American Revolutionary War

9/23/2019 American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia
American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
Clockwise: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the

Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Trenton, The Death of
General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of
Long Island, Battle of Guilford Court House
Date April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783

(8 years, 4 months and 15 days)
Ratification effective: May 12, 1784
(9 years and 23 days)
Location Eastern North America, Caribbean

Sea, Indian subcontinent, Africa, the
Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean
Result American-Allied victory:
Territorial
Great Britain cedes to the United
changes
States the area east of the
Mississippi River and south of the
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence
River
Great Britain cedes East Florida,
West Florida, and Menorca to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War 1/57
Spain
Great Britain cedes Tobago and
Senegal to France
Dutch Republic cedes
Negapatnam to Great Britain
Belligerents
Thirteen Colonies British Empire
(before 1776) Hanover[8][9]
United States
(after 1776) Germans:
Vermont Republic[1] Hesse-Kassel
French Empire[2][3] Hesse-Hanau
Spanish Empire[4] Waldeck
Brunswick
Co-belligerents: Ansbach
Anhalt-Zerbst
Dutch Republic[5]
Mysore[6]
American Indians:
American Indians:
Commanders and leaders

George Washington George III
Thomas Chittenden Lord North
Louis XVI Lord George Germain
Charles III
full list...
William V
Hyder Ali †
Tipu Sultan
full list...
Strength
United States: Great Britain:
Army & Militia: Army:
40,000 (average)[12] 48,000 (America peak)[21]
200,000 (total served)[13] 121,000 (global 1781)[22]
Navy: 7,500 (Gibraltar)[23]
5,000 sailors (peak 1779)[14] Navy:
53 frigates and sloops (total 94 ships-of-the-line (1782)[20]
served)[14] 104 frigates (1781)[24]
State Navies: 37 sloops (1781)[25]
106 ships (total served)[15] 171,000 sailors[26]
Privateers:
Loyalists:
55,000 sailors (total served)[16]
25,000 (total served)[27]
1,697 ships[17]
Allies: Hanoverians:
Army: 2,365 (total served)[28]
63,000 French and Spanish
Germans:
(Gibraltar)[18][19]
29,875 (total served)[29]
Navy:
146 ships-of-the-line (1782)[20] American Indian Allies:
American Indian Allies: 13,000[30]
Unknown
Casualties and losses

United States: Great Britain:
25,000–70,000 total dead[12][31] Army:
6,800 killed in battle 43,633 total dead[37]
17,000 died of disease[32] ~9,372 killed in battle[38]
27,000 died of disease[12][39]
France:
Navy:
at least 7,000 dead
1,243 killed in battle
(2,112 in the United States)[33]
18,500 died of disease (1776–
19 ships of the line (1,346
1780)[40]
guns) lost[34]
42,000 deserted[41]
30 frigates (988 guns) lost[34]
20 ships of the line (1,396
Spain: guns) lost[34]
5,000 dead[35] 70 frigates (1,978 guns) lost[34]
(124 in the American south)[36] 2,200 merchant ships (600 to

[34]
8 ships of the line (572 guns) American privateers) lost
lost[34] 75 privateering ships lost[34]
11 frigates (326 guns) lost[34]

Germans:
Netherlands: 7,774 total dead
500 killed[35] 1,800 killed in battle

4,888 deserted[12]
Total: 37,000–82,500+
Loyalists:
soldiers dead
7,000 total dead
1,700 killed in battle
5,300 died of disease
(estimated)[42]
Total: 78,200+ soldiers

dead
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence,[43] was
an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence in 1776 as the
United States of America, and then formed a military alliance with France in 1778.[N 1]
After 1765, growing constitutional and political differences strained the relationship between Great Britain and its
colonies. Patriot protests against taxation without representation followed the Stamp Act and escalated into boycotts,
which culminated in 1773 with the Sons of Liberty destroying a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor. Britain responded
by closing Boston Harbor and passing a series of punitive measures against Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts
colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, and they established a shadow government which wrested control of
the countryside from the Crown. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress (with the exception of Georgia) to
coordinate their resistance, establishing committees and conventions that effectively seized power.[44]
British attempts to disarm the Massachusetts militia in Concord led to open combat and a British defeat on April 19,
1775. Militia forces then besieged Boston, forcing a British evacuation in March 1776, and Congress appointed George
Washington to command the Continental Army. Concurrently, the Americans failed decisively in an attempt to invade
Quebec and raise insurrection against the British. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for
independence, issuing its declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe launched a British counter-offensive, capturing New
York City and leaving American morale at a low ebb. However, victories at Trenton and Princeton restored American
confidence. In 1777, the British launched an invasion from Quebec under John Burgoyne, intending to isolate the New
England Colonies. Instead of assisting this effort, Howe took his army on a separate campaign against Philadelphia,
and Burgoyne was decisively defeated at Saratoga in October 1777.
Burgoyne's defeat had drastic consequences. France formally allied with the Americans and entered the war in 1778,
and Spain joined the war the following year as an ally of France but not as an ally of the United States. In 1780, the
Kingdom of Mysore attacked the British in India, and tensions between Great Britain and the Netherlands erupted
into open war. In North America, the British mounted a "Southern strategy" led by Charles Cornwallis which hinged
upon a Loyalist uprising, but too few came forward. Cornwallis suffered reversals at King's Mountain and Cowpens.
He retreated to Yorktown, Virginia, intending an evacuation, but a decisive French naval victory deprived him of an
escape. A Franco-American army led by the Comte de Rochambeau and Washington then besieged Cornwallis' army
and, with no sign of relief, he surrendered in October 1781.
Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tories in Parliament, and the surrender gave them the upper hand. In
early 1782, Parliament voted to end all offensive operations in America, but the war continued overseas. Britain
remained under siege in Gibraltar but scored a major victory over the French navy. On September 3, 1783, the
belligerent parties signed the Treaty of Paris in which Great Britain agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the United
States and formally end the war. French involvement had proven decisive,[45] but France made few gains and incurred
crippling debts. Spain made some territorial gains but failed in its primary aim of recovering Gibraltar.[46] The Dutch
were defeated on all counts and were compelled to cede territory to Great Britain. In India, the war against Mysore
and its allies concluded in 1784 without any territorial changes.
Contents
Background
Taxation disputes
Colonial response
Course of the war
War breaks out (1775–1776)
Political reactions
British counter-offensive (1776–1777)
British northern strategy fails (1777–1778)
Foreign intervention
International war breaks out (1778–1780)
Europe
Americas
India
Stalemate in the North (1778–1780)
War in the South (1778–1781)
British defeat in America (1781)
North Ministry collapses

Final years of the war (1781–1783)
Europe
Americas
India
Peace of Paris
Aftermath
Americans and allies
British and allies
Financial debts
Analysis of combatants
Great Britain
Armed forces
Recruitment
Loyalists and Hessians
Leadership
Logistics
Discipline
Strategic deficiencies
William Howe
Clinton and Cornwallis
Campaign issues
United States
Intelligence and espionage
Soldiers and sailors
George Washington's roles
African Americans
American Indians
Women
Race and class
See also
Notes
References
Reference literature
Further reading
External links
Bibliographies
Background
Taxation disputes
Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to pay for British military troops stationed in the American colonies after the
French and Indian War. Parliament had previously passed legislation to regulate trade, but the Stamp Act introduced
a new principle of a direct internal tax. Americans began to question the extent of the British Parliament's power in
America, and the colonial legislatures argued that they had exclusive right to impose taxes within their
jurisdictions.[47] Colonists condemned the tax because their rights as Englishmen protected them from being taxed by
a Parliament in which they had no elected representatives.[48] Parliament argued that the colonies were "represented
virtually", an idea that was criticized throughout the Empire.[49] Parliament did repeal the act in 1766, but it also
affirmed its right to pass laws that were binding on the colonies.[50] From 1767, Parliament began passing legislation
to raise revenue for the salaries of civil officials, ensuring their loyalty while inadvertently increasing resentment
among the colonists, and opposition soon became widespread.[51][52]
Enforcing the acts proved difficult. The seizure of the sloop Liberty in 1768
on suspicions of smuggling triggered a riot. In response, British troops
occupied Boston, and Parliament threatened to extradite colonists to face
trial in England.[54] Tensions rose after the murder of Christopher Seider
by a customs official in 1770 and escalated into outrage after British troops
fired on civilians in the Boston Massacre.[55] In 1772, colonists in Rhode
Island boarded and burned a customs schooner. Parliament then repealed
all taxes except the one on tea, passing the Tea Act in 1773, attempting to
force colonists to buy East India Company tea on which the Townshend This iconic 1846 lithograph by
duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to Parliamentary supremacy. The Nathaniel Currier was entitled "The
landing of the tea was resisted in all colonies, but the governor of Destruction of Tea at Boston
Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea
Massachusetts permitted British tea ships to remain in Boston Harbor, so
Party" had not yet become standard.
the Sons of Liberty destroyed the tea chests in what became known as the
Contrary to Currier's depiction, few
"Boston Tea Party".[56] of the men dumping the tea were
actually disguised as Indians.[53]
Parliament then passed punitive legislation. It closed Boston Harbor until
the tea was paid for and revoked the Massachusetts Charter, taking upon
themselves the right to directly appoint the Massachusetts Governor's Council. Additionally, the royal governor was
granted powers to undermine local democracy.[57][58] Further measures allowed the extradition of officials for trial
elsewhere in the Empire, if the governor felt that a fair trial could not be secured locally. The act's vague
reimbursement policy for travel expenses left few with the ability to testify, and colonists argued that it would allow
officials to harass them with impunity.[59] Further laws allowed the governor to billet troops in private property
without permission.[60] The colonists referred to the measures as the "Intolerable Acts", and they argued that their
constitutional rights and their natural rights were being violated, viewing the acts as a threat to all of America.[61] The
acts were widely opposed, driving neutral parties into support of the Patriots and curtailing Loyalist sentiment.[62][63]
Colonial response
The colonists responded by establishing the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, effectively removing Crown control of
the colony outside Boston. Meanwhile, representatives from twelve colonies[64][65] convened the First Continental
Congress to respond to the crisis. The Congress narrowly rejected a proposal to create an American parliament to act
in concert with the British Parliament; instead, they passed a compact declaring a trade boycott against Britain.[66][67]
The Congress also affirmed that Parliament had no authority over internal American matters, but they were willing to
consent to trade regulations for the benefit of the empire,[68] and they authorized committees and conventions to
enforce the boycott. The boycott was effective, as imports from Britain dropped by 97% in 1775 compared to 1774.[67]
Parliament refused to yield. In 1775, it declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion and enforced a blockade of
the colony.[69][70] It then passed legislation to limit colonial trade to the British West Indies and the British Isles.
Colonial ships were barred from the Newfoundland cod fisheries, a measure which pleased Canadiens but damaged
New England's economy. These increasing tensions led to a mutual scramble for ordnance and pushed the colonies
toward open war.[71] Thomas Gage was the British Commander-in-Chief and military governor of Massachusetts, and
he received orders on April 14, 1775, to disarm the local militias.[72]
Course of the war
War breaks out (1775–1776)

On April 18, 1775, 700 British troops were sent to confiscate militia
ordnance stored at Concord.[73][74] Fighting broke out, forcing the
troops to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Boston. Overnight, the
local militia converged on and laid siege to Boston.[75] On May 25,
4,500 British reinforcements arrived with generals William Howe,
John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton.[76] The British seized the
Charlestown peninsula on June 17 after a costly frontal assault,[77][78]
leading Howe to replace Gage.[79] Many senior officers were dismayed
at the attack, which had gained them little,[80] while Gage wrote to
London stressing the need for a large army to suppress the revolt.[81]
On July 3, George Washington took command of the Continental
Army besieging Boston. Howe made no effort to attack, much to
Washington's surprise.[82] A plan was rejected to assault the city,[83]
and the Americans instead fortified Dorchester Heights in early
March 1776 with heavy artillery captured from a raid on Fort
Ticonderoga.[84] The British were permitted to withdraw unmolested
on March 17, and they sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Washington Major campaigns of the American
then moved his army to New York.[85] Revolutionary War
Starting in August 1775, American Privateers began to raid villages in

Nova Scotia, first at Saint John, then Charlottetown and Yarmouth. They continued in 1776 at Canso and then a land
assault on Fort Cumberland.
Meanwhile, British officials in Quebec began lobbying Indian tribes to

support them,[86] while the Americans urged them to maintain their
neutrality.[87][88] In April 1775, Congress feared an Anglo-Indian attack
from Canada and authorized an invasion of Quebec. Quebec had a largely
Francophone population and had been under British rule for only 12
years,[89] and the Americans expected that they would welcome being
liberated from the British.[90][91][92] The Americans attacked Quebec City
on December 31 after an arduous march[93] but were defeated.[94][95] After
The British marching to Concord
a loose siege, the Americans withdrew on May 6. 1776.[96][97] A failed
counter-attack on June 8 ended American operations in Quebec.[98]
However, the British could not conduct an aggressive pursuit because of American ships on Lake Champlain. On
October 11, the British defeated the American squadron, forcing them to withdraw to Ticonderoga and ending the
campaign. The invasion cost the Patriots their support in British public opinion,[99] while aggressive anti-Loyalist
policies diluted Canadian support.[100] The Patriots continued to view Quebec as a strategic aim, though no further
attempts to invade were ever made.[101]
In Virginia, Royal governor Lord Dunmore had attempted to disarm the militia as tensions increased, although no
fighting broke out.[102] He issued a proclamation on November 7, 1775, promising freedom for slaves who fled their
Patriot masters to fight for the Crown.[103][104] Dunmore's troops were overwhelmed by Patriots at Great Bridge, and
Dunmore fled to naval ships anchored off Norfolk. Subsequent negotiations broke down, so Dunmore ordered the
ships to destroy the town.[105]
Fighting broke out on November 19 in South Carolina between Loyalist and Patriot militias,[106] and the Loyalists
were subsequently driven out of the colony.[107] Loyalists were recruited in North Carolina to reassert colonial rule in
the South, but they were decisively defeated and Loyalist sentiment was subdued.[108] A troop of British regulars set
out to reconquer South Carolina and launched an attack on Charleston on

June 28, 1776,[109] but it failed and effectively left the South in Patriot
control until 1780.[110][111]
The shortage of gunpowder had led Congress to authorize an expedition

against the Bahamas colony in the British West Indies in order to secure
ordnance there.[112] On March 3, 1776, the Americans landed after a
bloodless exchange of fire, and the local militia offered no resistance.[113]
They confiscated all the supplies that they could load and sailed away on
British soldiers and Provincial
March 17.[114][115] The squadron reached New London, Connecticut on
militiamen repulse the American
April 8, after a brief skirmish with the Royal Navy frigate HMS Glasgow on
assault at Sault-au-Matelot,
April 6.[116] Canada, December 1775
Political reactions
After fighting began, Congress launched a final attempt to avert war, which Parliament rejected as insincere.[117] King
George then issued a Proclamation of Rebellion on August 23, 1775, which only served to embolden the colonists in
their determination to become independent.[118] After a speech by the King, Parliament rejected coercive measures on
the colonies by 170 votes.[119] British Tories refused to compromise,[120] while Whigs argued that current policy would
drive the colonists towards independence.[121] Despite opposition, the King himself began micromanaging the war
effort.[122] The Irish Parliament pledged to send troops to America,[123] and Irish Catholics were allowed to enlist in
the army for the first time.[124] Irish Protestants favored the Americans, while Catholics favored the King.[125]
The initial hostilities provided a sobering military lesson for the British, causing them to rethink their views on
colonial military capability.[126][127] The weak British response gave the Patriots the advantage, and the British lost
control over every colony.[128] The army had been deliberately kept small in England since 1688 to prevent abuses of
power by the King.[129] Parliament secured treaties with small German states for additional troops[130] and sent an
army of 32,000 men to America after a year, the largest that it had ever sent outside Europe at the time.[131]
In the colonies, the success of Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense had boosted public support for
independence.[132][133] On July 2, Congress voted in favor of independence with twelve affirmatives and one
abstention,[134] issuing its declaration on July 4.[135] Washington read the declaration to his men and the citizens of
New York on July 9,[136] invigorating the crowd to tear down a lead statue of the King and melting it to make
bullets.[137] British Tories criticized the signatories for not extending the same standards of equality to slaves.
Patriots followed independence with the Test Laws, requiring residents to swear allegiance to the state in which they
lived,[138] intending to root out neutrals or opponents to independence. Failure to do so meant possible imprisonment,
exile, or even death.[139] American Tories were barred from public office, forbidden from practising medicine and law,
forced to pay increased taxes, or even barred from executing wills or becoming guardians to orphans.[140][141]
Congress enabled states to confiscate Loyalist property to fund the war.[142] Some Quakers who remained neutral had
their property confiscated. States later prevented Loyalists from collecting any debts that they were owed.[143]
British counter-offensive (1776–1777)

After regrouping at Halifax, William Howe determined to take the fight to the Americans.[144] He set sail in June 1776
and began landing troops on Staten Island near the entrance to New York Harbor on July 2. Based on poor military
intelligence, Washington split his army to positions on Manhattan Island and across the East River in western Long
Island,[145] and an informal attempt to negotiate peace was rejected by the Americans.[146] On August 27, Howe
outflanked Washington and forced him back to Brooklyn Heights. Howe restrained his subordinates from pursuit,
opting to besiege Washington instead.[147]
Washington withdrew to Manhattan without any losses in men or

ordnance.[148] Following the withdrawal, the Staten Island Peace
Conference failed to negotiate peace, as the British delegates did not
possess the authority to recognize independence.[149][150] Howe then
seized control of New York City on September 15, and unsuccessfully
engaged the Americans the following day.[151] He attempted to encircle
Washington, but the Americans successfully withdrew. On October 28, the
British fought an indecisive action against Washington, in which Howe
American soldiers in combat at the
declined to attack Washington's army, instead concentrating his efforts
Battle of Long Island, 1776
upon a hill that was of no strategic value.[152][153]
Washington's retreat left his

forces isolated, and the British captured an American fortification on
November 16, taking 3,000 prisoners and amounting to what one historian
terms "the most disastrous defeat of the entire war".[154] Washington's
army fell back four days later.[155] Henry Clinton then captured Newport,
Rhode Island, an operation which he opposed, feeling that the 6,000
troops assigned to him could have been better employed in the pursuit of
British warships forcing passage of Washington.[156][157][158] The American prisoners were then sent to the
the Hudson River infamous prison ships in which more American soldiers and sailors died of
disease and neglect than died in every battle of the war combined.[159]
Charles Cornwallis pursued Washington, but Howe ordered him to halt,
and Washington marched away unmolested.[160][161]
The outlook of the American cause was bleak; the army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men and would be reduced
further when the enlistments expired at the end of the year.[162] Popular support wavered, morale ebbed away, and
Congress abandoned Philadelphia.[163] Loyalist activity surged in the wake of the American defeat, especially in New
York.[141]
News of the campaign was well received in Britain. Festivities took place in
London, public support reached a peak,[164][165] and the King awarded the
Order of the Bath to William Howe. The successes led to predictions that
the British could win within a year.[166] The American defeat revealed what
one writer views as Washington's strategic deficiencies, such as dividing a
numerically weaker army in the face of a stronger one, his inexperienced
staff misreading the situation, and his troops fleeing in disorder when
fighting began.[167] In the meantime, the British entered winter quarters
Emanuel Leutze's famous 1851
and were in a good place to resume campaigning.[168] depiction of Washington Crossing
the Delaware
On December 25, 1776, Washington stealthily crossed the Delaware River,
and his army overwhelmed the Hessian (soldier) garrison at Trenton, New
Jersey, the following morning, taking 900 prisoners.[169][170] The decisive victory rescued the army's flagging morale
and gave a new hope to the cause for independence.[171] Cornwallis marched to retake Trenton, but his efforts were
repulsed on January 2.[172][173] Washington outmanoeuvred Cornwallis that night, and defeated his rearguard the
following day. The victories proved instrumental in convincing the French and Spanish that the Americans were
worthwhile allies, as well as recovering morale in the army.[174][175][176] Washington entered winter quarters at
Morristown, New Jersey, on January 6,[177] though a protracted guerrilla conflict continued.[178] While encamped,
Howe made no attempt to attack, much to Washington's amazement.[179]
British northern strategy fails (1777–1778)
In December 1776, John Burgoyne returned to London to set strategy with Lord George Germain. Burgoyne's plan was
to establish control of the Champlain-George-Hudson route from New York to Quebec, isolating New England. Efforts
could then be concentrated on the southern colonies, where it was believed Loyalist support was in abundance.[180]
Burgoyne's plan was to lead an army along Lake Champlain, while a

strategic diversion advanced along the Mohawk River, and both would
rendezvous at Albany.[181] Burgoyne set out on June 14, 1777, quickly
capturing Ticonderoga on July 5. Leaving 1,300 men behind as a garrison,
Burgoyne continued the advance. Progress was slow; the Americans
blocked roads, destroyed bridges, dammed streams and denuded the area
of food.[182] Meanwhile, Barry St. Ledger's diversionary column laid siege
to Fort Stanwix. St. Ledger withdrew to Quebec on August 22 after his
"The Surrender at Saratoga" shows
Indian support abandoned him. On August 16, a Brunswick foraging
General Daniel Morgan in front of a
expedition was soundly defeated at Bennington, and more than 700 troops
French de Vallière 4-pounder.
were captured.[183] Meanwhile, the vast majority of Burgoyne's Indian
support abandoned him and Howe informed Burgoyne he would launch his
campaign on Philadelphia as planned, and would be unable to render aid.[184]
Burgoyne decided to continue the advance. On September 19, he attempted to flank the American position, and
clashed at Freeman's Farm. The British won, but at the cost of 600 casualties. Burgoyne then dug in, but suffered a
constant haemorrhage of deserters, and critical supplies were running low.[185] On October 7, a British reconnaissance
in force against the American lines was repulsed with heavy losses. Burgoyne then withdrew with the Americans in
pursuit, and by October 13, he was surrounded. With no hope of relief and supplies exhausted, Burgoyne surrendered
on October 17, and 6,222 soldiers became prisoners of the Americans.[186] The decisive success spurred France to
enter the war as an ally of the United States, securing the final elements needed for victory over Britain, that of foreign
assistance.[187][188]
Meanwhile, Howe launched his campaign against Washington, though his

initial efforts to bring him to battle in June 1777 failed.[189] Howe declined
to attack Philadelphia overland via New Jersey, or by sea via the Delaware
Bay, even though both options would have enabled him to assist Burgoyne
if necessary. Instead, he took his army on a time-consuming route through
the Chesapeake Bay, leaving him completely unable to assist Burgoyne.
This decision was so difficult to understand, Howe's critics accused him of
treason.[190]
Howe outflanked and defeated Washington on September 11, though he

