While one soldier in seven was dying from hunger and disease at Valley Forge, young Private Martin, stationed only a few miles away in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, was assigned to patrols that foraged daily for army provisions. Some , men served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Probably twice that number soldiered as militiamen, for the most part defending the home front, functioning as a police force and occasionally engaging in enemy surveillance. If a militia company was summoned to active duty and sent to the front lines to augment the Continentals, it usually remained mobilized for no more than 90 days.
Some Americans emerged from the war convinced that the militia had been largely ineffective. Militiamen were older, on average, than the Continental soldiers and received only perfunctory training; few had experienced combat. At Camden, South Carolina, in August , militiamen panicked in the face of advancing redcoats. Throwing down their weapons and running for safety, they were responsible for one of the worst defeats of the war. Yet in , militiamen had fought with surpassing bravery along the Concord Road and at Bunker Hill.
Nearly 40 percent of soldiers serving under Washington in his crucial Christmas night victory at Trenton in were militiamen. In New York state, half the American force in the vital Saratoga campaign of consisted of militiamen. In March , Gen. Nathanael Greene adroitly deployed his militiamen in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse fought near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina.
In that engagement, he inflicted such devastating losses on the British that they gave up the fight for North Carolina. The militia had its shortcomings, to be sure, but America could not have won the war without it. On October 17, , British Gen.
The defeat persuaded France to form a military alliance with the United States. Previously, the French, even though they believed that London would be fatally weakened by the loss of its American colonies, had not wished to take a chance on backing the new American nation.
But Saratoga was not the turning point of the war. In addition to Saratoga, four other key moments can be identified. The first was the combined effect of victories in the fighting along the Concord Road on April 19, , and at Bunker Hill near Boston two months later, on June But in those two engagements, fought in the first 60 days of the war, American soldiers—all militiamen—inflicted huge casualties.
The British lost nearly 1, men in those encounters, three times the American toll. Without the psychological benefits of those battles, it is debatable whether a viable Continental Army could have been raised in that first year of war or whether public morale would have withstood the terrible defeats of But at Trenton in late December , Washington achieved a great victory, destroying a Hessian force of nearly 1, men; a week later, on January 3, he defeated a British force at Princeton, New Jersey.
A third turning point occurred when Congress abandoned one-year enlistments and transformed the Continental Army into a standing army, made up of regulars who volunteered—or were conscripted—for long-term service. A standing army was contrary to American tradition and was viewed as unacceptable by citizens who understood that history was filled with instances of generals who had used their armies to gain dictatorial powers. The campaign that unfolded in the South during and was the final turning point of the conflict.
After failing to crush the rebellion in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, the British turned their attention in to the South, hoping to retake Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
At first the Southern Strategy, as the British termed the initiative, achieved spectacular results. Within 20 months, the redcoats had wiped out three American armies, retaken Savannah and Charleston, occupied a substantial portion of the South Carolina backcountry, and killed, wounded or captured 7, American soldiers, nearly equaling the British losses at Saratoga.
But the colonists were not broken. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment From to , the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures It included two crucial battles, fought eighteen days apart, and was a decisive victory for the Continental Army and a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary Live TV.
This Day In History. History Vault. Causes of the Revolutionary War. Recommended for you. American Revolution: Continental Congress. American Revolution: Key Military Figures. American Revolution: Events and Battles. American Revolution: Flags and Fliers. Battles of Lexington and Concord.
American Revolution History. Battle of Saratoga Turns the Tide. Stanley Baldwin on the Impending World War. First, the Declaration of Rights was adopted, and on the following day the new constitution was accepted. The Declaration of Rights guaranteed personal freedoms—the right to choose one's form of religious worship, to write and say what one believed, and to hold peaceful public meetings, among others.
The constitution provided for a form of government with three equal branches: an executive to run the state government, a legislative to make the laws, and a judicial to enforce the laws. The constitution also had provisions applying to holding public office, voting, and public education. When the Patriots adopted their bill of civil rights before they adopted their form of government, they showed how important individual liberties were to a people who were fighting against what they felt was the oppressive government imposed by the king and Parliament.
In both its bill of rights and its constitution, North Carolina—like the other states—showed a deep distrust of government. Tar Heels believed that personal freedoms needed to be stated in writing. They believed that each branch of government had to be independent of the others so that a single individual or group could not have too much power. In creating the new government, revolutionary Americans reached their greatest achievement. They decided that sovereignty would lie with the people of the nation, not in any single person such as the king or institution such as Parliament.
Democracy would be the ideal. The system devised was not perfect then, nor is it perfect now. But the ideal of "government by the citizens and for the citizens" was the fuel that fired the revolutionary vision of a just society. It is the ideal that allows for change when the people desire change. For example, in those days, only free men who owned a certain amount of property were allowed to vote.
But since then, the requirement of owning property has been dropped. Women are allowed to vote. Slavery was abolished. Now all adult citizens of the United States with the exception of those who have committed serious crimes are allowed to vote.
