20,000 slaves defected to or were captured by the British, of whom about 8,000 died from disease or wounds or were recaptured by the Patriots, and 12,000 left the country at the end of the war, for freedom in Canada or slavery in the West Indies.[35]
Baller (2006)
HP Pavilion DV7-4040SA Batteryexamines family dynamics and mobilization for the Revolution in central Massachusetts. He reports that warfare and the farming culture were sometimes incompatible. Militiamen found that living and working on the family farm had not prepared them for wartime marches and the rigors of camp life. Rugged individualism conflicted with military discipline and regimentation.
HP Pavilion DV7-4035SA Battery A man's birth order often influenced his military recruitment, as younger sons went to war and older sons took charge of the farm. A person's family responsibilities and the prevalent patriarchy could impede mobilization. Harvesting duties and family emergencies pulled men home regardless of the sergeant's orders. Some relatives might be Loyalists, creating internal strains. HP Pavilion DV7-3020EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV7-4015SA BatteryOn the whole, historians conclude the Revolution's effect on patriarchy and inheritance patterns favored egalitarianism.[36]
McDonnell, (2006) shows a grave complication in Virginia's mobilization of troops was the conflicting interests of distinct social classes, which tended to undercut a unified commitment to the Patriot cause.
HP Pavilion DV7-4020SA BatteryThe Assembly balanced the competing demands of elite slave owning planters, the middling yeomen (some owning a few slaves), and landless indentured servants, among other groups. The Assembly used deferments, taxes, military service substitute, and conscription to resolve the tensions. Unresolved class conflict, however, made these laws less effective.
HP Pavilion DV7-2215SA BatteryThere were violent protests, many cases of evasion, and large-scale desertion, so that Virginia's contributions came at embarrassingly low levels. With the British invasion of the state in 1781, Virginia was mired in class division as its native son, George Washington, made desperate appeals for troops.[37] HP Pavilion DV7-3101SA Battery
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War in the north, 1775–1780
See also: Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga
Massachusetts
Main article: Boston campaign
Before the war, Boston had been the center of much revolutionary activity, leading to the punitive Massachusetts Government Act in 1774 that ended local government. Popular resistance to these measures, however, HP Pavilion DV7-3112EA Battery compelled the newly appointed royal officials in Massachusetts to resign or to seek refuge in Boston. Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, the British North American commander-in chief, commanded four regiments of British regulars (about 4,000 men) from his headquarters in Boston, but the countryside was in the hands of the Revolutionaries. HP Pavilion DV7-3105EA Battery
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The British marching to Concord in April 1775
On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent 700 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord, Massachusetts. Riders including Paul Revere alerted the countryside, and when British troops entered Lexington on the morning of April 19, they found 77 minutemen formed up on the village green. Sony VPCSA2Z9E Battery
Shots were exchanged, killing several minutemen. The British moved on to Concord, where a detachment of three companies was engaged and routed at the North Bridge by a force of 500 minutemen. As the British retreated back to Boston, Sony VPCSA3N9E Battery
Sony VPCSE2S1E Batterythousands of militiamen attacked them along the roads, inflicting great damage before timely British reinforcements prevented a total disaster. With the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the war had begun. Sony VPCSA3S9E Battery
The militia converged on Boston, bottling up the British in the city. About 4,500 more British soldiers arrived by sea, and on June 17, 1775, British forces under General William Howe seized the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Sony VPCSA3X9E Battery
Sony VPCSE2L9E Battery The Americans fell back, but British losses were so heavy that the attack was not followed up. The siege was not broken, and Gage was soon replaced by Howe as the British commander-in-chief.[38] Sony VPCSA3Z9E Battery
In July 1775, newly appointed General Washington arrived outside Boston to take charge of the colonial forces and to organize the Continental Army. Realizing his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Washington asked for new sources. Arsenals were raided and some manufacturing was attempted; 90% of the supplySony VPCSA4W9E Battery
Sony VPCSE2E1E Battery (2 million pounds) was imported by the end of 1776, mostly from France.[39] Patriots in New Hampshire had seized powder, muskets and cannons from Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth Harbor in late 1774.[40] Some of the munitions were used in the Boston campaign. Sony VPCSB Battery
The standoff continued throughout the fall and winter. In early March 1776, heavy cannons that the patriots had captured at Fort Ticonderoga were brought to Boston by Colonel Henry Knox, and placed on Dorchester Heights. Sony VPCSB1A7E Battery
Sony VPCSE1V9E BatterySince the artillery now overlooked the British positions, Howe's situation was untenable, and the British fled on March 17, 1776, sailing to their naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia.[41] Washington then moved most of the Continental Army to fortify New York City.
