General Cornwallis

Lord Charles Conwallis was a military officer born in London, December 31, 1738. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and entered the army as captain when twenty years of age.

In the House of Lords he opposed the measures that caused the war with the Americans, but he accepted the commission of major-general and the command of an expedition against the Carolinas under Sir Peter Parker in 1776. He commanded the reserves of the British in the battle on Long Island in August, but he was beaten by George Washington at Princeton.

It was with Howe on the Brandywine and in the capture of Philadelphia that he returned to England, but soon came back. He was at the capture of Charleston in May, 1780. He also commanded the British troops in the Carolinas that year. He later defeated Gates near Camden in August and fought Greene at Guilford Courthouse early in 1781. He invaded Virginia, and finally took post at and fortified Yorktown, on the York River, and there surrendered his army to the American and French forces in October, 1781.

He was appointed governor-general and commander-in-chief in India in 1786, and was victorious in war there in 1791-92, compelling Tippoo Sahib to cede, as the price of peace, half his dominions to the British crown. He returned to England in 1793, he was created a marquis, and appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1798. He negotiated the treaty of Amiens in 1802, and received the appointment of governor-general of India in 1805. He died at Ghazipur, India, October 5, 1805.

Bernardo De Galvez

Bernardo de Gálvez was a Spanish military leader and the general of Spanish forces in New Spain. He served as governor of Louisiana and Cuba and, as viceroy of New Spain.

Gálvez helped the Thirteen Colonies in their quest for independence and led the Spanish armies against Britain in the Revolutionary War, he defeat the British at Pensacola and reconquered Florida for Spain. He spent the last two years of his life as viceroy, succeeding his father Matías de Gálvez y Gallardo, who had been viceroy before him.

Gálvez was born in Macharaviaya, a mountain village in the province of Málaga, Spain, on July 23, 1746. He studied military sciences at the Academia de Ávila and at the age of 16 participated in the War against Portugal, where he was promoted to lieutenant. He arrived in New Spain, then Mexico, in 1762. As a captain, he fought the Apaches, with his Opata Indian allies. He received many wounds, several of them serious. In 1770, he was promoted to commandant of arms of Nueva Vizcaya y Sonora, northern provinces of New Spain, comprising even New Mexico.

In 1772, he returned to Spain in the company of his uncle, José de Gálvez. Later, he was sent to Pau, France with the Cantabria regiment. There, he learned to speak French, which served him well when he became governor of Louisiana. He was transferred to Seville, in 1775, and then participated in the disastrous expedition of O’Reilly to Algiers. After capturing the fortress that guarded the city, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He then became a professor at the military academy of Ávila.

In 1777, he was sent to Louisiana, as a colonel and interim governor of the province. This was the large territory that later became the Louisiana Purchase. It had been ceded by France to Spain, in 1763, in compensation for the loss of Florida to England. In 1779, he was promoted to brigadier.

In 1777, he married doña Marie Felice de Saint-Maxent Estrehan, a young Criolla widow. They had three children, Miguel, Matilde and Guadalupe.

He practiced an anti-British policy as governor, taking measures against British smuggling and promoting trade with France. He also established free trade with Cuba and Yucatán. He founded Galvez Town, in 1778, and promoted colonization of Nueva Iberia.

In 1786, he become ill and died.

The Battle of Charleston

I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

Vince Lombardi

In 1779, the British decided to concentrate their efforts on the southern colonies so that they could encourage loyalists and serve as a morale boost. In December 1779, Leiutenant General Henry Clinton of the British Army set sail for Charleston, South California, In February, he arrived there and after a month he was in Charleston. He crossed the Ashley River and cut off Charleston and Major General Benjamin Lincoln from reinforcements.

On April 2, siege weapons were brought and bigger armies joined the siege. Among the leaders of the other armies were General Cornwallis and Colonel Banastre Tarleton. On May 8, Clinton demanded surrender, and since Lincoln denied it, waiting for better terms, the bombardment started a day later. On May 12, Lincoln surrendered Charleston and 5000 Continental Soldiers to Clinton. It was the greatest loss of soldiers and equipment of the war and gave the British nearly complete control of the South.

