Timeline of the Revolutionary War

  • Boston Tea Party

    The colony of Massachusetts was seen by King George III and his ministers as the hotbed of disloyalty.
  • Intolerable Acts

    A series of punitive measures that were intended to cow the restive population into obedience.
  • Boston’s Committee of Correspondence dispatched Paul Revere

    Revere issued a warning to local allies. The following day, several hundred men assembled and stormed the fort, capturing the six-man garrison, seizing a significant quantity of powder, and striking the British colours; a subsequent party removed the remaining cannons and small arms.
  • The Status of Naval Forces at the Outbreak of War

    The Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Navy
  • Massachusetts Declared to Be In A State of Open Revolt

    Gage received a letter from Dartmouth informing him that Massachusetts had been declared to be in a state of open revolt and ordering him to “arrest and imprison the principal Actors and Abettors in the [Massachusetts] Provincial Congress.”
  • Battle of Lexington and Concord

    Those killed and wounded at the Battles of Lexington and Concord numbered 273 British and 95 Americans.
  • Battle of Bunker Hill

    The battle was a moral victory for the Americans.
  • Washington Takes Command

    On July 3 Washington assumed command of the American forces at Cambridge.
  • The Battle for New York

    The British force sailed on June 10, 1776, from Halifax to New York and on July 5 encamped on Staten Island.
  • The surrender at Saratoga

    Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.
  • French intervention and the decisive action at Virginia Capes

    British maintained control of the North American seaboard for most of 1779 and 1780
  • Surrender of Cornwallis

    Cornwallis surrendered his army of more than 7,000 men on October 19.
  • Peace of Paris

    Ended the U.S. War of Independence. Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States (with western boundaries to the Mississippi River) and ceded Florida to Spain.