Quebec
Main article: Invasion of Canada (1775)
Canadian militiamen and British soldiers repulse the American assault at Sault-au-Matelot, December 1775
Three weeks after the siege of Boston began, a troop of militia volunteers led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga, a strategically important point on Lake Champlain between New York and the Province of Quebec. Sony VPCSB1A9E Battery
Sony VPCSE1J1E Battery After that action they also raided Fort St. John's, not far from Montreal, which alarmed the population and the authorities there. In response, Quebec's governor Guy Carleton began fortifying St. John's, and opened negotiations with the Iroquois and other Native American tribes for their support. Sony VPCSB1B7E Battery
Sony VPCSE1E1E BatteryThese actions, combined with lobbying by both Allen and Arnold and the fear of a British attack from the north, eventually persuaded the Congress to authorize an invasion of Quebec, with the goal of driving the British military from that province. (Quebec was then frequently referred to as Canada, as most of its territory included the former French Province of Canada.)[42]
Two Quebec-bound expeditions were undertaken. On September 28, 1775, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery marched north from Fort Ticonderoga with about 1,700 militiamen, besieging and capturing Fort St. Jean on November 2 and then Montreal on November 13. Sony VPCSB1B9E Battery
Sony VPCSB3S9E BatteryGeneral Carleton escaped to Quebec City and began preparing that city for an attack. The second expedition, led by Colonel Arnold, went through the wilderness of what is now northern Maine. Logistics were difficult, with 300 men turning back, and another 200 perishing due to the harsh conditions. Sony VPCSB1C5E Battery
Sony VPCSB3N9E Battery By the time Arnold reached Quebec City in early November, he had but 600 of his original 1,100 men. Montgomery's force joined Arnold's, and they attacked Quebec City on December 31, but were defeated by Carleton in a battle that ended with Montgomery dead, Arnold wounded, and over 400 Americans taken prisoner.[43] Sony VPCSB1D7E Battery
Sony VPCSB2M9E Battery The remaining Americans held on outside Quebec City until the spring of 1776, suffering from poor camp conditions and smallpox, and then withdrew when a squadron of British ships under Captain Charles Douglas arrived to relieve the siege.[44] Sony VPCSB1S1E Battery
Another attempt was made by the Americans to push back towards Quebec, but they failed at Trois-Rivières on June 8, 1776. Carleton then launched his own invasion and defeated Arnold at the Battle of Valcour Island in October. Arnold fell back to Fort Ticonderoga,
Sony VPCSB1Z9E Batterywhere the invasion had begun. While the invasion ended as a disaster for the Americans, Arnold's efforts in 1776 delayed a full-scale British counteroffensive until the Saratoga campaign of 1777. Sony VPCSB1V9E Battery
The invasion cost the Americans their base of support in British public opinion, "So that the violent measures towards America are freely adopted and countenanced by a majority of individuals of all ranks, professions, Sony VPCSB1V9R Battery
Sony VPCSB1X9E Batteryor occupations, in this country."[45] It gained them at best limited support in the population of Quebec, which, while somewhat supportive early in the invasion, became less so later during the occupation, when American policies against suspected Loyalists became harsher, and the army's hard currency ran out. Two small regiments of Canadiens were recruited during the operation, and they were with the army on its retreat back to Ticonderoga.[46] HP Pavilion G72-110SA Keyboard
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New York and New Jersey
Main article: New York and New Jersey campaign
American soldiers in the Battle of Long Island, 1776
Having withdrawn his army from Boston, General Howe now focused on capturing New York City, which then was limited to the southern tip of Manhattan Island. To defend the city, General Washington spread about 20,000 soldiers along the shores of New York's harbor, concentrated on Long Island and Manhattan.[
HP Pavilion G72-B15SA Keyboard47] While British and recently hired Hessian troops were assembling across the upper harbor on Staten Island for the campaign, Washington had the newly issued Declaration of American Independence read to his men and the citizens of the city.[48] No longer was there any possibility of compromise.[citation needed] On August 27, HP Pavilion G72-130SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B02SA Keyboard 1776, after landing about 22,000 men on Long Island, the British drove the Americans back to Brooklyn Heights, securing a decisive British victory in the largest battle of the entire Revolution. Howe then laid siege to fortifications there. HP Pavilion G72-A10SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-B01SA Keyboard In a feat considered by many military historians to be one of his most impressive actions as Commander in Chief, Washington personally directed the withdrawal of his entire remaining army and all their supplies across the East River in one night without discovery by the British or significant loss of men and materiel.[49] HP Pavilion G72-102SA Keyboard
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After a failed peace conference on September 11, Howe resumed the attack. On September 15, Howe landed about 12,000 men on lower Manhattan, quickly taking control of New York City. The Americans withdrew north up the island to Harlem Heights, where they skirmished the next day but held their ground.
HP Pavilion G72-A40SA Keyboard When Howe moved to encircle Washington's army in October, the Americans again fell back, and a battle at White Plains was fought on October 28.[50] Again Washington retreated, and Howe returned to Manhattan and captured Fort Washington in mid November,
HP Pavilion G72-A30SA Keyboardtaking about 2,000 prisoners (with an additional 1,000 having been captured during the battle for Long Island). Thus began the infamous "prison ships" system the British maintained in New York for the rest of the war, in which more American soldiers and sailors died of neglect than died in every battle of the entire war, combined.[51][52HP Pavilion G72-105SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion G72-A20SA Keyboard][53][54][55]
Howe then detached General Clinton to seize Newport, Rhode Island, while General Lord Cornwallis continued to chase Washington's army through New Jersey, until the Americans withdrew across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in early December.[5Sony SVS13AA11L Battery
Sony PCG-41414L Battery6] With the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, the British entered winter quarters. Although Howe had missed several opportunities to crush the diminishing American army, he had killed or captured over 5,000 Americans. Sony SVS131A11L Battery
The outlook of the Continental Army was bleak. "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine, who was with the army on the retreat.[5Sony SVS131B11L Battery
Sony PCG-41412L Battery7] The army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men fit for duty, and would be reduced to 1,400 after enlistments expired at the end of the year.[citation needed] Congress had abandoned Philadelphia in despair, although popular resistance to British occupation was growing in the countryside.[58]
Emanuel Leutze's stylized depiction of Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
Washington decided to take the offensive, stealthily crossing the Delaware on the night of December 25–26, and capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776.
