| A brief history of the United States. | |||||||||||||||||
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This is what I have been studying in school My friends call me LM I'm 17 years old, from Oregon, USA. | |||||||||||||||||
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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Matthew J. Thompson II Long before the Revolutionary War started, there were many smaller and less violent conflicts between the colonists and Great Britain. Britain was never fond of the colonials having independence and the first restriction they put upon the colonists was the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited them from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. To keep them out, Britain sent 10,000 troops to patrol the colonies. Parliament then passed the Sugar Act in 1764, which restricted the colonists by making them pay tax on all exports and imports and limited their trade to only Britain. By this time the colonists were very upset with Britain. Then in 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act which required colonials to house and feed all 10,000 British troops. In 1765, there was the Stamp Act, which placed a tax on all printed paper materials, this covered everything from newspapers to high school diplomas. The Stamp Act was repealed on May 1, 1766. This put the colonists more at ease, but this was just the beginning of their struggles. Parliament passed the 1767 Townshend Act. This placed a tax on paint, paper, lead and tea. The taxes were to pay the salaries of the British officials in the colonies. The colonists protested and they refused to import any British goods, and wore home spun clothes. When the act failed to bring in money, Parliament repealed all acts except the one on tea. Relations between Britain and the colonists was quiet between 1770 and 1773, despite the Boston Massacre. That was, up until Parliament permitted an East Indian company to sail large quantities of tea to America. A group of men in Boston disguised as Native Americans marched to the docks and threw all the tea in to the harbor. This became know as The Boston Tea Party. Parliament was furious. They immediately passed the Intolerable Acts. They closed Boston Harbor, and Massachusetts was deprived of all self - rule. This caused the first Continental Congress to meet on Sept. 5, 1774 in Philadelphia . They resolved that they would not compromise until Britain repealed the Intolerable Acts. They agreed that the Continental Congress would meet again in May of 1775 if the King had not responded. Unfortunately the war started first on April 19,1775. British General Tomas Gage and his troops marched down the road to Lexington and Concord. The men of Lexington knew that they were coming because a man named Paul Revere had told them the night before. A group of 80 men had gatherd on the green in Lexington. Instead of marching to Concord like Gage had been ordered, he could see the men in Lexington so he marched his 100 men to fight the colonials. This battle left the British with one man wounded. The colonists had 8 men dead and 9 wounded. After the battle at Lexington, the British left and marched to Concord. The people of Lexington were enraged with fury, because the British had spilled coloniel blood. The men of Lexington followed the soldiers and had messengers riding and telling every man with in a 20 mile radius. A mile and a half north of Concord, there was a bridge that 100 British troops held. On a hill above the bridge, 400 men gathered. The other British troops were burning down the arms storage. The milita men thought that it was there houses being burned. The men descended from the hill to the bridge. They were about 80 feet away when the firing started. This time the battle was different from the one at Lexington. Two militia men were dead. The British lost four of their eight commanders and three officers. The British fled to Concord, then force marched back to Boston. The militia men thought it was a retreat and they saw a perfect opportunity to get back at the British. They took a short cut and were able to get in front of the British Army. The militia men hid behind houses, trees and bushes and waited for the British to fall into their trap. The militia men followed them as they marched down the road being fired upon. While the British were being shot at, they met up with their relief. Now, there were 1,000 British men, and 3,000 militia men that had gathered to battle. By the time the British had got back to Boston, one in six men were either dead, missing or wounded. By that time the word had spread and 20,000 militia men had gathered outside of Boston. Inside the city, the people were throwing ice and snow balls at the British officers. One red coat fell and, supposedly, his gun went off. The people charged at the officers, which frightened them, and they began firing into the crowd. Five people were killed. This angered the people of Boston so much that they stopped paying all taxes on British goods. Then on December 16, 1773 the people of Boston dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This enfuriated the king so much that he closed the harbor. It took only 85 Americans to take Fort Ticondroga from 350 british troops who at the time, were sleeping. So the British called for an army of 20,000 men to be sent, but they were sent only 2,000 men. The militia went to Breeds Hill. In the morning, the British attacked from the front, and were defeted. Generel George Washington was appointed the Commander in Chief. 6,500 british were held in Bosten by 20,000 militia men. While this was going on Benedict Arnold tried to go to Quebec. The fort was heavily guarded and he lost the battle. Washington could hold the British men in Boston but could not fire upon them because he was runing out of gun powder. So he sent General Knox to Ticondorga to get some supplys. They surrouned Boston with the guns, and told the British to get out, and they did. There was one thing in Washington's plan that the British didn't know. He had little gun powder to fire the guns. The British had been driven from Boston with a bluff. Of all the colonists one third were for the colonists , one third were for the British, the other third really didn't give a damn about the war. They just wanted the whole thing to be over. The Continental Congress decided that Thomas Jefferson would write the Declaration of Independence. One of the main reasons they decided to write the declaration was so they could trade with other countries again, because at the time, Britain made it so the Americans could only trade with Britain. The colonists could buy supplys from other countries and were able to make treaties with other countries, it would help get more support to help fight the war. The British payed for the service of 18,000 German's and there were 30,000 British troops. The Comander of these troops had grown up on Long Island and new the landscape. Most of the Americans had never been there. 