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American Revolution - 4: Invasion of Canada and Fall of Boston


Columbia County


American Revolution - 4: Invasion of Canada and Fall of Boston

 
 
The American Revolution, also known as the American War of Independence, spanned eight long years of fighting and political negotiations between Britain and her colonies. On October 19, 1781, the Americans, with the help of French troops under the French Count de Rochambeau, won a major battle at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis, leader of the British troops, surrendered 7,000 men. However, the final struggle of the American War of Independence was yet to come.

Two years later, in September, 1783, after much diplomacy, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the former 13 colonies were recognized as an independent nation; the United States of America was born.

Read about the American Revolution through different perspectives, written at different times in history, by different historians. Historical works used as a source for this section, may be accessed online and read in its entirety.

The American Revolution
Learn about The American Revolution and its several phases, including: Causes of the American Revolution; Outbreak of the American Revolution; Formation of the Continental Army; the Invasion of Canada and Fall of Boston; and The New Nation.

The above topics are followed by a brief summation of The Winning of Independence, 1777-1783.

The American Revolution: Invasion of Canada and the Fall of Boston
"The major military operations of 1775 and early 1776 were not around Boston but in far-distant Canada, which the Americans tried to add as a fourteenth colony. Canada seemed a tempting and vulnerable target. To take it would eliminate a British base at the head of the familiar invasion route along the lake and river chain connecting the St. Lawrence with the Hudson. Congress, getting no response to an appeal to the Canadians to join in its cause, in late June 1775 instructed Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler of New York to take possession of Canada if "practicable" and "not disagreeable to the Canadians."

"Schuyler managed to get together a force of about 2,000 men from New York and Connecticut, thus forming the nucleus of what was to become known as the Northern Army. In September 1775 Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery set out with this small army . . .

"Montgomery, advancing along the route via Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the Richelieu River, was seriously delayed by the British fort at St. Johns but managed to capture Montreal on November 13. Arnold [Col. Benedict Arnold] meanwhile had arrived opposite Quebec on November 8, after one of the most rugged marches in history. One part of his force had turned back and others were lost bystarvation, sickness, drowning, and desertion. Only 600 men crossed the St. Lawrence on November 13, and in imitation of Wolfe scaled the cliffs and encamped on the Plains of Abraham. It was a magnificent feat, but the force was too small to prevail even against the scattered Canadian militia and British Regulars . . .

"Nowhere did the Canadians show much inclination to rally to the American cause; the French habitants remained indifferent, and the small British population gave its loyalty to the governor general. With the enlistments of about half their men expiring by the new year, Arnold and Montgomery undertook a desperate assault on the city during the night of December 30 in the middle of a raging blizzard. The Americans were outnumbered by the defenders, and the attack was a failure. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded.

"The wounded Arnold, undaunted, continued to keep up the appearance of a siege with the scattered remnants of his force while he waited for reinforcements. The reinforcements came. . . but they came in driblets . . . Meanwhile, the British received reinforcements and in June 1776 struck back against a disintegrating American army that retreated before them almost without a fight. By mid-July the Americans were back at Ticonderoga where they had started less than a year earlier, and the initiative on the northern front passed to the British.

" . . . Washington finally took the initiative at Boston. On March 4, 1776, he moved onto Dorchester Heights and emplaced his newly acquired artillery in position to menace the city; a few days later he fortified Nook's Hill, standing still closer in. On March 17 the British moved out. . . The stores of cannon and ammunition the British were forced to leave behind were a welcome addition indeed to the meager American arsenal."

This information has been sourced from The American Revolution: First Phase, Extracted from: American Military History, Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC 1989. The Army Historical Series can be accessed online and read in its entirety."



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