Portraits of War

The Battle of Princeton (1782)
by James Peale

QUICK FACTS

Within nine months, the Americans exhaust their supply of gunpowder. Not able to manufacture it in sufficient quantities, they rely on imports — mainly from the Caribbean.

CONTENTS

Battles

British Commanders-in-Chief in North America

Lieutenant General Jeffrey Amherst, 1758—63
Major General Thomas Gage, 1763—75
Lieutenant General William Howe, 1775—78
Lieutenant General Henry Clinton, 1778—82
General Guy Carleton, 1782—83

Continental Army Commander-in-Chief

General George Washington, 1775—83

Perspectives

The press was the mass medium of the eighteenth century, the only way to bring both news and commentary to a broad public audience. The popularity of newspapers soared in Revolutionary America: By the late 1780s, the United States had about ninety-five newspapers, over twice the number at the time of independence. Moreover, the newspapers of 1776 were weeklies, but those of 1787 we often published two or three times a week. There were even a few that appeared daily to satisfy the hungry reading public.

— Pauline Maier

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787—1788 (2010)