The unattractive truth was that the arrival of the provisional treaty ending the war in April 1783 made the Continental Army superfluous, and the sooner it disappeared, the better. Congress eventually voted to provide full pay for five years for officers in lieu of half pay for life, but doing so was a purely rhetorical exercise, since there was no money in the federal coffers to pay anyone. Even that meaningless commitment generated widespread criticism, especially in New England, where returning officers were greeted with newspaper editorials describing them as blood-beaked vultures feeding at the public trough. At least in retrospect, the dissolution of the Continental Army in the spring of 1783 was one of the most poignant scenes in American history, as the men who had stayed the course and won the war were ushered off without pay, with paper pensions and only grudging recognition of their service.
Battles
Battle | Location | End Date Sort descending |
---|---|---|
Battle of Lexington and Concord | Massachusetts | 19-Apr-1775 |
Battle of Fort Ticonderoga | New York | 10-May-1775 |
Battle of Bunker Hill | Massachusetts | 17-Jun-1775 |
Battle of Quebec | Quebec, Canada | 31-Dec-1775 |
Fortification of Dorchester Heights | Massachusetts | 04-Mar-1776 |
Battle of Long Island | New York | 27-Aug-1776 |
Battle of Harlem Heights | New York | 16-Sep-1776 |
Battle of Valcour Island | New York | 11-Oct-1776 |
Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge | North Carolina | 27-Oct-1776 |
Battle of White Plains | New York | 28-Oct-1776 |
Battle of Fort Washington | New York | 16-Nov-1776 |
Battle of Trenton | New Jersey | 26-Dec-1776 |
Battle of Princeton | New Jersey | 03-Jan-1777 |
Siege of Fort Ticonderoga | New York | 06-Jul-1777 |
Battle of Oriskany | New York | 06-Aug-1777 |
Battle of Bennington | New York | 16-Aug-1777 |
Battle of Brandywine | Pennsylvania | 11-Sep-1777 |
Battle of Germantown | Pennsylvania | 04-Oct-1777 |
Battle of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton | New York | 06-Oct-1777 |
Battles of Saratoga | New York | 07-Oct-1777 |
Battle of Red Bank (Fort Mercer) | New Jersey | 22-Oct-1777 |
Siege of Mud Island Fort (Fort Mifflin) | Pennsylvania | 15-Nov-1777 |
Battle of Rhode Island | Rhode Island | 08-Feb-1778 |
Battle of Monmouth | New Jersey | 28-Jun-1778 |
Battle of Savannah | Georgia | 29-Dec-1778 |
Battle of Stony Point | New York | 15-Jul-1779 |
Siege of Savannah | Georgia | 20-Oct-1779 |
Siege of Charleston | South Carolina | 12-May-1780 |
Battle of Waxhaws | South Carolina | 29-May-1780 |
Battle of Camden | South Carolina | 16-Aug-1780 |
Battle of Kings Mountain | South Carolina | 07-Oct-1780 |
Battle of Guilford Courthouse | North Carolina | 15-Mar-1781 |
Battle of Chesapeake Capes | Virginia — Chesapeake Bay | 05-Sep-1781 |
Battle of Groton Heights | Connecticut | 06-Sep-1781 |
Battle of Eutaw Springs | South Carolina | 08-Sep-1781 |
Siege of Yorktown | Virginia | 19-Oct-1781 |
Battle of Cowpens | South Carolina | 07-Nov-1781 |
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783—1789 (2015)