In the months between the time the British evacuate Boston and land in New York, Washington had plenty of time to work with his army to build up defenses around New York City and to confer with leaders in Philadelphia. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The North Ministry settles on a plan to send an overwhelming force. They will shock and awe the colonists into submission. General Howe will command an army of 32,000 regulars and Hessians supported by his brother Admiral Howe commanding over 10,000 sailors and Marines. A secondary force of 8000 under General Burgoyne will go to Quebec and fall under the command of General Carleton. The Howe brothers will capture and occupy New York City, then expand out from there. They also will serve as Peace...
Following the failed attempt to take Quebec City, the Continentals keep a token force around the city. General Benedict Arnold recovers from his wounds while he fights with his fellow officers over what to do next. General David Wooster pulls rank and takes command of Quebec, forcing Arnold to leave. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After the Continentals capture Dorchester Heights, the British Army and Navy must leave Boston right away. Loyalists crowd onto ships and escape to Halifax. Gen. Howe spares the city in exchange for the Continentals not firing on the city or the fleet during the evacuation. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Continental Army occupies Dorchester Heights overnight, surprising the British and forcing them to evacuate Boston. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Continental Congress builds a small fleet to take on the British Navy. The new commander of the Continental Navy begins his command by disobeying orders to confront the British Navy directly. Instead, he launches a raid on the Bahamas to collect needed arms and ammunition. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Delegates to the Continental Congress, including conservatives, begin to consider independence as a realistic option. Lord Drummond sails to Philadelphia in a well intentioned but poorly conceived attempt to broker a peace deal. Congress blames General Schuyler for the failures in Canada and moves around some of its generals. It sends Silas Deane to France to open up diplomatic negotiations with the new King Louis XVI of France. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, ...
General Henry Clinton leaves Boston to secure the southern colonies. His plan is to meet up with a fleet of regulars coming from Britain under the commend of General Cornwallis. These regulars will serve as a rally point for loyalists to enlist and reclaim the colonies for the King. The British send two recruiting officers to western North Carolina, where they raise several thousand recruits. The Patriots learn of the organization of loyalist regiments. They send Continentals under Col. James Mo...
Thomas Paine arrived in America in 1774 with a head full of radical ideas: abolition, women's rights, republicanism, and independence. This British immigrant was more radical than most Americans. His publication of Common Sense in January 1776 is widely credited with pushing public opinion in favor of independence. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
General Washington appoints Henry Knox Commander of Artillery. His first mission is to find some artillery to command. Knox hauls 59 artillery pieces from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. These will prove instrumental in ending the Siege of Boston. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
General Montgomery and Colonel Arnold make a desperate attempt to take Quebec City before their soldiers' enlistments expire at the end of 1775. Despite a brave attack, the attack fails, leaving the Continental Army in Canada in tatters. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
General Arnold demands the surrender of Quebec, but the last minute arrival of local defenders gives them the courage to hold out. Arnold pulls back and links up with General Montgomery so that the combined force can assault the city together. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore proclaims that slaves who abandon their rebel masters and join the British army can earn their freedom. Dunmore attempts to recruit a loyalist army of both black and white Virginians. He fights a pitched battle at Kemp's Landing and Great Bridge. Unable to hold land, his forces retreat to ships offshore. At the end of 1775, the British also burn and abandon Norfolk. In South Carolina, patriots attack and scatter loyalist militia around Ninty-Six i the western inter...
Benedict Arnold leads a force across the New England wilderness to attack Quebec from an unexpected direction. More than half of his force does not make it through the deadly march. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Congress accepts that it is in for a long term fight. It creates a Navy and Marine Corps and a southern army. It explores diplomacy with France and sends a diplomat to work with the Iroquois. It also recommends that the colonies create forms of government based on the will of the people. To pay for all this, it prints lots more paper money. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...
The British in Boston suffer through a miserable winter. The Continental Army keeps them stuck in the city. New England privateers make it extremely difficult to receive food and supplies from the sea. Hundreds die of disease as everyone suffers greatly. The British navy does little to provide assistance. Its destruction of the village of Falmouth only enrages the Americans. Britain recalls General Gage and Admiral Graves putting General Howe and Admiral Shuldham in charge. Visit https://blog.Am...
General Washington gets frustrated by the lack of a plan to attack Boston. He also squelches his first mutiny. He sends Col. Benedict Arnold to Quebec and Col. Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga. He uncovers a British spy among one of the most trusted patriot leaders. Most of all he struggles with how to keep the army from going home over the winter. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...
