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Battle of Bunker Hill

As an introduction we can say that first The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, only days after George Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and despite the name, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill. The Battle of Lexington and Concord, the patriot militia controlled the hills surrounding Boston. The patriots heard through their spies that the British were planning to attack Bunker Hill. The patriots sent 1600 men to set up fortifications on Breed's Hill, which was closer to Boston. On June 17, 1775 General Howe led 2600 British soldiers up Breed's Hill. British warships also fired on the patriot’s position.

With the outbreak of the war General Gage, the British commander in chief, found himself with the odds against them in Boston by the American Continental Army, occupying the hills to the West of the city. On the night of 16th June 1775 around 1,500 American troops of the Massachusetts regiments and Putnam’s Connecticut regiment occupied Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill on the peninsula. Plans were hurriedly put in motion by the British to attack the Americans and drive them from their position. Major General Howe, one of the three generals sent from Britain to assist General Gage, was given the command. More American troops gathered on Bunker Hill but few of them could be persuaded to move to the forward positions on Breed’s Hill.

General Howe now launched a frontal assault on the redoubt with the main body of his troops. This attack was driven back with heavy loss, in spite of an American shortage of ammunition. A final attack was made, concentrating on the center of the American position. The American ammunition was all but exhausted and this final assault forced the Americans to retreat and leave the peninsula. The British suffered some 1,150 killed and wounded and the Americans were estimated at 450 killed and wounded. The British took over the Bunker and Breed’s Hill positions and fortified them, holding them until they evacuated Boston at the end of the year. The battle was the first action for the Continental Army and showed how much work there was to be done in making an effective army.

The battle had a number of lessons for the British. The British troops were undisciplined and disorganized. For both sides Bunker Hill was the start of a journey in military education.

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These are some funny pics we found about the revolution in general. Hope you think they are funny too.

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The Second Continental Congress

On July 13, 1775, the Congress appealed to the Native American tribes, to stand by the colonies and not assist the British. It became clear that Britain was prepared to fight against colonial independence. A royal proclamation declared that the King's American subjects were "engaged in beginning a rebellion," and Parliament passed the American Prohibitory Act, which made all American cargoes pay a penalty to the Crown. In May 1776 the Congress learned that the King had hired German mercenaries to fight in America. The Congress continued to cut the colonies' ties to Britain.
By the middle of May 1776, eight colonies had decided that they would support Independence. On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention passed a resolution that "the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose that the United Colonies were free and independent states."
On May 10, 1775, the members of the Second Continental Congress met at the State House in Philadelphia. There were several new delegates including: John Hancock from Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania. The day that the Second Continental Congress met, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York. The Second Continental Congress meeting started with the battle of Lexington and Concord fresh in their memories. The New England militia was still outside of Boston trying to drive the British out of Boston. The Second Continental Congress decided many important things. At the Congress, they decided to completely break away from Great Britain. On May 15, 1776, they decided to officially put the colonies in a state of defense.

The Congress discussed was if they were going to print paper money. This passed and paper money started to be printed later in the year. The Second Continental Congress was one of the most important government meetings in the history of the United States of America. It decided some of the most important ideas that the colonists fought for in the Revolutionary War, at that meeting, members of the Second Continental Congress wrote and signed The Declaration of Independence.
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock wrote his name first and biggest on the Declaration of Independence. He said, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward." He was talking about the reward offered by King George III that was to be given to anyone who could capture one of the Sons of Liberty, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

Another thing they decided they had to do was to organize the militia of the colonies better. So, they decided to form an army called the American Continental Army. On June 14, 1776, the Congress officially appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. He was elected unanimously. George Washington knew that this army would face great difficulty. He later wrote that Americans were "not then organized as a nation, or known as a people upon the earth. We had no preparation. Money, the nerve of war, was wanting." Great Britain was the most powerful nation on earth. It was a frightening thought that the Continental Army would need to fight Great Britain.

The Shot Around the World

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The Battle of Lexington and Concord

The Battle of Lexington and Concord was made up of two battles that began on April 18th, 1775. The first shots starting the revolution were fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. On April 18, 1775, British General Thomas Gage sent 700 soldiers to destroy guns and ammunition the colonists had stored in the town of Concord, just outside of Boston. British troops were also sent to Concord to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams, but both men had been already warned about the British attack. The night of April 18th, Paul Revere rode through Concord warning everybody about the British attack. So when the British came in to attack the Rebels, The colonists had been expecting a fight with the British. They had organized a group of militia, called the Minutemen, Americans who were "ready to fight in a minute," these men were waiting to attack at Lexington. The Americans were backing away since they were greatly outnumbered when someone fired a shot, and the British troops started to fire, killing 8 Minutemen and injuring 10 others. Till the present date nobody knows who shot first.