Sony PCG-41218L Battery [59] Cornwallis marched to retake Trenton but was first repulsed and then outmaneuvered by Washington, who successfully attacked the British rearguard at Princeton on January 3, 1777.[6
Sony PCG-41217L Battery0] Washington then entered winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, having given a morale boost to the American cause. New Jersey militia continued to harass British and Hessian forces throughout the winter, forcing the British to retreat to their base in and around New York City.[61] Sony SVS151A11L Battery
At every stage the British strategy assumed a large base of Loyalist supporters would rally to the King given some military support. In February 1776 Clinton took 2,000 men and a naval squadron to invade North Carolina, which he called off when he learned the Loyalists had been crushed at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. Sony SVS151G1GL Battery
Sony PCG-41215L Battery In June he tried to seize Charleston, South Carolina, the leading port in the South, hoping for a simultaneous rising in South Carolina. It seemed a cheap way of waging the war but it failed as the naval force was defeated by the forts and because no local Loyalists attacked the town from behind. The Loyalists were too poorly organized to be effective,
Sony PCG-41214L Battery but as late as 1781 senior officials in London, misled by Loyalist exiles, placed their confidence in their rising.[citation needed]
Saratoga and Philadelphia
Mohawk leader Joseph Brant led both Native Americans and white Loyalists in battle.
"The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder.
Washington and Lafayette look over the troops at Valley Forge.
When the British began to plan operations for 1777, they had two main armies in North America: Carleton's army in Quebec, and Howe's army in New York. In London, Lord George Germain approved campaigns for these armies which, Sony PCG-4121DL Battery
Sony PCG-41213L Battery because of miscommunication, poor planning, and rivalries between commanders, did not work in conjunction. Although Howe successfully captured Philadelphia, the northern army was lost in a disastrous surrender at Saratoga. Both Carleton and Howe resigned after the 1777 campaign. Sony PCG-4121EL Battery
Saratoga campaign
Main article: Saratoga campaign
The first of the 1777 campaigns was an expedition from Quebec led by General John Burgoyne. The goal was to seize the Lake Champlain and Hudson River corridor, effectively isolating New England from the rest of the American colonies. Sony PCG-4121FL Battery
Sony PCG-41211L Battery Burgoyne's invasion had two components: he would lead about 8,000 men along Lake Champlain towards Albany, New York, while a second column of about 2,000 men, led by Barry St. Leger, would move down the Mohawk River Valley and link up with Burgoyne in Albany.[62]
Burgoyne set off in June, and recaptured Fort Ticonderoga in early July. Thereafter, his march was slowed by the Americans who literally knocked down trees in his path, and by his army's extensive baggage train.
Sony SVS151C2DL Battery A detachment sent out to seize supplies was decisively defeated in the Battle of Bennington by American militia in August, depriving Burgoyne of nearly 1,000 men.
Meanwhile, St. Leger—more than half of his force Native Americans led by Sayenqueraghta—had laid siege to Fort Stanwix.
Sony SVS151C1GL Battery American militiamen and their Native American allies marched to relieve the siege but were ambushed and scattered at the Battle of Oriskany. When a second relief expedition approached, this time led by Benedict Arnold, St. Leger's Indian support abandoned him, forcing him to break off the siege and return to Quebec. Sony SVS13AB1GL Battery
Burgoyne's army had been reduced to about 6,000 men by the loss at Bennington and the need to garrison Ticonderoga, and he was running short on supplies.[63] Despite these setbacks, he determined to push on towards Albany. An American army of 8,000 men, commanded by General Horatio Gates,
Sony SVS131E1DL Battery had entrenched about 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne tried to outflank the Americans but was checked at the first battle of Saratoga in September. Burgoyne's situation was desperate, but he now hoped that help from Howe's army in New York City might be on the way. Sony SVS131C1DL Battery
Sony SVS131C24L BatteryIt was not: Howe had instead sailed away on his expedition to capture Philadelphia. American militiamen flocked to Gates' army, swelling his force to 11,000 by the beginning of October. After being badly beaten at the second battle of Saratoga, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17. Sony SVS13AA11L Battery
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Saratoga was the turning point of the war. Revolutionary confidence and determination, suffering from Howe's successful occupation of Philadelphia, was renewed. What is more important, the victory encouraged France to make an open alliance with the Americans, Sony SVS131A11L Battery
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after two years of semi-secret support. For the British, the war had now become much more complicated.[64]
Philadelphia campaign
Main article: Philadelphia campaign
Having secured New York City in 1776, General Howe concentrated on capturing Philadelphia, the seat of the Revolutionary government, in 1777. He moved slowly, landing 15,000 troops in late August at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay. Sony SVS151A11L Battery
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Sony SVS151C2DL BatteryWashington positioned his 11,000 men between Howe and Philadelphia but was driven back at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The Continental Congress again abandoned Philadelphia, and on September 26, Howe finally outmaneuvered Washington and marched into the city unopposed. Sony SVS151G1GL Battery
Washington unsuccessfully attacked the British encampment in nearby Germantown in early October and then retreated to watch and wait.
After repelling a British attack at White Marsh, Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in December 1777, about 20 miles (32 km) from Philadelphia, where they stayed for the next six months. Over the winter, 2,500 men (out of 10,000) Sony PCG-4121DL Battery
Sony SVS151C1GL Battery died from disease and exposure. The next spring, however, the army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a training program supervised by Baron von Steuben, who introduced the most modern Prussian methods of organization and tactics.[citation needed] Sony PCG-4121EL Battery
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General Clinton replaced Howe as British commander-in-chief. French entry into the war had changed British strategy, and Clinton abandoned Philadelphia to reinforce New York City, now vulnerable to French naval power. Washington shadowed Clinton on his withdrawal and forced a strategic victory at the battle at Monmouth on June 28, 1778, Sony PCG-4121FL Battery
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Sony SVS131E1DL Battery the last major battle in the north. Clinton's army went to New York City in July, arriving just before a French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing arrived off the American coast. Washington's army returned to White Plains, New York, north of the city. Although both armies were back where they had been two years earlier, the nature of the war had now changed.[65]
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An international war, 1778–1783
Main articles: France in the American Revolutionary War and Spain in the American Revolutionary War
The French (left) and British (right) lines at the Battle of the Chesapeake
From 1776 France had informally been involved in the American Revolutionary War, with French admiral Latouche Tréville having provided supplies, ammunition and guns from France to the United States after Thomas Jefferson had encouraged a French alliance, Sony PCG-41211L Battery
Sony SVS131C1DL Battery and guns such as de Valliere type were used, playing an important role in such battles as the Battle of Saratoga.[66] George Washington wrote about the French supplies and guns in a letter to General Heath on May 2, 1777. Sony PCG-41212L Battery
Sony SVS13AB1GL Battery After learning of the American victory at Saratoga, France signed the Treaty of Alliance with the United States on February 6, 1778, formalizing the Franco-American alliance negotiated by Benjamin Franklin.