Washington and Lafayette inspect
failed to follow-up on the victory and destroy his army.[191][192] A British the troops at Valley Forge.
victory at Willistown left Philadelphia defenceless, and Howe captured the
city unopposed on September 26. Howe then moved 9,000 men to
Germantown, north of Philadelphia.[193] Washington launched a surprise attack on Howe's garrison on October 4,
which was eventually repulsed.[194] Again, Howe did not follow-up on his victory, leaving the American army intact
and able to fight.[195] Later, after several days of probing American defences at White Marsh, Howe inexplicably
ordered a retreat to Philadelphia, astonishing both sides.[196] Howe ignored the vulnerable American rear, where an
attack could have deprived Washington of his baggage and supplies.[197] On December 19, Washington's army entered
winter quarters at Valley Forge. Poor conditions and supply problems resulted in the deaths of some 2,500 troops.[198]
Howe, only 20 miles (32 km) away, made no effort to attack, which critics observed could have ended the
war.[199][200][201]
The Continental Army was put through a new training program, supervised by Baron von Steuben, introducing the
most modern Prussian methods of drilling.[202] Meanwhile, Howe resigned and was replaced by Henry Clinton on
May 24, 1778.[203] Clinton received orders to abandon Philadelphia and fortify New York following France's entry into
the war. On June 18, the British departed Philadelphia, with the reinvigorated Americans in pursuit.[204] The two
armies fought at Monmouth Court House on June 28, with the Americans holding the field, greatly boosting morale
and confidence.[205] By July, both armies were back in the same positions they had been two years prior.
Foreign intervention
The defeat at Saratoga caused considerable anxiety in Britain over foreign intervention. The North ministry sought
reconciliation with the colonies by consenting to their original demands,[206] although Lord North refused to grant
independence.[207] No positive reply was received from the Americans.[208]
French foreign minister the Comte de Vergennes was strongly anti-

British,[209] and he sought a pretext for going to war with Britain following
the conquest of Canada in 1763.[210] The French had covertly supplied the
Americans through neutral Dutch ports since the onset of the war,[209]
proving invaluable throughout the Saratoga campaign.[211][212][213] The
French public favored war, though Vergennes and King Louis XVI were
hesitant, owing to the military and financial risk.[214] The American victory
at Saratoga convinced the French that supporting the Patriots was
worthwhile,[215] but doing so also brought major concerns. The King was
concerned that Britain's concessions would be accepted, and that Britain
would then reconcile with the Colonies to strike at French and Spanish
possessions in the Caribbean.[216][217] To prevent this, France formally
recognized the United States on February 6, 1778, and followed with a
military alliance. France aimed to expel Britain from the Newfoundland
fishery, end restrictions on Dunkirk sovereignty, regain free trade in India,
French troops storming Redoubt 9
recover Senegal and Dominica, and restore the Treaty of Utrecht
during the Siege of Yorktown
provisions pertaining to Anglo-French trade.[218][219]
Spain was wary of provoking war with Britain before being ready and opted
to covertly supply the Patriots via its colonies in New Spain.[220][221] Congress hoped to persuade Spain into an open
alliance, so the first American Commission met with the Count of Aranda in 1776.[222] Spain was still reluctant to
make an early commitment, owing to a lack of direct French involvement, the threat against their treasure fleets, and
the possibility of war with Portugal, Spain's neighbor and a close ally of Britain.[223] However, Spain affirmed its
desire to support the Americans the following year, hoping to weaken Britain's empire.[224] The Portuguese threat was
neutralized in the Spanish–Portuguese War (1776–77). On 12 April 1779, Spain signed the Treaty of Aranjuez with
France and went to war against Britain.[225] Spain sought to recover Gibraltar and Menorca in Europe, as well as
Mobile and Pensacola in Florida, and also to expel the British from Central America.[226][227]
Meanwhile, George III had given up on subduing America while Britain had a European war to fight.[228] He did not
welcome war with France, but he believed that Britain had made all necessary steps to avoid it and cited the British
victories over France in the Seven Years' War as a reason to remain optimistic.[229] Britain tried in vain to find a
powerful ally to engage France, leaving it isolated,[230] preventing Britain from focusing the majority of her efforts in
one theater,[231][232] and forcing a major diversion of military resources from America.[233][234] Despite this, the King
determined never to recognize American independence and to ravage the colonies indefinitely, or until they pleaded to
return to the yoke of the Crown.[235] Mahan argues that Britain's attempt to fight in multiple theaters simultaneously
without major allies was fundamentally flawed, citing impossible mutual support, exposing the forces to defeat in
detail.[236]
Since the outbreak of the conflict, Britain had appealed to her ally, the neutral Dutch Republic, to lend her the use of
the Scots Brigade for service in America, but pro-American sentiment among the Dutch public forced them to deny the
request.[237] Consequently, the British attempted to invoke several treaties for outright Dutch military support, but the
Republic still refused. Moreover, American troops were being supplied with ordnance by Dutch merchants via their
West Indies colonies.[238] French supplies bound for America had also passed through Dutch ports.[209] The Republic
maintained free trade with France following France's declaration of war on Britain, citing a prior concession by Britain
on this issue. Britain responded by confiscating Dutch shipping, and even firing upon it. Consequently, the Republic
joined the First League of Armed Neutrality to enforce their neutral status.[239] The Republic had also given sanctuary
to American privateers[240] and had drafted a treaty of commerce with the Americans. Britain argued that these
actions contravened the Republic's neutral stance and declared war in December 1780.[241]
International war breaks out (1778–1780)
Europe
Soon after France declared war, French and British fleets fought an
indecisive action off Ushant on July 27, 1778.[242] Spain entered the war on
April 12, 1779 with a primary goal of capturing Gibraltar,[243] and Spanish
troops under the Duc de Crillon laid siege to the Rock on June 24.[244] The
naval blockade, however, was relatively weak, and the British were able to
resupply the garrison.[245] Meanwhile, a plan was formulated for a
combined Franco-Spanish invasion of the British mainland, but the
expedition failed because of poor planning, disease, logistical issues, and The Moonlight Battle of Cape St.
high financial expenditures.[246][247] However, a diversionary Franco- Vincent, 16 January 1780 by
American squadron did meet with some success on September 23 under Francis Holman, painted 1780
John Paul Jones.[248] On 16 January 1780, the Royal Navy under George
Rodney scored a major victory over the Spanish, weakening the naval
blockade of Gibraltar.[249]
A Franco-Spanish fleet commanded by Luis de Córdova intercepted and decisively defeated a large British convoy off
the Azores led by John Moutray on August 9 which was bound for the West Indies.[250] The defeat was catastrophic
for Britain, which lost 52 merchant ships[251][252] and five East Indiamen,[253][254] as well as supplies and crews,[255]
making it one of the most complete naval captures ever made.[256] The loss was valued at some £1.5 million
(£181 million in today's money), dealing a severe blow to British commerce.[257][258]
Americas
The French blockaded the lucrative sugar islands of Barbados and Jamaica, intending to damage British trade.[259]
French troops led by the Marquis de Bouillé captured Dominica on September 7, 1778, in order to improve
communication among French Caribbean islands and to strike a blow against privateering.[260][261] The British
defeated a French naval force on December 15 and captured St. Lucia on December 28.[262] Both fleets received
reinforcements through the first half of 1779, but the French under the Comte d'Estaing had superiority in the
Caribbean and began capturing British territories,[263] seizing St. Vincent on June 18 and Grenada on July 4.[264] The
British fleet under John Byron was tactically defeated on July 6, having pursued d'Estaing from Grenada,[265] the
worst loss that the Royal Navy had suffered since 1690.[266] Naval skirmishes continued until April 17, 1780, when
British and French fleets clashed indecisively off Martinique.
General Bernardo de Gálvez raised an army in New Orleans and drove the British out of the Gulf of Mexico. He
captured five British forts in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and they repelled a British and Indian attack in St. Louis,
Missouri and captured the British fort of St. Joseph in Niles, Michigan. He received reinforcements from Cuba,
Mexico, and Puerto Rico, then captured Mobile and Pensacola, the capital of the British colony of West Florida.[267] At
Pensacola, Gálvez commanded a multinational army of more than 7,000 black and white soldiers born in Spain, Cuba,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and other Spanish colonies such as Venezuela.[268]
In Central America, the defense of Guatemala was a priority for Spain. The British intended to capture the key fortress
of San Fernando de Omoa and drive the Spanish from the region.[269] After inadequate first attempts, 1,200 British
troops led by William Dalrymple arrived on October 16, and they captured the fort on October 20.[270] However, the
British suffered terribly from disease and were forced to abandon the fort on November 29,[271] and Spanish troops
subsequently reoccupied it.[272] In 1780, Jamaica's governor John Dalling planned an expedition to cut New Spain in
two by capturing Granada, which would allow them full control of the San Juan River.[273] A British expedition set out
on February 3, 1780, led by John Polson and Horatio Nelson.[274] They reached Fort San Juan on March 17 and laid
siege, capturing it on April 29.[275] The British were ravaged by disease[276] and were running low on food because of
poor logistics.[274] They withdrew on November 8, the expedition having suffered a decisive defeat;[277] some 2,500
troops had perished, making it the costliest British disaster of the war.[278]
India
The British East India Company moved quickly to capture French
possessions in India when they learned about the hostilities with France,
and they took Pondicherry on 19 October 1778 after a two-week siege.[279]
The Company resolved to drive the French completely out of India,[280]
and they captured the Malabar port of Mahé in 1779[281] through which
French ordnance passed.
Mahé was under the protection of Mysore's ruler Hyder Ali (the Tipu
Sultan), and tensions were already inflamed because the British had Mysorean troops defeat the British
supported Malabar rebels who had risen against him;[282] so the fall of at Pollilur, using rockets against
closely massed British infantry
Mahé precipitated war.[283] Hyder Ali invaded the Carnatic region in July
1780 and laid siege to Tellicherry and Arcot. A British relief force of 7,000
men[284] under William Baille was intercepted and destroyed by the Tipu
Sultan on 10 September, the worst defeat suffered by a European army in India at the time.[285]
Ali then renewed the siege at Arcot instead of pressing on for a decisive victory against a second British army at
Madras, capturing it on 3 November. The delay allowed British forces to regroup for campaigning the following
year.[286]
Stalemate in the North (1778–1780)

Henry Clinton withdrew from Philadelphia, consolidating his forces in New
York following the British defeat at Saratoga and the entry of France into
the war.[234] French admiral the Comte d'Estaing had been dispatched to
America in April 1778 to assist Washington, and he arrived shortly after
Clinton withdrew into New York.[287] The Franco-American forces felt that
New York's defenses were too formidable for the French fleet,[288] and they
opted to attack Newport.[289] This effort was launched on August 29, but it
failed when the French opted to withdraw, and this displeased the
"Give 'em Watts, boys!" – American
Americans.[290] The war then ground down to a stalemate, with the
troops repulse Wilhelm von
majority of actions fought as large skirmishes, such as those at Chestnut Knyphausen's attack at Springfield
Neck and Little Egg Harbor. In the summer of 1779, the Americans
captured British posts at Stony Point and Paulus Hook.[291][292]
In July, Clinton unsuccessfully attempted to coax Washington into a decisive engagement by making a major raid into
Connecticut.[293] That month, a large American naval operation attempted to retake Maine, but it resulted in the worst
American naval defeat until Pearl Harbor in 1941.[294] The high frequency of Iroquois raids compelled Washington to
mount a punitive expedition which destroyed a large number of Iroquois settlements, but the effort ultimately failed to
stop the raids.[295][296] During the winter of 1779–80, the Continental Army suffered greater hardships than at Valley
Forge.[297] Morale was poor, public support was being eroded by the long war, the national currency was virtually
worthless, the army was plagued with supply problems, desertion was common, and whole regiments mutinied over
the conditions in early 1780.[298]
In 1780, Clinton launched an attempt to retake New Jersey. On June 7,

6,000 men invaded under Hessian general Wilhelm von Knyphausen, but
they met stiff resistance from the local militia. The British held the field,
but Knyphausen feared a general engagement with Washington's main
army and withdrew.[299] Knyphausen and Clinton decided upon a second
attempt two weeks later which was soundly defeated at Springfield,
effectively ending British ambitions in New Jersey.[300] Meanwhile,
American general Benedict Arnold turned traitor and joined the British
army, and he conspired to betray the key American fortress of West Point
Hamilton surrenders at Vincennes,
February 29, 1779 by surrendering it to the enemy.[301] The plot was foiled when British spy
master John André was captured, so Arnold fled to British lines in New
York. He attempted to justify his betrayal by appealing to Loyalist public
opinion, but the Patriots strongly condemned him as a coward and turncoat.[302]
The war to the west of the Appalachians was largely confined to skirmishing and raids. An expedition of militia was
halted by adverse weather in February 1778 after it set out to destroy British military supplies in settlements along the
Cuyahoga River.[303] Later in the year, a second campaign was undertaken to seize the Illinois Country from the
British. The Americans captured Kaskaskia on July 4 and then secured Vincennes, although Vincennes was recaptured
by Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit. In early 1779, the Americans counter-attacked by undertaking a
risky winter march, and they secured the surrender of the British at Vincennes, taking Hamilton prisoner.[304][305]
On May 25, 1780, the British launched an expedition into Kentucky as part of a wider operation to clear resistance
from Quebec to the Gulf coast. The expedition met with only limited success, though hundreds of settlers were killed
or captured.[306] The Americans responded with a major offensive along the Mad River in August which met with
some success, but it did little to abate the Indian raids on the frontier.[307] French militia attempted to capture Detroit,
but it ended in disaster when Miami Indians ambushed and defeated the gathered troops on November 5.[308] The war
in the west had become a stalemate; the Americans did not have the manpower to simultaneously defeat the hostile
Indian tribes and occupy the land.[309]
War in the South (1778–1781)

The British turned their attention to conquering the South in 1778 after Loyalists in London assured them of a strong
Loyalist base there. A southern campaign also had the advantage of keeping the Royal Navy closer to the Caribbean,
where it would be needed to defend lucrative colonies against the Franco-Spanish fleets.[310] On December 29, 1778,
an expeditionary corps from New York captured Savannah, and British troops then moved inland to recruit Loyalist
support.[311] There was a promising initial turnout in early 1779, but then a large Loyalist militia was defeated at Kettle
Creek on February 14 and they had to recognize their dependence upon the British. The British, however, defeated
Patriot militia at Brier Creek on March 3,[312] and then launched an abortive assault on Charleston, South Carolina.
The operation became notorious for its high degree of looting by British troops, enraging both Loyalists and
Patriots.[313]
In October, a combined Franco-American effort failed to recapture

Savannah. In May 1780, Henry Clinton captured Charleston, taking over
5,000 prisoners and effectively destroying the Continental Army in the
south. Organized American resistance in the region collapsed when
Banastre Tarleton defeated the withdrawing Americans at Waxhaws on
May 29.[314]
Clinton returned to New York, leaving Charles Cornwallis in command in

Charleston to oversee the southern war effort. Far fewer Loyalists joined
him than expected. In the interim, the war was carried on by Patriot British troops besiege Charleston in
1780, by Alonzo Chappel
militias who effectively suppressed Loyalists by winning victories in
Fairfield County, Lincolnton, Huck's Defeat, Stanly County, and Lancaster
County.
The British launched a surprise offensive in Virginia in January 1781, with

Benedict Arnold invading Richmond, Virginia to little resistance. Governor
Thomas Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of the British forces, and
the British burned the city to the ground.[315][316] Jefferson sent an
emergency dispatch to Colonel Sampson Mathews whose militia was
traveling nearby, to thwart Arnold's efforts.[317][318]
Congress appointed Horatio Gates, victor at Saratoga, to lead the American

American and British cavalry clash
effort in the south. He suffered a major defeat at Camden on August 16, at the Battle of Cowpens; from an
1780, setting the stage for Cornwallis to invade North Carolina.[319] The 1845 painting by William Ranney
British attempted to subjugate the countryside, and Patriot militia
continued to fight against them, so Cornwallis dispatched troops to raise
Loyalist forces to cover his left flank as he moved north.[320] This wing of Cornwallis' army was virtually destroyed on
October 7, irreversibly breaking Loyalist support in the Carolinas. Cornwallis subsequently aborted his advance and
retreated back into South Carolina.[321] In the interim, Washington replaced Gates with his trusted subordinate
Nathanael Greene.[322]
Greene was unable to confront the British directly, so he dispatched a force under Daniel Morgan to recruit additional
troops. Morgan then defeated the cream of the British army under Tarleton on January 17, 1781 at Cowpens.
Cornwallis was criticized for having detached a substantial part of his army without adequate support,[323] but he
advanced into North Carolina despite the setbacks, gambling that he would receive substantial Loyalist support there.
Greene evaded combat with Cornwallis, instead wearing the British down through a protracted war of attrition.[324]
By March, Greene's army had increased in size enough that he felt confident in facing Cornwallis. The two armies
engaged at Guilford Courthouse on March 15; Greene was beaten, but Cornwallis' army suffered irreplaceable
casualties.[325] Compounding this, far fewer Loyalists were joining than the British had previously expected.[326]
Cornwallis' casualties were such that he was compelled to retreat to Wilmington for reinforcement, leaving the Patriots
in control of the interior of the Carolinas and Georgia.
Greene then proceeded to reclaim the South. The American troops suffered a reversal at Hobkirk's Hill on April
25;[327] nonetheless, they continued to dislodge strategic British posts in the area, capturing Fort Watson[328] and Fort
Motte.[329] Augusta was the last major British outpost in the South outside of Charleston and Savannah, but the
Americans reclaimed possession of it on June 6.[330] A British force clashed with American troops at Eutaw Springs on
September 8 in a final effort to stop Greene, but the British casualties were so high that they withdrew to
Charleston.[331] Minor skirmishes continued in the Carolinas until the end of the war, and British troops were
effectively confined to Charleston and Savannah for the remainder of the conflict.[332]
British defeat in America (1781)

Cornwallis had discovered that the majority of American supplies in the
Carolinas were passing through Virginia, and he had written to both Lord
Germain and Clinton detailing his intentions to invade. Cornwallis believed
that a successful campaign there would cut supplies to Greene's army and
precipitate a collapse of American resistance in the South. Clinton strongly
opposed the plan, favoring a campaign farther north in the Chesapeake Bay
region.[333] Lord Germain wrote to Cornwallis to approve his plan and
neglected to include Clinton in the decision-making, even though Clinton The French (left) and British (right)
was Cornwallis' superior officer,[334] and Cornwallis then decided to move lines exchange fire at the Battle of
into Virginia without informing Clinton.[335] Clinton, however, had failed the Chesapeake
to construct a coherent strategy for British operations in 1781,[336] owing to

his difficult relationship with his naval counterpart Marriot Arbuthnot.[337]
Following the calamitous operations at Newport and Savannah, French planners realized that closer cooperation with
the Americans was required to achieve success.[338] The French fleet led by the Comte de Grasse had received
discretionary orders from Paris to assist joint efforts in the north if naval support was needed.[339][340] Washington
and the Comte de Rochambeau discussed their options. Washington pushed for an attack on New York, while
Rochambeau preferred a strike in Virginia, where the British were less well-established and thus easier to defeat.[341]
Franco-American movements around New York caused Clinton a great deal of anxiety, fearing an attack on the city.
His instructions were vague to Cornwallis during this time, rarely forming explicit orders. However, Clinton did
instruct Cornwallis to establish a fortified naval base and to transfer troops to the north to defend New York.[342]
Cornwallis dug in at Yorktown and awaited the Royal Navy.[343]
Washington still favored an assault on New York, but he acquiesced to the

French when they opted to send their fleet to their preferred target of
Yorktown. In August, the combined Franco-American army moved south
to coordinate with de Grasse in defeating Cornwallis.[344] The British
lacked sufficient naval resources to effectively counter the French, but they
dispatched a fleet under Thomas Graves to assist Cornwallis and attempt
to gain naval dominance.[345] On September 5, the French fleet decisively
defeated Graves, giving the French control of the seas around Yorktown
Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
and cutting off Cornwallis from reinforcements and relief.[346] Despite the
by John Trumbull, 1797
continued urging of his subordinates,[347] Cornwallis made no attempt to
break out and engage the Franco-American army before it had established
siege works, expecting that reinforcements would arrive from New York,
and the Franco-American army laid siege to Yorktown on September
28.[348] Cornwallis continued to think that relief was imminent from
Clinton, and he abandoned his outer defenses which were immediately
occupied by American troops—serving to hasten his subsequent
defeat.[349] The British then failed in an attempt to break out of the siege
across the river at Gloucester Point when a storm hit.[350] Cornwallis and
his subordinates were under increasing bombardment and facing
Washington and the Comte de
dwindling supplies; they agreed that their situation was untenable and Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781
negotiated a surrender on October 17, 1781,[351] and 7,685 soldiers became
prisoners of the Americans.[352] The same day as the surrender, 6,000
troops under Clinton had departed New York, sailing to relieve Yorktown.[353][354]
North Ministry collapses

