Battle at Bunker Hill didn't actually take place on Bunker Hill. It took place on Breeds Hill, but it is called Bunker Hill because that was the original target
British Victory - Some don't count this as a British victory because the only reason the Colonists retreated was due to them running out of ammunition
Victory at Bunker Hill came at a terrible price for the British, with nearly half of the 2,200 Redcoats who entered the battle killed or wounded in just two hours of fighting.
The British Soldiers who died there are buried inside North Old Church
Interesting fact: A bake sale was organized to raise money to put a monument on top of Bunker Hill
Fort Ticonderoga (1775 & 1777)
Main Points/Highlights
Less than a month after the battle of Lexington and Concord, American troops surprised the British and launched an attack on Fort Ticonderoga - on borders of Lake Champlain in New York. It was an easy victory, boosting much confidence
First Colonist win
May 10, 1775 - Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen surprise attacked Fort Ticonderoga at dawn, an easy win
July 5, 1777 - British army of 8,000 had high ground over the fort. Colonists forced to surrender
Trenton and Princeton (1776)
Main Points/Highlights
Happened on Christmas Eve, 1776
Washington surprised the British by moving in and attacking on Christmas Eve/Christmas day
Easy win for Colonists
Captured more than 900 Hessian troops, and 1,200 weapons without losing a single man
Battle of Saratoga (1777)
Main Points/Highlights
British attempt to 'trick' the Americans
Lead a British army into New York and New England from Canada while the British army is already in New York City, who sail down to capture Philadelphia
Total flop - Burgoyne (British leader who proposed the idea) had no concept of a march through enemy-infested wilderness and took along officer's’ wives and children.
Within 18 days, 2 battles occurred
Held up in Saratoga, surrounded by the Americans, General Burgoyne had no other choice but to surrender - which he did ten days after the battle. This was the first time the British surrendered in the American Revolutionary War.
Cornwallis Surrenders at Yorktown (1781)
Main Points/Highlights
Cornwallis led weary troops to the Virginia coast where they could remain seaborne contact with the large British army of Henry Clinton
Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army, to block Cornwallis escape from Yorktown by land
The French, impressed at how the Americans had held their own for so long, joins the American troups, with both ships and land troops
Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men
A British fleet failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements
Trapped on a Peninsula, with Washingtons men on land and the French surrounding them over water, Cornwallis is forced to surrender, ending the Revolutionary War