Revolutionary war poems

The American Revolution (1775-1783)

  • The Battles of Lexington and Concord

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord
    The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War between the British and the colonial armies. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston.
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    Timeline of the American Revolutionary War

  • The Battle of Fort Ticonderoga

    The Battle of Fort Ticonderoga
    The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga happened on May 10, 1775, when a small force of Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold overcame a small British garrison at the fort and stole the personal belongings of the garrison.
  • The Battle of Chelsea Creek

    The Battle of Chelsea Creek
    The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the second military engagement of the Boston campaign of the American Revolutionary War. This battle was fought on May 27 and 28, 1775, on Chelsea Creek and on salt marshes, mudflats, and islands of Boston Harbor, northeast of the Boston peninsula.
  • General George Washington

    General George Washington
    On June 15, 1775, the Continental Congress "elected" George Washington as commander of the yet-to-be-created Continental Army.
  • The Battle of Bunker Hill

    The Battle of Bunker Hill
    The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston that occurred early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Boston, which was related in the battle, and was the original goal of both the colonial and British troops. The British troops played very offensively in the battle causing the Colonial Armies to fail in the face to face combat.
  • The Battle of Quebec

    The Battle of Quebec
    The Battle of Quebec was fought on December 31, 1775, between American Continental Army and the British defenders of Quebec City early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came with heavy losses. General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner.
  • The Battle of Sullivan's Island

    The Battle of Sullivan's Island
    The Battle of Sullivan's Island or the Battle of Fort Sullivan was fought on June 28, 1776. It took place near Charleston, South Carolina, during the first British attempt to capture the city from American rebels.
  • The Battle of Long Island

    The Battle of Long Island
    The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War to take place after the United States declared independence on July 4, 1776. It was a win for the British Army and the beginning of a successful campaign that gave them control of the strategically important city of New York. In terms of troop deployment and fighting, it was the largest battle of the entire war.
  • Benjamin Franklin goes to Paris

    Benjamin Franklin goes to Paris
    On October 26, 1776, exactly one month to the day after being named an agent of a diplomatic commission by the Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin sets sail from Philadelphia to France, with which he was to negotiate and secure a formal alliance and treaty. France had agreed to supply the arms and to loan U.S.D. to Congress.
  • The Battle of White Plains

    The Battle of White Plains
    The Battle of White Plains took place on October 28, 1776, near White Plains, New York. Following the retreat of George Washington's Army north from New York City, British General William Howe landed troops in Westchester County, wanting to cut off Washington's escape route. Washington noted this move and retreated farther, making a position in the village of White Plains.
  • The Battle of Fort Washington

    The Battle of Fort Washington
    The Battle of Fort Washington was a battle fought in New York on November 16, 1776. It was a British victory that gained the surrender of the remnant of the garrison of Fort Washington near the north part of Manhattan Island. It was one of the worst Patriot defeats.
  • The Battle of Trenton

    The Battle of Trenton
    Immediately following his famous crossing of the Delaware River, General George Washington marched the Continental Army to Trenton, New Jersey. The army's forces included horses, guns, wagons, and soldiers, stretching for nearly one mile! The army striked the German Hessians on the day of Christmas, when they were least expecting an attack.
  • The Battle of Princeton

    The Battle of Princeton
    The Battle of Princeton was fought on January 3 1777 and was a pivotal battle in which General George Washington's revolutionary forces defeated British forces near Princeton, New Jersey.
  • The Capture of Philadelphia (1777)

    The Capture of Philadelphia (1777)
    In July 1777, British General William Howe set out to capture the city of Philadelphia. His reasons for the decision: It was the largest city in English North America, the seat of Congress, populated by numerous Loyalists, part of a fertile region, and could be supplied from the sea using the Delaware River. General George Washington allowed the capture to take place in order to not loose troops. The Continental Army instead sniped off British troops one by one.
  • The Battle of Oriskany

    The Battle of Oriskany
    The Battle of Oriskany, fought on August 6, 1777, was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War and an important fight of the Saratoga campaign. An American party trying to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a party of Loyalists and allies of several Native American tribes. This was one of the few battles in the war in which almost all of the soldiers were North American: Loyalists and allied Indians battled Patriots and allied Oneida without British soldiers.
  • The Battle of Bennington