On 25 November 1781, news arrived in London of the surrender at Yorktown. The Whig opposition gained traction in
Parliament, and a motion was proposed on December 12 to end the war which was defeated by only one vote. On 27
February 1782, the House voted against further war in America by 19 votes.[355]
Lord Germain was dismissed and a vote of no confidence was passed against North. The Rockingham Whigs came to
power and opened negotiations for peace. Rockingham died and was succeeded by the Earl of Shelburne. Despite their
defeat, the British still had 30,000 troops garrisoned in New York, Charleston, and Savannah.[356] Henry Clinton was
recalled and was replaced by Guy Carleton who was under orders to suspend offensive operations.[357]
Final years of the war (1781–1783)
Europe
After hostilities with the Dutch began in late 1780, Britain had moved
quickly, enforcing a blockade across the North Sea. Within weeks, the
British had captured 200 Dutch merchantmen, and 300 more were holed
up in foreign ports,[358] though political turmoil within the Republic[359]
and peace negotiations by both sides helped keep conflict to a
minimum.[360] The majority of the Dutch public favored a military alliance
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries
with France against Britain; however, the Dutch Stadtholder impeded at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by
these efforts, hoping to secure an early peace.[361] To restore diminishing John Singleton Copley
trade[362] a Dutch squadron under Johan Zoutman escorted a fleet of some
70 merchantmen from the Texel. Zoutman's ships were intercepted by Sir
Hyde Parker, who engaged Zoutman at Dogger Bank on 5 August 1781. Though the contest was tactically inconclusive,
the Dutch fleet did not leave harbor again during the war, and their merchant fleet remained crippled.[363]
On 6 January 1781, a French attempt to capture Jersey to neutralize British privateering failed.[364] Frustrated in their
attempts to capture Gibraltar, a Franco-Spanish force of 14,000 men under the Duc de Mahon invaded Minorca on 19
August. After a long siege of St. Philip's, the British garrison under James Murray surrendered on 5 February
1782,[365] securing a primary war goal for the Spanish.[366] At Gibraltar, a major Franco-Spanish assault on 13
September 1782 was repulsed with heavy casualties.[367] On 20 October 1782, following a successful resupply of
Gibraltar, British ships under Richard Howe successfully refused battle to the Franco-Spanish fleet under Luis de
Córdova, denying Córdova dominance at sea.[368][369] On 7 February 1783, after 1,322[370] days of siege, the Franco-
Spanish army withdrew, decisively defeated.[371][372]
Americas
Sint Eustatius, a key supply port for the Patriots, was sacked by British forces under George Rodney on 3 February
1781, who plundered the island's wealth.[373] Few operations were conducted against the Dutch, although several
Dutch colonies were captured by the British in 1781.[374]
After the fall of Mobile to Spanish troops under Bernardo de Gálvez, an attempt to capture Pensacola was thwarted by
a hurricane. Emboldened by the disaster, John Campbell, British commander at Pensacola, decided to recapture
Mobile.[375] Campbell's expeditionary force of around 700 men was defeated on 7 January 1781.[376] After re-grouping
at Havana, Gálvez set out for Pensacola on 13 February.[377] Arriving on 9 March, siege operations did not begin until
24 March, owing to difficulties in bringing the ships into the bay.[378] After a 45-day siege, Gálvez decisively defeated
the garrison, securing the conquest of West Florida.[379] In May, Spanish troops captured the Bahamas,[380] although
the British bloodlessly recaptured the islands the following year on 18 April.[381]
In the West Indies, on 29–30

April 1781, a Royal Navy
squadron under Samuel Hood
was narrowly defeated by the
French, led by the Comte de
Grasse,[382] who continued
seizing British territories:
Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782 Tobago fell on 2 June;[383]
– Admiral George Rodney defeats
Demerara and Essequibo on 22
the Comte De Grasse in the West
Indies. Oil on canvas by Thomas January 1782;[384] St. Kitts and Spanish troops led by Bernardo de
Whitcombe Nevis on 12 February,[385] Gálvez in combat at Pensacola. Oil
despite a British naval victory on canvas, Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau,
2015.
on 25 January;[386] and
Montserrat on 22 February.[387]
In 1782, the primary strategic goal of the French and Spanish was the capture of Jamaica,[388] whose sugar exports
were more valuable to the British than the Thirteen Colonies combined.[389][390] On 7 April 1782, de Grasse departed
Martinique to rendezvous with Franco-Spanish troops at Saint Domingue and invade Jamaica from the north.[391] The
British under Hood and George Rodney pursued and decisively defeated the French off Dominica between 9–12
April.[392][393] The Franco-Spanish plan to conquer Jamaica was in ruins,[394] and the balance of naval power in the
Caribbean shifted to the Royal Navy.[395]
In Guatemala, Matías de Gálvez led Spanish troops in an effort to dislocate British settlements along the Gulf of
Honduras.[396] Gálvez captured Roatán on 16 March 1782, and then quickly took Black River.[397] Following the
decisive naval victory at the Saintes,[398] Archibald Campbell, the Royal governor of Jamaica, authorized Edward
Despard to re-take Black River,[399] which he did on 22 August.[400] However, with peace talks opening, and Franco-
Spanish resources committed to the siege of Gibraltar, no further offensive operations took place.[400]
India
Following Dutch entry into the conflict, East India Company troops under
Hector Munro captured the Dutch port of Negapatam after a three-week
siege on 11 October 1781.[401] Soon after, British Admiral Edward Hughes
captured Trincomalee after a brief engagement on 11 January 1782.[402]
In March 1781, French Admiral Bailli de Suffren was dispatched to India to

assist colonial efforts. Suffren arrived off the Indian coast in February
The British (right) and the French 1782, where he clashed with a British fleet under Hughes, winning a
(left), with Admiral Suffren's flagship narrow tactical victory.[403] After landing troops at Porto Novo to assist
Cléopâtre on the far left, exchange Mysore, Suffren's fleet clashed with Hughes again Providien on 12 April.
fire at Cuddalore, by Auguste There was no clear victor, though Hughes' fleet came off worse,[404] and he
Jugelet, 1836. withdrew to the British-held port of Trincomalee. Hyder Ali wished for the
French to capture Negapatam to establish naval dominance over the
British, and this task fell to Suffren. Suffren's fleet clashed with Hughes
again off Negapatam on 6 July.[405] Suffren withdrew to Cuddalore, strategically defeated, and the British remained in
control of Negapatam.[406][407] Intending to find a more suitable port than Cuddalore, Suffren captured Trincomalee
on 1 September, and successfully engaged Hughes two days later.[408]
Meanwhile, Ali's troops loosely blockaded Vellore as the East India Company regrouped.[409] Company troops under
Sir Eyre Coote led a counter-offensive, defeating Ali at Porto Novo on 1 July 1781,[410] Pollilur on 27 August,[411] and
Sholinghur on 27 September, expelling the Mysorean troops from the Carnatic.[412][413] On 18 February 1782, Tipu
Sultan defeated John Braithwaite near Tanjore, taking his entire 1,800-strong force prisoner.[414] The war had, by this
point, reached an uneasy stalemate.[415] On 7 December 1782, Hyder Ali died,[416] and the rule of Mysore passed to his
son, Tipu Sultan.[417]
Sultan advanced along the west coast, laying siege to Mangalore on 20 May 1783.[418] Meanwhile, on the east coast, an
army under James Stuart besieged the French-held port of Cuddalore on 9 June 1783.[419] On 20 June, key British
naval support for the siege was neutralized when Suffren defeated Hughes' fleet off Cuddalore,[420] and though
narrow, the victory gave Suffren the opportunity to displace British holdings in India.[421] On 25 June, the Franco-
Mysorean defenders made repeated sorties against British lines, though all assaults failed. On 30 June, news arrived of
a preliminary peace between the belligerent powers, and the siege was effectively over when the French abandoned the
siege.[422] Mangalore remained under siege, and capitulated to Sultan on 30 January 1784.[423] Little fighting took
place thereafter, and Mysore and Britain made peace on 11 March.[414]
Peace of Paris
Following the surrender at Yorktown, the Whig party came to power in
Britain and began opening negotiations for a cessation of hostilities. While
peace negotiations were being undertaken, British troops in America were
restricted from launching further offensives.[357] Prime Minister the Earl of
Shelburne was reluctant to accept American independence as a
prerequisite for peace, as the British were aware that the French economy
was nearly bankrupt, and reinforcements sent to the West Indies could
potentially reverse the situation there. He preferred that the colonies
accept Dominion status within the Empire, though a similar offer had been
rejected by the Americans in 1778.[424] Negotiations soon began in Paris. Benjamin West's painting of the
American delegations at the Treaty
The Americans initially of Paris. The British delegation
demanded that Quebec be refused to pose, and the painting
was never completed.
ceded to them as spoils of war,
a proposal that was dropped
when Shelburne accepted American demands for recognition of
independence. On April 19, 1782, the Dutch formally recognized the United
States as a sovereign power, enhancing American leverage at the
negotiations. Spain initially impeded the negotiations, refusing to enter
into peace talks until Gibraltar had been captured. The Comte de
Washington enters New York in
Vergennes proposed that American territory be confined to the east of the
triumph following the British
evacuation of America. Appalachians; Britain would have sovereignty over the area north of the
Ohio River, below which an Indian barrier state would be established
under Spanish control. The United States fiercely opposed the
proposal.[425]
The Americans skirted their allies, recognizing that more favorable terms would be found in London. They negotiated
directly with Shelburne, who hoped to make Britain a valuable trading partner of America at the expense of France. To
this end, Shelburne offered to cede all the land east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of
Quebec,[426] while also allowing American fishermen access to the rich Newfoundland fishery.[427] Shelburne was
hoping to facilitate the growth of the American population, creating lucrative markets that Britain could exploit at no
administrative cost to London. As Vergennes commented, "the English buy peace rather than make it".[428]
Throughout the negotiations, Britain never consulted her American Indian allies, forcing them to reluctantly accept
the treaty. However, the subsequent tension erupted into conflicts between the Indians and the young United States,
the largest being the Northwest Indian War.[429] Britain continued trying to create an Indian buffer state in the
American Midwest as late as 1814 during the War of 1812.[430][431]
Britain negotiated separate treaties with Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic.[432] Gibraltar proved to be a
stumbling block in the peace talks; Spain offered to relinquish their conquests in West Florida, Menorca, and the
Bahamas[433] in exchange for Gibraltar, terms which Shelburne steadfastly refused. Shelburne instead offered to cede
East Florida, West Florida, and Menorca if Spain would relinquish the claim on Gibraltar, terms which were
reluctantly accepted.[434] However, in the long-term, the new territorial gains were of little value to Spain.[435]
France's only net gains were the island of Tobago in the Caribbean and Senegal in Africa, after agreeing to return all
other colonial conquests to British sovereignty.[436] Britain returned Dutch Caribbean territories to Dutch sovereignty,
in exchange for free trade rights in the Dutch East Indies[437][438] and control of the Indian port of Negapatnam.[439]
Preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris on 30 November 1782, while preliminaries between Britain, Spain,
France, and the Netherlands continued until September 1783. The United States Congress of the Confederation
ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784. Copies were sent back to Europe for ratification by the other parties
involved, the first reaching France in March 1784. British ratification occurred on April 9, 1784, and the ratified
versions were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.[440] The war formally concluded on September 3, 1783.[441]
The last British troops departed New York City on November 25, 1783, marking the end of British rule in the new
United States.[442]
Aftermath
Americans and allies

The total loss of life throughout the conflict is largely unknown. As was typical in wars of the era, diseases such as
smallpox claimed more lives than battle. Between 1775 and 1782, a smallpox epidemic broke out throughout North
America, killing 40 people in Boston alone. Historian Joseph Ellis suggests that Washington's decision to have his
troops inoculated against the disease was one of his most important decisions.[443]
Between 25,000 and 70,000 American Patriots died during active military service.[31] Of these, approximately 6,800
were killed in battle, while at least 17,000 died from disease. The majority of the latter died while prisoners of war of
the British, mostly in the prison ships in New York Harbor.[32] If the upper limit of 70,000 is accepted as the total net
loss for the Patriots, it would make the conflict proportionally deadlier than the American Civil War.[12] Uncertainty
arises from the difficulties in accurately calculating the number of those who succumbed to disease, as it is estimated
at least 10,000 died in 1776 alone.[12] The number of Patriots seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been
estimated from 8,500 to 25,000.[444]
The French suffered approximately 7,000 total dead throughout the conflict; of those, 2,112 were killed in combat in
the American theaters of war.[33]
The Dutch suffered around 500 total killed, owing to the minor scale of their conflict with Britain.[35]
British and allies

British returns in 1783 listed 43,633 rank and file deaths across the British Armed Forces.[37] A table from 1781 puts
total British Army deaths at 9,372 soldiers killed in battle across the Americas; 6,046 in North America (1775–1779),
and 3,326 in the West Indies (1778–1780).[38] In 1784, a British lieutenant compiled a detailed list of 205 British
officers killed in action during the war, encompassing Europe, the Caribbean and the East Indies.[445] Extrapolations
based upon this list puts British Army losses in the area of at least 4,000 killed or died of wounds.[12] Approximately
7,774 Germans died in British service in addition to 4,888 deserters; of the former, it is estimated 1,800 were killed in
combat.[12]
Around 171,000 sailors served in the Royal Navy during the war; approximately a quarter of whom had been pressed
into service. Around 1,240 were killed in battle, while an estimated 18,500 died from disease (1776–1780).[40] The
greatest killer at sea was scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency.[446] It was not until 1795 that scurvy was
eradicated from the Royal Navy after the Admiralty declared lemon juice and sugar were to be issued among the
standard daily rations of sailors.[447] Around 42,000 sailors deserted during the war.[448] The impact on merchant
shipping was substantial; an estimated 3,386 merchant ships were seized by enemy forces during the war;[449] of
those, 2,283 were taken by American privateers alone.[450]
Financial debts
At the start of the war, the economy of the colonies was flourishing,[451] and the free white population enjoyed the
highest standard of living in the world.[452] The Royal Navy enforced a naval blockade during the war to financially
cripple the colonies, however, this proved unsuccessful; 90% of the population worked in farming, not in coastal trade,
and, as such, the American economy proved resilient enough to withstand the blockade.[453]
Congress had immense difficulties throughout the conflict to efficiently finance the war effort.[454] As the circulation of
hard currency declined, the Americans had to rely on loans from American merchants and bankers, France, Spain and
the Netherlands, saddling the young nation with crippling debts. Congress attempted to remedy this by printing vast
amounts of paper money and bills of credit to raise revenue. The effect was disastrous; inflation skyrocketed, and the
paper money became virtually worthless. The inflation spawned a popular phrase that anything of little value was "not
worth a continental".[455]
By 1791, the United States had accumulated a national debt of approximately $75.5 million.[456] The United States
finally solved its debt and currency problems in the 1790s, when Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton
secured legislation by which the national government assumed all of the state debts, and, in addition, created a
national bank and a funding system based on tariffs and bond issues that paid off the foreign debts.[457]
Britain spent around £80 million and ended with a national debt of £250 million, (£27.1 billion in today's money),
generating a yearly interest of £9.5 million annually. The debts piled upon that which it had already accumulated from
the Seven Years' War.[458] Wartime taxation upon the British populace averaged approximately four shilling in every
pound, or 20 percent.[459]
The French spent approximately 1.3 billion livres equivalent to 100 million pounds sterling (13.33 livres to the pound)
on aiding the Americans,[460] accumulating a national debt of 3.315.1 billion livres by 1783 on war costs.[461] Unlike
Britain, which had a very efficient taxation system,[462] while the French tax system was grossly inefficient which
eventually leading to a financial crisis in 1786.[463] The debts contributed to a worsening fiscal crisis that ultimately
begat the French Revolution at the end of the century.[464] The debt continued to spiral; on the eve of the French
Revolution, the national debt had skyrocketed to 12 billion livres.[465]
Spain had nearly doubled her military spending during the war, from 454 million reales in 1778 to over 700 million in
1779.[466] Spain more easily disposed of her debts unlike her French ally, partially as a result of the massive increase in
silver mining in her American colonies; production increased approximately 600% in Mexico, and by 250% in Peru
and Bolivia.[467]
Analysis of combatants
Great Britain
The population of Great Britain and Ireland in 1780 was approximately
12.6 million,[468] while the Thirteen Colonies held a population of some 2.8
million, including some 500,000 slaves.[469] Theoretically, Britain had the
advantage, however, many factors inhibited the procurement of a large
army.
Armed forces
Recruitment
British redcoats at the Battle of
In 1775, the standing British Army, exclusive of militia, comprised 45,123 Bunker Hill in 1775
men worldwide, made up of 38,254 infantry and 6,869 cavalry. The Army
had approximately eighteen regiments of foot, some 8,500 men, stationed
in North America.[470] Standing armies had played a key role in the purge of the Long Parliament in 1648,[471] the
maintenance of a military dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell,[472] and the overthrow of James II,[473] and, as such,
the Army had been deliberately kept small in peacetime to prevent abuses of power by the King.[129][474] Despite this,
eighteenth century armies were not easy guests, and were regarded with scorn and contempt by the press and public of
the New and Old World alike, derided as enemies of liberty. An expression ran in the Navy; "A messmate before a
shipmate, a shipmate before a stranger, a stranger before a dog, a dog before a soldier".[475]
Parliament suffered chronic difficulties in obtaining sufficient

manpower,[476] and found it impossible to fill the quotas they had set.[477]
The Army was a deeply unpopular profession, one contentious issue being
pay. A Private infantryman was paid a wage of just 8d. per day,[478] the
same pay as for a New Model Army infantryman, 130 years earlier.[479] The
rate of pay in the army was insufficient to meet the rising costs of living,
turning off potential recruits,[480] as service was nominally for life.[481]
Press gang at work, British To entice people to enrol, Parliament offered a bounty of £1.10s for every
caricature of 1780
recruit.[482] As the war dragged on, Parliament became desperate for
manpower; criminals were offered military service to escape legal
penalties, and deserters were pardoned if they re-joined their units.[483]
After the defeat at Saratoga, Parliament doubled the bounty to £3,[484] and increased it again the following year, to
£3.3s, as well as expanding the age limit from 17–45 to 16–50 years of age.[485]
Impressment, essentially conscription by the "press gang", was a favored recruiting method, though it was unpopular
with the public, leading many to enlist in local militias to avoid regular service.[486] Attempts were made to draft such
levies, much to the chagrin of the militia commanders.[487] Competition between naval and army press gangs, and
even between rival ships or regiments, frequently resulted in brawls between the gangs in order to secure recruits for
their unit.[488] Men would maim themselves to avoid the press gangs,[489] while many deserted at the first
opportunity.[490] Pressed men were militarily unreliable; regiments with large numbers of such men were deployed to
garrisons such as Gibraltar or the West Indies, purely to increase the difficulty in successfully deserting.[491]
By 1781, the Army numbered approximately 121,000 men globally,[22] 48,000 of whom were stationed throughout the
Americas.[21] Of the 171,000 sailors[26] who served in the Royal Navy throughout the conflict, around a quarter were
pressed. This same proportion, approximately 42,000 men, deserted during the conflict.[41] At its height, the Navy had
94 ships-of-the-line,[492] 104 frigates[493] and 37 sloops[494] in service.
Loyalists and Hessians
In 1775, Britain unsuccessfully attempted to secure 20,000 mercenaries

from Russia,[495] and the use of the Scots Brigade from the Dutch
Republic,[496] such was the shortage of manpower. Parliament managed to
negotiate treaties with the princes of German states for large sums of
money, in exchange for auxiliary troops.[130] In total, 29,875 troops were
hired for British service from six German states; Brunswick (5,723), Hesse-
Kassel (16,992), Hesse-Hannau (2,422), Ansbach-Bayreuth (2,353),
Waldeck-Pyrmont (1,225) and Anhalt-Zerbst (1,160).[29] King George III,
who also ruled Hanover as a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, was
approached by Parliament to lend the government Hanoverian soldiers for
service in the war. Hanover supplied 2,365 men in five battalions, however,
the lease agreement permitted them to only be used in Europe.[497]
Without any major allies,[230] the manpower shortage became critical

Hessian soldiers of the Leibregiment
when France and Spain entered the war, forcing a major diversion of
military resources from the Americas.[233][234] Recruiting adequate
numbers of Loyalist militia in America was made difficult by intensive Patriot activity.[498] To bolster numbers, the
British promised freedom and grants of land to slaves who fought for them.[499] Approximately 25,000 Loyalists
fought for the British throughout the war,[27] and provided some of the best troops in the British service;[500] the
British Legion, a mixed regiment of 250 dragoons and 200 infantry[501] commanded by Banastre Tarleton, gained a
fearsome reputation in the colonies, especially in the South.[502][503][504]
Leadership
Britain had a difficult time appointing a determined senior military leadership in America. Thomas Gage,
Commander-in-Chief of North America at the outbreak of the war, was criticized for being too lenient on the rebellious
colonists. Jeffrey Amherst, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 1778, refused a direct command
in America, because he was unwilling to take sides in the war.[505] Admiral Augustus Keppel similarly opposed a
command, stating; "I cannot draw the sword in such a cause". The Earl of Effingham resigned his commission when
his regiment was posted to America, while William Howe and John Burgoyne were opposed to military solutions to the
crisis. Howe and Henry Clinton both stated they were unwilling participants, and were only following orders.[506]
As was the case in many European armies, except the Prussian Army, officers in British service could purchase
commissions to ascend the ranks.[507] Despite repeated attempts by Parliament to suppress it, the practise was
common in the Army.[508] Values of commissions varied, but were usually in line with social and military prestige, for
example, regiments such as the Guards commanded the highest prices.[509] The lower ranks often regarded the
treatment to high-ranking commissions by wealthier officers as "plums for [their] consumption".[510] Wealthy
individuals lacking any formal military education, or practical experience, often found their way into positions of high
responsibility, diluting the effectiveness of a regiment.[511] Though Royal authority had forbade the practise since 1711,
it was still permitted for infants to hold commissions. Young boys, often orphans of deceased wealthy officers, were
taken from their schooling and placed in positions of responsibility within regiments.[512]
Logistics
Logistical organization of eighteenth century armies was chaotic at best, and the British Army was no exception. No
logistical corps existed in the modern sense; while on campaign in foreign territories such as America, horses, wagons,
and drivers were frequently requisitioned from the locals, often by impressment or by hire.[513] No centrally organized
medical corps existed. It was common for surgeons to have no formal medical education, and no diploma or entry
examination was required. Nurses sometimes were apprentices to surgeons, but many were drafted from the women
who followed the army.[514] Army surgeons and doctors were poorly paid and were regarded as social inferiors to other
officers.[515]
The heavy personal equipment and wool uniform of the regular

infantrymen were wholly unsuitable for combat in America, and the outfit
was especially ill-suited to comfort and agile movement.[516] During the
Battle of Monmouth in late June 1778, the temperature exceeded 100°F
(37.8°C) and is said to have claimed more lives through heat stroke than
through actual combat.[517] The standard-issue firearm of the British Army
was the Land Pattern Musket. Some officers preferred their troops to fire
careful, measured shots (around two per minute), rather than rapid firing.
A bayonet made firing difficult, as its cumbersome shape hampered
ramming down the charge into the barrel.[518] British troops had a
tendency to fire impetuously, resulting in inaccurate fire, a trait for which
John Burgoyne criticized them during the Saratoga campaign. Burgoyne
instead encouraged bayonet charges to break up enemy formations, which
was a preferred tactic in most European armies at the time.[519]
Every battalion in America had

organized its own rifle company
by the end of the war, although
rifles were not formally issued Grenadier of the 40th Regiment of
Foot in 1767, armed with a Brown
to the army until the Baker
Bess musket
Rifle in 1801.[520] Flintlocks
were heavily dependent on the
weather; high winds could blow the gunpowder from the flash pan,[521]
while heavy rain could soak the paper cartridge, ruining the powder and
rendering the musket unable to fire. Furthermore, flints used in British
muskets were of notoriously poor quality; they could only be fired around
six times before requiring resharpening, while American flints could fire
sixty. This led to a common expression among the British: "Yankee flint
was as good as a glass of grog".[522]
Provisioning troops and sailors proved to be an immense challenge, as the