French troops storming Redoubt #9 during the Siege of Yorktown
In 1776 the Count of Aranda met in representation of Spain with the first U.S. Commission composed by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee.[6Sony PCG-41214L Battery
Sony PCG-41414L Battery7] The Continental Congress had charged the commissioners to travel to Europe and forge alliances with other European powers that could help break the British naval blockade along the North American coast. Sony PCG-41215L Battery
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Aranda invited the commission to his house in Paris, where he was acting as Spanish ambassador and he became an active supporter of the struggle of the fledgling Colonies, recommending an early and open Spanish commitment to the Colonies. However he was overruled by José Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca who opted for a more discreet approach. Sony PCG-41217L Battery
Sony PCG-41413L BatteryThe Spanish position was later summarized by the Spanish Ambassador to the French Court, Jerónimo Grimaldi, in a letter to Arthur Lee who was in Madrid trying to persuade the Spanish government to declare an open alliance. Grimaldi told Lee that "You have considered your own situation, Sony PCG-41412L Batteryand not ours. The moment is not yet come for us. The war with Portugal — France being unprepared, and our treasure ships from South America not being arrived — makes it improper for us to declare immediately."[6Sony PCG-41218L Battery
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8] Meanwhile, Grimaldi reassured Lee, stores of clothing and powder were deposited at New Orleans and Havana for the Americans, and further shipments of blankets were being collected at Bilbao. Sony PCG-61A11L Battery
Spain finally entered officially the war in June 1779, thus implementing the Treaty of Aranjuez, although the Spanish government had been providing assistance to the revolutionaries since the very beginning of the war. So too had the Dutch Republic, which was formally brought into the war at the end of 1780.[69] Sony PCG-61A13L Battery
"Punishing" the Americans
Oil on canvas painting depicting the Wyoming Massacre, July 3, 1778
In London King George III gave up all hope of subduing America by more armies, while Britain had a European war to fight. "It was a joke," he said, "to think of keeping Pennsylvania."
Sony SVE171G112 BatteryThere was no hope of recovering New England. But the King was still determined "never to acknowledge the independence of the Americans, and to punish their contumacy by the indefinite prolongation of a war which promised to be eternal."[70] His plan was to keep the 30,000 men garrisoned in New York, Sony PCG-61A14L Battery
Sony SVE171E12L BatteryRhode Island, Quebec, and Florida; other forces would attack the French and Spanish in the West Indies. To punish the Americans the King planned to destroy their coasting-trade, bombard their ports; sack and burn towns along the coast (as Benedict Arnold did to New London, Connecticut in 1781), Sony PCG-71C11L Battery
Sony SVE171E11L Battery and turn loose the Native Americans to attack civilians in frontier settlements. These operations, the King felt, would inspire the Loyalists; would splinter the Congress; and "would keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, Sony PCG-71C12L Battery
Sony SVE171C11L Batterydiscontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse" and they would beg to return to his authority.[71] The plan meant destruction for the Loyalists and loyal Native Americans, an indefinite prolongation of a costly war, and the risk of disaster as the French and Spanish assembled an armada to invade the British Isles. Sony PCG-61714L Battery
Sony SVE151J11L BatteryThe British planned to re-subjugate the rebellious colonies after dealing with the Americans' European allies.
Widening of the naval war
When the war began, the British had overwhelming naval superiority over the American colonists. The Royal Navy had over 100 ships of the line and many frigates and smaller craft, although this fleet was old and in poor condition, a situation which would be blamed on Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Sony PCG-61813L Battery
Sony SVE151G13L BatteryDuring the first three years of the war, the Royal Navy was primarily used to transport troops for land operations and to protect commercial shipping. The American colonists had no ships of the line, and relied extensively on privateering to harass British shipping. The privateers caused worry disproportionate to their material success, Sony PCG-61911L Battery
Sony SVE151G11L Battery although those operating out of French channel ports before and after France joined the war caused significant embarrassment to the Royal Navy and inflamed Anglo-French relations. About 55,000 American sailors served aboard the privateers during the war.[72] The American privateers had almost 1,700 ships, and they captured 2,283 enemy ships.[
Sony SVE151E11L Battery73] The Continental Congress authorized the creation of a small Continental Navy in October 1775, which was primarily used for commerce raiding. John Paul Jones became the first great American naval hero, capturing HMS Drake on April 24, 1778, the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters.[74]
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley
France's formal entry into the war meant that British naval superiority was now contested. The Franco-American alliance began poorly, however, with failed operations at Rhode Island in 1778 and Savannah, Georgia, in 1779. Sony PCG-71614L Battery
Sony SVE141L11L Battery Part of the problem was that France and the United States had different military priorities: France hoped to capture British possessions in the West Indies before helping to secure American independence. Sony PCG-71811L Battery
Sony SVE141C11L BatteryWhile French financial assistance to the American war effort was already of critical importance, French military aid to the Americans would not show positive results until the arrival in July 1780 of a large force of soldiers led by the Comte de Rochambeau. Sony PCG-71713L Battery
Spain entered the war as a French ally with the goal of recapturing Gibraltar and Minorca, which it had been captured by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704. Gibraltar was besieged for more than three years, but the British garrison stubbornly resisted and was resupplied twice: once after Admiral Rodney's victory over Juan de Lángara in the 1780 "Moonlight Battle",Sony PCG-71911L Battery
Sony PCG-91311L Battery and again after Admiral Richard Howe fought Luis de Córdova y Córdova to a draw in the Battle of Cape Spartel. Further Franco-Spanish efforts to capture Gibraltar were unsuccessful. One notable success took place on February 5, 1782, Sony PCG-71912L Battery
Sony PCG-91211L Battery when Spanish and French forces captured Minorca, which Spain retained after the war. Ambitious plans for an invasion of Great Britain in 1779 had to be abandoned.