Generals Schuyler and Montgomery launch an attack from Fort Ticonderoga into British controlled Canada. They lay siege Fort St. Jean. After several months they capture the fort and take prisoner nearly all British regulars in Canada. Afterwards, the Americans capture Montreal without a fight. British Commander Guy Carleton dons a disguise and escapes back to Quebec. He prepares to defend the city against the American forces. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and ...
Over the winter of 1775-76, the Ministry in Britain decides to use overwhelming force to put an end to colonial resistance. The King refuses to receive the Olive Branch Petition and makes clear that he supports Parliament in this fight and calls for the use of force to suppress colonial treason. He also starts recruiting German speaking mercenaries to supplement the British Army. The ministry also dumps General Gage and Secretary Dartmouth, replacing them with General Howe and Secretary Germain....
Active patriot groups shut down all royal control of all colonies and arrest or expel their royal governors. The colonies also conduct a raid on Bermuda to acquire more gunpowder for the cause. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the summer of 1775, the southern colonies throw out their royal governments and take control. Virginians fight off a British raid on Hampton. Carolinians capture forts and munitions. The Mecklenburg Resolves declare independence. Georgia patriots fight loyalists for control of the colony. Visit https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the summer of 1775, after creating a the Continental Army and making Washington its commander, Congress makes one final effort for peace, sending the King the Olive Branch Petition. After that, Congress focuses on the war at hand, drafting a Declaration on the Necessity of Taking up Arms. It organizes committees to run military affairs and creates a new Post Office. Congress also rejects Parliament's Conciliatory Proposition before it adjourns for the rest of the summer. Visit https://blog.Am...
Newly appointed General George Washington arrives in Cambridge to take command of what is now the Continental Army. He is shocked by the lack of discipline and the fact that his army has almost no ammunition. He quietly attempts to rebuild his army and collect more arms and ammunition. His hopes of a quick and successful offensive against the regulars on Boston are quickly dashed. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Learn more ...
After ferrying thousands of regulars across Boston Harbor, General William Howe begins his attack on Bunker and Breed's Hills late afternoon on the afternoon of June 17, 1775. The regulars launch three bloody assaults to dislodge the provincial troops before the British break the American lines. The provincials retreat only after running out of ammunition. They lose nearly 450 soldiers, including General Joseph Warren. The British take more than twice that number in casualties, far more than the...
When the Provincials get word that the British plan to occupy the no man's land at Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights, they send Massachusetts and Connecticut militia to build defenses on Bunker Hill. The soldiers instead build the defenses on Breed's Hill, a smaller hill just next to Bunker Hill. The British take most of the following day moving regulars across Boston Harbor to attack the defenses with overwhelming force. The provincials use the extra time to reinforce and extend their defenses...
In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress begins after the war has already started. Delegates must play catchup. They have to decide whether they will support the war and what their goals are. Delegates agree to send one more petition to the King in hopes of pulling out a peace deal. Most delegates though, realize this is pointless. Congress supports the war. The only debate is whether victory means full independence, or simply a better guarantee of colonial rights. Congress creates a Contine...
With the British army sitting in Boston, the navy needs to provide supplies and prevent supplies from reaching the Provincials. An attempt to capture a ship at Buzzard's Bay fails as locals overtake the small British task force and take them prisoner. Similarly, when the British send a ship to protect two merchant vessels providing firewood for Boston, locals again capure the ships. They kill several of the British and take the rest prisoner. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for mo...
Even before word of Lexington and Concord reached London, the Ministry decided they would need to up their game in the colonies. They did not send Gen. Gage all of the reinforcements he wanted, but they did send some soldiers and marines for the start of the 1775 fighting season. Along with them, the Ministry sent three new Major Generals to support Gage, traveling together aboard the HMS Cerberus. All three men, William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne would go on to play larger roles in ...
In the first weeks of the Siege of Boston in 1775, the Provincial Army appears to be more of a disorganized mob than an army. Men do not obey officers. Units from one colony would not obey orders from another. No real chain of command exists. Further, the lack of uniforms, supplies, ammunition, and other logistical problems created their own problems. Soldiers on both sides begin to die from disease. The only real fighting at this time is over islands in Boston Harbor that contain food and hay. ...
Following Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen's capture of Fort Ticonderoga, Arnold seizes several ships and attacks Fort St. Jean in Quebec. With the captured ships, he forms his own navy on Lake Champlain. The British nearly capture Allen as he attempts to follow Arnold's raid and secure the fort. As word of the men's exploits get back to officials in New England and Philadelphia, more moderate politicians replace both officers out of fear that their actions will prevent politicians from negotiati...
