Portal:American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War Portal

Clockwise from top left: Battle of Bunker Hill, Death of Montgomery at Quebec, Battle of Cowpens, "Moonlight Battle"

The American Revolutionary War began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies on the North American continent, and ended in a global war between several European great powers. The war was the culmination of the political American Revolution and intellectual American Enlightenment, whereby the colonists rejected the right of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them without representation. In 1775, revolutionaries gained control of each of the thirteen colonial governments, set up an alliance called the Second Continental Congress, and formed a Continental Army. Petitions to the king to intervene with the parliament on their behalf resulted in Congress being declared traitors and the states in rebellion the following year. The Americans responded by formally declaring their independence as a new nation, the United States of America, claiming sovereignty and rejecting any allegiance to the British monarchy. In 1777 the Continentals captured a British army, leading to France entering the war on the side of the Americans in early 1778, and evening the military strength with Britain. Spain and the Dutch Republic – French allies – also went to war with Britain over the next two years.

Throughout the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture and occupy coastal cities, but control of the countryside (where 90% of the population lived) largely eluded them due to their relatively small land army. French involvement proved decisive, with a French naval victory in the Chesapeake leading to the surrender of a second British army at Yorktown in 1781. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

More about American Revolutionary War...

Selected event

An 1875 print depicting Ethan Allen demanding the fort's surrender

The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga was one of the earliest offensive military engagements by the American colonists in the American Revolutionary War. On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led 83 volunteer militiamen in a surprise attack on Fort Ticonderoga. The fort was held by a small garrison, just 48 men under the command of William Delaplace, which surrendered without firing a shot. The Americans followed up their success by also capturing nearby Fort Crown Point. Arnold then led 50 men on a raid on Fort Saint-Jean, north of Lake Champlain, in which they captured the only large warship on the lake.

This action made communications between parts of the British colonial and military establishment more difficult, and set the stage for the colonists' invasion of Quebec in September 1775.