West Indies and Gulf Coast
The Battle of the Saintes fought on 12 April 1782 near Guadeloupe.
Bernardo de Gálvez
Main article: Caribbean theater of the American Revolutionary War
There was much action in the West Indies, especially in the Lesser Antilles. Although France lost St. Lucia early in the war, its navy dominated the West Indies, capturing Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Montserrat,
Tobago, St. Kitts and the Turks and Caicos between 1778 and 1782. Dutch possessions in the West Indies and South America were captured by Britain but later recaptured by France and restored to the Dutch Republic. At the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782, Sony PCG-71111L Battery
Sony VPCF114FX batterya victory by Rodney's fleet over the French Admiral de Grasse frustrated the hopes of France and Spain to take Jamaica and other colonies from the British.[citation needed]
On the Gulf Coast, Count Bernardo de Gálvez, Sony PCG-81112L Battery
Sony VPCF11PFX batterythe Spanish governor of Louisiana, quickly removed the British from their outposts on the lower Mississippi River in 1779 in actions at Manchac and Baton Rouge in British West Florida. Gálvez then captured Mobile in 1780 and stormed and captured the British citadel and capital of Pensacola in 1781. Sony PCG-81113L Battery
Sony VPCF11HGX batteryOn May 8, 1782, Gálvez captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas; it was ceded by Spain after the Treaty of Paris and simultaneously recovered by British Loyalists in 1783. Gálvez' actions led to the Spanish acquisition of East and West Florida in the peace settlement, Sony PCG-81114L Battery
Sony VPCF11BFX batterydenied the British the opportunity of encircling the American rebels from the south, and kept open a vital conduit for supplies to the American frontier. The Continental Congress cited Gálvez in 1785 for his aid during the revolution and George Washington took him to his right during the first parade of July 4.[75]
Norteamerica, 1792, Jaillot-Elwe, Florida's borders after Bernardo Gálvez's military actions.
Central America was also subject to conflict between Britain and Spain, as Britain sought to expand its informal trading influence beyond coastal logging and fishing communities in present-day Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Expeditions against San Fernando de Omoa in 1779 Sony PCG-81214L Battery
Sony VPCF1190X batteryand San Juan in 1780 (the latter famously led by a young Horatio Nelson) met with only temporary success before being abandoned due to disease. The Spanish colonial leaders, in turn, could not completely eliminate British influences along the Mosquito Coast. Except for the French acquisition of Tobago, sovereignty in the West Indies was returned to the status quo ante bellum in the peace of 1783. Sony PCG-81311L Battery
India and the Netherlands
[show] v t e
American
Revolutionary War:
East Indies
When word reached India in 1778 that France had entered the war, the British East India Company moved quickly to capture French colonial outposts there, capturing Pondicherry after two months of siege.[7
6] The capture of the French-controlled port of Mahé on India's west coast motivated Mysore's ruler, Hyder Ali (who was already upset at other British actions, and benefited from trade through the port), to open the Second Anglo-Mysore War in 1780. Sony PCG-81313L Battery
Sony VPCF11NFX battery Ali, and later his son Tipu Sultan, almost drove the British from southern India but was frustrated by weak French support, and the war ended status quo ante bellum with the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore. Sony PCG-81314L Battery
Sony VPCF11GGX batteryFrench opposition was led in 1782 and 1783 by Admiral the Baillie de Suffren, who recaptured Trincomalee from the British and fought five celebrated, but largely inconclusive, naval engagements against British Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.[77] France's Indian colonies were returned after the war.
Suffren meeting with ally Hyder Ali in 1783. J.B. Morret engraving, 1789
The Dutch Republic, nominally neutral, had been trading with the Americans, exchanging Dutch arms and munitions for American colonial wares (in contravention of the British Navigation Acts), primarily through activity based in St. Eustatius, Sony PCG-81411L Battery
Sony VPCF116FX batterybefore the French formally entered the war.[78] The British considered this trade to include contraband military supplies and had attempted to stop it, at first diplomatically by appealing to previous treaty obligations, Sony VPCF115FM battery
Sony VPCF11CGX battery interpretation of whose terms the two nations disagreed on, and then by searching and seizing Dutch merchant ships. The situation escalated when the British seized a Dutch merchant convoy sailing under Dutch naval escort in December 1779, prompting the Dutch to join the League of Armed Neutrality. Britain responded to this decision by declaring war on the Dutch in December 1780,
Sony VPCF11KFX batterysparking the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.[79] The war was a military and economic disaster for the Dutch Republic. Paralyzed by internal political divisions, it could not respond effectively to British blockades of its coast and the capture of many of its colonies. In the 1784 peace treaty between the two nations, Sony VPCF11JFX battery
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Sony VPCF112FX battery the Dutch lost the Indian port of Negapatam and were forced to make trade concessions.[80] The Dutch Republic signed a friendship and trade agreement with the United States in 1782, becoming the second country (after France) to formally recognize the United States.[81]
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Southern theater
Main article: Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War
During the first three years of the American Revolutionary War, the primary military encounters were in the north, although some attempts to organize Loyalists were defeated, a British attempt at Charleston,
Sony VPCF11LFX battery South Carolina failed, and a variety of efforts to attack British forces in East Florida failed. After French entry into the war, the British turned their attention to the southern colonies, where they hoped to regain control by recruiting large numbers of Loyalists.