Soldiers of the Black Watch armed majority of food stores had to be shipped overseas from Britain.[523] The
with Brown Bess muskets, c. 1790
need to maintain Loyalist support prevented the Army from living off the
land.[524] Other factors also impeded this option; the countryside was too
sparsely populated and the inhabitants were largely hostile or indifferent, the network of roads and bridges was poorly
developed, and the area which the British controlled was so limited that foraging parties were frequently in danger of
being ambushed.[525] After France entered the war, the threat of the French navy increased the difficulty of
transporting supplies to America. Food supplies were frequently in bad condition. The climate was also against the
British in the southern colonies and the Caribbean, where the intense summer heat caused food supplies to sour and
spoil.[526]
Life at sea was little better. Sailors and passengers were issued a daily food ration, largely consisting of hardtack and
beer.[527] The hardtack was often infested by weevils and was so tough that it earned the nicknames "molar breakers"
and "worm castles",[528] and it sometimes had to be broken up with cannon shot. Meat supplies often spoiled on long
voyages.[529] The lack of fresh fruit and vegetables gave rise to scurvy, one of the biggest killers at sea.[446]
Discipline
Discipline was harsh in the armed forces, and the lash was used to punish even trivial offences—and not used
sparingly.[530] For instance, two redcoats received 1,000 lashes each for robbery during the Saratoga campaign,[531]
while another received 800 lashes for striking a superior officer.[532] Flogging was a common punishment in the Royal
Navy and came to be associated with the stereotypical hardiness of sailors.[533]
Despite the harsh discipline, a distinct lack of self-discipline pervaded all ranks of the British forces. Soldiers had an
intense passion for gambling, reaching such excesses that troops would often wager their own uniforms.[534] Many
drank heavily, and this was not exclusive to the lower ranks; William Howe was said to have seen many "crapulous
mornings" while campaigning in New York. John Burgoyne drank heavily on a nightly basis towards the end of the
Saratoga campaign. The two generals were also reported to have found solace with the wives of subordinate officers to
ease the stressful burdens of command.[535] During the Philadelphia campaign, British officers deeply offended local
Quakers by entertaining their mistresses in the houses where they had been quartered.[536] Some reports indicated
that British troops were generally scrupulous in their treatment of non-combatants.[537] This is in contrast to diaries of
Hessian soldiers, who recorded their disapproval of British conduct towards the colonists, such as the destruction of
property and the execution of prisoners.[538]
The presence of Hessian soldiers caused considerable anxiety among the colonists, both Patriot and Loyalist, who
viewed them as brutal mercenaries.[539] British soldiers were often contemptuous in their treatment of Hessian
troops, despite orders from General Howe that "the English should treat the Germans as brothers". The order only
began to have any real effect when the Hessians learned to speak a minimal degree of English, which was seen as a
prerequisite for the British troops to accord them any respect.[540]
During peacetime, the Army's idleness led to it being riddled with corruption and inefficiency, resulting in many
administrative difficulties once campaigning began.[541]
Strategic deficiencies
The British leadership soon discovered it had overestimated the capabilities of its own troops, while underestimating
those of the colonists, causing a sudden re-think in British planning.[126][127] The ineffective initial response of British
military and civil officials to the onset of the rebellion had allowed the advantage to shift to the colonists, as British
authorities rapidly lost control over every colony.[128] A microcosm of these shortcomings were evident at the Battle of
Bunker Hill. It took ten hours for the British leadership to respond following the sighting of the Americans on the
Charlestown Peninsula, giving the colonists ample time to reinforce their defenses.[542] Rather than opt for a simple
flanking attack that would have rapidly succeeded with minimal loss,[543] the British decided on repeated frontal
attacks. The results were telling; the British suffered 1,054 casualties of a force of around 3,000 after repeated frontal
assaults.[544] The British leadership had nevertheless remained excessively optimistic, believing that just two
regiments could suppress the rebellion in Massachusetts.[545][546]
Debate persists over whether a British defeat was a guaranteed outcome. Ferling argues that the odds were so long, the
defeat of Britain was nothing short of a miracle.[547] Ellis, however, considers that the odds always favored the
Americans, and questions whether a British victory by any margin was realistic. Ellis argues that the British
squandered their only opportunities for a decisive success in 1777, and that the strategic decisions undertaken by
William Howe underestimated the challenges posed by the Americans. Ellis concludes that, once Howe failed, the
opportunity for a British victory "would never come again".[548] Conversely, the United States Army's official textbook
argues that, had Britain been able to commit 10,000 fresh troops to the war in 1780, a British victory was within the
realms of possibility.[549]
William Howe
Historians such as Ellis and Stewart have observed that, under William Howe's command, the British squandered
several opportunities to achieve a decisive victory over the Americans.[549][548] Throughout the New York and
Philadelphia campaigns, Howe made several strategic errors, errors which cost the British opportunities for a
complete victory. At Long Island, Howe failed to even attempt an encirclement of Washington,[550] and actively
restrained his subordinates from mounting an aggressive pursuit of the defeated American army.[147] At White Plains,
he refused to engage Washington's vulnerable army, and instead concentrated his efforts upon a hill which offered the
British no strategic advantage.[152][153] After securing control of New York,

Howe dispatched Henry Clinton to capture Newport, a measure which
Clinton was opposed to, on the grounds the troops assigned to his
command could have been put to better use in pursuing Washington's
retreating army.[156][157][158] Despite the bleak outlook for the
revolutionary cause[551] and the surge of Loyalist activity in the wake of
Washington's defeats,[141] Howe made no attempt to mount an attack upon
Washington while the Americans settled down into winter quarters, much
to their surprise.[179]
During planning for the Saratoga campaign, Howe was left with the choice
of committing his army to support Burgoyne, or capture Philadelphia, the
revolutionary capital. Howe decided upon the latter, determining that
Washington was of a greater threat. When Howe launched his campaign,
he took his army upon a time-consuming route through the Chesapeake
Bay, rather than the more sensible choices of overland through New
A 1777 mezzotint of Sir William
Jersey, or by sea through the Delaware Bay. The move left him unable to
Howe, British Commander-in-Chief
from 1775–1778 assist Burgoyne even if it was required of him. The decision so angered
Parliament, that Howe was accused by Tories on both sides of the Atlantic
of treason.[190]
During the Philadelphia campaign, Howe failed to pursue and destroy the defeated Americans on two occasions; once
after the Battle of Brandywine,[191][192] and again after the Battle of Germantown.[195] At the Battle of White Marsh,
Howe failed to even attempt to exploit the vulnerable American rear,[197] and then inexplicably ordered a retreat to
Philadelphia after only minor skirmishes, astonishing both sides.[196] While the Americans wintered only twenty miles
away, Howe made no effort to attack their camp, which critics argue could have ended the war.[199][200][201] Following
the conclusion of the campaign, Howe resigned his commission, and was replaced by Henry Clinton on May 24,
1778.[203]
Contrary to Howe's more hostile critics, however, there were strategic factors at play which impeded aggressive action.
Howe may have been dissuaded from pursuing aggressive manoeuvres by the memory of the grievous losses the
British suffered at Bunker Hill.[552][553] During the major campaigns in New York and Philadelphia, Howe often wrote
of the scarcity of adequate provisions, which hampered his ability to mount effective campaigns.[554] Howe's tardiness
in launching the New York campaign, and his reluctance to allow Cornwallis to vigorously pursue Washington's beaten
army, have both been attributed to the paucity of available food supplies.[555][556]
During the winter of 1776–1777, Howe split his army into scattered cantonments. This decision dangerously exposed
the individual forces to defeat in detail, as the distance between them was such that they could not mutually support
each other. This strategic failure allowed the Americans to achieve victory at the Battle of Trenton, and the concurrent
Battle of Princeton.[557] While a major strategic error to divide an army in such a manner, the quantity of available
food supplies in New York was so low that Howe had been compelled to take such a decision. The garrisons were
widely spaced so their respective foraging parties would not interfere with each other's efforts.[558] Howe's difficulties
during the Philadelphia campaign were also greatly exacerbated by the poor quality and quantity of available
provisions.[559]
Clinton and Cornwallis

In 1780, the primary British strategy hinged upon a Loyalist uprising in the south, for which Charles Cornwallis was
chiefly responsible. After an encouraging success at Camden, Cornwallis was poised to invade North Carolina.
However, any significant Loyalist support had been effectively destroyed at the Battle of Kings Mountain, and the
British Legion, the cream of his army, had been decisively defeated at the Battle of Cowpens. Following both defeats,
Cornwallis was fiercely criticized for detaching a significant portion of his

army without adequate mutual support.[323] Despite the defeats,
Cornwallis chose to proceed into North Carolina, gambling his success
upon a large Loyalist uprising which never materialized.[560] As a result,
subsequent engagements cost Cornwallis valuable troops he could not
replace, as at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse,[325] and the Americans
steadily wore his army down in an exhaustive war of attrition. Cornwallis
had thus left the Carolinas ripe for reconquest. The Americans had largely
achieved this aim by the end of 1781, effectively confining the British to the
coast, and undoing all the progress they had made in the previous
year.[561][332]
In a last-ditch attempt to win the war in the South, Cornwallis resolved to

invade Virginia, in order to cut off the American's supply base to the
Carolinas. Henry Clinton, Cornwallis' superior, strongly opposed the plan, General Charles Cornwallis led
believing the decisive confrontations would take place with Washington in British forces in the southern
the North.[333] London had approved Cornwallis plan, however they had campaign.
failed to include Clinton in the decision-making, despite his seniority over
Cornwallis, leading to a muddled strategic direction.[334] Cornwallis then
decided to invade Virginia without informing Clinton of his intentions.[562] Clinton, however, had wholly failed to
construct a coherent strategy for British campaigning that year,[336] owing to his fractious relationship that he shared
with Mariot Arbuthnot, his naval counterpart.[337]
As the Franco-American army approached Cornwallis at Yorktown, he made no attempt to sally out and engage before
siege lines could be erected, despite the repeated urging of his subordinate officers.[347] Expecting relief to soon arrive
from Clinton, Cornwallis prematurely abandoned all of his outer defences, which were then promptly occupied by the
besiegers, serving to hasten the British defeat.[563] These factors contributed to the eventual surrender of Cornwallis'
entire army, and the end of major operations in North America.[564]
Like Howe before him, Clinton's efforts to campaign suffered from chronic supply issues. In 1778, Clinton wrote to
Germain complaining of the lack of supplies, even after the arrival of a convoy from Ireland.[565] That winter, the
supply issue had deteriorated so badly, that Clinton expressed considerable anxiety over how the troops were going to
be properly fed.[566] Clinton was largely inactive in the North throughout 1779, launching few major campaigns. This
inactivity was partially due to the shortage of food.[567] By 1780, the situation had not improved. Clinton wrote a
frustrated correspondence to Germain, voicing concern that a "fatal consequence will ensue" if matters did not
improve. By October that year, Clinton again wrote to Germain, angered that the troops in New York had not received
"an ounce" of that year's allotted stores from Britain.[568]
Campaign issues
Suppressing a rebellion in America presented the British with major problems. The key issue was distance; it could
take up to three months to cross the Atlantic, and orders from London were often outdated by the time that they
arrived.[569] The colonies had never been formally united prior to the conflict and there was no centralized area of
ultimate strategic importance. Traditionally, the fall of a capital city often signalled the end of a conflict,[570] yet the
war continued unabated even after the fall of major settlements such as New York, Philadelphia (which was the Patriot
capital), and Charleston.[571] Britain's ability to project its power overseas lay chiefly in the power of the Royal Navy,
allowing her to control major coastal settlements with relative ease and enforce a strong blockade of colonial ports.
However, the overwhelming majority of the American population was agrarian, not urban. As a result, the American
economy proved resilient enough to withstand the blockade's effects.[453]
The need to maintain Loyalist support prevented the British from using the
harsh methods of suppressing revolts that they had used in Scotland and
Ireland.[572] For example, British troops looted and pillaged the locals
during an aborted attack on Charleston in 1779, enraging both Patriots and
Loyalists.[573] Neutral colonists were often driven into the ranks of the
Patriots when brutal combat broke out between Tories and Whigs across
the Carolinas in the later stages of the war.[574] Conversely, Loyalists were
often emboldened when Patriots resorted to intimidating suspected Tories,
Black Loyalist soldiers fought such as destroying property or tarring and feathering.[575][576] The
alongside British regulars in the vastness of the American countryside and the limited manpower available
1781 Battle of Jersey, from The
meant that the British could never simultaneously defeat the Americans
Death of Major Peirson.
and occupy captured territory. One British statesman described the
attempt as "like trying to conquer a map".[577]
Wealthy Loyalists wielded great influence in London[578] and were successful in convincing the British that the
majority view in the colonies was sympathetic toward the Crown. Consequently, British planners pinned the success of
their strategies on popular uprisings of Loyalists. Historians have estimated that Loyalists made up only 15–20% of
the population (vs. 40–45% Patriots)[579] and that they continued to deceive themselves on their level of support as
late as 1780.[580] The British discovered that any significant level of organized Loyalist activity would require the
continued presence of British regulars,[581] which presented them with a major dilemma. The manpower that the
British had available was insufficient to both protect Loyalist territory and counter American advances.[582] The
vulnerability of Loyalist militias was repeatedly demonstrated in the South, where they suffered strings of defeats to
their Patriot neighbors. The most crucial juncture of this was at Kings Mountain, and the victory of the Patriot
partisans irreversibly crippled Loyalist military capability in the South.[321]
Upon the entry of France and Spain into the conflict, the British were forced to severely limit the number of troops and
warships that they sent to North America in order to defend other key territories and the British mainland.[233][234] As
a result, King George III abandoned any hope of subduing America militarily while he had a European war to contend
with.[583] The small size of Britain's army left them unable to concentrate their resources primarily in one theater as
they had done in the Seven Years' War, leaving them at a critical disadvantage.[231] The British were compelled to
disperse troops from the Americas to Europe and the East Indies, and these forces were unable to assist one other as a
result, precariously exposing them to defeat.[236] In North America, the immediate strategic focus of the French,
Spanish, and British shifted to Jamaica,[584] whose sugar exports were more valuable to the British than the economy
of the Thirteen Colonies combined.[389]
Following the end of the war, Britain had lost some of her most populous colonies. However, the economic effects of
the loss were negligible in the long-term, and she became a global superpower just 32 years after the end of the
conflict.[585]
United States
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, such as a treasury. The Congress tried to handle administrative affairs through legislative
committees, which proved inefficient. The state governments were themselves brand new and officials had no
administrative experience. In peacetime the colonies relied heavily on ocean travel and shipping, but that was now
shut down by the British blockade and the Americans had to rely on slow overland travel.
However, the Americans had multiple advantages that in the long run outweighed the initial disadvantages they faced.
The Americans had a large prosperous population that depended not on imports but on local production for food and
most supplies, while the British were mostly shipped in from across the ocean. The British faced a vast territory far
larger than Britain or France, located at a far distance from home ports.
Most of the Americans lived on farms distant from the seaports—the
British could capture any port but that did not give them control over the
hinterland. 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. They 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 1st Maryland Regiment holding the
national army created by Congress.[586] line at the Battle of Guilford
Motivation was a major asset. The Patriots wanted to win; over 200,000
fought in the war; 25,000 died. The British expected the Loyalists to do much of the fighting, but they did much less
than expected. The British also hired German auxiliaries to do much of their fighting.[13]
At the onset of the war, the Americans had no major international allies. Battles such as the Battle of Bennington, the
Battles of Saratoga and even defeats such as the Battle of Germantown[587] 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, to overtly supporting them militarily, moving the war to a global
stage.[588][589]
The new Continental Army suffered significantly from a lack of an effective training regime, and largely inexperienced
officers and sergeants. The inexperience of its officers was compensated for in part by a few senior officers. The
Americans solved their training dilemma during their stint in Winter Quarters at Valley Forge, where they were
relentlessly drilled and trained by General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, 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.[590] When the Army emerged from Valley Forge, it proved its ability to equally match
the British troops in battle when they fought a successful strategic action at the Battle of Monmouth.[591]
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. 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,
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.[498]
Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress Population density in the American
established a regular army on June 14, 1775, and appointed George Colonies in 1775
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.
Three current branches of the United States Military trace their institutional roots to the American Revolutionary
War; the United States Army comes from the Continental Army, formed by a resolution of the Continental Congress
on June 14, 1775. The United States Navy recognizes October 13, 1775 as the date of its official establishment, the
passage of the resolution of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia that created the Continental Navy.[592] The
United States Marine Corps links to the Continental Marines of the war, formed by a resolution of the Continental
Congress on November 10, 1775. However, in 1783 both the Continental Navy and Continental Marines were
disbanded.
Intelligence and espionage
Soldiers and sailors

At the beginning of 1776, Washington commanded 20,000 men, with two-thirds enlisted in the Continental Army and
the other third in the various state militias.[593] 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.
About 55,000 sailors served aboard American privateers during the war.[594] They used 1,700 ships, and they captured
2,283 enemy ships.[450] 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.[595] For example, in what was known as
the Whaleboat War, American privateers mainly from New Jersey, Brooklyn and Connecticut attacked and robbed
British merchant ships and raided and robbed coastal communities of Long Island reputed to have Loyalist
sympathies.[596][597][598]
Armies were small by European standards of the era, largely attributable, on the American side, to limitations such as
lack of powder and other logistical capabilities; and, on the British side, to the difficulty of transporting troops across
the Atlantic, as well as the dependence on local supplies, which the Patriots tried to cut off. The largest force
Washington commanded was certainly under 17,000,[599] and may have been no more than 13,000 troops, and even
the combined American and French forces at the siege of Yorktown amounted to only about 19,000.[600] By
comparison, Duffy notes that in an era when European rulers were generally revising their forces downward, in favor
of a size that could be most effectively controlled (the very different perspective of mass conscript armies came later,
during the French Revolutionary and then the Napoleonic Wars), the largest army that Frederick the Great ever led
into battle was 65,000 men (at Prague in 1757), and at other times he commanded between 23,000 and 50,000 men,
considering the latter the most effective number.[600]
George Washington's roles

