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The British were good at seizing the ports, but most Americans didn't live on the coast, they lived in the countryside.
Major battles and campaigns in the Revolutionary War
The Battle of Bunker Hill was the first big clash between the patriots and the British. The Americans had taken and fortified the hills above Charlestown, north of Boston, on June 16, 1775, and the British marched up the hill with 2,500 soldiers and were turned back by musket volleys from 1,400 patriots. But the British came up again, and were turned back; but the third time the Americans ran out of ammunition and the British took the hill, killing 140 Americans. The Battle of Saratoga ended with the British thinking they had a victory but as Roark notes on page 171, General Burgoyne lost 1,200 men and surrendered to the Americans on October 17, 1777. Native Americans were caught between two colliding forces and while some Indian tribes supported the patriots, others supported England. In 1779, after pro-British colonists and Indians loyal to the British had raided patriot villages and killed residents, Washington ordered the "total destruction and...
Some 40 Indian communities were "met with total obliteration"; women and children were slaughtered and crops and towns were burned to the ground by 4,500 troops Washington sent into New York State. In fact, the decisive battle to end the war involved the French navy beating back the British navy in Chesapeake Bay, Roark writes on page 175. Thanks to the French navy's attack, Cornwallis's land-based army was trapped, and on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered.
In conclusion, the war dragged on well past Cornwallis's surrender -- there were skirmishes and remote battles -- but the courage and intelligence of Washington and the perseverance of the American patriot soldiers made the difference. The British were absolutely convinced they could not lose, but thanks to the French assistance, and to the passion that the colonists had for their independence, the British were falsely confident and ultimately defeated.
Works Cited
Roark, James L., Johnson, Michael P., Cohen, Patricia Cline, Stage, Sarah, Lawson, Alan,
And Hartmann, Susan…
Works Cited
Roark, James L., Johnson, Michael P., Cohen, Patricia Cline, Stage, Sarah, Lawson, Alan,
And Hartmann, Susan M. (2008). The American Promise: A History of the United States.
New York: Macmillan.
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