Revolutionary Battles that Shaped America: Bunker Hill to Yorktown

1. The American Revolution Part II “A World Turned Upside Down”

2. The Battle of Bunker Hill June 16,1775 • Fought outside Boston. It is a fortified area on Breed’s Hill filled with several thousand colonists. • The battle shows that the colonists will fight if protected from British fire.

3. New York City in Flames(1776)

4. The Battle of Saratoga, August- October 1777 • The British are harassed by colonial guerilla forces and end up stretching their supply lines. • The British will surrender to the Colonial forces led by General Horatio Gates • Saratoga is important because it is a major defeat for the British and is a turning point that shows the French that the colonies may be able to win the war.

5. Saratoga is considered the turning point of the war. • The French will begin to supply arms, men and their navy to help the colonies.

6. A personal view of the American Revolution “The ball first cut off the head of Smith, a stout heavy man, and dashed it open, then took Taylor across the bowels; it then struck Sergeant Garret of our company on the hip, took off the point of the hip bone . Oh, What a sight it was to see within a distance of six rods those men with their legs and arms and guns and packs all in a heap!” Connecticut Soldier, 1777

7. The Battle of Yorktown, October 1781 • The French are helping the Continental Army with men, weapons and warships • The Americans and the French will corner the British on a small peninsula and bombard them with cannon fire. • The British will surrender and end the American Revolution. • The colonists will win the American Revolution with this victory. Count de Rochambeau AdmiralDe Grasse

8. The Battle of Yorktown, October 1781

9. Cornwallis’ Surrender at Yorktown Painted by John Trumbull, 1797

10. The Treaty of Paris, 1783 THE WAR ENDS WITH THESE CONDITIONS: • “free, sovereign and independent states” • British must remove all troops from forts • Boundary for United States is the Mississippi • Loyalist would have rights and property protected • captured slaves must be returned to owners

11. North America After the Treaty of Paris, 1783

12. View of America Alexis de Tocqueville • Revolution stemmed from desire of freedom • Laws • Freedom of press • Freedom of Religion • American attitude: get it done • Men and women: equal but different

13. “The Revolution of the United States was the result of a mature and reflecting preference for freedom, and not of a vague or ill-defined craving for independence. It contracted no alliance with the turbulent passions of anarchy, but its course was marked, on the contrary, by a love of order and law. It was never assumed in the United States that the citizen of a free country has a right to do whatever he pleases; on the contrary, more social obligations were there imposed upon him than anywhere else. No idea was ever entertained of attacking the principle or contesting the rights of society; but the exercise of its authority was divided, in order that the office might be powerful and the officer insignificant, and that the community should be at once regulated and free.” Alexis de Tocqueville from Democracy in America