The Revolutionary War & Creating the Republic

Chapters 5-6

Overview of the Revolutionary War

• Few observers thought the Americans would win the war• Americans lost most of the battles• Colonists were of 3 opinions

• Patriots: favored independence• Tories: did not want complete break with Britain• No opinion/Undecided/Wait and See

• Threatened to become a world war when France, Spain and Dutch allied against Great Britain• Effects of the Revolution: minimal effect on British military; far-reaching social

and political effects among the former and current British colonies• Is the revolution ongoing???

Comparing strengths and weaknesses of British and American forces• Colonial Militias (Weaknesses)• Primarily farmers and tradesmen with little to no military training• Militias formed territorially locally• Questionable quality of munitions—militias supplied their own weapons• Volunteer militias resented military discipline• Camp sickness “Sword of the Enemy”• Former farmers and frontiersmen often deserted to return to protect families,

farms and crops

• Colonial Navy composed of Privateers or former Privateers (Weaknesses)• Commodores had no experience commanding a fleet of ships

Comparing strengths and weaknesses of British and American forces • British Army (Weaknesses)• Fought on foreign land and terrain which they did not know well• Inexperienced with guerrilla tactics• Costly to maintain an army on foreign territory across the Atlantic Ocean from

the homeland and took funds away from other imperial endeavors• British forces were composed of 50% mercenary soldiers• French, Spanish and Dutch opposed British forces

• British Navy (Weaknesses)• Did not know North American coastal waters as well• Ships were larger and slower and heavier making an easy target for smaller,

faster, lighter American ships

Comparing strengths and weaknesses of British and American forces• Colonial Army (Strengths)

• Militias began to coalesce into one force under Generals they knew and trusted• Smallpox inoculations• Soldiers viewed themselves as defending their homes• Knew the terrain better than the British• Frontiersmen more experienced and adapted to guerilla tactics• British cruelty and alliances with Native Americans led formerly undecided men to join Continental

Army• French reinforcements • Americans did not need to win the war—they merely needed to avoid losing it.

• Colonial Navy (Strengths)• Privateers and Former privateers knew coastal waters better and had experience evading British ships

on patrol• American ships could outmaneuver heavier, larger and slower British ships• French, Spanish and Dutch harassed British ships

Comparing strengths and weaknesses of British and American forces• British Navy (Strengths)• Most powerful and well-equipped navy in the world• British Commodores were experienced in naval warfare• British Commodores were experienced leading fleets of ships• British navy could impress seamen from captured vessels• British Navy had more powerful weapons and more ships

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• July 2, 1776

• Continental Congress votes to declare independence from Great Britain• British forces land on Staten Island

• Mid-August 1776• British General William Howe assembles 32,000 soldiers to oppose American independence• George Washington transfers most of his troops to NY: 18,000 soldiers composed of volunteer

militias and Continental Army soldiers• Washington has no experience commanding large force

• August 27, 1776 Battle of Brooklyn Heights is a humiliating defeat for General Washington• Washington is surrounded but British fail to press advantage. Local watermen and fishermen

transfer colonial soldiers across Hudson River to New Jersey where Washington escapes to Delaware and Pennsylvania.

• Independence supporters flee New York or are forced to hide their sentiments or are jailed by the British

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• December, 1776 large numbers of volunteer militias return home or

desert, leaving Washington with only 3,000 soldiers• December 23, 1776 Thomas Paine publishes The American Crisis to

rally support for the Patriot cause• December, 1776: Congress offers land, wages, clothing and blankets

to soldiers• December 26, 1776: Battle of Trenton—Washington leads 2,400

troops across the Delaware River to Trenton where they attack a Hessian Mercenary barracks, of 1,500 soldiers. 500 Hessians are killed or captured

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• January 1777 Battle of Princeton: American Victory• British Northern Strategy

• Occupy New York to cut off New England from the Middle Colonies• British forces in Quebec to march South• British forces from Oswego to march East

• June 1777• British General Burgoyne moves South toward Lake Champlain and is joined by Iroquois allies. Burgoyne’s forces

head toward Albany and besiege American forces at Fort Stanwix.• American General Horatio Gates, who served with Burgoyne in the same regiment of the British army in 1743,

commands American forces in the region.