Lord William Howe

William Howe fought many battels, he served under James Wolfe at Quebec, and succeeded Thomas Gage as commander in chief in America. Working with his brother Richad Howe, he succefull assults in Long Island, White Plains, and Forts Washington and Lee. Even in victory, he was subject of criticism. Because he failed to intercept the amercan troops moving across the east river from Long Island to Manhattan in August 1776, and is regarded by many as the missed opportunity to early end the war.

In 1777 Howe defeated Washington at Brandywine and escaped a trap at German Town before movig into Philadelphia for winter.
Howe was hardly criticized for enjoying the pleasures of Philadelphia, rather than keeping on with te hostilities.

Howe was not an incompetent military leader, but just he preffered to fight with the old european approach. War in his view was an enterprise conducted by gentelmen who should not be expected to bestir themselves during inclement weather.

Howe decision to move to philadelphia, rather than to join general Burgoyne in 1777, is considered to be the decesive decision of the war. And he was removed from his command in 1778, in favor of Sir Henry Clinton.

Baron von Steuben

You say to your soldier, 'Do this' and he does it. But I am obliged to say to the American, 'This is why you ought to do this' and then he does it

Baron von Steuben



Von Steuben was born in Magdeburg, Germany. He attended Jesuit schools in Breslau, entered the Prussian army's officer corps, and served in the Seven Years War. He then joined Frederick the Great's military staff. Later, he was appointed chamberlain to the Prussian court of Hohenzollern Hechingen. In 1777, Von Steuben went to Paris to meet America's foreign commissioners, Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, and offer them his military services. The Continental Congress, much impressed by Von Steuben's title and his refusal to accept any salary while in service, immediately sent him to George Washington at Valley Forge.

Although he spoke no English, Von Steuben systematically trained the amateur American troops in military discipline and battle-readiness. This rigorous training saved the troops from complete defeat during the Battle of Monmouth. In 1779, Von Steuben prepared his Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, which remained America's official military manual for over three decades.
Later in the war, Von Steuben commanded the Army supply center in Virginia and fought at Yorktown. Afterward, Washington employed him in a variety of duties from the creation of a plan to demobilize the wartime army to the acceptance of Britain's surrendered Canadian forts. Von Steuben helped to found the Society of the Cincinnati, and then resigned his American commission in 1784. After the war, the New York legislature granted Von Steuben an estate. He received a small pension from the United States government, but relied on friends like Alexander Hamilton to settle his mounting debts. Von Steuben died on November 28, 1794

The Hessians

The Hessian Flag



The Hessians were German soldiers, who fought for King George III in various wars. They participated in the Seven Year War and in the American Revolutionary War. Although they are commonly thought as mercenaries, they were far from being so. The Hessians were not paid for paying, actually, they almost didnt receive much wage besides their daily bread, but it was the Hessian Prince that benefitted from this by sellling their services.

The German soldiers hired were almost 30,000 but since 12000 of those came from Hesse-Cassel, the name remained Hessians

The Brown Bess

Though firearms have become the predominant weapon in the battle field on the 18th century, there was little standardization in their design and manufacture, so supplying their ammunition and getting repair parts become a problem. So in an attempt to solve the problem, they introduced the Land Pattern Musket, that within fifty years gain the nickname of the Brown Bess. It is said the name may be derived by the german term of strong gun (braun buss). the weapon became as long as 62 inches, and with a weight of 11 pounds, and as short as 42 inches, with a weight of 10 pounds.

The Brown Bess was used by some until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and was used by both sides in the American Revolution.

The Second Continental Congress

After the battles of Lexington and Concord, the colonists met in a second continental congress. The congress met in the state house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, now is called the Independence hall. These congress had some delegates that had not been at the first continental congress. Some of these delegates where Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock that was the president of the continental congress. the congress included 65 delegates. The day the second continental congress met, Etha Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured fort Ticonderoga, on lake Champlain in New York.