General Washington assumed five main roles during the war.[601]
First, he designed the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress. The goal was always independence.
When France entered the war, he worked closely with the soldiers it sent – they were decisive in the great victory at
Yorktown in 1781.[602]
Second, he provided leadership of troops against the main British forces in 1775–77 and again in 1781. He lost many of
his battles, but he never surrendered his army during the war, and he continued to fight the British relentlessly until
the war's end. Washington worked hard to develop a successful espionage system to detect British locations and plans.
In 1778, he formed the Culper Ring to spy on enemy movements in New York City. In 1780 it discovered Benedict
Arnold was a traitor.[603] The British put a low value on intelligence, and its operations were of poor quality until
1780, when it finally inserted some spies with Congress and with Washington's command. Even then, however, British
commanders ignored or downplayed threats that were revealed. The most serious intelligence failure came in 1781
when top commanders were unaware that The American and French armies at both left the Northeast and marched
down to Yorktown, where they outnumbered Cornwallis by more than 2 to 1.[604]
Third, he was charged selecting and guiding the generals. In June 1776, Congress made its first attempt at running the
war effort 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.[605][606] The command structure of the armed forces
was a hodgepodge of Congressional appointees (and Congress sometimes made those appointments without
Washington's input) with state-appointments filling the lower ranks. The results of his general staff were mixed, as
some of his favorites never mastered the art of command, such as John Sullivan. Eventually, he found capable officers
such as Nathanael Greene, Daniel Morgan, Henry Knox (chief of artillery), and Alexander Hamilton (chief of staff).
The American officers never equaled their opponents in tactics and maneuver, and they lost most of the pitched
battles. The great successes at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777), and Yorktown (1781) came from trapping the British far
from base with much larger numbers of troops.[607]
Fourth he took charge of training the army and providing supplies, from food to gunpowder to tents. He recruited
regulars and assigned Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff, to train them. He
transformed Washington's army into a disciplined and effective force.[608] The war effort and getting supplies to the
troops were under the purview of Congress, but Washington pressured the Congress to provide the essentials. There
was never nearly enough.[609]
Washington's fifth and most important role in the war effort was the embodiment of armed resistance to the Crown,
serving as the representative man of the Revolution. His long-term strategy was to maintain an army in the field at all
times, and eventually this strategy worked. His enormous personal and political stature and his political skills kept
Congress, the army, the French, the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. Furthermore, he
permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs by voluntarily resigning his commission
and disbanding his army when the war was won, rather than declaring himself monarch. He also helped to overcome
the distrust of a standing army by his constant reiteration that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice
as much as poorly trained and led militias.[610]
African Americans
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. 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 1780 drawing of American soldiers
from the Yorktown campaign shows
convenience. Another all-black unit came from Saint-Domingue with
a black infantryman from the 1st
French colonial forces. At least 5,000 black soldiers fought for the
Rhode Island Regiment.
Revolutionary cause.[611][612]
Tens of thousands of slaves escaped during the war and joined British
lines; others simply moved off in 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.[613] 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 belonging to Loyalists.[614] Altogether, the British evacuated nearly 20,000 blacks at the end of the war.
More than 3,000 of them were freedmen and most of these were resettled in Nova Scotia; other blacks were sold in the
West Indies.[615][616]
American Indians
Most American Indians east of the Mississippi River were affected by the
war, and many tribes were divided over the question of how to respond to
the conflict. A few tribes were on friendly terms with the other Americans,
but most Indians opposed the union of the Colonies as a potential threat to
their territory. Approximately 13,000 Indians fought on the British side,
with the largest group coming from the Iroquois tribes, who fielded around
1,500 men.[617] The powerful Iroquois Confederacy was shattered as a
result of the conflict, whatever side they took; the Seneca, Onondaga, and
Cayuga tribes sided with the British. Members of the Mohawks fought on
both sides. Many Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the Americans. The
Continental Army sent the Sullivan Expedition on raids throughout New
York to cripple the Iroquois tribes that had sided with the British. Mohawk
leaders Joseph Louis Cook and Joseph Brant sided with the Americans and
the British respectively, and this further exacerbated the split.
Farther west, conflicts between settlers and Indians led to lasting

distrust.[618] In the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain ceded control of the
A watercolor painting depicting a
disputed lands between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, but the Indian
variety of Continental Army soldiers
inhabitants were not a part of the peace negotiations.[619] Tribes in the
Northwest Territory banded together and allied with the British to resist
American settlement; their conflict continued after the Revolutionary War as the Northwest Indian War.[620][621]
Early in July 1776, Cherokee allies of Britain attacked the western frontier areas of North Carolina. Their defeat
resulted in a splintering of the Cherokee settlements and people and was directly responsible for the rise of the
Chickamauga Cherokee, bitter enemies of the American settlers who carried on a frontier war for decades following
the end of hostilities with Britain.[622] 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.[623] Many Indians 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 major battles
such as the Battle of Fort Charlotte, the Battle of Mobile, and the Siege of Pensacola.[624]
Women
A few women fought in the American Army in the war while disguised as
men.[625] Deborah Sampson fought until her sex was discovered and she
was discharged, and Sally St. Clare died in the war.[625][626] Anna Maria
Lane joined her husband in the Army, and she was wearing men's clothes
by the time of the Battle of Germantown.[625] According to the Virginia
General Assembly, Lane "performed extraordinary military services, and
received a severe wound at the battle of Germantown", fighting dressed as
a man and "with the courage of a soldier".[625] Other women fought or
directly supported fighting while dressed as women, such as the legendary Nancy Morgan Hart captures six
British soldiers who had entered her
or mythical Molly Pitcher.[627]
home
Women also accompanied armies as camp followers, selling goods and
performing necessary services. They were an official and necessary part of
18th century armies, and they numbered in the thousands during the Revolutionary War.[628] Some women
accompanied their husbands when permitted. Martha Washington was known to visit the American camp, for
example, and Frederika Charlotte Riedesel documented the Saratoga campaign.[629] Women also acted as spies on
both sides of the Revolutionary War.[630]
Race and 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. The British took some 12,000 at the end of the war; of
these 8000 remained in slavery. Including those who left during the war, a total of about 8000 to 10,000 slaves gained
freedom.[616] About 4000 freed slaves went to Nova Scotia and 1200 blacks remained slaves.[631][632]
Baller (2006) examines 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. 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. On the whole, historians conclude the Revolution's
effect on patriarchy and inheritance patterns favored egalitarianism.[633]
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. The 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. There 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.[634]
See also
Bibliography of the American Revolutionary War
Bibliography of George Washington
Bibliography of Thomas Jefferson
Commemoration of the American Revolution
Diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War
British Army during the American War of Independence
First Treaty of San Ildefonso
First League of Armed Neutrality
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
George Washington in the American Revolution
Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
List of American Revolutionary War battles
List of British Forces in the American Revolutionary War
List of Continental Forces in the American Revolutionary War
List of infantry weapons in the American Revolution
List of plays and films about the American Revolution
List of revolutions and rebellions
Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War
Treaty of El Pardo (1778)
Notes
1. This article primarily refers to the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies who supported the American Revolution as
"Americans", with occasional references to "Patriots" or "Revolutionaries". Colonists who supported the British
and opposed the Revolution are referred to as "Loyalists" or "Tories". The geographical area of the thirteen
colonies is often referred to simply as "America".
References
1. (from 1777)
2. (from 1778)
3. The term "French Empire" colloquially refers to the empire under Napoleon, but it is used here for brevity to refer
to France proper and to the colonial empire that the Kingdom of France ruled
4. (from 1779)
5. (1780–84)
6. (1780–84)
7. (until 1779)
8. Hanover supplied troops per Personal union treaty, not as mercenaries
9. Lowell, Edward J (1884), "The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary
War", Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, Chapter II. Quote: "Five battalions of the Hanoverian subjects of
George III were despatched to Gibraltar and Menorca"
10. (from 1779)
11. Brendan Simms, Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783 (2008)
12. Duncan, Louis C. Medical Men in the American Revolution (http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/rev/MedMen/
default.html) (1931).
13. Michael Lanning (2009). American Revolution 100: The Battles, People, and Events of the American War for
Independence, Ranked by Their Significance (https://books.google.com/books?id=1GEs53wMr7EC&pg=PA193).
Sourcebooks. pp. 195–96. ISBN 978-1-4022-4170-3.
14. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole. A Companion to the American Revolution (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003), p. 328.
15. Paullin, Charles Oscar (1906). The navy of the American Revolution: its administration, its policy and its
achievements (https://books.google.com/?id=Ws5EAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor%3Apaullin%20massachusetts%20na
vy&pg=PA315#v=onepage&q=inauthor:paullin%20massachusetts%20navy). The Burrows Brothers Co.
16. "Privateers or Merchant Mariners help win the Revolutionary War" (http://www.usmm.org/revolution.html).
Usmm.org. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
17. Howarth 1991, p. 16
18. Montero, Francisco Maria (1860), Historia de Gibraltar y de su campo (in Spanish), Imprenta de la Revista
Médica, p. 356
19. Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 79.
20. Jonathan Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 110.
21. "Red Coats Facts – British Soldiers in the American Revolution" (http://totallyhistory.com/red-coats/).
totallyhistory.com. April 2012.
22. "The British Army 1775–1783" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130927073929/http://orbat.com/site/uk_orbats/files/
6/The%20British%20Army%201775.pdf) (PDF). orbat. Archived from the original (http://orbat.com/site/uk_orbats/f
iles/6/The%20British%20Army%201775.pdf) (PDF) on September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
23. Chartrand & Courcelle 2006, p. 63: "Of 7,500 men in the Gibraltar garrison in September (including 400 in
hospital), some 3,430 were always on duty"
24. Winfield, Rif, British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714–1792 (Seaforth Publishing, 2007) ISBN 9781844157006
25. Winfield, Rif, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (Seaforth
Publishing, 2007)
26. Mackesy (1964), pp. 6, 176 (British seamen).
27. Savas and Dameron (2006), p. xli
28. Knesebeck, Ernst von dem (1845), "Geschichte de churhannoverschen Truppen in Gibraltar, Menorca und
Ostindien", Published by Im Verlage der Helwingschen Hof-Buchhandlung. Note: The strength of a Hanoverian
battalion is listed as 473 men
29. Lowell, Edward J (1884), "The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary
War", Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, Chapter II
30. Greene and Pole (1999), p. 393; Boatner (1974), p. 545.
31. Howard H. Peckham, ed., The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American
Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974).
32. Burrows, Edwin G. (Fall 2008). "Patriots or Terrorists" (http://www.americanheritage.com/content/patriots-or-terrori
sts). American Heritage. 58 (5). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130323233806/http://www.americanherit
age.com/content/patriots-or-terrorists) from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
33. Dawson, Warrington. "The 2112 Frenchmen who died in the United States from 1777 to 1783 while fighting for the
American Independence" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170605125852/http://www.w3r-us.org/history/rosters/frgr
aves.htm). Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route. Journal de la societe des Americanistes. Archived
from the original (http://www.w3r-us.org/history/rosters/frgraves.htm) on June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
34. Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other
Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. McFarland. p. 133. ISBN 978-0786474707.
35. "Spanish casualties in The American Revolutionary war" (http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm#AmRev).
Necrometrics.
36. Otfinoski, Steven (2008). The New Republic. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 9780761429388.
37. Annual Register, 1783 (https://books.google.com/books?id=p7T9O3aNmVoC&pg=PA199&dq=Annual+register+4
3,633#v=onepage&q=Annual%20register%2043%2C633) (1785), pp. 199–200.
38. Parliamentary Register (https://books.google.com/books?id=zc5ZwyqzpQQC&pg=PA298&dq=parliamentary+regi
ster+1780#v=onepage) (1781), pp. 263–65.
39. "Eighteenth Century Death Tolls" (http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm). necrometrics.com. Retrieved January 7,
2016.
40. Parliamentary Register (https://books.google.com/books?id=zc5ZwyqzpQQC&pg=PA298&dq=parliamentary+regi
ster+1780#v=onepage&q=killed) (1781), p. 269.
41. Mackesy (1964), pp. 6, 176 (British seamen)
42. Burrows, Edwin. "Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War."
Basic Books. New York, 2008. p. 203.
43. Modern British writers generally favor "American War of Independence", rather than "American Rebellion" or "War
of American Independence". "National Curriculum England" (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national
-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-
study). Retrieved April 21, 2016.
44. The colony of Georgia joined later.
45. Brooks, Richard (editor). Atlas of World Military History. HarperCollins, 2000, p. 101 "Washington's success in
keeping the army together deprived the British of victory, but French intervention won the war."
46. Chartrand, René (2006). Gibraltar 1779–83: The Great Siege. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-977-6., p. 9
47. Colin Bonwick, The American Revolution, 1991, pp. 71-72 ISBN 0-8139-1346-2
48. Gladney, Henry M. (2014). No Taxation without Representation: 1768 Petition, Memorial, and Remonstrance (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20150513135503/http://www.hgladney.com/PMR/No_Taxation_without_Representation
_%28book_description%29.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://www.hgladney.com/PMR/No_Taxation_w
ithout_Representation_(book_description).pdf) (PDF) on May 13, 2015.
49. Dickinson, H. T (1977). Liberty and Property: Political Ideology in Eighteenth-century Britain – H.T. Dickinson (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=YKYOAAAAQAAJ). p. 218. ISBN 978-0-416-72930-6. Retrieved January 7, 2015
– via Books.google.com.
50. Charles Howard McIlwain (1938). The American Revolution: A Constitutional Interpretation (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=uPCOs3MBUUEC&pg=PA51). p. 51. ISBN 978-1-58477-568-3.
51. Paul Boyer; et al. (2014). The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=kDAaCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA142). Cengage Learning. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-285-19339-7.
52. Knollenberg, Growth, 48; Thomas, Duties Crisis, 76
53. Young, Shoemaker, 183–85.
54. Knollenberg, Growth, 69
55. "What was the Boston Massacre?" (http://www.bostonmassacre.net/). Boston Massacre Society.
56. "Boston Tea Party" (http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party). History.com.
57. "Avalon Project – Great Britain : Parliament – The Massachusetts Government Act; May 20, 1774" (http://avalon.l
aw.yale.edu/18th_century/mass_gov_act.asp). avalon.law.yale.edu.
58. Ian R. Christie and Benjamin W. Labaree, Empire or Independence, 1760–1776 (New York: Norton, 1976) p. 188.
59. Ammerman, David (1974). In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774. New York:
Norton., p. 9
60. Ammerman points out that the act only permitted soldiers to be quartered in unoccupied buildings—although they
were still private property. (Ammerman, In the Common Cause, 10)
61. Ammerman, In the Common Cause, 15.
62. Gary B. Nash; Carter Smith (2007). Atlas Of American History (https://books.google.com/books?id=tyzmAJfLKs8
C&pg=PA64). Infobase Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4381-3013-2.
63. Peter Knight (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA184). ABC-CLIO. pp. 184–85. ISBN 978-1-57607-812-9.
64. Georgia did not attend
65. Ferling, John. (2003). A Leap in the Dark. Oxford University Press. p. 112.
66. Kindig, Thomas E. (1995). "Galloway's Plan for the Union of Great Britain and the Colonies" (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20150402104121/http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/planforunion.htm). Declaration of
Independence. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Independence Hall Association, publishing electronically as
ushistory.org. Archived from the original (http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/planforunion.htm) on April 2,
2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015. "The plan was considered very attractive to most of the members, as it
proposed a popularly elected Grand Council which would represent the interests of the colonies as a whole, and
would be a continental equivalent to the English Parliament. After a sincere debate, it was rejected by a six to five
vote on October 22, 1774. It may have been the arrival of the Suffolk County (Boston) resolutions that killed it."
67. Kramnick, Isaac (ed); Thomas Paine (1982). Common Sense. Penguin Classics. p. 21.
68. "Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to
participate in their legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and
other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and
exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone
be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such
manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed: But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the
mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament, as
are bonfide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial
advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members;
excluding every idea of taxation internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects, in America, without
their consent." quoted from the Declarations and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (http://avalon.law.yal
e.edu/18th_century/resolves.asp) October 14, 1774.
69. Cogliano, Francis D. Revolutionary America, 1763–1815: A Political History. Routledge, 1999. p. 47
70. Cogliano, Revolutionary America, 47–48
71. Alan Axelrod, The Real History of the American Revolution: A New Look at the Past (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=iBvtuSWgt_QC&pg=PA83#v=onepage), p. 83
72. Fischer, p. 76
73. Fischer, p. 85
74. Chidsey, p. 6. This is the total size of Smith's force.
75. Ketchum, pp. 18, 54
76. Ketchum, pp. 2–9
77. Ketchum pp. 110–11
78. Adams, Charles Francis, "The Battle of Bunker Hill" (https://archive.org/stream/americanhistoric18951896jame#p
age/401/mode/1up), in American Historical Review (1895–1896), pp. 401–13.
79. Higginbotham (1983), pp. 75–77.
80. Ketchum, pp. 183, 198–209
81. Hugh F. Rankin, ed. (1987). Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those who
Fought and Lived it (https://books.google.com/books?id=_BiqdpZ9hlcC&pg=PA63). Da Capo Press. p. 63.
ISBN 978-0-306-80307-9.
82. Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, A History of England in the Eighteenth CentuIry (https://archive.org/stream/histor
yofengland03leck#page/449/mode/1up) (1882), pp. 449–50.
83. McCullough, p. 53
84. Frothingham, pp. 100–01
85. John R. Alden (1989). A History of the American Revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=-o03VtlglokC&p
g=PA189). Da Capo Press. pp. 188–90. ISBN 978-0-306-80366-6.
86. Smith (1907), vol 1, p. 293
87. Glatthaar (2006), p. 91
88. Glatthaar (2006), p. 93
89. Quebec was officially ceded in 1763
90. Smith (1907), vol 1, p. 242
91. Gabriel, Michael P. (2002). Major General Richard Montgomery: The Making of an American Hero (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=1x2neu9sFNEC&lpg=PP1&dq=Major%20General%20Richard%20Montgomery%3A%20Th
e%20Making%20of%20an%20American%20Hero&pg=PP1#v=onepage). Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press.
ISBN 978-0-8386-3931-3., p. 141
92. Mark R. Anderson, The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America's War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776
(University Press of New England; 2013).
93. Alden, The American Revolution (1954) p. 206
94. Willard Sterne Randall, "Benedict Arnold at Quebec", MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History, Summer 1990,
Vol. 2, Issue 4, pp. 38–49.
95. Davies, Blodwen (1951). Quebec: Portrait of a Province. Greenberg. p. 32. Carleton's men had won a quick and
decisive victory
96. Lanctot (1967), pp. 141–46
97. Thomas A. Desjardin, Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 (2006).
98. Stanley, pp. 127–28
99. Watson (1960), p. 203.
100. Arthur S. Lefkowitz, Benedict Arnold's Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada during the Revolutionary
War (2007).
101. Smith (1907), volume 2, pp. 459–552
102. Selby and Higginbotham, p. 2
103. Levy, Andrew (January 9, 2007). The First Emancipator: Slavery, Religion, and the Quiet Revolution of Robert
Carter. Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-375-76104-1.
104. Scribner, Robert L. (1983). Revolutionary Virginia, the Road to Independence. University of Virginia Press. p. xxiv.
ISBN 978-0-8139-0748-2.
105. Russell, p. 73
106. McCrady, p. 89
107. Landrum, John Belton O'Neall (1897). Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper South Carolina (https://books.
google.com/books?id=4IwGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA72#v=onepage). Greenville, SC: Shannon. OCLC 187392639 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/187392639)., pp. 80–81
108. Wilson, David K (2005). The Southern Strategy: Britain's Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775–1780.
Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-573-9. OCLC 56951286 (https://www.world
cat.org/oclc/56951286)., p. 33
109. Hibbert, C: Rebels and Redcoats, p. 106
110. Kepner, F, "A British View of the Siege of Charleston, 1776", The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 11, No. 1. (Feb.
1945), p. 94 Jstor link (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2197961)
111. Bicheno, H: Rebels and Redcoats, pp. 154, 158
112. Field, Edward (1898). Esek Hopkins, commander-in-chief of the continental navy during the American Revolution,
1775 to 1778 (https://books.google.com/books?id=GEEvAAAAYAAJ). Providence: Preston & Rounds.
OCLC 3430958 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3430958)., p. 104
113. McCusker, John J (1997). Essays in the economic history of the Atlantic world. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-16841-0. OCLC 470415294 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/470415294)., pp. 185–87
114. Riley, pp. 101–02
115. Field, pp. 117–18

116. Field, pp. 120–25
117. "Declaration of Taking Up Arms: Resolutions of the Second Continental Congress" (http://www.constitution.org/bc
p/takuparm.htm). Constitution Society. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
118. Ketchum, p. 211
119. Maier, American Scripture, 25. The text of the 1775 king's speech is online (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?
ammem/rbpe:@field(DOCID+@lit(rbpe1440150a))), published by the American Memory project.
120. Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 168; Ferling, Leap in the Dark, 123–24.
121. Maier, American Scripture, 25
122. Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, The Men who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and
the Fate of the Empire (Yale UP, 2013).
123. Frank A. Biletz (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ireland (https://books.google.com/books?id=rb8eAgAAQBAJ&pg=P
A8). Scarecrow Press. p. 8. ISBN 9780810870918.
124. Lecky (1891). A History of England (https://books.google.com/books?id=m3cUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA162). pp. 162–
65.
125. Vincent Morley (2002). Irish Opinion and the American Revolution, 1760–1783 (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=iBrJz9XYzNgC&pg=PA154). Cambridge UP. pp. 154–57. ISBN 9781139434560.
126. Ketchum, pp. 208–09
127. Frothingham (1903), p. 298
128. John C. Miller (1959). Origins of the American Revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=DlmrAAAAIAAJ&p
g=PA410). Stanford UP. pp. 410–12. ISBN 9780804705936.
129. Scheer, p. 64
130. Jackson, Lowell, Edward (July 23, 1884). "The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the
revolutionary war" (http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/hessiansotherge00lowe). library.si.edu.
131. David Smith (2012). New York 1776: The Continentals' First Battle (https://books.google.com/books?id=IlMa-Krnxl
8C&pg=PA21). Osprey Publishing. pp. 21–23. ISBN 9781782004431.
132. Christie and Labaree, Empire or Independence, 270; Maier, American Scripture, 31–32.
133. Maier, American Scripture, 33–34
134. Boyd, Evolution, 19
136. Fischer (2004), p. 29.
138. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution Mark M. Botner III, (1974) p. 1094.
139. Liberty's Exiles; American Loyalists & the Revolutionary World. Maya Jasanoff (2011)
140. The American Revolution; Colin Bonwick (1991) p. 152
141. Encyclopedia of American History. Richard B. Morris and Jeffrey B. Morris, eds., 6th Edition (New York: Harper &
Row Publishers, 1982), p. 130.
142. Flight of the Tories from the Republic, The Tories of the American Revolution. North Callahan (1967) p. 120.
143. Land confiscation Records of north Carolina, Vol. 1 (1779–1800) Stewart Dunaway, p. 9
144. Fischer, pp. 76–78
145. Fischer, pp. 89, 381
146. Ketchum (1973), p. 104
147. Adams, Charles Francis, "Battle of Long Island" (https://archive.org/stream/americanhistoric18951896jame#page/
657/mode/1up), in American Historical Review (1895–1896), p. 657.
148. Fischer, pp. 88–102
149. Ketchum (1973), p. 117
150. Thomas J. McGuire (2011). Stop the Revolution: America in the Summer of Independence and the Conference for
Peace (https://books.google.com/books?id=OsNi7Byog6kC&pg=PA166). Stackpole Books. pp. 165–66.
ISBN 9780811745086.
151. Fischer, pp. 102–07