• August 1777:• Loyalists and Native Americans ambush American militia who hold them off until reinforcements arrive at Fort

Stanwix• Gates rejects Burgoyne’s demand to surrender• Iroquois tire of the siege and desert the British• British withdrew siege

Generals Horatio Gates and John Burgoyne

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• September 11, 1777 Battle of Brandywine Creek: Washington suffers

another humiliating defeat allowing the British to take Philadelphia• September 19—October 7, 1777 Battle of Saratoga• Colonel John Stark defeated a detachment of Hessians and Loyalist militia and

forced General Burgoyne back to Saratoga• American forces besieged British, Hessian and Loyalists who failed to break

through the lines. • October 17,1777 Burgoyne signed agreement with Gates to leave North

America. • British defeat at Saratoga lead the French to enter the war on American side

• Winter of 1777-1778 Washington’s forces Winter at Valley Forge

Nation Makers by Howard Pyle Brandywine Creek Museum(c. before 1911). Public Domain

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783February 6, 1778

Treaty of Amity and Commerce: Trade concessions between French and Americans• Treaty of Alliance;• If France entered the war, both countries would fight till Americans won

Independence• Neither would conclude a truce without the agreement of the other• Each guaranteed the other’s possessions in North America forever• French would not attempt to seize Canada or other British possessions

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• March 1, 1778: Articles of Confederation ratified by all 13 Colonies• June 1778: British fire on French ships• Spring 1778: Guerilla war on the Frontier• British strategy: incite Iroquois and Loyalists to attack Patriot settlements and

offered a bounty for American scalps• George Rogers Clark: Led 150 French and American frontiersmen down Ohio

River to lay siege to British garrison at Vincennes (in Indiana). • Americans capture 5 Iroquois with scalps they believe were Patriot settlers• Americans tomahawk all 5 Iroquois in sight of the British garrison• British surrender

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• Summer 1778: Pennsylvania Frontier War

• Washington dispatches 400 soldiers under command of General John Sullivan with orders to destroy Iroquois villages accused of raiding Patriot settlements.

• August 29, 1778: Battle of Newton N.Y. • Sullivan burns 40 villages along the PA—NY border along with orchards, fields and crops leaving

Iroquois women and children without homes or food. • Sullivan’s actions break Iroquois federation once and for all

• 1778-1779 War in the South • British Commander is General Sir Henry Clinton who dispatches 3,000 loyalists, Hessians

and British troops to take Savannah and roll northeast toward Charleston. Clinton believed he would recruit additional soldiers and allies among southern loyalists and Cherokees

• By Spring 1779, Clinton defeated 3 American Armies and had taken the ports of Savannah and Charleston, killing, wounding or capturing almost 7,000 American soldiers

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• Summer 1779 British offensive stalls• Only so many Loyalists from which to recruit• Cherokees not as willing to fight as had been Iroquois• British and Native American actions (atrocities--some real and some fanciful)

led previously undecided settlers to join the Patriot cause

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• October 7, 1780 Battle of King’s Mountain• American militia from Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia joined forces

and marched to South Carolina to battle British troops.• Among the troops was Davey Crockett’s father, John Crockett• This battle fought primarily between Patriots and Loyalists• Patriots won after 3 hour battle in which they charged uphill

• 290 Loyalists killed, 163 wounded, 668 taken prisoner

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783

Gathering of the Mountain Men at Sycamore ShoalsBy Lloyd Branson depicts the muster of Over 1,000 militia from North Carolina,Virginia, and Tennessee to march to South CarolinaAgainst the British in 1790.

Timeline and Major Events of the Revolutionary War 1776-1783• 1779: Spain declares War on Britain• 1780: Britain declares war on the Dutch for continuing to trade with

the Americans• September 28—October 19, 1781: Battle of Yorktown• French Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse joined his naval forces with

General Washington’s army to surround British General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. • Cornwallis to London: “I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that

I have been forced to …surrender the troops under my command.”

Surrender at Yorktown

Unfinished painting by Benjamin West. British delegation refused to pose.

