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the British retreat from Boston caused the the theatre of war to move to the Middle states. As part of a grand plan to stop the rebellion by isolating New England, the British decided to seize New York City.
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The British assmebled 32,000 soldiers, including thousands of German mercenaries, or soldiers who fight solely for money. They sailed into New York Harbor in the summer of 1776
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The battle for New York ended in late August with an American retreat following heavy losses.
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Following the loss of New York, Washington and his men were driven into Pennsylvania, across the Delaware river.
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Washington led 2,400 men across the Delaware river and 9 miles through snow to reach Trenton where they killed 30 Hessians and captured 918
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Fewer than 8,000 men remained under Washington’s command,
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The Americans were victoriuos over 1,200 British soldiers stationed at Princeton.
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General Howe began his campaign to seize the American capital at Philadelphia. His troops sailed from New York to the head of Chesapeake Bay, and landed near the capital. The Continental Congress fled the city while Washington’s troops unsuccessfully tried to block the redcoats at nearby Brandywine Creek. The British captured Philadelphia, and General Howe settled in to enjoy the hospitality of the city’s grateful Loyalists
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Burgoyne tried to assemble forces to surround New England and isolate it from the rest of the colonies. His plans were foiled when groups of continental soliers haulted the seperate armies coming into New England.
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Washington and his men were strnaded in the hills out side of Philadelphia lacking supplies and freezing from rigid temperatures. Soldiers suffered from exposure and frostbite, and surgeons like Albigense Waldo worked constantly but often unsuccesfully to save arms and limbs from amputation. Of the 10,000 soldiers who braved wind, snow, and hunger at Valley Forge that winter, more than 2,000 died.
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France finally recognizes that the Americans have an chance and sign on to help them take down the British.
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A Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, volunteered his services to General Washington and went to work “to make regular soldiers out of country bumbkins"
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The British began to shift their operations to the South. There,
the British hoped to rally Loyalist support, reclaim their former colonies in the region, and then slowly fight their way back north. -
The British took Savannah Georgia in the end of 1778
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By the spring of 1779, a royal governor
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Lafayette, a french aristocrats joined Washington’s
staff and bore the misery of Valley Forge, lobbied for French reinforcements in France in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. -
British captured Charles Town, South Carolina and marched 5,500 American soldiers off as prisoners of war. Clinton then left for New York, leaving Cornwallis to command the British forces in the South and to conquer South and North Carolina
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a French army of 6,000 had landed in Newport, Rhode Island, after the British left the city to focus on the South
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As the redcoats advanced, they were
joined by thousands of African Americans who had escaped from Patriot slaveowners to join the British and win their freedom. Cornwallis’s army smashed American forces at Camden, South Carolina, and within three months
the British had established forts across the state -
General Henry Clinton, who had replaced Howe in New York, along with the ambitious general Charles Cornwallis sailed south with 8,500 men General Henry Clinton,
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Congress appointed Robert Morris, a rich Philly merchant, as superintendent of finance. His associate was Haym Salomon, a Jewish political refugee from Poland. Morris and Salomon begged and borrowed on their personal credit to raise money to provide salaries for the Continental Army.
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Washington sent 600 men to harrass Cornwallis as he retreated. A wild chase broke out through the country side and the American army did not back down and won the fight
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Cornwallis, angred by the loss at Cowpens, attcked Green two months later but the victory cost him nearly a fourth of his troops—93 were killed, over 400 were wounded, and 26 were missing.
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Green wrote a letter to Lafayette, asking for help with the British armies attacks.
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Due to the efforts of Morris and Salomon, on September 8, 1781, the troops were finally paid in specie, or gold coin.
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Americans and French closed in on Cornwallis and blocked off the Chesapeake Bay. Cornwallis finally raised a white flag to surrender on Oct. 17th 1781
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Colonel William Fontaine of the Virginia militia stood with the
American and French armies lining a road near Yorktown,Virginia, to witness the formal British surrender. -
General Charles O’Hara, representing Cornwallis, handed over his sword, the British troops laid down their arms, as sign of defeat
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Representatives from United States, Great Britain, France, and Spain came to gether to work out an agreement between the sharing of the Americas.
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This Treaty Of Paris confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
