Independent Affiliate of the
American Local History Network
"If this be treason, make the most of it"
— Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention, 29 May 1765
Timeline for Independence
Beginning with Events Leading up to the War...
Concluding with the Bill of Rights
02/10/1763 The French and Indian War ends (See A Brief History of the French and Indian War, The Philadelphia Print Shop) 10/07/1763 The King's Proclamation of 1763 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School) bans westward migration in the colonies. 04/05/1764 The Sugar Act (Founder's Library) 03/22/1765 The Stamp Act 05/29/1765 "If this be treason, make the most of it." (Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention) 10/07/1765 The Stamp Act Congress, the first independent colonial conference, convenes in New York in response to a call from the Massachusetts House of Representatives for a general congress to meet and discuss the colonists' grievances against Parliament. Delegates from nine colonies participated. 02/19/1766 1,000 armed "sons of Liberty" in Brunswick Town, North Carolina confront Royal Governor William Tryon in resistance of the Stamp Act 06/29/1767 Townshend Act (levied duties on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea) 03/05/1770 The Boston Massacre (British troops fire into a crowd, killing five and wounding six) 05/16/1771 Battle of Alamance, North Carolina, the first battle fought against Britain. Eleven hundred North Carolina Royal Militiamen defeat two thousand Regulators, ending the War of the Regulation (State Library of North Carolina) 12/16/1773 The Boston Tea Party (American Revolution-an HTML Project) A group of men dressed as Mohawk Indians, led by Samuel Adams, dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor(See also "An Eyewitness Account", History Place) 06/14/1774 Loudoun County, Virginia Resolution (Combs &c. Families) 09/05/1774 The First Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, with all colonies present except Georgia (Declarations and Resolves...), Avalon Project, Yale Law School) 10/10/1774 Battle of Point Pleasant, when Chief Cornstalk, with over a thousand Shawnees and Mingos, launched a surprise attack on the colonial militia at Point Pleasant (Battle of Point Pleasant and another link Battle of Point Pleasant) 03/23/1775 "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" --Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention (Liberty Online) 04/18/1775 The Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes ("One if by land, two if by sea...") 04/19/1775 The Battles of Lexington and Concord (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). 05/10/1775 Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys Seize Fort Ticonderoga 05/10/1775 The Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia (Journals of the Second Continental Congress, Library of Congress) 05/20/1775 Mecklenburg (NC) Declaration of Independence (Charlotte's Web, NC) 06/15/1775 George Washington named Commander in Chief 06/17/1775 Battle of Bunker Hill (Mother Bedford) 07/06/1775 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, Second Continental Congress (Gerald Murphy, Cleveland Free Net 07/19/1775 500 Minute Men under Robert Howe attack and burn Fort Johnson, near Brunswick Town, NC, which had been under British control, leaving the Cape Fear River unguarded throughout the Revolutionary War. 11/13/1775 Montgomery captures Montreal for Americans 12/22/1775 Esek Hopkins appointed Commander of newly-authorized American Navy. 12/30/1775 Benedict Arnold's failed attack on Quebec 1/15/1776 "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine (Liberty Online) 2/24/1776 Patriots defeat loyalists at the Battle of Moore's Creek, NC 03/03/1776 Continental fleet, including the Sloop Katy (later the Providence), captures New Providence Island in the Bahamas 03/17/1776 The British evacuate Boston 06/7/1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes Independence 06/12/1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights (Avalon Project, Yale Law School) 06/28/1776 British defend Fort Moultrie, SC 07/04/1776 Declaration of Independence adopted; signed 08/02/1776 (NARA) 07/12/1776 Articles of Confederation (final version adopted in 1781) (National Parks Service) 1776 Over 30,000 British troops arrive in New York harbor 08/30/1776 British win the Battle of Long Island (See also Maryland's Brave 400, SAR) 09/15/1776 British occupy New York City 09/16/1776 British win the Battle of Harlem Heights 09/22/1776 Patriot Spy Nathan Hale is executed ("I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country." ) 10/11/1776 Benedict Arnold defeated at Lake Champlain 10/28/1776 American retreat at the Battle of White Plains 11/16/1776 British capture Fort Washington, NY and Fort Lee, NJ 12/26/1776 Washington crosses the Delaware and captures Trenton 01/03/1777 Washington wins the Battle of Princeton 01/06/1777 Washington winters in Morristown, NJ 06/14/1777 Flag Resolution (possibly designed by Hopkinson, likely sewn by Betsy Ross) 07/05/1777 St. Clair surrenders Fort Ticonderoga to the British 07/27/1777 Lafayette arrives in Philadelphia 08/06/1777 Patriots under Herkimer defeat the British under St. Leger at Fort Stanwix, in the Mohawk Valley in Oriskany, New York 08/16/1777 Patriot Militia under General Stark triumph over Hessians at Bennington 08/25/1777 British General Howe lands at Head of Elk, Maryland 09/11/1777 Battle of Brandywine, PA -- Under