152. Fischer (2004), pp. 102–11.
153. Barnet Schecter, The battle for New York: The city at the heart of the American Revolution (2002).
154. Ketchum pp. 111, 130
155. Fischer, pp. 109–25
156. Ridpath, John Clark (1915). The new complete history of the United States of America, Volume 6 (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=Y8lKAAAAYAAJ&dq=Percy%20Clinton%20Newport%201776&pg=PA2531#v=onepage&q=
Percy%20Clinton%20Newport%201776). Cincinnati: Jones Brothers. OCLC 2140537 (https://www.worldcat.org/o
clc/2140537)., p. 2531
157. David McCullough (2006). 1776 (https://books.google.com/books?id=5LBVT46o5yQC&pg=PT122). p. 122.
ISBN 9781451658255.
158. Stedman, Charles, The History of the Origin, Progress and Termination of the American War Volume I (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=bmQFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q=%22Henry%20
Clinton%20strongly%20urged%20that%20he%20might%22) (1794), p. 221.
159. Larry Lowenthal, Hell on the East River: British Prison Ships in the American Revolution (2009).
160. Mary Tucker (March 1, 2002). Washington Crossing the Delaware (https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUx6Qn
UxxQC&pg=PA22). Lorenz Educational Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9780787785642.
ks.google.com/books?id=bmQFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=snippet&q=%22ordering%2
0lord%20Cornwallis%20to%20proceed%22) (1794), p. 223.
162. Schecter, pp. 266–67
163. Fischer, pp. 138–42
164. Lecky (1891). A History of England (https://books.google.com/books?id=m3cUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70). pp. 70–78.
165. McCullough 2006, p. 195.
166. Ketchum (1973), pp. 191, 269
167. Charles Francis Adams, "The Battle of Long Island," American Historical Review Vol. 1, No. 4 (Jul. 1896), pp.
650–70 in JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1833753)
168. Schecter, pp. 259–63
169. Fischer p. 254. Casualty numbers vary slightly with the Hessian forces, usually between 21–23 killed, 80–95
wounded, and 890–920 captured (including the wounded).
170. Fischer (2004), pp. 206–59.
171. Wood, W. J (1995). Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775–1781. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80617-9.
ISBN 0306813297 (2003 paperback reprint), pp. 72–74
172. Fischer p. 307
173. Ketchum p. 286
174. Ketchum (1973), pp. 388–89
175. Schecter, p. 268
176. McCullough p. 290
177. Lengel p. 208
178. Fischer (2004), pp. 345–58.
179. Lecky, William, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=m3cUAAAAY
AAJ&pg=PA287&dq=%22honourable+and+generous+steps%22+inauthor:lecky&num=100&as_brr=0#v=snippet&
q=%22Ten%20days%20later%2C%20in%20a%20confidential%20letter%22), Vol. IV (1891), p. 57.
180. Ketchum (1997), p. 84
181. Ketchum (1997), p. 84.
182. Ketchum (1997), pp. 244–49
183. Gabriel, Michael P. (2012). The Battle of Bennington: Soldiers and Civilians. The History Press.
184. Ketchum (1997), p. 283
185. Ketchum (1997), pp. 337–78.
186. Ketchum (1997), pp. 403–25.
187. Edmund Morgan, The Birth of the Republic: 1763–1789 (1956) pp. 82–83
188. Higginbotham (1983), pp. 188–98
ks.google.com/books?id=bmQFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage) (1794), pp. 287–
89.
190. Adams, Charles Francis. Campaign of 1777 (https://books.google.com/books?id=CgALAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA94&dq
=%22Contemporary%20Opinion%20on%20the%20Howes%22&pg=PA94#v=onepage) Proceedings of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 44 (1910–11) pp. 25–26
191. Higginbotham, The War of American Independence, pp. 181–86
192. Adams, Charles Francis. "Campaign of 1777" (https://books.google.com/books?id=CgALAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA94&d
q=%22Contemporary%20Opinion%20on%20the%20Howes%22&pg=PA94#v=onepage), Massachusetts
Historical Society, Vol. 44 (1910–11), p. 43.
193. Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. (2 volumes. New York: Macmillan, 1952.) History of land battles in
North America. p. 362
194. Stephen R. Taaffe, The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777–1778 (2003), pp. 95–100 except and text search. (https://w
ww.amazon.com/Philadelphia-Campaign-1777-1778-Modern-Studies/dp/070061267X/)
195. Rose, Michael (2007), Washington's War: From Independence to Iraq, [1] (https://books.google.com/books?id=tU
WSAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT50&lpg=PT50), Retrieved on May 24, 2017
196. McGuire, p. 254
197. Cadwalader, Richard McCall (1901). Observance of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Anniversary of the
Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British Army. Fort Washington and the Encampment of White Marsh, November
2, 1777 (https://books.google.com/books?id=kWhar7AYIwAC&pg=PA20). pp. 20–28. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
198. Freedman, 2008, pp. 1–30
199. Noel Fairchild Busch, Winter Quarters: George Washington and the Continental Army at Valley Forge (Liveright,
1974).
200. "A Concluding Commentary" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120619002020/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Re
vWar/risch/chpt-14.htm) Supplying Washington's Army (1981).
201. "The Winning of Independence, 1777–1783" (http://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V1/ch04.htm) American Military
History Volume I (2005).
202. Paul Douglas Lockhart, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American
Army (2008).
203. Frances H. Kennedy (2014). The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=rTSTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163). Oxford UP. p. 163. ISBN 9780199324224.
204. Text incorporated from Valley Forge National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/vafo) website, which is in the
public domain.
205. Freedman, 2008, pp. 70–83
206. Reid, Authority to Tax, 51.
207. Stockley (2001), pp. 11–12
208. Terry M. Mays (2009). Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=q3Cv
VcvmxUQC&pg=PR7). Scarecrow Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780810875036.
209. Jones, Howard (2002). Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913 (https://books.google.
com/?id=TFyLOUrdGFwC&dq=crucible+of+power&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1). Scholarly Resources Inc. p. 5.
ISBN 978-0-8420-2916-2.
210. Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds. Diplomacy and Revolution: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778
(United States Capitol Historical Society, 1981)
211. "Journal of the American Revolution, The Gunpowder shortage (September 9, 2013).[2] (http://allthingsliberty.co
m/2013/09/the-gunpowder-shortage/)
212. James Brown Scott, Historical Introduction (http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106006332446;view=1up;s
eq=37), pp. 8–9 in Samuel Flagg Bemis, Ed. The American Secretaries of State and their diplomacy V.1–2, 1963.
213. "Springfield Armory" (http://www.nps.gov/spar/historyculture/french-field_4pdr.htm). Nps.gov. April 25, 2013.
Retrieved May 8, 2013.
214. Georges Édouard Lemaître (2005). Beaumarchais (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlxAFMQs4kYC&pg=PA2

29). Kessinger Publishing. p. 229. ISBN 9781417985364.
215. Thomas G. Paterson; et al. (2009). American Foreign Relations, Volume 1: A History to 1920 (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=9-alDgRk-IYC&pg=PA13). Cengage Learning. pp. 13–15.
216. Perkins, James Breck, France In The Revolution (http://www.americanrevolution.org/frconfiles/fr12.html) (1911).
217. Corwin, Edward Samuel, French Policy and the American Alliance (https://archive.org/stream/frenchpolicyamer00
corwuoft#page/121/mode/1up) (1916), pp. 121–48.
218. Morris, Richard B. (1983) [1965]. The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence., p. 15
219. Renaut, Francis P. (1922). Le Pacte de famille et l'Amérique: La politique coloniale franco-espagnole de 1760 à
1792. Paris., p. 290
220. Caughey, John W. (1998). Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana 1776–1783. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company.
ISBN 978-1-56554-517-5., p. 87
221. Mitchell, Barbara A. (Autumn 2012). "America's Spanish Savior: Bernardo de Gálvez" (http://www.historynet.com/
americas-spanish-savior-bernardo-de-galvez.htm). MHQ (Military History Quarterly). pp. 98–104., p. 99
222. E. Chavez, Thomas (1997). Spain's Support Vital to United States Independence, 1777–1783. United States.
Dept. of Defense. pp. United States.
223. Sparks, Jared (1829–1830). The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution. Boston: Nathan Hale
and Gray & Bowen., p. 1:408
224. Fernández y Fernández, Enrique (1885). Spain's Contribution to the independence of the United States. Embassy
of Spain: United States of America., p. 4
225. Clarfield, Gerard. United States Diplomatic History: From Revolution to Empire. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1992.
226. Stockley, Andrew (January 1, 2001). Britain and France at the Birth of America: The European Powers and the
Peace Negotiations of 1782–1783 (https://books.google.com/books?id=mHoaiPKTKvwC). University of Exeter
Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-85989-615-3. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
227. Chartrand, René (2006). Gibraltar 1779–83: The Great Siege. Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-84176-977-6.
228. John Ferling (2007). Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=lyjjEsqlqo0C&pg=PA294). Oxford UP. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-19-975847-0.
229. Syrett (1998), p. 17
230. Scott, Hamish M. (1990). British Foreign Policy in the Age of the American Revolution (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=kndnAAAAMAAJ). Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820195-3., pp. 264–72
231. Cf. Richard Pares, (1936): 429–65
232. Syrett, David (1998). The Royal Navy in European Waters During the American Revolutionary War (https://books.
google.com/books?id=eEfsS5QKeFQC). Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-238-7., p. 18
233. Ketchum (1997), pp. 405–48
234. Higginbotham (1983), pp. 175–88
235. Trevelyan (1912), vol. 1, pp. 4–5.
236. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 (Boston:Little, Brown, 1890), p. 534
237. Edler 2001, pp. 28–32
238. Edler 2001, pp. 42–62
239. Edler 2001, pp. 95–138
240. Edler 2001, pp. 62–69
241. Edler 2001, pp. 88–91, 151–152, 164
242. Nickerson, Hoffman (1967) [1928]. The Turning Point of the Revolution. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat.
OCLC 549809 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/549809)., p. 412
243. Chartrand, René (2006). Gibraltar 1779–83: The Great Siege. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-977-6., p. 9
244. Harvey, Robert (2001), A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence, London, ISBN 978-0-7195-
6141-2, OCLC 46513518 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46513518), pp. 385–87
245. Chartrand, René (2006). Gibraltar 1779–83: The Great Siege. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-977-6., p.
37
246. Selig, Robert A; et al. (1999), "5, sect 3" (http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/ROCHAMBEAUINCONNECTICUT/Hist

orical.php#5.3), Rochambeau in Connecticut, Connecticut Historical Commission, retrieved December 7, 2007.
247. Patterson, Alfred Temple (1960), The Other Armada: The Franco-Spanish attempt to invade Britain in 1779,
Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, p. 3
248. "Bonhomme Richard" (http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b8/bonhomme_richard-i.htm). Dictionary of American
Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
249. Black, Jeremy (1992). "Naval Power, Strategy and Foreign Policy, 1775–1791" (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=ysC9rOCxGhgC&pg=PA105). In Michael Duffy (ed.). Parameters of British Naval Power, 1650–1850. Exeter,
UK: University of Exeter Press. pp. 95–120, here: p.&nbsp, 105. ISBN 978-0-85989-385-5. Retrieved April 12,
2013.
250. Volo, M. James. Blue Water Patriots: The American Revolution Afloat, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
(2008) ISBN 9780742561205, p. 77
251. Campbell, Thomas. Annals of Great Britain from the ascension of George III to the peace of Amiens, Printed by
Mundell and co., for Silvester Doig and Andrew Stirling (1811). p. 56
252. Gordon, William. The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the Independence of the United States of
America, Books for Libraries Press (1969) ISBN 9780836950243, p. 4
253. Campbell p. 36
254. Syrett, p. 136
255. Parkinson N, C. The Trade Winds: A Study of British Overseas Trade during the French wars, 1793–1815.
Routledge; Reprint edition. ISBN 9780415381918, p. 38
256. The encyclopaedia of London, p. 483
257. Guthrie, William. A New Geographical, Historical And Commercial Grammar And Present State Of The World.
Complete With 30 Fold Out Maps – All Present. J. Johnson Publishing (1808), p. 354, OCLC 222956803 (https://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/222956803)
258. Ramsay, David. Universal History Americanized, or an Historical View of the World from the Earliest Records to
the Nineteenth Century, with a Particular Reference to the State of Society, Literature, Religion, and Form of
Government of the United States of America. Vol. VI (1819), p. 184
259. Mirza, Rocky M. (2007). The Rise and Fall of the American Empire: A Re-Interpretation of History, Economics and
Philosophy: 1492–2006 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ubuq0oO-0aIC). Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-
4251-1383-4. Retrieved November 14, 2015., p. 185
260. Boromé, Joseph (January 1969). "Dominica during French Occupation, 1778–1784". The English Historical
Review. 84 (Volume 884, No. 330): 36–58. JSTOR 562321 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/562321).
261. Mirza, p. 185
262. Mahan, pp. 429–32
263. Colomb, Philip (1895). Naval Warfare, its Ruling Principles and Practice Historically Treated (https://books.google.
com/books?id=YJbAC0WK7K8C&pg=PA386#v=onepage). London: W. H. Allen. OCLC 2863262 (https://www.wor
ldcat.org/oclc/2863262)., pp. 388–89
264. Colomb, 389–391
265. Castex, Jean-Claude (2004). Dictionnaire des batailles navales franco-anglaises. Presses Université Laval.
ISBN 9782763780610., pp. 196–99
266. Mahan, pp. 438–39
267. James W. Raab (2007). Spain, Britain and the American Revolution in Florida, 1763–1783 (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=eCc8BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135). p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7864-3213-4.
268. "General Bernardo Galvez in the American Revolution" (http://www.thecajuns.com/galvezrw.htm).
269. Chávez, Thomas E (2004). Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift. UNM Press.
ISBN 978-0-8263-2794-9. OCLC 149117944 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/149117944)., p. 151
270. Chávez, p. 152
271. Chávez, p. 153
272. Chávez, p. 158
273. Southey, Robert (2007). The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson. Teddington, UK: Echo Library. ISBN 978-1-4068-3003-
3., p. 9
274. Southey p. 10
275. de Saavedra de Sangronis, Francisco; Francisco Morales Padrón (2004). Diario de don Francisco de Saavedra.
Madrid, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla. ISBN 9788447207824., p. 73
276. Coleman, Terry (2004). The Nelson Touch: The Life and Legend of Horatio Nelson. London: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517322-2., p. 32
277. Linebaugh, Peter; Rediker, Marcus (2005). La hidra de la revolución: marineros, esclavos y campesinos en la
historia oculta del Atlántico. Editorial Critica. ISBN 9788484326014., p. 307
278. Sudgen, John (2004). Nelson: A Dream of Glory, 1758–1797. New York: Holt. ISBN 978-0-224-06097-4., p. 173
279. Riddick, John F. (2006). The History of British India: A Chronology. Greenwood Publishing Group., pp. 23–25
280. Barua, Pradeep (2005). The State at War in South Asia. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1344-9.,
p. 79
281. "History of Mahé" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232052/http://mahe.gov.in/mws/leftmenupages/history.ht
ml). Archived from the original (http://mahe.gov.in/mws/leftmenupages/history.html) on December 30, 2013.
Retrieved June 2, 2017.
282. Almon, John; Deberett, John; Stockdale, John (1793). The Parliamentary Register; or History of the Proceedings
and Debates of the House of Commons. New York Public Library., p. 56
283. Cust, Eduard. (1862). "Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century, Compiled from the Most Authentic Histories
of the Period" Volume 3, University of Lausanne. p. 222
284. Dalrymple, William (October 1, 2005). "Assimilation and Transculturation in Eighteen-Century India: A Response
to Pankaj Mishra". Common Knowledge. 11 (3): 445–85. doi:10.1215/0961754X-11-3-445 (https://doi.org/10.121
5%2F0961754X-11-3-445). "As late as 1780, following the disastrous British defeat by Tipu Sultan of Mysore at
the Battle of Pollilur, 7,000 British men, along with an unknown number of women, were held captive by Tipu in
his sophisticated fortress of Seringapatam."
285. Ramaswami, N.S. (1984). Political History of Carnatic under the Nawabs. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. p. 225
286. Barua, p. 80
287. Morrissey, p. 77
288. Daughan, George (2011) [2008]. If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy – from the Revolution to the War of
1812. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02514-5. OCLC 701015376 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701015376)., pp.
174–75
289. Morrissey, p. 78
290. Dearden, Paul F (1980). The Rhode Island Campaign of 1778. Providence, RI: Rhode Island Bicentennial
Federation. ISBN 978-0-917012-17-4. OCLC 60041024 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60041024)., pp. 102–06
291. Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania: Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents, and Every Kind of
Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania, Volume 4 (https://books.google.com/books?id=MIcUAA
AAYAAJ&pg=PA54). W.F. Geddes. 1829. p. 54.
292. Eaton, Harry (1899). Jersey City and its historic sites. Jersey City, NJ: The Woman's Club. OCLC 6340873 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6340873).
293. Nelson, Paul David (1990). William Tryon and the course of empire: a life in British imperial service (https://books.
google.com/books?id=CPtiZBAufk4C&printsec=frontcover). UNC Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1917-3., p. 170
294. Bicheno, Hugh (2003). Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolutionary War. London: Harper Collins.
295. Fischer, Joseph R. (2007). A Well Executed Failure: The Sullivan campaign against the Iroquois, July–September
1779. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-837-2.
296. Alfred Creigh (1871). History of Washington County (https://books.google.com/?id=qEsVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA
49&dq=%22ann+hupp%22+indian). B. Singerly. p. 49.
297. Tolson, Jay (July 7–14, 2008). "How Washington's Savvy Won the Day". U.S. News & World Report.
298. Jonathan Chandler, "‘To become again our brethren’: desertion and community during the American
Revolutionary War, 1775–83." Historical Research 90#248 (2017): 363–80.
299. Fleming, Thomas (1973). The Forgotten Victory: The Battle for New Jersey – 1780 (https://archive.org/details/forg
ottenvictory00flem). New York: Reader's Digest Press. ISBN 978-0-88349-003-7., pp. 174–75
300. Fleming, pp. 232, 302
301. "July 15, 1780 – Benedict Arnold to John André (Code)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130408094150/http://ww
w2.si.umich.edu/spies/letter-1780july15-code.html), Spy Letters of the American Revolution – from the Collection
of the Clements Collection, archived from the original (http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/letter-1780july15-code.html)
on April 8, 2013, retrieved May 30, 2017
302. Willard M. Wallace, Traitorous Hero: The Life and Fortunes of Benedict Arnold (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1954), pp. 263, 270
303. Downes, Council Fires, 211; Nester, Frontier War, 194; Nelson, Man of Distinction, 101.
304. James, James Alton, ed. George Rogers Clark Papers. 2 vols. Originally published 1912–1926. Reprinted New
York: AMS Press, 1972. ISBN 0404015565, pp. 144–48
305. Lowell Hayes Harrison, George Rogers Clark and the War in the West (2001).
306. Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. Cambridge University
Press, 2005. ISBN 0521845661, p. 159. Grenier argues that "The slaughter the Indians and rangers perpetrated
was unprecedented."
307. Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754–1799.
Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1999. ISBN 0873386205 (hardcover). p. 118
308. Gaff, Alan D. (2004). Bayonets in the Wilderness. Anthony Waynes Legion in the Old Northwest. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3585-4.
309. Scaggs, David Curtis, ed. The Old Northwest in the American Revolution: An Anthology. Madison: The State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1977. ISBN 0870201646, p. 132
310. Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South (2000).
311. Morrill, Dan (1993). Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Nautical & Aviation Publishing., pp. 46–47
312. Morrill (1993), pp. 48–50
Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-573-9. OCLC 232001108 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/232001108)., p. 112
314. John W. Gordon and John Keegan, South Carolina and the American Revolution: A Battlefield History (2007).
315. Peterson, 1970, pp. 234–38.
316. Meacham, 2012, pp. 133–35; Ellis, 1996, p. 66; Gordon-Reed, 2008, pp. 136–37.
317. "From Thomas Jefferson to Sampson Mathews, 12 January 1781 Founders Online, National Archives," last
modified July 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-04-02-0417. [Original source: The
Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 4, 1 October 1780 – 24 February 1781, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1951, p. 343]
318. Bryan, Charles (October 25, 2014). "Richmond's Benedict Arnold" (https://www.richmond.com/richmond-s-benedi
ct-arnold/article_2b881762-185f-57c3-919c-548d7a8061e1.html). Richmond Times Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia.
Retrieved July 11, 2019.
319. Hugh F. Rankin, North Carolina in the American Revolution (1996).
320. Buchanan, John (1997). The Road To Guilford Court House: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. New
York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-32716-5., p. 202
321. Buchanan, p. 241
323. Clinton, H.; The American Rebellion; 1783
325. McGrath, Nick. "Battle of Guilford Courthouse" (http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-g
uilford-courthouse/). George Washington’s Mount Vernon: Digital Encyclopedia. Mount Vernon Ladies’
Association. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
326. Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South (2000).
327. Greene, Francis Vinton D. General Greene, Appleton and Company 1893, p. 241
328. Pancake, John (1985). This Destructive War (https://archive.org/details/thisdestructivew00panc). University of
Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0191-0.
329. C. Cate, Alan (2006). Founding Fighters: The Battlefield Leaders who Made American Independence. Greenwood
Publishing Group., p. 162
330. Reynolds, Jr., William R. (2012). Andrew Pickens: South Carolina Patriot in the Revolutionary War. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6694-8.
331. Pancake, John (1985). This Destructive War (https://archive.org/details/thisdestructivew00panc). University of
Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0191-0., p. 221
332. Bicheno, H: Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolutionary War, London, 2003
333. Cornwallis; An Answer to Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative. Note: Cornwallis wrote this pamphlet shortly after the war
in explanation of his actions.
334. Cornwallis Correspondence, Public Record Office (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm)
335. Clinton, H.; The American Rebellion. Note: This lack of notification was one of Clinton's main arguments in his
own defense in the controversy which followed the surrender at Yorktown.
336. Grainger, John (2005). The Battle of Yorktown, 1781: a Reassessment. Woodbridge, NJ: Boydell Press.
337. Billias, George (1969). George Washington's Generals and Opponents: their Exploits and Leadership. New York:
Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80560-8. OCLC 229206429 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/229206429)., pp.
267–75
338. Dull, Jonathan R (1975). The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–
1787. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-06920-3. OCLC 1500030 (https://www.worldcat.
org/oclc/1500030)., pp. 247–48
339. Grainger, p. 40
340. Dull, p. 241
342. Grainger, pp. 43–44
343. Michael Cecere, Great Things are Expected from the Virginians: Virginia in the American Revolution (2009).
344. Johnston, Henry Phelps (1881). The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781 (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=rWwFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA34#v=onepage). New York: Harper & Bros. OCLC 426009 (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/oclc/426009)., p. 101
345. Middleton, Richard (2014). "Naval Resources and the British Defeat at Yorktown, 1781". The Mariner's Mirror. 100
(1): 29–43. doi:10.1080/00253359.2014.866373 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00253359.2014.866373).
346. Duffy, Michael (1992). Parameters of British Naval Power, 1650–1850 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ysC9r
OCxGhgC). University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-385-5. Retrieved February 8, 2016., p. 110
349. Lengel, Edward (2005). General George Washington (https://books.google.com/books?id=yHTGAAAACAAJ&dq=
General+George+Washington+Lengel). New York: Random House Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-8129-6950-4., p.
337
350. Davis, Burke (2007). The Campaign that Won America (https://archive.org/details/battleofyorktown0000ande).
New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-8368-5393-3., p. 237
351. Fleming, Thomas (1970). The Perils of Peace. New York: The Dial Press. ISBN 978-0-06-113911-6., p. 16
352. Greene, pp. 307–08
354. Richard Ferrie, The World Turned Upside Down: George Washington and the Battle of Yorktown (1999).
355. Lewis Namier and John Brooke (1985). The House of Commons 1754–1790 (https://books.google.com/books?id=
Taw7DVGrbRcC&pg=RA1-PA246). p. 246. ISBN 9780436304200.
356. Mackesy, p. 435.
357. Greene, p. 325
358. Dirks, J. J. B. (1871), De Nederlandsche Zeemagt in Hare verschillende Tijdperken Geschetst. Deel 3 (in Dutch),
Rotterdam: H. Nijgh, p. 291
359. Edler, pp. 169–76
360. Edler, F. (2001) [1911], The Dutch Republic and The American Revolution, Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of
the Pacific, ISBN 978-0-89875-269-4, pp. 193–98
361. Edler, pp. 200–03
362. Davies, Charles Maurice. The history of Holland and the Dutch nation, Volume 3 (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=E4pDAAAAYAAJ&dq=davies%20%22history%20of%20holland%22%20zoutman&pg=RA1-PA472#v=onepa
ge&q=zoutman)
363. Syrett p. 131
364. Maj Gen Porter. History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. p. 208.
365. Chartrand, Rene. The French Army in the American War of Independence (1994), pp. 54–56
366. Stockley, p. 19
367. "Bajas españolas de las baterías flotantes del ataque a Gibraltar el 13 de septiembre de 1782" (http://www.todoab
abor.es/datos_docum/bajas-flotantes.html), Gaceta de Madrid (in Spanish), Todo a Babor, retrieved March 11,
2010.
368. Chartrand p. 84
369. Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1901). Armada Española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y Aragón. VII.
Madrid, Spain: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra. p. 329
370. (3 years, 7 months and 2 weeks)
371. Syrett (2006), p. 105
372. Chartrand, René; Courcelle, Patrice (2006), Gibraltar 1779–1783: The Great Siege (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0070927003243/http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_detail.php/title%3DS9770), Gibraltar: Osprey, ISBN 978-1-
84176-977-6, archived from the original (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_detail.php/title=S9770) on
September 27, 2007, p. 86
373. Edler, p. 184
374. Edler, F. (2001) [1911]. The Dutch Republic and The American Revolution. Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of
the Pacific. ISBN 0898752698.
375. Nester, William R (2004). The frontier war for American independence. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.
ISBN 9780811700771, p. 291
376. Nester, p. 291
377. Bense, Judith Ann (1999). Archaeology of colonial Pensacola. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
ISBN 9780813016610, p. 36
378. Dupuy, R. Ernest; Hammerman, Gay; Hayes, Grace P (1977). The American Revolution: A Global War. New York:
David McKay. ISBN 0679506489, p. 151
379. Caughey pp. 209–11
380. Chavez, Thomas E. Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift, University of New Mexico
Press, 2003. p. 208
381. Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present,
ABC-CLIO (1998). ISBN 0874368375, p. 346
382. Castex, Jean-Claude (2004). Dictionnaire des batailles navales franco-anglaises. Presses Université Laval.
ISBN 9782763780610. pp. 175–76
383. De Grasse, François Joseph Paul. The Operations of the French fleet under the Count de Grasse in 1781–2 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=aO0_AAAAYAAJ&dq=hood%20de%20grasse%20april%201781&pg=PA191#v=o
nepage&q=April%201781)
384. Henry, Dalton G. (1855) The History of British Guiana: Comprising a General Description of the Colony: A
narrative of some of the principal events from the earliest period of products and natural history. p. 239
385. David F. Marley. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present
ABC-CLIO (1998) ISBN 0874368375, p. 182
386. Jaques, Hood arrived and repulsed de Grasse with victory at sea off Basseterre p. 881
387. Black p. 59
388. Dull, Jonathan. (1985) "A diplomatic history of the American Revolution", ISBN 9780300038866, p. 244
389. O'Shaughnessy p. 208
390. Trew, Peter. (2005), "Rodney and the Breaking of the Line", Published by Leo Cooper Ltd. ISBN 9781844151431,
pp. 154–55
391. Trew pp. 157–62
392. Mahan, Alfred T. (1898). Major Operations of the Royal Navy, 1762–1783: Being Chapter XXXI in The Royal
Navy. A History (https://books.google.com/books?id=hpI_AAAAYAAJ). Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 46778589 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46778589)., pp. 205–26
393. Black, Jeremy (1999). Warfare in the Eighteenth Century. London: Cassell. p. 141. ISBN 9780304352456.
394. O'Shaughnessy p. 314
395. Mahan, pp. 225–26
396. Chávez, p. 151
397. Chávez, p. 163
398. Chávez, p. 165
399. Jay, Mike, The Unfortunate Colonel Despard, Bantam Press, 2004 ISBN 0593051955, p. 93
400. Chavez, p. 165
401. Lohuizen, Jan (1961). The Dutch East India Company and Mysore, 1762–1790. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, p. 117
402. Nicolas, Paul Harris (1845). Historical record of the Royal Marine Forces, Volume 2 (https://books.google.com/?id
=aBsEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA119&dq=port+praya+suffren+1781#PPA120,M1). London: Thomas and William
Boone., p. 124
403. Castex (2004), pp. 340–44
404. Castex (p. 315) calls this a French victory, on account of more severe damage to Hughes' fleet. Mahan (p. 566)
does not explicitly designate a victor.
405. Castex (2004), pp. 269–272
406. Sweetman, Jack (1997). The Great Admirals: Command at Sea, 1587–1945. Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 9780870212291. p. 176
407. Fredriksen, John C (2006). Revolutionary War Almanac Almanacs of American wars Facts on File library of
American history. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9780816074686. p. 229
408. Malleson, George Bruce (1884). Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=at5GAAAAIAAJ). W.H. Allen.
409. Vibart, H. M (1881). The military history of the Madras engineers and pioneers, from 1743 up to the present time,
Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=QyxFAAAAYAAJ&dq=wandiwash%201781&pg=PA157#v=onepag
e&q=wandiwash%201781)
410. Naravane, M.S. (2014). Battles of the Honorourable East India Company. A.P.H. Publishing Corporation. p. 174.
ISBN 9788131300343.
411. Wilks, Mark. "Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor" (https://archi
ve.org/download/in.ernet.dli.2015.180904/2015.180904.South-Of-India-History-Of-Mysoor--Vol-1.pdf) (PDF).
Retrieved June 4, 2017.
412. Singh, Sarbans (1993). Battle Honours of the Indian Army 1757–1971. New Delhi: Vision Books. pp. 102–03.
ISBN 8170941156.
413. Vibart, H.M. (1881). The Military History of the Madras Engineers and Pioneers, from 1743 up to the present time
(Volume 1) (https://books.google.com/books?id=QyxFAAAAYAAJ&dq=wandiwash%201781&pg=PA158#v=onepa
ge&q=wandiwash%201781). London: W.H. Allen & Co. pp. 158–159. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
414. Naravane, M.S. (2014). Battles of the Honorourable East India Company. A.P.H. Publishing Corporation. pp. 173–
75. ISBN 9788131300343.
415. Lohuizen, p. 115
416. Hasan, Mohibbul (2005). History of Tipu Sultan (https://books.google.com/books?id=hkbJ6xA1_jEC). Aakar
Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-8187879572. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
417. Hasan, Mohibbul (2005). History of Tipu Sultan (https://books.google.com/books?id=hkbJ6xA1_jEC). Aakar
Books. p. 24. ISBN 978-8187879572. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
418. Fortescue, John (1902). A history of the British army (https://books.google.com/books?id=1GlKAAAAYAAJ&dq=B
ednore%201783&pg=PA489#v=onepage&q=Bednore%201783). Volume 3. pp. 483–89.
419. Fortescue, Sir John William (1902), A history of the British army (https://archive.org/details/historyofbritish03fortuo
ft), 3, Macmillan, pp. 481–85
420. Paine, Lincoln P. (2000). Warships of the world to 1900. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780395984147. p. 75
421. Mahan, p. 416
422. Hagan, Kenneth J. (October 16, 2009). "The birth of American naval strategy". In Hagan, Kenneth J.; McMaster,
Michael T.; Stoker, Donald (eds.). Strategy in the American War of Independence: A Global Approach (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=3k9_AgAAQBAJ). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-21039-8., p. 51
423. Fortescue, p. 483–89
424. Jerome R. Reich (1997). British friends of the American Revolution (https://books.google.com/?id=ALDbuNPu_IQ
C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=Carlisle+Commission#PPA121,M1). M.E. Sharpe. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-7656-3143-
5.
425. Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea." Northwest Ohio Quarterly
61#2–4 (1989): 46–63.
426. William E. Lass (1980). Minnesota's Boundary with Canada: Its Evolution Since 1783. Minnesota Historical
Society. pp. 63–70.
427. Jonathan R. Dull (1987). A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution. pp. 144–51.
428. Quote from Thomas Paterson, J. Garry Clifford and Shane J. Maddock, American foreign relations: A history, to
1920 (2009) vol 1 p. 20
429. Benn (1993), p. 17.
430. Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea" Northwest Ohio Quarterly
1989 61(2–4): 46–63.
431. Francis M. Carroll (2001). A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783–
1842 (https://books.google.com/books?id=1AjlS20Q5J8C&pg=PA24). U of Toronto Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-
8020-8358-6.
432. Frances G, Davenport and Charles O. Paullin, European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and
Its Dependencies (1917) vol 1 p. vii
433. Dull, p. 321
434. Dull, pp. 327–31
435. Lawrence S. Kaplan, "The Treaty of Paris, 1783: A Historiographical Challenge", International History Review,
September 1983, Vol. 5, Issue 3, pp. 431–42.
436. Stone, Bailey. The Genesis of the French Revolution: A Global-historical Interpretation, UK, Cambridge University
Press (1994).
437. Gerald Newman and Leslie Ellen Brown, Britain in the Hanoverian age, 1714–1837 (1997) p. 533
438. Edler 2001, 181–89
439. W., Francis (2002). Gazetteer of South India, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/?id=vERnljM1uiEC&pg=PA152
&dq=negapatam#v=onepage&q=negapatam). Mittal Publications., p. 161
440. Dwight L. Smith, "Josiah Harmar, Diplomatic Courier." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 87.4
(1963): 420–430.
441. A ceasefire in America was proclaimed by Congress (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/proc1783.asp) on
April 11, 1783 in response to a ceasefire agreement between Great Britain and France on January 20, 1783. The
final peace treaty was signed on September 3, 1783 and ratified in the U.S. on January 14, 1784, with final
ratification exchanged in Europe on May 12, 1784. Hostilities in India continued until July 1783.
442. Richard Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (1983).
443. Ellis (2004), p. 87.
444. American dead and wounded: Shy, pp. 249–50. The lower figure for number of wounded comes from Chambers,
p. 849.
445. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (https://archive.org/stream/pennsylvaniamaga27hist#page/
176/mode/1up), Volume 27 (1903), p. 176.
446. "Scurvy" (https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/10406/scurvy). GARD. June 5, 2017. Retrieved
September 26, 2016.
447. Vale, Brian (2008). "The Conquest of Scurvy in the Royal Navy 1793–1800: a Challenge to Current Orthodoxy".
The Mariner's Mirror. 94: 160–175.
448. Mackesy (1964), pp. 6, 176 (British seamen).
449. Conway (1995) p. 191
450. John Pike (October 18, 1907). "Privateers" (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/privateer.htm).

Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
451. Marston, Daniel. The American Revolution 1774–1783. Osprey Publishing (2002) ISBN 9781841763439. p. 82
452. Whaples, Robert (March 1995). "Where Is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians? The Results
of a Survey on Forty Propositions". The Journal of Economic History. 55 (1): 144. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.482.4975 (htt
ps://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.482.4975). doi:10.1017/S0022050700040602 (https://doi.
org/10.1017%2FS0022050700040602). JSTOR 2123771 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2123771). "There is an
overwhelming consensus that Americans' economic standard of living on the eve of the Revolution was among
the highest in the world."
453. Greene and Pole, eds., A Companion to the American Revolution (2004) chapters 42, 48
454. Curtis P. Nettels, The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815 (1962) pp. 23–44
455. "Not worth a continental (http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/creatingtheus/Constitution/RoadtotheConstitution/ExhibitObj
ects/NotWorthAContinental.aspx) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120709095712/http://myloc.gov/Exhibit
ions/creatingtheus/Constitution/RoadtotheConstitution/ExhibitObjects/NotWorthAContinental.aspx) July 9, 2012,
at the Wayback Machine", "Creating the United States", Library of Congress. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
456. Trescott, Paul. "Federal-State Financial Relations, 1790–1860". 15: 227–45.
457. David Kennedy; et al. (2011). The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic, Volume I: To 1877 (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=dfWPpr84E7QC&pg=PA136). Cengage Learning. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-495-91535-5.
458. Robert Tombs and Isabelle Tombs (2006). That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to
the Present (https://books.google.com/?id=TxUqAAAAYAAJ&q=american+revolution+British+%C2%A380+million
++of+%C2%A3250+million,++%C2%A39.5+interest+inauthor:Tombs&dq=american+revolution+British+%C2%A3
80+million++of+%C2%A3250+million,++%C2%A39.5+interest+inauthor:Tombs). Knopf Doubleday. p. 179.
ISBN 978-1-4000-4024-7.
459. Conway, Stephen. The War of American Independence 1775–1783. Publisher: E. Arnold (1995)
ISBN 0340625201. 280 pp.
460. Schiff, Stacy (2006). A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (https://books.google.com/
books?id=1vhpYe99Tn4C&pg=PT18). Macmillan. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4299-0799-6.
461. Conway (1995) p. 242
462. Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987) pp. 81, 119
463. Marston (2002) p. 82
464. Tombs (2007) p. 179
465. Stacy Schiff (2006). A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=1vhpYe99Tn4C&pg=PT18). Macmillan. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4299-0799-6.
466. Lynch, John. Bourbon Spain 1700–1808. Publisher: Oxford (1989) ISBN 9780631192459. p. 326
467. Castillero Calvo, Alfredo (2004). Las Rutas de la Plata: La Primera Globalización. Madrid: Ediciones San Marcos.
ISBN 8489127476. p. 193
468. Mulhall, Michael G., Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics (https://archive.org/stream/mulhallsdiction00unkngoog#page/
n390/mode/1up) (1884), p. 357.
469. Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics (http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p2-13.pdf) U.S.
Census Bureau.
470. Clode, Charles Matthew (1869), "The Military Forces of the Crown: Their Administration and Government",
London, J Murray, p. 268. Note: Figures include the 41st regiment of invalids, but not the 20 independent
companies on garrison duty. Troops in India were under the control of the East India Company, and did not
become part of the British Army until 1858.
471. The Oxford Companion to British History (2 ed.).
472. Plant, David, Rule of the Major-Generals (http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/rule-major-generals.htm),
British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website, retrieved June 9, 2017
473. Rodger, N.A.M (2004). The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815. Penguin Group.
ISBN 9780393060508, p. 137
474. "The March of the Guards to Finchley; 18th Century Recruitment" (http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/s
oldier). Umich education.
475. Belcher, Henry (1911), "The First American Civil War; First Period, 1775–1778, with chapters on the Continental
or Revolutionary army and on the forces of the Crown", Volume 1, London Macmillan, pp. 250, 258
476. War Office Papers, Manuscripts in the Public Record Office, 1:992–1008, passim
477. War Officer Papers, 4:275, Jenkinson to Clinton, 5 Dec. 1780
478. 9th Report on Public Accounts (1783) in 39 House of Commons Journal, H.M. Stationery Office, 1803, pp. 325–
44
479. Plant, David, "The New Model Army", BCW Project, http://bcw-project.org/military/new-model-army, Retrieved 9
June 2017
480. Fortescue, Volume III, p. 41
481. Owen, Captain Wheeler (1914), "The War Office Past and Present", Methuen & Co. London, p. 90
482. War Office Papers, 3:5, Harvey to Elliot, 10 March 1775
483. Clode, Volume II, pp. 13–14
484. Statutes at Large, Ruffhead's Edition (London, 1763–1800), Volume XIII, pp. 273–80
485. Statutes at Large, Ruffhead's Edition, Volume XIII, pp. 316–17
486. War Office Papers, 4:966, Jenkinson to John Livesey and E. Brewer, 13 Apr. 1779
487. War Office Papers, 1:996, Sir William Codrington to Barrington, December 1778
488. War Office Papers. 1:998, Lieutenant General Parker to Barrington, 19 June 1778.
489. War Office Papers, 1:1005, Oughton to Jenkinson, 27 May 1779
490. Andrews, Charles McLean (1912), "Guide to the materials for American history, to 1783, in the Public record office
of Great Britain", Washington, D.C., Carnegie institution of Washington, Volume II, p. 32
491. War Office Papers, 4:966, Jenkinson to Amherst, 26 Oct. 1779
492. Jonathan Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 110.
493. Winfield, Rif, British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714–1792 (Seaforth Publishing, 2007) ISBN 9781844157006
494. Winfield, Rif, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (Seaforth
Publishing, 2007)
495. Colonial Office Papers. Manuscripts in the Public Record Office, 5:92, Dartmouth to Howe, 5 Sept. 1775
496. Edler 2001, pp. 28–32
497. Knesebeck, Ernst von dem (1845), "Geschichte de churhannoverschen Truppen in Gibraltar, Menorca und
Ostindien", Published by Im Verlage der Helwingschen Hof-Buchhandlung. Note: The strength of a Hanoverian
battalion is listed as 473 men
498. Black (2001), p. 59. On militia see Boatner (1974), p. 707, and Weigley (1973), ch. 2.
499. "Lord Dunmore's Proclamation" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080422231140/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/lea
rning_history/revolution/dunsmore.cfm). Digital History. October 18, 2007. Archived from the original (http://www.d
igitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/revolution/dunsmore.cfm) on April 22, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
500. Buchanan, 327
501. Babits, p/ 46, "British Legion Infantry strength at Cowpens was between 200 and 271 enlisted men". However,
this statement is referenced to a note on pp. 175–76, which says, "The British Legion infantry at Cowpens is
usually considered to have had about 200–250 men, but returns for the 25 December 1780 muster show only
175. Totals obtained by Cornwallis, dated 15 January, show that the whole legion had 451 men, but approximately
250 were dragoons". There would therefore appear to be no evidence for putting the total strength of the five
British Legion Light Infantry companies at more than 200.
502. Review by: Hugh F. Rankin; Reviewed Work: The Green Dragoon: The Lives of Banastre Tarleton and Mary
Robinson by Robert D. Bass, The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 34, No. 4 (October, 1957), pp. 548–50 (ht
tps://www.jstor.org/stable/23517100?loginSuccess=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
503. Bass, Robert.D (August 1957). "The Green Dragoon: The Lives of Banastre Tarleton and Mary Robinson ". The
North Carolina Historical Review. 34 (4): 548–550. JSTOR 23517100 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23517100).
504. Agniel, Lucien (June 1972). "The Late Affair Has Almost Broke My Heart: The American Revolution in the South,
1780–1781" (https://books.google.com/?id=K0MhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA3254&lpg=PA3254). Chatham Press.
Retrieved November 18, 2015.
505. Ketchum (1997), p. 76
506. Ketchum (1997), p. 77
507. Duffy, Christopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. p. 61. ISBN 1853266906.
508. Forteseue, The British Army, 1783–1802, p. 34
509. Armatys, John; Cordery, Robert George (2005). "The Purchase of Officers' Commissions in the British Army" (http
s://archive.is/20120728105921/http://www.colonialwargaming.co.uk/Miscellany/Army/Commissions.htm). Colonial
Wargames. Archived from the original (http://www.colonialwargaming.co.uk/Miscellany/Army/Commissions.htm)
on July 28, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
510. Belcher, Volume I, p. 270
511. Michael Lanning (2009). American Revolution 100: The Battles, People, and Events of the American War for
Independence, Ranked by Their Significance (https://books.google.com/books?id=1GEs53wMr7EC&pg=PA193).
Sourcebooks. pp. 193–96. ISBN 978-1-4022-4170-3.
512. Duncan, Volume II, p. 15
513. Duncan, Francis (1879). "History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery", Volume 1. J. Murray, pp. 131, 303, 309
514. Sergeant Lamb, "Journal of the American War", p. 75
515. Duncan, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Volume 2, p. 15
516. Burgoyne, State of the Expedition, p. 148
517. "Battle of Monmouth Courthouse" (http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/1775/campaigns/monmou
th.htm). Robinson Library. Self-published. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
518. Lloyd, Ernest Marsh (1908), Review of the History of Infantry, p. 155
519. Trevelyan, Volume III, p. 6; Volume IV, p. 158
520. Fortescue, The British Army, 1783–1802, p. 83.
521. Sawyer, Charles Winthrop (1910), "Firearms in American History", p. 99
522. Trevelyan, Volume IV, pp. 224, 34
523. Minute Book of a Board of General Officers of the British Army in New York, 1781. New York Historical Society
Collections, 1916, p. 81.
524. Black (2001), p. 14
525. Correspondence of George III with Lord North, Volume II, pp. 7, 52
526. Merril D. Smith (2015). The World of the American Revolution: A Daily Life Encyclopedia (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=yqxmCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA374). ABC-CLIO. p. 374. ISBN 9781440830280.
527. "Ships Biscuits – Royal Navy hardtack" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091031064002/http://www.royalnavalmuse
um.org/info_sheet_ship_biscuit.htm). Royal Navy Museum. Archived from the original (http://www.royalnavalmuse
um.org/info_sheet_ship_biscuit.htm) on October 31, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
528. "19th United States Infantry" (https://archive.is/20120715204518/http://www.19thusregulars.com/html/hardtack.ht
ml). 19thusregulars.com. Archived from the original (http://www.19thusregulars.com/html/hardtack.html) on July
15, 2012. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
529. Lowell, Edward J and Andrews, Raymond J (June 15, 1997) "The Hessians in the Revolutionary War", Corner
House Pub, ISBN 9780879281168, p. 56
530. Howe, (Sir) William, Orderly Book, edited by B. F. Stevens (London, 1890), pp. 263, 288
531. Burgoyne, John, Orderly Book, edited by E. B. O'Callaghan (Albany, 1860), p. 74.
532. Howe, Orderly Book, pp. 263, 288
533. "Life at sea in the age of sail (http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/ships-and-seafarers/life-at-sea-in-
the-age-of-sail)". National Maritime Museum.
534. Lamb, Memoir, p. 74
535. Riedesel, Mrs. General, Letters and Journals, translated from the original German by W. L. Stone (Albany, 1867)
p. 125
536. Stedman, Charles, History of the American War (London, 1794), Volume I, p. 309
537. Fortescue, The British Army, 1783–1802, p. 35
538. Steven Schwamenfeld. "The Foundation of British Strength: National Identity and the Common British Soldier."
Ph.D. diss., Florida State University 2007, pp. 123–24
539. Schwamenfeld (2007), pp. 123–24
540. Schwamenfeld (2007), p. 123
541. Clayton, Anthony (2007). The British Officer: Leading the Army from 1660 to the Present. Routledge.
ISBN 178159287X, p. 65
542. French, pp. 263–65
543. Frothingham, p. 155
544. Frothingham pp. 191, 194
545. Frothingham, p. 156
546. Ferling, 2015, pp. 127–29
547. John E. Ferling, Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (2009), pp. 562–77.
548. Joseph J. Ellis (2013). Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=z4RqZJzho1QC&pg=PR11). Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-70122-0.
549. Richard W. Stewart, ed., American Military History Volume 1 The United States Army And The Forging Of A
Nation, 1775–1917" (2005) (http://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V1/ch04.htm) ch 4 "The Winning of Independence,
1777–1783" (2005), p. 103.
550. Adams, Charles Francis, "Battle of Long Island" (https://archive.org/stream/americanhistoric18951896jame#page/
668/mode/1up), in American Historical Review (1895–1896), pp. 668–669.
551. Fischer, pp. 138–142
552. Frothingham pp. 152–53
553. Jackson, Kenneth T; Dunbar, David S (2005). Empire City: New York Through the Centuries. Columbia University
Press. ISBN 9780231109093, p. 20
554. Colonial Office Papers, Manuscripts in the Public Record Office, 5:93, Howe to Dartmouth, 1st December 1775
555. Colonial Office Papers, 5:93, Howe to Germain, 7 June and 7 July 1776
556. A View of the Evidence (London, 1783), p. 13
557. Correspondence of George III with Lord North, Volume II, p. 57
558. Colonial Office Papers, 5:93, Howe to Germain, 30 Nov 1776
559. Stedman, American War, Volume I, p. 287
560. Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South (2000).
561. Pancake, John (1985). This Destructive War. University of Alabama Press. p. 221
562. Clinton, H.; The American Rebellion. Note: This lack of notification was one of Clinton's main arguments in his
own defense in the controversy that followed the surrender at Yorktown.
563. Lengel, Edward (2005). General George Washington. New York: Random House Paperbacks. ISBN 0812969502.
p. 337
564. Fleming, Thomas (1970). The Perils of Peace. New York: The Dial Press. ISBN 9780061139116, p. 16
565. Colonial Office Papers, 5:96, Clinton to Germain, 15 September 1778
566. Colonial Office Papers, 5:97, Clinton to Germain, 15 December 1778
567. Colonial Office Papers, 5:98, Haldimand to Clinton, 19 July and 29 August 1779
568. Colonial Office Papers, 5:100, Clinton to Germain, 31st October 1780
569. Black (2001), p. 39; Greene and Pole (1999), pp. 298, 306
570. Rossman, Vadim (2016), "Capital Cities: Varieties and Patterns of Development and Relocation", Taylor &
Francis, ISBN 1317562852, p. 2
571. Edward E. Curtis, The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution, Conclusion, (Yale U.P. 1926),
[3] (http://www.americanrevolution.org/britisharmy6.php) Retrieved 10 June 2017
572. Black (2001), p. 14.
Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1570035733. OCLC 232001108 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/232001108). p. 112
574. Black (2001), pp. 14–16 (Harsh methods), pp. 35, 38 (slaves and Indians), p. 16 (neutrals into revolutionaries).
575. Leonard Woods Larabee, Conservatism in Early American History (1948) pp 164–65
576. Calhoon, Robert M. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781 (1973)
577. Curtis, "The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution, Conclusion
578. C. Ritcheson, "Loyalist Influence on British Policy Toward the United States After the American Revolution";
Eighteenth-Century Studies; (1973) 7#1 p. 6. Jstor link (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3031609)
579. Greene and Pole (1999), p. 235
580. William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1891). A History of England: In the Eighteenth Century (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=m3cUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA139). p. 139.
581. Black (2001), p. 12.
582. Black (2001), pp. 13–14.
583. Ferling (2007), p. 294
584. Dull, (1985) p. 244
585. Tellier, L.-N. (2009). Urban World History: an Economic and Geographical Perspective. Quebec: PUQ. p. 463.
ISBN 2760515885.
586. Pole and Greene, eds. Companion to the American Revolution, ch. 36–39.
587. Trevelyan, p. 249.
588. Ketchum (1997), pp. 405–48.
589. David Allison, The American Revolution: A World War (2018)
590. Philander D. Chase. "Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm von"; American National Biography Online (2000) (http://www.an
b.org/articles/01/01-00855.html). Accessed January 29, 2015.
591. Ferling, John (2007), pp. 294–95"
592. "Establishment of the Navy, 13 October 1775" (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq59-13.htm). United States
Navy. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
593. Crocker (2006), p. 51.
594. "Privateers or Merchant Mariners help win the Revolutionary War" (http://www.usmm.org/revolution.html).
Usmm.org. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
595. Higginbotham (1983), pp. 331–46.
596. "The whaleboat war" (http://www.doublegv.com/ggv/battles/whaleboat.html). www.doublegv.com. Retrieved July 7,
2019.
597. Davies, Wallace Evan (1939). "PRIVATEERING AROUND LONG ISLAND DURING THE REVOLUTION". New
York History. 20 (3): 283–294. ISSN 0146-437X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0146-437X). JSTOR 23134696 (htt
ps://www.jstor.org/stable/23134696).
598. Nathaniel Philbrick, "Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold and the Fate of the American
Revolution," (New York: Penguin Books, 2016), p. 237
599. Boatner (1974), p. 264.
600. Duffy, Christopher (2005). Military Experience in the Age of Reason (https://books.google.com/books?id=m1aRAg
AAQBAJ&pg=PA13). London: Routledge. ISBN 0203976851. p. 13. In the original 1987 edition, p. 17.
601. R. Don Higginbotham, George Washington and the American Military Tradition (1985) ch 3
602. Robert Selig, March to victory: Washington, Rochambeau, and the Yorktown Campaign of 1781 (2005) online (htt
ps://history.army.mil/html/books/rochambeau/index.html).
603. Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies (2006) pp. 258–61.
604. Roger Kaplan, "The Hidden War: British Intelligence Operations during the American Revolution." William and
Mary Quarterly (1990) 47#1: 115–38. online (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2938043)
605. William Gardner Bell (2005). Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff, 1775–2005: Portraits & Biographical
Sketches of the United States Army's Senior Officer (https://books.google.com/books?id=Xwyykzbi4pUC&pg=PA
3). pp. 3–4. ISBN 9780160873300.
606. Douglas S. Freeman, and Richard Harwell, Washington (1968) p. 42.
607. Higginbotham, George Washington and the American Military Tradition (1985) ch 3
608. Arnold Whitridge, "Baron von Steuben, Washington's Drillmaster." History Today (July 1976) 26#7 pp. 429–36.
609. E. Wayne Carp, To Starve the Army at Pleasure: Continental Army Administration and American Political Culture,
1775–1783 (1990) p. 220.
610. Edward G. Lengel, General George Washington: A Military Life (2005) pp. 365–71.
611. Kaplan and Kaplan (1989), pp. 64–69.
612. Leslie Alexander (2010). Encyclopedia of African American History (https://books.google.com/books?id=uivtCqOl

