What ultimately convinced Americans that they must revolt in 1776 was not that they were naturally and inevitably republican, for if that were truly the case evolution, not revolution, would have been the eventual solution. Rather it was the pervasive fear that they were not predestined to be a virtuous and egalitarian people that in the last analysis drove them into revolution in 1776. It was this fear and not their confidence in the peculiarity of their character that made them so readily and so remarkably responsive to Thomas Paine’s warning that the time for independence was at hand and that delay would be disastrous. By 1776 it had become increasingly evident that if they were to remain the kind of people they wanted to be they must become free of Britain.
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 Creation of the American Republic, 1776—1787 (1969)