Revolution! The War begins

Lexington and Concord The first shots starting the revolution were fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. On April 18, 1775, British General Thomas Gage sent 700 soldiers to destroy guns and ammunition the colonists had stored in the town of Concord, just outside of Boston. They also planned to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the key leaders of the patriot movement.

Paul Revere rode to Lexington and alerted Samual Adams and John Hancock. By the time the British soldiers reached Lexington, Samual Adams and John Hancock had escaped.

Fort Ticonderoga Ethan Allen, and Benedict Arnold crossed Lake Champlain at dawn, surprising and capturing the still-sleeping British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga.Benedict Arnold served as a morale booster and provided key artillery for the Continental Army

Bunker Hill The Americans waited until the British were within 15 paces (till they could see the whites of their eyes), and then unleashed a bloody fusillade. Scores of British troops were killed or wounded; the rest retreated down the hill. Again, the British rushed the hill in a second wave. And again they retreated, suffering a great number of casualties.

By the time the third wave of British charged the hill, the Americans were running low on ammunition. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued. The British eventually took the hill, but at a great cost. Bunker Hill convinced the king that the situation in the Colonies had escalated into an organized uprising and must be treated as a foreign war. Accordingly, he issued a Proclamation of Rebellion.

Trenton and Princeton General George Washington’s army crossed the icy Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and, over the course of the next 10 days, won two crucial battles of the American Revolution. In the Battle of Trenton (December 26), Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries

at Princeton they had defeated a regular British army in the field. Moreover, Washington had shown that he could unite soldiers from all the colonies into an effective national force.

Saratoga The victory gave new life to the American cause at a critical time the success at Saratoga gave France the confidence in the American cause to enter the war as an American ALLY.