Sony VPCF113FX battery This southern strategy also had the advantage of keeping the Royal Navy closer to the Caribbean, where the British needed to defend economically important possessions against the French and Spanish.[82]
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The British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782.
On December 29, 1778, an expeditionary corps from Clinton's army in New York captured Savannah, Georgia. An attempt by French and American forces to retake Savannah failed on October 9, 1779. Sony PCG-71111L Battery
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Sony VPCF114FX batteryClinton then besieged Charleston, capturing it and most of the southern Continental Army on May 12, 1780. With relatively few casualties, Clinton had seized the South's biggest city and seaport, providing a base for further conquest.[83] Sony PCG-81112L Battery
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The remnants of the southern Continental Army began to withdraw to North Carolina but were pursued by Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who defeated them at the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780. With these events, organized American military activity in the region collapsed, though the war was carried on by partisans such as Francis Marion. Sony PCG-81214L Battery
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Cornwallis took over British operations, while Horatio Gates arrived to command the American effort. On August 16, 1780, Gates was defeated at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina, setting the stage for Cornwallis to invade North Carolina.[84] Sony PCG-81312L Battery
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Cornwallis' victories quickly turned, however. One wing of his army was utterly defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, and Tarleton was decisively defeated by Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. Sony PCG-81411L Battery
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Sony VPCF11HGX battery General Nathanael Greene, who replaced General Gates, proceeded to wear down the British in a series of battles, each of them tactically a victory for the British but giving no strategic advantage to the victors. Greene summed up his approach in a motto that would become famous: "We fight, get beat, Sony VPCF11JFX battery
Sony VPCF11BFX batteryrise, and fight again." By March, Greene's army had grown to the point where he felt that he could face Cornwallis directly. In the key Battle of Guilford Court House, Cornwallis defeated Greene, but at tremendous cost, and without breaking Greene's army. He retreated to Wilmington, Sony VPCF11MFX battery
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Sony VPCF11AFX batteryNorth Carolina for resupply and reinforcement, after which he moved north into Virginia, leaving the Carolinas and Georgia open to Greene. The British strategy that assumed thousands of Loyalists would flock to the Crown was a failure—far fewer joined up than expected because the Patriots put heavy pressure on Loyalists and their families would become hostages.[85] Sony VPCF11FGX battery
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In January 1781, a British force under Benedict Arnold landed in Virginia, and began moving through the Virginia countryside, destroying supply depots, mills, and other economic targets. In February, General Washington dispatched General Lafayette to counter Arnold, later also sending General Anthony Wayne. Sony VPCF113FX battery
Sony VPCF11NFX battery Arnold was reinforced with additional troops from New York in March, and his army was joined with that of Cornwallis in May. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. Sony VPCF11LFX battery
Sony VPCF11GGX battery Cornwallis could not trap Lafayette, and upon his arrival at Williamsburg in June, received orders from General Clinton to establish a fortified naval base in Virginia. Following these orders, he fortified Yorktown, and, shadowed by Lafayette, awaited the arrival of the Royal Navy.[86] Sony VPCF11DGX battery
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Northern and Western frontier
Further information: Western theater of the American Revolutionary War
George Rogers Clark's 180 mile (290 km) winter march led to the capture of General Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec
West of the Appalachian Mountains and along the border with Quebec, the American Revolutionary War was an "Indian War". Sony VPCF117FX battery
Sony VPCF116FX batteryMost Native Americans supported the British. Like the Iroquois Confederacy, tribes such as the Shawnee split into factions, and the Chickamauga split off from the rest of the Cherokee over differences regarding peace with the Americans. The British supplied their native allies with muskets,
Sony VPCF11CGX batterygunpowder and advice, while Loyalists led raids against civilian settlements, especially in New York, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Joint Iroquois-Loyalist attacks in the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and at Cherry Valley in New York in 1778 provoked Washington to send the Sullivan Expedition into western New York during the summer of 1779. Sony VPCF112FX battery
Sony VPCF11KFX battery There was little fighting as Sullivan systematically destroyed the Indians' winter food supplies, forcing them to flee permanently to British bases in Quebec and the Niagara Falls area.[87] Sony SVS131C24L Battery
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In the Ohio Country and the Illinois Country, the Virginia frontiersman George Rogers Clark attempted to neutralize British influence among the Ohio tribes by capturing the outposts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia and Vincennes in the summer of 1778, Sony SVS131E1DL Battery
Sony SVE171E12L Battery at which he succeeded. When General Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, retook Vincennes, Clark returned in a surprise march in February 1779 and captured Hamilton.[88] Sony SVS131G1DL Battery
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In March 1782, Pennsylvania militiamen killed about a hundred neutral Native Americans in the Gnadenhütten massacre. In the last major encounters of the war, a force of 200 Kentucky militia was defeated at the Battle of Blue Licks in August 1782. Sony SVS151C2DL Battery
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Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis
Main article: Siege of Yorktown
Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797)
The northern, southern, and naval theaters of the war converged in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis, having been ordered to occupy a fortified position that could be resupplied (and evacuated, if necessary) by sea, had settled in Yorktown, Sony PCG-61A13L Battery
Sony SVE171C11L Battery on the York River, which was navigable by seagoing vessels. Aware that the arrival of the French fleet from The West Indies would give the allies control of the Chesapeake, Washington began moving the American and French forces south toward Virginia in August. In early September, Sony PCG-61A14L Battery
Sony SVE151J11L BatteryFrench naval forces defeated a British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, cutting off Cornwallis' escape. When Washington arrived outside Yorktown, the combined Franco-American force of 18,900 men began besieging Cornwallis in early October. For several days, Sony PCG-71C11L Battery