In the second continental congress, many important things where decided, and one of them was when they decided to brake apart completley from Great Britain, and on may 15, 1776, they decided to oficially put the colonies in state of defense. They also decided to organze the militia of the colonies better, so they decided to form an army called the American Continental Army. And on june 14, 1776, George Washington was officialy appointed as commander in chief by the congress of the army. Another thing discussed by the congress, was if they were going to print paper money, these passed and paper money began to be printed later in the year. The second continental congress was one of the most important goverment meetings in the history of the United States Of America, because it decided some of the most important ideas by which the colonist fought for in the revolutionary war, because at that meeting, members of the continental congress wrote and signed The Declaration Of Independence.

Common Sense

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one…"

Common Sense, Thomas Paine

Common Sense Pamphlet

Published in 1776 by Thomas Paine, Common Sense challenged British rule and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain.

The book was released in January 1776, in a 48-page edition, which was anonymous do to the challenging content. The book sold more then 120,000 copies on the first three months and 500,000 copies on the first year. It also had more then 25 versions by the end of 1776. When asked why the book was anonymous, Thomas Paine answered saying that as he was wishing to serve an oppresed people, he would not take any profit as author, and donated the money to the Continental Army

The main arguments against British rule on the pamphlet were:

• It was absurd for an island to rule a continent.
• America was not a "British nation"; it was composed of influences and peoples from all of Europe.
• Even if Britain were the "mother country" of America, that made her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally.
• Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary European wars, and keep it from the international commerce at which America excelled.
• The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from England unwieldy. If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would take a year before the colonies received a response.
• The New World was discovered shortly before the Reformation. The Puritans believed that God wanted to give them a safe haven from the persecution of British rule.
• Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and did not consider the best interests of the colonists in governing them.

Thomas Paine

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Boston Tea Party

The french and indian war was very costly for the british, so they start looking for a way to get money back, and they decided that since they waste lots of money in the colonists, they should pay taxes to help briton get up from their economic situation. So there is when a series of actions appear, such as the stamp act, the Townsend act, and the boston act between others. But it was the crowns attempt to tax tea that take the colonists to action.

But the parliament decided to tax the colonists by the imported tea, and they will be getting the tea by a chipper price than even before, but they notice that if they pay that tax they will be accepting the parliament right to tax them. So the colonists did not let themselves fooled by parliament. so when west india company send shipments of tea to New York and Philadelphia, the ships where not allowed to land. But in charleston the tea laden ships where allowed, but the tea stay in a warehouse for 3 years until it was sold by patriots to help finance the revolution.

In Boston the arrival of 3 tea ships ignited a furious reaction. A mass meeting at the old south meeting house that morning resolve that the tea ships should leave the harbor without the payment of any duty. The collector of customs refuse to allow the ships to leave without the payment of any duty. so a group of 200 men some disguised as indians assembled in a near by hill. whopping war chants they descended upon the 3 ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea onto the harbor waters. and these was known as the Boston Tea Party.

The Minutemen

"I believe in profess that a people never must value anything 

higher than the dignity and freedom of its existence; that it 

must defend these with the last drop of its blood" 

 Karl von Clausewitz

This is not a Minuteman

It is often misinterpreted that the militia was the same as the Minutemen. The Militia were farmers in arms, who were protecting their town or properties from foreign invasion or attacks. The Minutemen were a small elite force who were expected to be highly mobile and easily deployable as well as being able to assemble quickly. They were handpicked from the militia by their commanding officer and were usually strong, enthusiastic young men below the age of 25.

Although the Minutemen are believed to start in the Revolutionary War during the 1770's, they are registered to exist as far as the 1600's. During 1689, another kind of Minutemen existed. They were called the Snowshoemen and were supposed to be able to march in a moments warning with moccasins, snow shoes and a hatchet.

During the French and Indian War, the Minutemen were supposed to be able to leave with 3 days provision, their arms, and other materials, within a minute of being told. In Massachusetts, the Minutemen were a well-trained force for more then six generations. By the time of the Revolution, Massachusetts had been training and improving their militia and Minutemen for more then a hundred years

Although all this, the Minutemen lacked central leadership which stop them from achieving greater moves against the British Army during many battle of the time.