General images -

The following are images from various __-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1New borders drawn by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (from American Revolution)
Image 2Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre (from American Revolution)
Image 3A 1774 illustration from The London Magazine depicts Prime Minister Lord North, author of the Boston Port Act, forcing the Intolerable Acts down the throat of America, whose arms are restrained by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield with a tattered "Boston Petition" trampled on the ground beside her. Lord Sandwich pins down her feet and peers up her robes; behind them, Mother Britannia weeps while France and Spain look on. (from American Revolution)
Image 4Notice of the Stamp Act 1765 in a colonial newspaper (from American Revolution)
Image 5Continental ship Columbus with captured British brig Lord Lifford, 1776 (from Continental Navy)
Image 6Eastern North America in 1775, including the Province of Quebec, the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic Coast, and the Indian Reserve as defined by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The border between the red and pink areas represents the 1763 Proclamation line, and the orange area represents Spanish colonial claims. (from American Revolution)
Image 7Major-general Artemas Ward, one of Washington's key officers (from Continental Army)
Image 8The surrender of General Cornwallis's army at Yorktown (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 9John Paul Jones, the Continental Navy's first seaman to be appointed the rank of 1st Lieutenant. Oil painting by George Bagby Matthews, c. 1890. (from Continental Navy)
Image 10James Monroe, the last U.S. president to fight in the Revolutionary War, was a Continental Army colonel (from Continental Army)
Image 11British regulars and Canadian militia repulse American assault on Quebec. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 12British bayonet charges were effective; events at Princeton were highlighted in this Trumbull painting. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 13A five dollar banknote issued by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 (from American Revolution)
Image 14
Flogging punished men in both armies, navies; here a Royal warship
(from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 15George Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775 by the Second Continental Congress. (from Continental Army)
Image 16British Loyalists fleeing to British Canada as depicted in this early 20th century drawing (from American Revolution)
Image 17Sir Henry Clinton, British Commander, 1778–1782 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 18The British fleet amassed off Staten Island in New York Harbor in the summer of 1776, as depicted in Harper's Magazine in 1876 (from American Revolution)
Image 19Press gang at work in British ports, from a British caricature of 1780 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 20Grenadier of the 40th Regiment of Foot in 1767 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 21The December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party, led by Samuel Adams and Sons of Liberty, has become a mainstay of American patriotic lore. (from American Revolution)
Image 22Samuel Adams points at the Massachusetts Charter, which he viewed as a constitution that protected the people's rights, in this c. 1772 portrait by John Singleton Copley. (from American Revolution)
Image 23Alliance at sail. (from Continental Navy)
Image 24Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury during the Presidency of George Washington (from American Revolution)
Image 25Continental Army Plaza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (from Continental Army)
Image 26Infantry of the Continental Army (from Continental Army)
Image 27The death of General Johann de Kalb at the Battle of Camden (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 28On June 9, 1772, the Sons of Liberty burned HMS Gaspee, a British customs schooner in Narragansett Bay. (from American Revolution)
Image 29The defeat of the floating batteries at the Great Siege of Gibraltar (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 30Robert Morris statue honoring American founding father and financier Robert Morris at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia (from American Revolution)
Image 31Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, published in January 1776 (from American Revolution)
Image 32Thayendanegea, a Mohawk military and political leader, was the most prominent indigenous leader opposing the Patriot forces. (from American Revolution)
Image 33British assault on Battle of Bunker Hill (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 34The Franco-American squadron closely engages the pair of British frigates on September 23, 1779. (from Continental Navy)
Image 35Mercy Otis Warren published poems and plays that attacked royal authority and urged colonists to resist British rule. (from American Revolution)
Image 36Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton commanded the British Legion in the Southern colonies. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 37Hessian troops hired out to the British by their German sovereigns (from American Revolution)
Image 38The 1781 siege of Yorktown ended with the surrender of a second British army, marking effective British defeat. (from American Revolution)
Image 39Abraham Whipple painting by Edward Savage (from Continental Navy)
Image 40John Adams took an active role in the formation of the navy and the drafting of suitable operational regulations. Painting by John Trumbull, c. 1792–93. (from Continental Navy)
Image 41A Lexington, Massachusetts memorial to Prince Estabrook, who was wounded in the Battle of Lexington and Concord and was the first Black casualty of the Revolutionary War (from American Revolution)
Image 421781 drawing of Continental Army soldiers from the Yorktown campaign showing a black infantryman on the far left from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, one of the regiments in the Continental Army with the largest number of black patriot soldiers. An estimated 4% of the Continental Army were black. (from Continental Army)
Image 43Treaty of Paris by Benjamin West portrays the American delegation about to sign the 1783 Treaty of Paris (John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, W.T. Franklin). The British delegation refused to pose and the painting was never completed. (from American Revolution)
Image 44Joseph Brant led Native Americans and Loyalists in the North. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 451778 drawing showing a Stockbridge Mohican Indian patriot soldier with the Stockbridge Militia in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, taken from Hessian officer Johann Von Ewald's war diary (from Continental Army)
Image 46Military Governors and Staff Officers in British North America and West Indies 1778 and 1784 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 47Patriots tarring and feathering Loyalist John Malcolm depicted in a 1774 painting (from American Revolution)
Image 48Join, or Die, a political cartoon attributed to Benjamin Franklin, was used to encourage the Thirteen Colonies to unite against British colonial rule. (from American Revolution)
Image 49The September 17, 1787 signing of the United States Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia depicted in Howard Chandler Christy's 1940 painting, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States (from American Revolution)
Image 50Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces 1778-1782 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 51A postage stamp, created at the time of the bicentennial, honors Salem Poor, who was an enslaved African American man who purchased his freedom, became a soldier, and rose to fame as a war hero during the Battle of Bunker Hill. (from American Revolution)
Image 52Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was a former Prussian Army officer who served as inspector general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is credited with teaching the Continental Army the essentials of military drill and discipline beginning at Valley Forge in 1778, considered a turning point for the Americans. (from American Revolution)
Image 53Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen commanded Hessian forces in North America. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 54King George III depicted in a 1781 portrait (from American Revolution)
Image 55An African American soldier (left) of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, widely regarded as the first Black battalion in U.S. military history (from American Revolution)
Image 56Sir William Howe, British Commander, 1775–1778 (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 57The official Navy officer uniform of 1776 had red lapels and a red waistcoat. The unofficial uniform of 1777, worn by many officers, had white lapels and a white waistcoat, and in addition non-regulation epaulets. From left to right: Lieutenant, Captain (with irregular red buttonhole on the collar), Midshipman, "Commodore" John Paul Jones (with two epaulets). (from Continental Navy)
Image 58Johannes Adam Simon Oertel's 1859 portrait Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C., depicting American patriots tearing down a statue of King George III in New York City on July 9, 1776, five days after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. (from American Revolution)
Image 59Washington crossing the Delaware on December 25–26, 1776, depicted in Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting (from American Revolution)
Image 60Continental frigates Hancock and Boston capturing British frigate Fox, June 7, 1777 (from Continental Navy)
Image 61The American Revolution was part of the first wave of the Atlantic Revolutions, an 18th and 19th century revolutionary wave in the Atlantic World. (from American Revolution)
Image 62Letter III of John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, December 1767 (from American Revolution)
Image 63The October 1777 surrender of General Burgoyne's army at Saratoga (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)
Image 64Washington's headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, which is still standing, is one of the centerpieces of Valley Forge National Historical Park. (from Continental Army)
Image 65In September 1777, fearing a British Army attack on the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, American patriots moved the Liberty Bell to this Allentown, Pennsylvania church, where the Liberty Bell was successfully hidden under the church's floor boards until the June 1778 British departure from Philadelphia. Today, inside the Zion United Church of Christ in Allentown, the Liberty Bell Museum commemorates the Liberty Bell's successful nine month hiding there. (from British Army during the American Revolutionary War)