    The Battle of Bennington
    The Battle of Bennington, part of the Saratoga campaign, took place on August 16, 1777, in Walloomsac, New York, about 16 kilometres from Bennington, Vermont. A rebel force of 2,000 men, primarily made of New Hampshire and Massachusetts soldiers, led by General John Stark, and reinforced by Vermont soldiers led by Colonel Seth Warner and members of the Green Mountain Boys, decisively defeated a detachment of General John Burgoyne's army led by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum.
  • The Battle of Brandywine

    The Battle of Brandywine
    The Battle of Brandywine was fought between the American army of George Washington and the British army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777. The British Army defeated the American Army and forced them to retreat toward Philadelphia. The fight happened near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania during Howe's campaign to take Philadelphia. More troops fought at Brandywine than any other battle of the Revolution. It was also the longest single-day battle of the war lasting 11 hours.
  • The Battles of Saratoga

    The Battles of Saratoga
    The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 to October 7, 1777) was a turning point in the Revolution when the continental armies guerrilla tactics paid off.
  • The Battle of Germantown

    The Battle of Germantown
    The Battle of Germantown, a battle in the Philadelphia campaign, was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania between the British Army led by Sir William Howe and the American army under George Washington. The British victory in this battle ensured that Philadelphia would remain in British hands throughout the winter of 1777–1778. Now part of the city of Philadelphia, Germantown was an outlying community in 1777.
  • Winter at Valley Forge

    Winter at Valley Forge
    Valley Forge was the military camp in southeastern Pennsylvania, approximately 30 kilometres northwest of Philadelphia, where the American Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–1778 during the American Revolutionary War. Starvation, disease, malnutrition, and exposure killed over 2,500 American soldiers by the end of February 1778. The starvation even exceeded to extremities of the soldiers consuming their own horses.
  • The Battle of Monmouth

    The Battle of Monmouth
    The Battle of Monmouth was a battle fought on June 28, 1778 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The Continental Army under General George Washington attacked the rear of the British Army column led by Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton as they left Monmouth Court House.
  • The British Capture of Savannah

    The British Capture of Savannah
    The Capture of Savannah was an American Revolutionary War battle fought on December 29, 1778 between local American Patriot militia and Continental Army units holding the city and a British invasion force under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. It was the opening move in the British southern strategy to regain control of the rebellious southern provinces by appealing to the strong Loyalist sentiment believed to be there.
  • The Siege of Camden

    The Siege of Camden
    The Battle of Camden was a major victory for the British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War. On August 16, 1780, British forces under Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis routed the American forces of Major General Horatio Gates about 10 km north of Camden, South Carolina, strengthening the British hold on the Carolinas following the capture of Charleston.
  • The Battle of King's Mountain

    The Battle of King's Mountain
    The Battle of Kings Mountain was a decisive victory in South Carolina for the Patriot militia over the Loyalist militia in the Southern campaign. The battle took place on October 7, 1780, 14 kilometres south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina in Cherokee County, South Carolina, where the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Patrick Ferguson.
  • Siege of Charleston, SC

    Siege of Charleston, SC
    The Battle of Charleston was one of the major battles which took place toward the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the British began to shift their strategic focus to the American Southern Colonies. After about six weeks of battle, Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered forces numbering about 5,000 to the British. This was the probably the worst defeat toward the Continental Army.
  • The Battle of Guilford Cout

    The Battle of Guilford Cout
    The Battle of Guilford Court House was a battle fought on March 15, 1781 at current-day Greensboro, the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina A 2,100-man British force under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated Major General Nathanael Greene's 4,500 Americans. The British Army, however, lost a considerable number of men during the battle with estimates as high as 27% of their army. Such large British casualties resulted in a victory for the Americans.
  • The Battle of Eutaw Springs

    The Battle of Eutaw Springs
    Battle of Eutaw Springs, fought on September 8, 1781 was a battle fought near Charleston, South Carolina, between British troops under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart and American troops led by General Nathanael Greene. Greene needed to stop Stewart from joining General Lord Cornwallis in the event of tthe leader’s retreat was south from Yorktown. In the early fighting, the British were more successful; but on September 9, Stewart brought his forces to Charleston.
  • The Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown
    The Siege of Yorktown, or the German Battle, ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, was a secure victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army. The siege proved to be the final land battle of the American Revolutionary War in the North American theater, as the surrender by Cornwallis prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict.
  • The Treaty of Paris (1783)

    The Treaty of Paris (1783)
    This treaty, along with the separate peace treaties between Britain and the nations that supported the American cause—France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic—are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. This was what ended the fighting within the American colonial territories. Its territories given up by the British were "exceedingly generous" to the United States in terms of enlarged boundaries.