"Thus, although lacking central command, the Minutemen were still better organized and battle-tested than any other part-time military. They were a vital and necessary force, playing a crucial role in not only the Revolutionary War, but in earlier conflicts. Without these "ready in a minute" men, our history may have been written in a very different way"

Andrew Ronemus

This is a Minuteman, with his flag and musket.

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Boston Massacre

Quartering Acts

During the French and Indian War, the Grenville government had stationed troops in the colonies to protect the properties and citizens from Indian raids and French attacks. After the war had ended, the troops remained in the colonies, both to protect the colonies from a attacks of certain still rebel Indian tribes.

In March, 1765 Parliament passed a law under the name of Quartering Act. The Quartering Act obliged the colonial assemblies to provide the basic needs (food and shelter) to the soldiers stationed within their borders.

The British government hoped the colonies would pay for the protection given to them with paying the life cost of the troops stationed there. In the unrest during the Stamp Act of 1765, more troops were sent to the colonies.

The Quartering Acts was amended in 1774.

The Sons of Liberty

These began in boston, in a early summer of 1765, when a group of shopkeepers and artisans, who called the selves the loyal 9, began preparing for agitation against the stamp act. As these group grew, it came to be known as the Sons of Liberty. These where not the leading man of boston, but where workers and trades man.amongst the members were two men who could generate much public sentiment about the Act. Benjamin Edes, a printer, and John Gill of the Boston Gazette produced a steady stream of news and opinion. The first widely known acts of the Sons took place on August 14, 1765, when an effigy of Andrew Oliver was found hanging in a tree on Newbury street, along with a large boot with a devil climbing out of it. By the end of that year the Sons of Liberty existed in every colony. Their most popular objective was to force Stamp Distributors throughout the colonies to resign.Wherever these groups existed they were either directed in secret by leading men in the community or actually lead by them. However, there were opportunists everywhere, too, who would use the name Sons of Liberty to carry out acts of revenge and other violence not related to the cause. For example, in South Carolina a group of sailors, calling themselves The Sons of Liberty, formed a mob to coerce money from people on the streets. The success of these movements in undermining the Stamp Act cannot be attributed to violence alone. Their most effective work was performed in newsprint. A great part of the Sons were printers and publishers themselves and even those who were not, were sympathetic to the cause. It was they who would pay the most in duties, after all. Nearly every newspaper in the colonies carried daily reports of the activities of the Sons of Liberty. When the Stamp Act became effective on the 1st of November, 1765, nearly all of these papers went right on publishing without the required Stamp. So it was that the first efforts to unite the colonies were not undertaken by their respective legislatures, but by these independent radical groups. The various Sons throughout the colonies began to correspond and develop a larger organization.

Taxation Without Representation

Taxation without representation, was what the american colonists protested to the english parliament, beeing these one of the key issues that lead to the american revolution, not because colonists did not wanted to pay taxes, but because they want to pay the taxes the people they elected impose to them, not those taxes the english parliament wanted to impose to them, where they got no representation, and ended leading these event to what now we now as the american revolution.

The French and Indian War! xP

More Info: http://www.philaprintshop.com/frchintx.html

France and England fought over the Ohio River Valley. George Washington commanded the British troops. The War began in 1756, but by 1753, forts were already been built upon various places of the Ohio Valley.
At first, the British suffered heavy losses: Washington had given a preemptive strike on the french forces and although he won, he was soon afterwards outnumbered and defeated from forces coming from Fort Duquesne. The French destroyed several forts on Lake Ontario and Lake George while the Indians raided settlements on the Frontier. In 1758-1759, the war shifted in favor of the British, who had started to block the shipments of Europe-New France. It led to the fall of several forts on the Ohio Valley. They proceded to capture Quebec in 1759 and Montreal in 1760. The British then forced the Governor General of New France Marques Duquesne to surrender the rest of Canada, including the forts protecting the Great Lakes and Florida. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the war with victory in the hands of the British. Britain kept Canada, the Ohio Valley, Florida and the Great Lakes.The Mississippi River became the boundary between the British, Spain and French

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