Major Battles of the Revolution
When the American Revolutionary war began, there were many difficult battles fought against the British to earn the independence that America wanted. Although all of them were important and impacted what happened next, there were three major battles that really affected how the Revolution played out.
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
On April 19, 1775, the first battle of the Revolution was fought. Early in the morning of April 19th, colonists headed to Lexington the meet the Redcoats. The British soldiers were planning to come to Concord and destroy the colonists' weapons and ammunition. The British troops were planning to take all the weapons without it being a big deal. They wanted to do it sneakily. Instead of carrying out their plan, they ran into an angry group of colonists. It turned out that Paul Revere had figured out their plan and warned the other colonists so they could be ready to fight the British and protect their stockpile. They had organized a group of militia, called the Minutemen, led by Captian John Parker. They were called the Minutemen because they needed to be prepared to fight within a minutes notice.
When the British soldiers reached Lexington, British Captain Jonas Parker and about 80 armed Minutemen were there to meet them. The colonists were completely outnumbered. The battle started between the British soldiers and militia and ended up killing 8 Minutemen and injuring 10
When the British soldiers reached Lexington, British Captain Jonas Parker and about 80 armed Minutemen were there to meet them. The colonists were completely outnumbered. The battle started between the British soldiers and militia and ended up killing 8 Minutemen and injuring 10
The Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 16th, 1775, the British soldiers planned to storm onto Bunker Hill. They wanted to capture it from the colonists so they could gain control of Boston Harbor. The night before the battle, the colonists prepared to fight the British. When the British woke up the next morning they found a dirt wall on the hill side. It was about 6ft tall. This upset the commander of the British, General Howe. Then the British soldiers began to fire canons from their ships at the wall with hopes to knock it down. It stayed standing with little to no affect. The soldiers marched up to the colonist's line of fire atop the hill. They became an easy target because they had to carry heavy muskets up the hill. The colonists waited to fire until they were close enough. The redcoats tried to go to the bottom of the hill for safety but William Howe sent them back to the top. The colonists are winning until they run out of ammunition. Soon after that, the British break through the dirt fortress. Many of the colonists were killed and wounded. In the end, the colonists suffered much less than the Britsh did.
The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
On May 10th, 1775, on the shores of Lake Champlain, there was a battle called the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga. The seige of Boston had already begun and the Colonists needed weapons. Luckily, the fort hadd lots offirearms, munitions, and Cannons. Not only did the supplies helped the colonists win the battle, the location made it easier to do so. There were lots of waterways to travel by and they had control over them. The waterways led to canada which helped them protect the New England colonies from an invasion of the British. Leaders of the conlial militia Benedict arnold and Ethan Allen thought that Fort Ticonderoga would be an easy target for colonists to capture from the British soldiers. In the morning of May 10, 1775, colonists raided and captured fort Ticonderoga. The rebels sneaked into the fort of British troops and demanded tgem surrender. Captain William DeLaPlace gave up the fort and his sword. There was very minimal fighting resulting in nobody killed.