Revolutionary War Turning Point Essay

Many sites and textbooks describe the American Revolutionary War as the Americans being the tricky underdogs and the British Empire being the powerful army that seemed invincible. In this project, the thesis and evidence provided showed the opposite; the British Empire stood a small chance against the American colonies. This report highlights research and analysis about the numbers, the economic and military situations, and strategies/motives that the commanders from each side chose to use throughout the war. Some suggestions of what the armies could have done at certain battles are specified.
The British were the underdogs and stood a small chance against the Rebels during the American Revolutionary War.
2 Background Information This section

It greatly boosted American morale and ended in the capture of Boston from British hands, which was an economically and military importance for both sides. Even though it was such an important battle, there was no military engagement during the battle. The patriots chased the British from the city by bombarding the British with guns captured from a raid on Fort Ticonderoga. The first main military engagement was the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn. The battle resulted in American loss of New York and Brooklyn and the retreat of Patriot General George Washington's Continental Army to Manhattan. The British used New York as their headquarters for operations for most of the rest of the war. The battle was one of the American colonies' worst defeats in the entire war. On the Christmas of 1776, Washington famously crossed the Delaware River to attack a Hessian garrison at the Town of Trenton in New Jersey. Washington's army had been getting battered and had retreated to Pennsylvania. Morale was low, enlistment periods were ending, and winter was coming. To raise morale and gain supplies, Washington attacked the Hessians at Trenton and later the British at Princeton, winning both battles. Like Washington predicted, the wins greatly improved American morale. The wins provoked the British into retreating out of most of New Jersey, backtracking

General Burgoyne was taking fort after fort, city after city in a plan to capture the key city of Albany, New York. However, due to unexpected monkey wrenches thrown into the original plans and miscommunications, General Burgoyne was essentially without any sort of support from his fellow Generals by the time he reached Saratoga. The Battles of Saratoga lasted two battles; the first one resulting in a pyrrhic British victory, with the British in control over the field and the Americans retreated into their defenses as it was getting dark. Twenty days later, General Burgoyne launched another attack, even though his army was in need of men and supplies after the first battle. This time, the Americans repelled the attack and launched a counterattack on Burgoyne's retreating army all the way to the town of Saratoga (modern day Schuylerville), about 9.7 miles north of where the second battle took place (Bemis Heights). In Saratoga, local patriot militia overwhelmed the British army, forcing General Burgoyne to surrender his entire army and ended the Saratoga campaign. This was a major turning point in the war, because it finally convinced France to join the American side of the