History Ch 6

General William Howe

A British commander that was sent During the summer of 1776 by Britain along with 32,000 troops across the Atlantic to New York. hoped the sheer size of his army would convince the Patriots to give up. He was soon disappointed.

Ch 6 Sec 3

Revolutionary War fighting spreads to the West and South.

Charles Town

Was saved In 1776, when the Americans had crushed Loyalists at the Battle of Moore's Creek, near Wilmington, North Carolina from the British.

mercenary

hired soldiers. The British relied on hired soldiers to fight. The Americans called the these hired soldiers Hessians.

desert

leave without permission. many men left Valley Forge without permission.

privateer

privately owned merchant ships equipped with weapons. The American ones captured more British vessels at sea than did the American navy.

Nathanael Greene

replaced Gates as commander of the Continental forces in the South. Greene split his army in two. In January 1781, one section of the army, led by General Daniel Morgan, defeated the British at Cowpens, South Carolina. Another section joined Marion's guerrilla raids. In March the commander of the Continental forces reunited his forces to meet Cornwallis's army at Guilford Courthouse, in present-day Greensboro, North Carolina. Greene's army was forced to retreat, but the British sustained great losses in the process.

inflation

taking more and more money to buy the same amount of goods. To pay for the war, the Congress and the states printed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of paper money. These bills quickly lost their value, however, because the amount of bills in circulation grew faster than the supply of gold and silver backing them. The Congress stopped issuing the paper money because no one would use it. However, the Americans had no other way to finance the fighting of their war for independence.

neutral

taking neither side in the conflict.

Admiral François de Grasse,

the French naval commander, was heading toward Chesapeake Bay instead of New York. Washington quickly changed his plans. He would advance on the British at Yorktown rather than at New York City.

Joseph Brant

A Mohawk chief that led a number of brutal attacks in southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania. After the war, Brant served as a representative of the Mohawk people to the Continental Congress and tried to get a fair land settlement for his people. Unable to reach an agreement, Brant and his people moved to Canada.

John Paul Jones

A daring American naval officer began raiding British ports in 1777. He sailed in an old French ship that Benjamin Franklin had obtained for him. Jones gave the ship a French name, Bonhomme Richard, in honor of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. In 1779, In the end the Serapis surrendered, but the Bonhomme Richard sank not long after the battle. Still, his victory made John Paul Jones a naval hero to the American Patriots.

guerrilla warfare

A hit-and-run technique used in battle. The British received less help than they had expected from Loyalists in Southern states. Instead, as British troops moved through the countryside, small forces of Patriots attacked them. This hit-and-run technique caught the British off guard.

Nathan Hale

A teacher from Connecticut, He volunteered to spy on British troops and disguised himself as a Dutch schoolteacher. The British discovered his true identity, however, and hanged him. According to tradition, just before his hanging, His last words were, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Deborah Sampson

A woman from Massachusetts watched her brothers and their friends go off to war. Moved by a sense of adventure, she disguised herself as a boy and enlisted.

Margaret Corbin

A woman who fought with the Patriot forces. of Pennsylvania accompanied her husband when he joined the Continental Army. After he died in battle, she took his place. Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley also accompanied her husband in battle. The soldiers called her "Moll of the Pitcher," or Molly Pitcher, because she carried water pitchers to the soldiers.

Lemuel Hayes & Peter Salem

African American soldiers who fought at Concord. African Americans fought for the same reasons as other Americans. They believed in the Patriot cause or they needed the money. Some soldiers were enslaved Africans who had run away from slaveholders. Others fought to earn their freedom.

blockade

As fighting continued on the western frontier, other battles raged at sea. Great Britain used its powerful navy to patrol American waterways. This British ____________ prevented supplies and reinforcements from reaching the Continental Army.

Ch 6 Sec 2

As the Revolutionary War continued, the Americans received support from European countries.

Kings Mountain

At this mountain, a British officer and more than 1,000 Loyalists defended an outpost against the attack of Patriot sharpshooters. The Patriots forced the British to retreat.

ratify

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay represented the United States. American Congress approved the preliminary treaty in April 1783. The final Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783. By that time Britain had also made peace with France and Spain.

Green Mountain Boys

Howe planned to take Philadelphia, but when he did, A local militia group attacked and defeated them. Having lost part of his army and desperately short of supplies, Burgoyne retreated in October to the town of Saratoga in New York.

Marquis de Lafayette

In April 1778 Washington told his troops of the Patriots' alliance with France. Everyone's spirits rose at the thought of help from overseas. Among the hardy soldiers who spent the winter at Valley Forge was a French nobleman. Filled with enthusiasm for the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence, he had bought a ship and set sail for America. He rushed to join the battle for freedom.

Benedict Arnold

In August American soldiers halted St. Leger's advance at Fort Stanwix, New York. the Americans forced the British to retreat.

Comte de Rochambeau

In July 1780, French warships appeared in the waters off Newport, Rhode Island. The ships carried more than 5,000 soldiers under the command of a French general. The promised French aid had arrived at last. Unfortunately the British fleet arrived soon afterward and trapped the French ships in Newport.