Treaty of Paris (Ratified by both sides April 9,

1784)

Important Points of Treaty of Paris

• British acknowledged United States to be sovereign nation, free and independent• British Crown relinquishes all claims to government, property and territorial rights• Established boundaries between the United States and British North America• Granted fishing rights to the Grand Banks • Lawful debts paid to creditors on both sides• Congress of the Confederation “earnestly request” restitution for seized property• United States will not seize property of Loyalists• Release of prisoners of war• U.S. and Great Britain given perpetual access to the Mississippi River• Territories captured by U.S. returned to Great Britain without compensation

Weaknesses of Articles of Confederation• Congress had no power to tax• No executive power to enforce laws enacted by Congress• Congress had no authority to engage in meaningful diplomacy• Trade with West Indies• Spanish closed Port of New Orleans

• Congress could not enforce uniform tax or trade policies among the individual states• Tariffs differed from state to state• Some states paid their debts others did not• Some states printed a lot of paper money, others did not

Newburgh Conspiracy

• Robert Morris: Superintendent of Finance for the Continental Congress• Along with other wealthy financiers obtained money to fund the Revolutionary War• Along with officers in the Continental Army who feared they would not be paid,

Morris and his financier collaborators formed a conspiracy to confront Congress with a Coup d’etat unless the former colonies agreed to give Congress more power to raise money• Alexander Hamilton who was part of the conspiracy, sought to bring his mentor,

General George Washington into the group. • March, 1783 Washington confronted the officers and argued that a Coup

threatened the purposes for which the war was being fought, as well as his own integrity. • The conspiracy was abandoned.

Western Land Cessions, 1781–1802

Shay’s Rebellion

• Daniel Shays a Revolutionary War veteran of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Saratoga• Shay’s was wounded in action and never paid wages• Hauled into court after the war for non-payment of debts• John Hancock and Massachusetts war debt• Issuance of more currency devalued the money and enabled the debtor to pay off debt at

a lower price. • Rebels attempted to shut down courts engaging in actions to collect debts and foreclose

on farms• Western (rural Massachusetts) vs. Eastern Massachusetts (urban Boston and Coast)• Private militias and federal armories (January 25, 1787)

• Cannon fire• 4 dead; 20 wounded

Shay’s Rebellion

Adopting the Constitution

• The Constitutional Convention• Delegates in attendance• The emergence of James Madison

• Differing political philosophies and plans• The Virginia Plan• The New Jersey Plan

Adopting the Constitution

• The Great Compromise• Principles incorporated into the Constitution• Separation of powers• Nature of the presidency• Nature of the judicial branch• Examples of countervailing forces in the new government• Ratification provisions

The Fight for Ratification

• September 17, 1787: Majority of delegates to the Constitutional Convention approve the Constitution• The Constitution “laid before the United States in Congress

assembled” on September 20.• September 26 & 27 Congress debated the document and whether or

not to censure the delegates to the Constitutional Convention for exceeding their authority.

The Fight for Ratification

• Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists • Arguments for ratification

• Size and diversity of the expanding United States required a strong federal framework and would make it impossible for any one faction to dominate.

• Without a federal framework the means for expansion and prosperity, repayment of debt and national defense would be compromised

• Madison promised George Mason and Patrick Henry that if they agreed to ratify the Constitution, he would make sure that a Bill of Rights was passed as the first order of business of Congress.

• Arguments against ratification• Delegates had exceeded their authority and document was illegal• Document worked for the privileged few but not for the majority• Too much power to Federal government at expense of the states• Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights

The Fight for Ratification

• Nine States had to ratify for Constitution to become law• The decision of the states

• Delaware: first state to ratify the Constitution: December 7, 1787• North Carolina ratified the Constitution only after the Bill of Rights was passed in

Congress in 1789• By May, 1789 Nine states had ratified the Constitution

• Rhode Island: last state to ratify the Constitution. After initially rejecting ratification in a referendum and being threatened with treatment as a foreign government, Rhode Island ratified the Constitution by two votes on May 29, 1790.

• October 2, 1789 Congress approved of 12 amendments (only the first 10 were adopted by the States).

• Bill of Rights ratified by ¾ of the states by December 15, 1791.

Virginia Ratifies the U.S.Constitution, June 25, 1789By Louis Glanzman (1987).Vote: 89 in favor, 79 opposed.