*The Declaration of Independence, although noble in purpose, would not have any effect if the colonies could not win independence on the field of battle.  To-day we will learn how they won.

*Review briefly Lexington, Concord, Breed’s and Bunker Hills.

*In 1776, 32,000 British and Hessian troops under General Howe faced off against Washington’s poorly trained and ill-equipped army in New York.

*Washington needed a spy.  Nathan Hale volunteered and got some important information to Washington, but was caught on the way back.  Before he was hanged, he said ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.’  His statue is outside the CIA building to-day.

*Washington, knowing he cannot defeat the British, flees Long Island under cover of darkness.

*October, 1776, British capture New York City and the Continental Congress flees to Philadelphia.

*December, 1776:  ‘These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.’  Thomas Paine, The Crisis.

*25 December, 1776, George Washington crosses the Delaware River and attacks 1,400 Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey on the 26th.  Almost all the Hessians were captured, while only 5 Americans were killed.  This allowed the capture of Princeton shortly afterwards, where the British had supplies Washington needed.

*September, 1777:  Washington defeated at Brandywine and Philadelphia occupied by British troops.

*British attack from Canada.  17 October, 1777:  Gates and Arnold defeat General John Burgoyne.  This is the turning point of the war (according to most) because it was such a great American victory that France decided to assist America.  France had secretly helped the colonists for some time, sending money and weapons in order to hurt their old enemy England.  Spain also began to send help.  This ended up starting yet another world war in America, Europe, and beyond, just like in the French and Indian War.

*Winter 1777-78:  Army winters at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, poorly supplied, and almost starves and freezes to death.

*There is some fighting in the west, as Americans attack British forts in the Ohio Valley and fight the British and their Indian allies.  The great American leader in the west was Colonel George Rogers Clark, who ultimately captured every British fort in what is now Indiana and Illinois.

*There were a lot more Loyalists in the south than elsewhere, so the British moved south.  In December, 1778 Savannah, Georgia fell, and in 1780 Charlestown was captured.

*There were many battles in the south as the British General Cornwallis manoeuvred with the American General Nathaniel Greene throughout the Carolinas.

*September-October 1780, militiamen under John Sevier and other commanders marched from Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton to Kings Mountain on the NC/SC border.  There about 1,400 frontiersmen defeated a force of about 1,100 Loyalists.  Some consider this the turning point of the war in the south, and credit it with keeping the southern colonies independent.

*Another British defeat was at Cowpens, SC, where by using hidden reserves, American forces managed to completely surround British forces and capture or kill almost all of them.

*There were several British victories as well, such as Camden, before Kings Mountain, and Guilford Court House after Cowpens, but ultimately Greene and Washington, who had come south, faced off against Cornwallis at Yorktown, VA.  Supported by the French fleet, they defeated Cornwallis, who surrendered on 19 October, 1781.  This was the last major battle of the war, although the Peace of Paris was not signed until 1783.

*Take questions, then show the video, first introducing the fact that it portrays the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, NJ, in which Washington captured a force or Hessians and some important supplies.

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