pTsC&pg=PA356). ABC-CLIO. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-85109-774-6.
613. Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619–1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, p. 73
614. Kolchin, p. 73
615. William Weir (2004). The Encyclopedia of African American Military History (https://books.google.com/books?id=
WEXj4gHHARgC&pg=PA32). Prometheus Books. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-1-61592-831-6.
616. Pybus, Cassandra (2005). "Jefferson's Faulty Math: The Question of Slave Defections in the American
Revolution". The William and Mary Quarterly. 62 (2): 243–264. doi:10.2307/3491601 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F
3491601). JSTOR 3491601 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3491601).
617. Greene and Pole (1999), p. 393; Boatner (1974), p. 545.
618. Reid, Darren R. (June 19, 2017). "Anti-Indian Radicalisation in the Early American West, 1774-1795" (https://allthi
ngsliberty.com/2017/06/anti-indian-radicalisation-early-american-west-1774-1795). Journal of the American
Revolution. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
619. "Native American Resilience and Violence in the West" (http://www.ushistory.org/us/18e.asp). UShistory.org.
Retrieved August 22, 2019.
620. Waxman, Matthew (November 4, 2018). "Remembering St. Clair's Defeat" (https://www.lawfareblog.com/rememb
ering-st-clairs-defeat). Lawfare. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
621. Downes, Randolph C. (1940). Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio
Valley until 1795. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-8229-5201-7.
622. John Finger, Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press,
2001), pp. 43–64.
623. Ward, Harry M. (1999). The war for independence and the transformation of American society (https://books.goog
le.com/books?id=kgqa4_OBcIkC&pg=PA198). Psychology Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-85728-656-4. Retrieved
March 25, 2011.
624. O'Brien, Greg (April 30, 2008). Pre-removal Choctaw history: exploring new paths (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=jGFmNPevedUC&pg=PA123). University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 123–26. ISBN 978-0-8061-3916-6.
Retrieved March 25, 2011.
625. "Women's Service with the Revolutionary Army : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site" (htt
p://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume7/nov08/women_revarmy.cfm). History.org. November 5,
2009. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
626. "Education & Resources – National Women's History Museum" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170711021321/htt
p://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/deborah-sampson/). NWHM. Archived from the
original (https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/deborah-sampson/) on July 11, 2017.
Retrieved August 9, 2015.
627. "Molly Pitcher Biography (c. 1754–1832)" (https://www.biography.com/military-figure/molly-pitcher). A&E
Television Networks. August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
628. Dunkerly, Robert M. (April 2, 2014). "8 Fast Facts about Camp Followers" (https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/04/8-fa
st-facts-about-camp-followers/). Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
629. Berkin, Carol (2005). Revolutionary Mothers. Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf. p. 84. ISBN 1-4000-4163-5.
630. Howat, Kenna (November 9, 2017). "Revolutionary Spies. Women Spies of the American Revolution" (https://ww
w.womenshistory.org/articles/revolutionary-spies). Retrieved August 23, 2019.
631. John N. Grant, "Black Immigrants into Nova Scotia, 1776–1815." Journal of Negro History (1973): 253–270. in
JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2716777)
632. James W. St. G. Walker, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone,
1783–1870 (1992).
633. William Baller, "Farm Families and the American Revolution," Journal of Family History (2006) 31(1): 28–44.
ISSN 0363-1990 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0363-1990). Fulltext: online in EBSCO.
634. Michael A. McDonnell, "Class War: Class Struggles During the American Revolution in Virginia", William and Mary
Quarterly 2006 63(2): 305–44. ISSN 0043-5597 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0043-5597)
Fulltext: online at History Cooperative.
Reference literature
Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775–1783. 2001. Analysis from a noted British
military historian.
Benn, Carl Historic Fort York, 1793–1993. Toronto: Dundurn Press Ltd. 1993. ISBN 0920474799.
Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0811705781.
Military topics, references many secondary sources.
Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American
Communities (Cambridge UP, 1995).
Chambers, John Whiteclay II, ed. in chief. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University
Press, 1999. ISBN 0195071980.
Conway, Stephen. The British Isles and the War of American Independence (2002)
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199254552.001.0001 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Facprof%3Aoso%2F978019925455
2.001.0001) online
Crocker III, H. W. (2006). Don't Tread on Me (https://archive.org/details/donttreadonme40000croc). New York:
Crown Forum. ISBN 978-1-4000-5363-6.
Curtis, Edward E. The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution (Yale U.P. 1926) online (http://
www.americanrevolution.org/britisharmy.html)
Duffy, Christopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 1715–1789 Routledge, 1987.
ISBN 9780710210241.
Edler, Friedrich. The Dutch Republic and The American Revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=MhoMAA
AAYAAJ). University Press of the Pacific, 1911, reprinted 2001. ISBN 0898752698.
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. (2004). ISBN 1400040310.
David Hackett Fischer. Washington's Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0195170342.
Fletcher, Charles Robert Leslie. An Introductory History of England: The Great European War, Volume 4 (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=dvM1AAAAMAAJ). E.P. Dutton, 1909. OCLC 12063427 (https://www.worldcat.org/ocl
c/12063427).
Greene, Jack P. and Pole, J.R., eds. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Malden,
Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1991; reprint 1999. ISBN 1557865477. Collection of essays focused on political and
social history.
Gilbert, Alan. Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2012. ISBN 9780226293073.
Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789.
Northeastern University Press, 1983. ISBN 0930350448. Overview of military topics; online in ACLS History E-
book Project.
Morrissey, Brendan. Monmouth Courthouse 1778: The Last Great Battle in the North. Osprey Publishing, 2004.
ISBN 1841767727.
Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution 1763–1776. (2004)
Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst,
Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. ISBN 0870236636.
Ketchum, Richard M. Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War. Henry Holt, 1997.
ISBN 080504681X.
Mackesy, Piers. The War for America: 1775–1783 (https://www.questia.com/library/book/the-war-for-america-177
5-1783-by-piers-mackesy.jsp). London, 1964. Reprinted University of Nebraska Press, 1993. ISBN 0803281927.
Highly regarded examination of British strategy and leadership.
McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Middleton, Richard, The War of American Independence, 1775–1783. London: Pearson, 2012.
ISBN 9780582229426
Reynolds, Jr., William R. (2012). Andrew Pickens: South Carolina Patriot in the Revolutionary War. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6694-8.
Riddick, John F. The History of British India: a Chronology. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006.
ISBN 9780313322808.
Savas, Theodore P. and Dameron, J. David. A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution. New York: Savas
Beatie LLC, 2006. ISBN 193271412X.
Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution, New York, NY:
Ecco/HarperCollins, 2006
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson. The Men who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and
the Fate of the Empire (Yale UP, 2014).
Shy, John. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1976 (ISBN 0195020138); revised University of Michigan Press, 1990
(ISBN 0472064312). Collection of essays.
Stephenson, Orlando W. "The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776", American Historical Review, 30#2 (1925), pp. 271–
81 online free (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/AHR/30/2/Supply_of_Gunpowder_in_1776.html).
Taylor, Alan. American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804 (WW Norton & Company, 2016).
Tombs, Robert and Isabelle. That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present
Random House, 2007. ISBN 9781400040247.
Trevelyan, George Otto. George the Third and Charles Fox: the concluding part of The American revolution
Longmans, Green, 1912.
Watson, J. Steven. The Reign of George III, 1760–1815 (https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22810670).
1960. Standard history of British politics.
Weigley, Russell F. The American Way of War. Indiana University Press, 1977. ISBN 9780253280299.
Weintraub, Stanley. Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775–1783. New York: Free
Press, 2005 (a division of Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0743226879. An account of the British politics on the conduct
of the war.
Further reading
These are some of the standard works about the war in general that are not listed above; books about specific
campaigns, battles, units, and individuals can be found in those articles.
Billias, George Athan. George Washington's Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership (1994)
scholarly studies of key generals on each side.\
Black, Jeremy. "Could the British Have Won the American War of Independence?." Journal of the Society for
Army Historical Research. (Fall 1996), Vol. 74 Issue 299, pp 145–154. online video lecture, uses Real Player (htt
p://hdl.handle.net/1811/30022)
Conway, Stephen. The War of American Independence 1775–1783. Publisher: E. Arnold, 1995.
ISBN 0340625201. 280 pp.
Lowell, Edward J. The Hessians in the Revolution (http://www.americanwars.org/american-revolution-hessians.ht
m) Williamstown, Massachusetts, Corner House Publishers, 1970, Reprint
Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent. (1854–
78), vol. 7–10.
Bobrick, Benson. Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution. Penguin, 1998 (paperback
reprint).
Fremont-Barnes, Gregory, and Ryerson, Richard A., eds. The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War:
A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2006) 5 volume paper and online editions; 1000 entries by 150
experts, covering all topics
Frey, Sylvia R. The British Soldier in America: A Social History of Military Life in the Revolutionary Period
(University of Texas Press, 1981).
Hibbert, Christopher. Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution through British Eyes. New York: Norton,
1990. ISBN 039302895X.
Kwasny, Mark V. Washington's Partisan War, 1775–1783. Kent, Ohio: 1996. ISBN 0873385462. Militia warfare.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. Oxford University Press, 1984;
revised 2005. ISBN 0195162471. online edition (https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=84633736)
Savas, Theodore; J. David Dameron (2006). Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=KRRSfy7eVoIC&pg=PR37). Savas Beatie. ISBN 978-1-61121-011-8. Contains a detailed listing
of American, French, British, German, and Loyalist regiments; indicates when they were raised, the main battles,
and what happened to them. Also includes the main warships on both sides, And all the important battles.
Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783 (2008)
802 pp. detailed coverage of diplomacy from London viewpoint
Symonds, Craig L. A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution (1989), newly drawn maps emphasizing the
movement of military units
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. (2 volumes. New York: Macmillan, 1952.) History of land battles in
North America.
Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775–1781. ISBN 0306813297 (2003 paperback reprint). Analysis
of tactics of a dozen battles, with emphasis on American military leadership.
Men-at-Arms series: short (48pp), very well illustrated descriptions:
Zlatich, Marko; Copeland, Peter. General Washington's Army (1): 1775–78 (1994)
Zlatich, Marko. General Washington's Army (2): 1779–83 (1994)
Chartrand, Rene. The French Army in the American War of Independence (1994)
May, Robin. The British Army in North America 1775–1783 (1993)
The Partisan in War, a treatise on light infantry tactics written by Colonel Andreas Emmerich in 1789.
External links
Maps of the Revolutionary War from the United States Military Academy (https://westpoint.edu/academics/acade
mic-departments/history/american-revolution)
Bibliographies
Library of Congress Guide to the American Revolution (https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/revolution/home.html)
Bibliographies of the War of American Independence (https://web.archive.org/web/20151101171424/http://www.hi
story.army.mil/reference/revbib/revwar.htm) compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History
Political bibliography (https://web.archive.org/web/20061205224555/http://revolution.h-net.msu.edu/bib.html) from
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Revolutionary_War&oldid=916272484"
This page was last edited on 18 September 2019, at 01:10 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

American Revolutionary War

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

American Revolutionary War

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

9/23/2019 American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia

American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

Clockwise: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the

Date April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783

Location Eastern North America, Caribbean

Commanders and leaders

American Indian Allies: 13,000[30]

Casualties and losses

Spain: guns) lost[34]

5,000 dead[35] 70 frigates (1,978 guns) lost[34]

(124 in the American south)[36] 2,200 merchant ships (600 to

11 frigates (326 guns) lost[34]

500 killed[35] 1,800 killed in battle

Total: 78,200+ soldiers

North Ministry collapses

Course of the war

War breaks out (1775–1776)

Starting in August 1775, American Privateers began to raid villages in

Meanwhile, British officials in Quebec began lobbying Indian tribes to

out to reconquer South Carolina and launched an attack on Charleston on

The shortage of gunpowder had led Congress to authorize an expedition

British counter-offensive (1776–1777)

Washington withdrew to Manhattan without any losses in men or

Washington's retreat left his

British northern strategy fails (1777–1778)

Burgoyne's plan was to lead an army along Lake Champlain, while a

Meanwhile, Howe launched his campaign against Washington, though his

Howe outflanked and defeated Washington on September 11, though he

French foreign minister the Comte de Vergennes was strongly anti-

International war breaks out (1778–1780)

Stalemate in the North (1778–1780)

In 1780, Clinton launched an attempt to retake New Jersey. On June 7,

War in the South (1778–1781)

In October, a combined Franco-American effort failed to recapture

Clinton returned to New York, leaving Charles Cornwallis in command in

The British launched a surprise offensive in Virginia in January 1781, with

Congress appointed Horatio Gates, victor at Saratoga, to lead the American

British defeat in America (1781)

to construct a coherent strategy for British operations in 1781,[336] owing to

Washington still favored an assault on New York, but he acquiesced to the

North Ministry collapses

Final years of the war (1781–1783)

In the West Indies, on 29–30

In March 1781, French Admiral Bailli de Suffren was dispatched to India to

American Midwest as late as 1814 during the War of 1812.[430][431]

Casualties and losses

Americans and allies

British and allies

Parliament suffered chronic difficulties in obtaining sufficient

Loyalists and Hessians

In 1775, Britain unsuccessfully attempted to secure 20,000 mercenaries

Without any major allies,[230] the manpower shortage became critical

The heavy personal equipment and wool uniform of the regular

Every battalion in America had

Provisioning troops and sailors proved to be an immense challenge, as the

Navy and came to be associated with the stereotypical hardiness of sailors.[533]

British no strategic advantage.[152][153] After securing control of New York,

Clinton and Cornwallis

Cornwallis was fiercely criticized for detaching a significant portion of his

In a last-ditch attempt to win the war in the South, Cornwallis resolved to

Intelligence and espionage

Soldiers and sailors

George Washington's roles