Expanding suffrage—the right to vote—to a greater number of people means that citizens have greater power over their own government. Many Tar Heels living in would be horrified to see that everyone has the right to vote. Other revolutionaries of the time would be pleased that the democratic government they created has become strong and works so well. The great legacy of the American Revolution is that a government was established that allowed for debate and differences of opinion.
This government is able to develop and improve as society progresses. It seems strange and wrong to us today that the men at Halifax could talk about personal freedom and a better government while holding African Americans in slavery and denying voting and other rights to women and to men without property.
But the dramatic fight for constitutional rights in the s was staged by an all-white, all-male cast. However much we may question the ideas of some of the founders, we must acknowledge the importance of what they achieved. They adopted the United States Constitution, which created a government based on written principles with the possibility of amendments. Thus, they established a method to achieve fundamental changes in the future, such as the abolition of slavery and the expansion of the right to vote.
North Carolina Civic Education Consortium. Flickr user: Visit Hillsborough. Josiah Martin The sum of the Colonial militias numbered upwards of , men. France also dispatched a substantial force to North America beginning in , with more than 12, soldiers and a substantial fleet joining the Colonial Americans by wars end.
At its peak, the British Army had upwards of 22, men at its disposal in North America to combat the rebellion. An additional 25, Loyalists, faithful to Great Britain, participated in the conflict as well. Nearly 30, German auxiliaries, or Hessians, were hired out by German princes and served alongside the British for the duration of the war. Throughout the course of the war, an estimated 6, Americans were killed in action, 6, wounded, and upwards of 20, were taken prisoner.
Historians believe that at least an additional 17, deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,—12, who died while prisoners of war. Unreliable imperial data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24, men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing.
Approximately 1, Hessian soldiers were killed, 6, died of disease, and another 5, deserted and settled in America afterward. What other nationalities were involved?
The American Revolution was a truly global conflict, with battles being fought in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The British were aided by both loyal Native American tribes, and Hessian troops from various German principalities.
The American patriots were aided by an even larger coalition of European Powers which included France, Spain, the United Netherlands, and officers of various European nations. Because it was cheaper to hire auxiliary soldiers than muster their own, the British government hired professional German troops called Hessians.
Hired out for service by their princes or nobles, more than 30, Hessian soldiers sailed for North America and fought on the side of the British. Though they wore their traditional uniforms, flew their own flags, and retained their officers, British generals ultimately commanded the individual Hessian units.
Johan Rall and Wilhelm von Knyphausen. What role did African Americans and Native Americans play? Early in the war, many free blacks volunteered for service with the Continental Army, but were rejected. Americans harbored long-standing fears of slave insurrection. Later in the war, when voluntary enlistments were low, various states offered freedom to slaves who fought.
About 7, African Americans served on the Continental side. From the start, the British courted slaves by offering them freedom, although it was never an official government policy, but rather done by local commanders on their own. About 20, African Americans served with the British, knowing their status might not change if Americans won. In , the British issued a proclamation banning American colonists from moving westward onto Native American lands.
For this reason, coupled with several other economic and political factors, many Native Americans, including 4 of the 6 tribes of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, sided with the British at the outbreak of the war. Joseph Brant , whose Mohawk name was Thayendanegea, served alongside British soldiers along with troops he led.
Yet some several tribes sided with Colonials, including the two remaining tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras. In places like upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, and the Carolina frontier, warfare was particularly brutal and involved many Indian groups. The fate of many Native American tribes following the American Revolution was a tragic one. Members of the Iroquois Confederacy, along with many other Native Americans, were ravaged by the conflict, weakened significantly due to infighting, disease, and were completely left out of the Treaty of Paris signed in Treaties made with the British prior to the war were ignored by the Americans, and years of bloody conflict and expansion all but destroyed the Eastern Tribes.
The infantry regiment was the single most distinguishable unit throughout the course of the Revolutionary War. While brigades and divisions were used to group units into a larger cohesive army, regiments were far and away the primary fighting force of the Revolutionary War. During the 18th century, the British had one of the most disciplined and well-trained armies in the entire world.
It was led by a Colonel, and was staffed by 40 junior officers, 72 non-commissioned officers, 24 drummers, 2 fifers, and fielded by privates. Each regiment was broken into 10 companies, eight of which were regular "center" companies, while the remaining two were "flank" companies: grenadier and light infantry.
Washington organized his 27, man army based upon British doctrine and precedents; therefore, his army was divided into 6 combat brigades consisting of about 2, men. Each brigade was comprised of about 5 or 6 regiments, with each regiment averaging around men fit for service. A regiment was broken down further into 1 or 2 battalions which were then broken down into companies.
Companies were comprised of 40 privates, 3 corporals, 1 ensign 2nd Lieutenant , 1 Lieutenant, and a Captain. It should be noted that for both the British and Continental Army, the size of a brigade, division, and army could vary greatly at any given time according to losses, detachments, etc. For the better part of three centuries, the British army was personified by its bright red uniforms and bleached white breeches. Though specific units bore alternative trim colors ranging from green, yellow, black, and white, the vast majority of infantrymen were clad in the distinctive red coats, white breeches, gaiters, and black tricorn or fur hat.
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