Sony SVE151G13L Battery the French and Americans bombarded the British defenses, and then began taking the outer positions. Cornwallis decided his position was becoming untenable, and he surrendered his entire army of over 8,000 men on October 19, 1781.[89] Sony PCG-71C12L Battery
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With the surrender at Yorktown, King George lost control of Parliament to the peace party, and there were no further major military activities in North America. The British had 30,000 garrison troops occupying New York City, Charleston, and Savannah.[90Sony PCG-61813L Battery
Sony SVE141L11L Battery] The war continued elsewhere, including the siege of Gibraltar and naval operations in the East and West Indies, until peace was agreed in 1783. Sony PCG-61714L Battery
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Treaty of Paris
Main article: Treaty of Paris (1783)
In London, as political support for the war plummeted after Yorktown, British Prime Minister Lord North resigned in March 1782. In April 1782, the Commons voted to end the war in America. Preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris at the end of November, 1782; the formal end of the war did not occur until the Treaty of Paris (for the U.S.) Sony PCG-61911L Battery
Sony SVE141D11L Battery and the Treaties of Versailles (for the other Allies) were signed on September 3, 1783. The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783, and the United States Congress of the Confederation ratified the Paris treaty on January 14, 1784.[91] Sony PCG-61913L Battery
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Britain negotiated the Paris peace treaty without consulting her Native American allies and ceded all Native American territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States. Full of resentment, Native Americans reluctantly confirmed these land cessions with the United States in a series of treaties, Sony PCG-71614L Battery
Sony PCG-91311L Batterybut the fighting would be renewed in conflicts along the frontier in the coming years, the largest being the Northwest Indian War.[92] The British would continue to support the Indians against the new American nation especially when hostilities resumed 29 years later in the War of 1812. Sony PCG-71713L Battery
The United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. The other Allies had mixed-to-poor results. France made some gains over its nemesis, Great Britain, but its material gains were minimal and its financial losses huge. Sony PCG-71811L Battery
It was already in financial trouble and its borrowing to pay for the war used up all its credit and created the financial disasters that marked the 1780s. Historians link those disasters to the coming of the French Revolution. Sony PCG-71911L Battery
Sony PCG-91211L BatteryThe Dutch clearly lost on all points. The Spanish had a mixed result; they did not achieve their primary war goal (recovery of Gibraltar), but they did gain territory. However in the long run, as the case of Florida shows, the new territory was of little or no value.[14] Sony PCG-71912L Battery
Advantages and disadvantages of the opposing sides
The Americans
The Americans began the war with significant disadvantages compared to the British. They had no national government, no national army or navy, no financial system, no banks, no established credit, and no functioning government departments, Sony PCG-71913L Battery
Sony PCG-71914L Battery such as a treasury. The Congress tried to handle administrative affairs through legislative committees, which proved inefficient. In peacetime the colonies relied heavily on ocean shipping, but that was now shut down by the British blockade. Sony PCG-61713L Battery
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The Americans had a large, relatively prosperous population (when compared to other colonies) that depended not on imports but on local production for food and most supplies, something the British could not sufficiently rely on. They were on their home ground, had a smoothly functioning, well organized system of local and state governments, newspapers and printers, and internal lines of communications. Sony PCG-91111L Battery
Sony PCG-61316L BatteryThey had a long-established system of local militia, previously used to combat the French and Native Americans, with companies and an officer corps that could form the basis of local militias, and provide a training ground for the national army that the Congress set up.[
Sony PCG-61315L Battery93] Fighting on their home ground, the Americans were also much more acclimatised to the climate than the British and their allies.[citation needed]
At the onset of the war, the Americans had no major international allies. Battles such as the Battle of Bennington, Battles of Saratoga and even defeats such as the Battle of Germantown[94] proved decisive in gaining the attention and support of powerful European nations such as France and Spain, who moved from covertly supplying the Americans with weapons and supplies,
Sony PCG-61312L Batteryto overtly supporting them militarily, moving the war to a global stage.[95]
Upon the creation of the Continental Army to combat the British forces and their allies in North America, the army suffered significantly from a lack of an effective training regime, and largely inexperienced officers. The inexperience of its officers was compensated for in part by its senior officers; officers such as George Washington, Sony PCG-91112L Battery
Sony PCG-61311L BatteryHoratio Gates, Charles Lee, Richard Montgomery and Francis Marion all had military experience with the British Army during the French and Indian conflict. The Americans solved their training dilemma during their stint in Winter Quarters at Valley Forge, where they were relentlessly drilled and trained by Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Sony PCG-71312L Battery
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Sony PCG-61215L Battery a veteran of the famed Prussian General Staff. He taught the Continental Army the essentials of military discipline, drills, tactics and strategy, and wrote the Revolutionary War Drill Manual, which was used to train American troops up until the War of 1812.[9
Sony PCG-61211L Battery6] When the Army emerged from Valley Forge, they proved their ability to equally match the British troops in battle when they fought a successful strategic action at the Battle of Monmouth. Sony PCG-71218L Battery
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The British
The British were beset with major difficulties in fighting the war. Compared to the Americans, the British had no major allies, and only had troops provided by small German states to bolster the strength of the British Army in North America. At the onset of the war, the British Army was less than 48,000 strong worldwide, Sony PCG-71217L Battery
Sony PCG-71215L Batteryand suffered from a lack of effective recruiting. By 1778, the army was pardoning criminals for military service and had extended the age range for service to be from 16 to 50.[97][98
Sony PCG-71212L Battery] Although its officer and non-commissioned officer corps were relatively professional and experienced,[9Sony PCG-71313L Battery