8,000 Germans and 20,000 british went to Long Island. The Americans had a small strong hold at the time with 3,000 men. Because the British knew the landscape, they were able to surround the Americans. Five times the British charged and five times they were pushed back. The sixth time they charged they broke the line and won the battle at Long Island. Although they lost 400 men, it was nothing compared to the 1,500 men that we had lost. They pushed the Americans against the East River. The Americans fled during the night. At Lake Champlain, Benedict Arnold had constructed a small navy to hold back the British navy from trapping the Americans from the west as well as the east. He held the British back for so long they had to make it back to Quebec before the water froze. After Washington had left Long Island he, and his men marched to Fort Washington, New York. Then he crossed the Hudson River but left some of his men to stay and help fight the british. The British attacked from three sides and the fort was taken along with 400,000 musket cartridges and 3,000 men. This was a great disipointment to Washington because he was told that Fort Washington was a strong hold and that the British would not take it if Washingtom left some men and gun powder. Trenton was held captive by 1,500 Hessians on December 26 ,1776. Unfortunathy the Hessians didn't fortify the town, and Washington decided to attack. It was early in the morning and the one guard that was on duty was asleep and so were the rest of the armed forces in the town when the firing started only two of Washingtons men were wounded, they captured 900 Hessians. The rest were either wounded or dead. On New Years, Washington's men would make a choice, the choice was either leave because your time has expired in the service or to rejoin him in his fight for freedom. Half of his army stayed with him. Washington had a outstanding commanding presence. He could get men to follow him anywhere, but there was one flaw, he had very poor plan strategic planning skills, so the other commanders in charge did that for him. Fort Stanwick was taken fron the British by 800 men from New York. For three days the British fired upon them. More Americans were comming from the east they were ambushed by native Americans in a ravine. After many of their men were wounded the natives left the revine and the British army. Britain had payed them to help. Many women left there homes to be with their men. The army took them on as cooks, and nurses. They could not turn them away or the men might dersert the army and go home with their family.This war was spliting many familys by 1780 which would be remember as the dark days.One brother would be for the war on the British side. and the other would be for freedom and, so you got brother fighting brother , and sometimes father fighting son. The next time Fort Ticondaroga was taken it was without the firing a muskit or a cannon. The Americans knew that the British would follow them, so along their path they fell trees and moved stumps in the way. With a lot of supplys, it would be time consumming to follow them. It took the british 20 days to travel 22 miles, so the commander of the British troops sent a small group of about 500 men to get supplies. The Britiah did not know that their were hundreds of men waiting for them. After the battle, 200 Germans lay dead and 200 were held captive by the colonists. Washington marched to Germantown to fight the british but he was overwelmed by the british and lost 1,300 men. The French were decideding if they would join us or not. General Gates rounded up a large group of riflemen to help the Americans. Green who held the field but lost onethied of his men that fought on the field that day, and the firing continued all night. Six hundred of Greenss troops were eithere killed or taken prisoner. Washington stayed to build shelter for his men atValley Fordge for that long winter. His troops had harsh rules so he could wip them into shape. A French soldier in 3 months made his army a fighting army instead of a running army and he tought them to attack. At Valley Fordge, they lost 2,000 to death and another 2,000 men to desertion.The French in May of 1778 joined the Americans against the British who, at the time, were fighting Spain, France, and the 13 colonies. The British left Philadelphia and marched south to find Washington and his troops. Washington's second in command attacked the British at Monmouth New Jersey. They retreated as Washington came with his troops and stopped the retreat. Many men died that day because of the heat. Women even joined in the fight and Washington's men held the field that day.The First Road Island, made up of 125 black men, fought off the Hessians. The blacks won the battle and the Hessians lost five times as many men as did the blacks. The warriors of the Mohawk nation were paid by the British to go to New York and burn the city and kill all the people. This caused the American troops to followed them back to their land and burned bown there village and killed many. Meanwhile Spain and France were fighting Brittain for the Caribbean Sea. In the beginning of the war Brittain had 265 war ships. We had only one named the Serapis which was taken from the british by John Paul Jones. The winter of 1779, was such a cold one that New York harbor was frozen solid. The Americans were running out of supplies and the contiental dollar was now worth about 1 penny. The cost of 1 horse was $20,000. The war was doubling Britains debts and wrecking there economy. Brittain decided to try to defeat the Americans in Charleston South Carolina. Benjamin Lincoln held many militia men for more then 19 days. The continentals Finally layed down their arms. Many prisoners of the war died from the harshness that the British had putopon them. British General Cornwallis stayed in South Carolina in 1780. He learned that there was a small group of militia men just a 10 day march south of him. He sent one of his lieutenant colonels after them and when he met up with the men, he slaughtered them right on the spot. This was on may 29, 1780. Washington sent many men to replace the ones he had lost. When Horatio Gates and his men met up with the British on the battle field, many Americans fled, but the rest that stayed died, in two months America had lost two of its armes and two of the biggest battles of the war. On May 29, 1779 Benedict Arnold decided that he would change the color of his coat and he would give over the fort plans for West Point to the British. Arnold messenger was stopped by three Americans. Bent on robbing him, they found the plans for West Point. The plans never made it to the British. Many of the woodsmen with their rifles would fight the British to the death. When Nathanel Green heard about this, he wentsouth to try to take back the south. He split his army to have men for back up. Cornwallis charged Green men he was defeted. Greens men followed the British back to the Dan River. By that time Cornwallis had shot down one quarter of Greens men. The French sent many men and 30 war ships to Yorktown, Virginia, on August 19 ,1781. Washington and his men would arrive on foot at Yorktown. Washington got total surender of the Britisb army. The war was over. America had decleared it's independence from Britain. Many loyalists after the war they were put on ships and had a choice to either go to Great Britain or the West Indies. In the meantime why not check out the link below to get your own 20MB of free webspace? | |||||||||||||||||
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