Selected ships and units

Philadelphia on display at the National Museum of American History

Philadelphia was a gunboat (referred to in contemporary documents as a gundalow or gondola) of the Continental Navy. Manned by Continental Army soldiers, she was part of a fleet which, under the command of General Benedict Arnold, fought in the Battle of Valcour Island against a larger Royal Navy fleet on Lake Champlain in October 1776. Although many of the American boats in the battle were damaged in the October 11 battle, Philadelphia was one of the few that actually sank that day. In 1935 amateur military marine archaeologist Lorenzo Hagglund located her remains standing upright at the bottom of Lake Champlain, and had her raised. Bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution in 1961, Philadelphia and associated artifacts are part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.

Related portals

Selected picture

The moonlight Battle off Cape St Vincent, 16 January 1780 by Francis Holman, painted in 1780 shows the Santo Domingo exploding, with Rodney's flagship

Selected biography

Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 [O.S. January 3, 1740] – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War who first fought for the American Continental Army but switched sides to the British Empire in 1780. He distinguished himself early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery. His many successful actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, successful defensive and delaying tactics while losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to Major General), and the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that effectively ended his combat career for several years.

In spite of his success, Arnold was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other general officers took credit for his many accomplishments. Charges of corruption were brought by political adversaries, and Congress investigated his accounts, finding he owed it money after he had spent much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated, bitter, and strongly opposed to the new American alliance with France, Arnold decided to change sides in 1779. In July 1780, he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to surrender it to the British. Arnold's scheme was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Benedict Arnold escaped down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of General Washington, who was arriving the same day to inspect West Point and to meet and dine with Arnold.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, and led British forces at Blanford, Virginia, and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively came to an end with the Siege of Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he entered into mercantile business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick, but returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later.

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From the American Revolutionary War task force of the Military history WikiProject:

Attention needed: ...to referencing and citation • ...to coverage and accuracy • ...to structure • ...to grammar • ...to supporting materials
Popular pages: Full list
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Requested articles: Johann von Hanxleden • Claude-Anne de Rouvroy de Saint Simon • Juan Manuel Cagigal y Monserrat
Expansion needed: Quebec in the American Revolution; many existing "<State> in/during the American Revolution" articles • Hercules Mulligan
Images needed: 1780 Black Camp Rebellion • Albemarle Barracks • Battle of Lenud's Ferry • Battle of Wetzell's Mill • Carleton's Raid • Cortlandt Skinner • Daniel Waters (minuteman) • Fort Dayton • Fort Independence (Vermont) • HM galley Pigot • John Swift (general) • King's Royal Regiment of New York • Matthias Ogden • Samuel Holden Parsons • Volunteers of Ireland • Francis McLean (British Army officer)
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Citations needed: Battles in {{Campaignbox American Revolutionary War: Gulf Coast}} • Peter Francisco • Aaron Burr • Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis • Continental Army
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