Addison Smith - US History

  • Paul Revere’s Ride

    Paul Revere’s Ride

    Paul Revere's Ride was a historic midnight mission on April 18, 1775, to warn the colonial militia in Massachusetts about the impending arrival of British troops, a story immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's popular poem. While the poem romanticized Revere, in reality, he was part of a network of riders including William Dawes and Samuel Prescott who carried the urgent message from Boston to Lexington and Concord.
  • Battles of Lexington and Concord

    Battles of Lexington and Concord

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord, occurring on April 19, 1775, marked the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. British troops marched to seize colonial military supplies and apprehend rebel leaders, but Patriot militias, alerted to the plan by riders like Paul Revere, resisted.
  • Battle of Bunker Hil

    Battle of Bunker Hil

    Battle of Bunker Hill- The Battle of Bunker Hill was a bloody confrontation on June 17, 1775, where colonial militia fought the British army for control of the Charlestown Peninsula near Boston.
  • Creation of the Declaration of Independence

    Creation of the Declaration of Independence

    The Declaration of Independence was created by a five-man committee, with Thomas Jefferson as the primary author, which was appointed by the Continental Congress in June 1776.
  • Thomas Paine’s writing of “The American Crisis”

    Thomas Paine’s writing of “The American Crisis”

    Its purpose was to rally Washington's troops after their retreat at the Battle of Fort Lee. Paine wrote a total of thirteen such pamphlets, all collected under the same title, to boost morale and mobilize popular support for the Revolutionary War.
  • Crossing of the Delaware river

    Crossing of the Delaware river

    Washington crossed the Delaware River so that his army could attack an isolated garrison of Hessian troops located at Trenton, New Jersey.
  • Battle of Trenton

    Battle of Trenton

    The Battle of Trenton was important because it provided a crucial morale boost for the struggling Continental Army, demonstrating that they could win against British and Hessian forces, which revitalized support for the revolutionary cause and convinced many soldiers to re-enlist as their enlistments were about to expire.
  • Battles of Saratoga

    Battles of Saratoga

    The American defeat of the superior British army lifted patriot morale, furthered the hope for independence, and helped to secure the foreign support needed to win the war.
  • The Winter at Valley Forge

    The Winter at Valley Forge

    The Winter at Valley Forge (1777-1778) was a period of extreme hardship for the Continental Army due to harsh weather, lack of food and supplies, and disease, leading to thousands of deaths from exposure and illness.
  • Battle of Yorktown

    Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown was the decisive final major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, in which American and French forces trapped British General Cornwallis's army in Yorktown, Virginia, leading to his surrender on October 19, 1781
  • Treaty of Paris

    Treaty of Paris

    The term "Treaty of Paris" refers to several different treaties, the most famous being the 1783 treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War, formally recognizing the United States' independence from Great Britain.
  • The Battle of Philadelphia

    The Battle of Philadelphia

    The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777, a series of battles and sieges during the American Revolutionary War where the British, under General William Howe, captured the city of Philadelphia.