Sony PCG-71211L Battery9] this professionalism was diluted because wealthy individuals lacking military experience could purchase commissions and promotions. As a consequence, inexperienced officers sometimes found their way into positions of high responsibility.[97][100]
Distance was also a major problem for the British. Although the Royal Navy was the largest and most experienced in the world at the time, Sony PCG-71315L Battery
Sony PCG-71318L Battery it sometimes took months for troops to reach North America, and orders were often out of date because the military situation on the ground had changed by the time they arrived.[101] Additionally, the British had logistical problems whenever they operated away from the coast; Sony PCG-71316L Battery
Sony PCG-71317L Battery they were vulnerable to guerilla attacks on their supply chains whenever they went far inland. On a logistical note, the flints used in British weapons also put them at a disadvantage on the battlefield. British flints could only fire for 6 rounds before requiring re-sharpening, while American flints could fire 60 rounds before resharpening. Sony PCG-9Z1L Battery
A common expression ran among the redcoats; which was that "Yankee flint was as good as a glass of grog".[100] Although discipline was harsh in the army, the redcoats had little self-discipline; gambling, looting, promiscuity and heavy drinking were common problems, among all ranks alike.[10Sony PCG-9Z2L Battery
Sony PCG-8151L Battery0] The army suffered from mediocre organisation in terms of logistics, food supplies were often bad and the sparse land of America offered little in the way of finding reliable substitutes.[102]
Map of campaigns in the Revolutionary War
Suppressing a rebellion in America also posed other problems. At the onset of the war, the British had around 8,000 men stationed in North America, however these were required to cover an area that stretched from northern Canada to Florida, Sony PCG-7142L Battery
Sony PCG-8141L Batterya distance of almost 2,000 miles (3,200 km).[100] As the colonies had not been united before the war, there was no central area of strategic importance. In European conflicts, the capture of a capital city often meant the end of the war; however in America, when the British seized key cities such as New York, Sony PCG-7151L Battery
Sony PCG-813L BatteryPhiladelphia or Boston—or Washington D.C. in the War of 1812 thirty years later—the war continued unabated. Furthermore, despite the fact that at its height, the British fielded some 56,000 men in the colonies exclusive of mercenaries and militia,[98Sony PCG-7152L Battery
Sony PCG-7185L Battery] they lacked the sufficient numbers to both defeat the Americans on the battlefield and simultaneously occupy the captured areas. It was not unusual for the Americans to suffer a string of defeats, only to have the British retreat because they could not occupy the captured land. Despite strong Loyalist support, Sony PCG-7153L Battery
Sony PCG-7184L Battery these troops were often displaced by Patriot militia when British regulars were not in the area, demonstrated at battles such as Kings Mountain. The manpower shortage became critical when France, Spain and the Netherlands entered the war, as the British were spread across several theatres worldwide, Sony PCG-7154L Battery
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Sony PCG-7183L Batterywhen before they were concentrated only in America.[103] The need to maintain Loyalist allegiance also provided setbacks, as the British could not use the harsh methods of suppressing rebellion they had used in Ireland and Scotland. Despite these limitations, neutral colonists were often driven into the ranks of the Revolutionaries due to the conflict.[104]
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Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781
Costs of the war
Casualties
Americans & Allies
The total loss of life throughout the war is largely unknown. As was typical in the wars of the era, disease claimed far more lives than battle. Between 1775 and 1782 a smallpox epidemic swept across North America, killing more than 130,000 people. Sony PCG-7162L Battery
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Sony PCG-7181L Battery Historian Joseph Ellis suggests that Washington's decision to have his troops inoculated against the smallpox epidemic was one of his most important decisions.[105]
More than 25,000 American Revolutionaries died during active military service. About 8,000 of these deaths were in battle; the other 17,000 recorded deaths were from disease, Sony PCG-7171L Battery
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Sony PCG-7173L Battery including about 8,000–12,000 who died of starvation or disease brought on by deplorable conditions while prisoners of war,[106] most in rotting British prison ships in New York. This tally of deaths from disease is undoubtedly too low, however; 2,500 Americans died while encamped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–78 alone. Dell Latitude E5500 Battery
The number of Revolutionaries seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been estimated from 8,500 to 25,000. The total American military casualty figure was therefore as high as 50,000.[107] Dell Latitude E5400 Battery
British & Allies
About 171,000 sailors served in the Royal Navy during the war; about a quarter had been pressed into service. About 1,240 were killed in battle, while 18,500 died from disease. Dell Latitude E5410 Battery
Dell Latitude E6230 BatteryThe greatest killer was scurvy, a disease which had been shown to be preventable by issuing lemon or lime juice to sailors but was not taken seriously. Scurvy would be eradicated in the Royal Navy in 1790s by the chairman of the Navy's Sick and Hurt Board, Gilbert Blane. About 42,000 British sailors deserted during the war.[108] Dell Latitude E5510 Battery
Approximately 1,200 Germans were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accident. About 16,000 of the remaining German troops returned home, but roughly 5,500 remained in the United States after the war for various reasons, many eventually becoming American citizens. No reliable statistics exist for the number of casualties among other groups, including Loyalists, British regulars, Native Americans, French and Spanish troops, and civilians. Dell latitude e6400 Battery
Financial costs
Main article: Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War
The British spent about £80 million and ended with a national debt of £250 million, which it easily financed at about £9.5 million a year in interest. The French spent 1.3 billion livres (about £56 million). Their total national debt was £187 million, Dell Latitude E6400 ATG Battery
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Dell Latitude E6520 Battery which they could not easily finance; over half the French national revenue went to debt service in the 1780s. The debt crisis became a major enabling factor of the French Revolution as the government could not raise taxes without public approval.[109] Dell Latitude E6410 Battery
Dell Latitude E6420 BatteryThe United States spent $37 million at the national level plus $114 million by the states. This was mostly covered by loans from France and the Netherlands, loans from Americans, and issuance of an increasing amount of paper money (which became "not worth a continental"). The U.S. finally solved its debt and currency problems in the 1790s when Alexander Hamilton spearheaded the establishment of the First Bank of the United States.[110]