France

News of the American victory at Saratoga caused a shift in France's policy. In February 1778, the French and the Americans worked out a trade agreement and an alliance. France declared war on Britain and sent money, equipment, and troops to aid the American Patriots.

Francis Marion

One successful guerrilla leader operated out of the swamps of eastern South Carolina. Known as the Swamp Fox, he was quick and smart. One British colonel grumbled that "the devil himself" could not catch him.

Battle of Long Island

Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the Continental Army suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the British forces.

The Loyalists

Some remained loyal because they were members of the Anglican Church, headed by the British king. Some depended on the British for their jobs. Many feared the disorder that would come from challenging the established government. Others simply could not understand what all the commotion was about. The royal governor of Virginia, announced that enslaved people who fought on the British side would be freed, and many men answered his call.

Ch 6 Sec 4

The American colonies overcame many disadvantages to win independence.

Patriot Advantages

The Americans called the British mercenaries Hessians after the region in Germany where most of them lived. Patriots compared their own troops, who were fighting for the freedom of their own land, to the Hessians, who fought for money to gain support. The Americans' greatest advantage was probably their leader, George Washington.

Ch 6 Sec 1

The British and the Americans each had advantages and disadvantages as they faced one another in war.

Trenton and Princeton

The British army settled in New York for the winter of 1776, leaving some troops in New Jersey at _____________ and ____________. Armies usually called a halt to their wars during the winter, and the British did not expect to fight. Stationed across the Delaware River from the British camp in New Jersey, Washington saw a chance to catch the British off guard. On Christmas night 1776, Washington took 2,400 troops across the icy river and surprised the enemy at Trenton the next day. Washington then marched the army to Princeton, where they drove away the British.

ambush

The British succeeded in occupying cities but had difficulty controlling the countryside. They had not been successful at Saratoga or in the Carolinas. The Patriots, however, knew the local terrain and where to lay a surprise attack.

Bernardo de Gálvez

The Spanish governor of Louisiana raised an army. His soldiers forced British troops from Baton Rouge and Natchez. Then the army captured British forts at Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. This man's campaign through hundreds of miles of wilderness diverted British troops from other fronts.

Treatment of Loyalists

To prove their loyalty to Britain, some Loyalists spied and informed on the Patriots. Many Loyalists, however, fled the American colonies during the Revolutionary War. Some left hurriedly for England. Others took off for Florida. Loyalists who remained in the United States faced difficult times. Their neighbors often shunned them. Some became victims of mob violence. Loyalists who actively helped the British could be arrested and tried as traitors.

Battle of Yorktown.

Washington advanced on the British at Yorktown rather than at New York City. The plan worked perfectly, and the British were thoroughly confused. By the end of September, 14,000 American and French troops had trapped Cornwallis's 7,500 British and Hessian troops at Yorktown. British supplies began running low, and many soldiers were wounded or sick. Cornwallis realized the hopelessness of his situation. On October 19 he surrendered. The Patriots had won this battle

Winter at Valley Forge

Washington set up camp about 20 miles to the west of the British. Washington and his troops endured a winter of terrible suffering, lacking decent food, clothing, and shelter. Washington's greatest challenge at this camp was keeping the Continental Army together. Joseph Martin, a young private from Connecticut, spent the winter here. "We had a hard duty to perform," he wrote years later, "and little or no strength to perform it with."

General Charles Cornwallis

When Clinton returned to New York after he sent 3,500 British troops from New York to take Savannah, on the coast of Georgia and captured Charles Town, he left this General in command of British forces in the South. The Continental Congress sent forces under General Horatio Gates to face Him. Although he won, he was later defeated by guerrilla warfare.

Friedrich von Steuben

a former army officer from Germany, also came to help Washington. He drilled the Patriot troops at Valley Forge, teaching them military discipline. He turned the ragged Continental Army into a more effective fighting force.

George Rogers Clark

a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia. In June 1778, He and 175 soldiers sailed down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Tennessee River. After marching 120 miles, the Patriots seized the British post at Kaskaskia in present-day Illinois. Then, in February 1779, they captured the British town of Vincennes in present-day Indiana.

Abigail Adams

also championed women's interests. She wrote to her husband, John Adams, who was a member of the Second Continental Congress: "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies, for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives."

Judith Sargeant Murray

argued that women's minds are as good as men's. Girls, therefore, should get as good an education as boys.

Juan de Miralles

arrived in Philadelphia in 1778 as a representative of Spain. At his urging, Spain, Cuba, and Mexico sent financial aid to the colonies. He befriended many Patriot leaders and lent money to the cause.

General Horatio Gates

blocked his path to the south. Burgoyne found himself surrounded by an army about three times as large as his own. Burgoyne made a last desperate attack on October 7, but the Americans held firm.

Henry Hamilton

commanded Detroit, the main British base in the West. Some called him the "hair buyer" because of rumors that he paid Native Americans for the scalps of settlers.

recruit

enlist soldiers. The Congress established the Continental Army but depended on the states to enlist soldiers. At first soldiers signed up for one year of army service. General Washington appealed for longer terms. Up to Three Years.