Although Paul Revere was captured by British scouts before reaching Concord, other messengers managed to get through and warn the people. While the British soldiers continued on their way to Concord, they found out that Hancock and Adams had escaped. So they marched towards Concord looking for ammunition but the men and women of Concord were busy moving the arms and ammunition to new hiding places in surrounding towns. When the soldiers arrived they were only able to destroy part of the supplies.

As the British went to look at a nearby farm for weapons, they ran into a group of minutemen at Concord's North Bridge. There was a big fight, and the Minutemen made the British retreat. By the end of the day, British troops had lost 273 soldiers, while the Colonists lost only 94. 18 of these Colonists had died during the battle at Lexington. The next step was the Revolutionary War.

"Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here" said Captain John Parker, commander of the Minutemen.

Paul Revere´s Importance in the American Revolution

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Paul Revere´s Midnight Ride

In 1774 Paul Revere was employed by the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety as a rider to carry news, messages, and copies of resolutions anywhere, from New York to Philadelphia.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was sent by Dr. Joseph Warren and instructed to ride to Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them. After crossing the Charles River to Charlestown, Paul Revere borrowed a horse from his friend Deacon John Larkin. While in Charlestown, he verified that the local "Sons of Liberty" committee had seen his arranged signals. The signal was based on two lanterns that had been hung in the bell-tower of Christ Church in Boston, indicating that troops would arrive "by sea" across the Charles River to Cambridge, rather than marching "by land" out Boston Neck. Revere had arranged for these signals the previous weekend, as he was afraid that he might be prevented from leaving Boston.

On the way to Lexington, Revere "alarmed" the country-side, stopping at each house, and arrived in Lexington about midnight. As he approached the house where Adams and Hancock were staying, a man asked that he should not make so much noise. "Noise!" cried Revere, "You'll have noise enough before long. The British are coming out!" After delivering his message, Revere was joined by a second rider, William Dawes, who had been sent on the same task by a different route; Deciding on their own to continue on to Concord, Massachusetts, where weapons and supplies were hidden, Revere and Dawes were joined by a third rider, Dr. Samuel Prescott. Soon after, all three were arrested by a British patrol. Prescott escaped almost immediately, and Dawes soon after. Revere was held for some time and then released. Left without a horse, Revere returned to Lexington in time to witness part of the battle on the Lexington Green. In conclusion Revere´s midnight ride saved some of the most important leaders of the American Revolution from being trapped maybe even killed by the British Troops.

Samuel Adams, Famous Leader of the American Revolution

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Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 27, 1722. He was a leader of the fight against British colonial rule, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Adams was a cousin of John Adams who became the second President of the United States. When Samuel Adams was young, his father wanted him to be a minister. Samuel went to work in a counting house, but he was not good at adding and he spent too much time talking to other people about politics. Later the people in Boston elected him to be a tax collector, but he didn't like taking money from people.

Adams' father, a deacon of the church, played a major role in Boston politics. When Samuel was a young man, the royal government ruled the senior Adams' investments, ruining him financially. This may have been the cause of Samuel's opposition to colonial authority. He later on graduated in 1743 from Harvard College. Adams was a vocal opponent of several laws passed by the British Parliament to raise revenue in the American Colonies. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry were two of the first people to argue for independence. Sam wrote letters about independence and sent them to newspapers and leaders around the country. Sam signed all the letters with different names so that the people who read the papers would think all of Boston wanted independence from England. Opposition reached its peak on December 16, 1773 when a group of Bostonians dumped a British cargo of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of resistance is referred to as the Boston Tea Party. The British Parliament responded to the "Boston Tea Party" by passing a set of laws referred to as the "Intolerable Acts." Sam convinced many young men that independence would be good for America. Paul Revere, John Adams and John Hancock were some of the men who agreed with Sam's ideas. These three men became better known than Sam, even though his ideas helped shape their thoughts on independence. The British thought that Samuel Adams was a big troublemaker and they were right. They called him "the most dangerous man in Massachusetts." He later on signed the Declaration of Independence. After being sick for most of the summer of 1803 he died of unspecified causes, with what today would be called "natural" early on the morning of Sunday, October 2.