General Howe, the British defeat Washington's troops (US History); The Battle of the Brandywine by Edward J. Lengel (War Times Journal) 09/16/1777 Washington and Howe meet 10 miles north of Brandywine for the "Battle of the Clouds" which was "rained out." 09/19/1777 Burgoyne checked by Americans under Gates at Freeman's Farm, NY (1st Battle of Saratoga) 09/21/1777 Paoli Massacre, PA 09/26/1777 British under Howe occupy Philadelphia 10/04/1777 Patriots driven off at the Battle of Germantown 10/07/1777 Battle of Saratoga 10/07/1777 Burgoyne loses second battle of Freeman's Farm, NY at Bemis Heights (Second Battle of Saratoga) 10/17/1777 Burgoyne surrenders to Patriot General Gates at Saratoga, NY 10/22/1777 Hessians unsuccessfully attack Fort Mercer, NJ 11/16/1777 British capture Fort Mifflin, PA 12/07/1777 Americans repulse British at Whitemarsh, PA 12/19/1777 The Winter at Valley Forge, PA 02/06/1778 The French Alliance 03/07/1778 British General William Howe replaced by Henry Clinton 1778 Van Steuben arrives at Valley Forge 05/20/1778 Battle of Barren Hill, PA 06/28/1778 Battle of Monmouth 07/04/1778 George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia, a French village near Detroit 08/08/1778 French and American forces besiege Newport, RI 12/29/1778 British troops occupy Savannah, GA, and a month later, Augusta. Patriots retreat to South Carolina. 02/14/1779 Patriots beats Tories at Kettle Creek 02/25/1779 Patriot George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes on the Wabash (Western Campaign) 07/08/1779 Fairfield, CT, burned by British 07/11/1779 British burn Norwalk, CT 07/15-16/1779 Patriot "Mad" Anthony Wayne captures Stony Point, NY 08/19/1779 Light Horse Harry Lee attacks Paulus Hook, NJ 09/23/1779 John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, captures British man-of-war Serapis near English coast 09/28/1779 The Tappan Massacre "No Flint" Grey kills 30 Americans by bayonet 10/09/1779 Patriots fail to recapture Savannah, GA 1780 Coldest Winter of the war, Washington at Morristown, NJ 05/12/1780 British capture Charleston, SC 05/29/1780 British defeat Americans at Waxhaw Creek, SC 06/20/1780 Battle of Ramsour's Mill, NC. 1,000 Tories under Lt. Col. John Moore and Maj. Nicholas Welch were defeated after an attack by 500 militiamen under Col. Francis Locke and Maj. Joseph McDowell. 07/11/1780 French troops arrive at Newport, RI, to aid the American cause 07/21/1780 Battle of Colson's Mill, NC (close to the junction of the Rocky and Pee Dee Rivers). Tories defeated by Patriots under Col. William Lee Davidson attacked and defeated them. 08/06/1780 Patriots defeat Tories at Hanging Rock, SC 08/16/1780 British defeat Americans at Battle of Camden, South Carolina (U.S. Army Center of Military History) 09/25/1780 Benedict Arnold's plan to cede West Point to the British uncovered 10/07/1780 Battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina (Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War, TNGenWeb), won by the Overmountain Men (credited with turning the tide of the war in the South). Cornwallis falls back into South Carolina 10/14/1780 Washington names Nathanael Greene commander of the Southern Army 10/14/1780 Battle of Shallowford, Surry, NC (Ann Brownlee) 01/01/1781 Mutiny of unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers (See http://www.americanrevolution.org/mutiny.html">The Norfolk Chronicle, (England) Saturday, February 17, 1781 01/17/1781 Morgan defeats British Col. Tarleton at The Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina (U.S. Army Center of Military History) (See The Battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens) 03/15/1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse (National Parks Service) General Nathanael Greene's American forces (4,400) and Charles, Second Earl Cornwallis' British forces (1,900) finally met in battle. Although the British claimed the field of battle, their greater losses, more than a quarter of the army, greatly weakened them ("Another such victory would destroy the British Army" -- Charles James Fox) (State Library of North Carolina) 04/25/1781 Greene defeated Hobkirk's Hill, SC 05/15/1781 Corwallis clashes with Greene at Guilford Courthouse, NC 06/06/1781 Americans recapture Augusta, GA 06/18/1781 British hold off Americans at Ninety Six, SC 07/06/1781 "Mad" Anthony Wayne repulsed at Green Springs Farm, VA 1781 Battle of Elizabethtown (Bladen Co, NC) Seventy Patriots under Col. Thomas Robeson defeat 400 Tories (thanks to Patriot "Spy" Sally Salter) (Bladen Community College) 09/08/1781 Greene defeated at Eutaw Springs, SC 09/15/1781 French fleet drives British naval force from Chesapeake Bay 10/19/1781 Seige of Yorktown; Cornwallis Surrenders, Yorktown, VA (See The Virginia Campaign and the Blockade and Seige of Yorktown, 1781 (U.S. Army Center of Military History) 03/20/1782 Lord North resigns as British Prime Minister 07/11/1782 British evacuate Savannah, GA 11/30/1782 British sign Articles of Peace 12/14/1782 British leave Charleston, SC 04/19/1783 Congress ratifies preliminary peace treaty 09/03/1783/ Treaty of Paris (Avalon Project, Yale University Law School) 11/25/1783 British troops leave New York 12/23/1783 Washington resigns as Commander (Papers of George Washington, University of Virginia) 09/17/1787 U.S. Constitution ratified (NARA) 04/30/1789 George Washington inaugurated as first President of the United States 09/25/1789 Bill of Rights presented to Congress (NARA)
ALHN's American Revolutionary War