1775–1777 · Connected chronology
Trace the opening war from Lexington and Concord through the siege of Boston, Canada, the first southern campaigns, New York, Lake Champlain, Trenton, Assunpink Creek and Princeton.
On April 19, 1775, a British expedition to Concord collided with militia resistance at Lexington, North Bridge and along a sixteen-mile battle road. The day did not resemble one compact battle: it became a chain of encounters that ended with the regulars fighting their way back toward Boston.
Boston CampaignThe May 10, 1775 capture of Fort Ticonderoga was a small action with disproportionate strategic value. The rebels gained a key northern post, material, and a foothold on the route toward Canada, while the fort’s artillery later became part of the Boston siege story.
Lake Champlain and Northern Frontier Campaign, 1775–1776The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought primarily on Breed’s Hill on June 17, 1775. Britain captured the position, but the casualty bill and the defenders’ resistance made the battle one of the most consequential tactical demonstrations of the opening year.
Boston CampaignGreat Bridge was a short but strategically important Virginia battle on December 9, 1775. The confined approach favored the Patriot defense, and the Crown defeat accelerated the collapse of effective royal authority in the colony.
Southern Campaign of 1775–1776The failed American assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775 was the climax of the invasion of Canada. It combined severe operational time pressure with difficult urban terrain, divided assault columns and a determined garrison under Guy Carleton.
Canadian CampaignMoores Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776 was a campaign interception as much as a firefight. Patriot forces used the crossing to break a Loyalist column before it could unite with British forces arriving on the North Carolina coast.
Southern Campaign of 1775–1776The occupation of Dorchester Heights in March 1776 ended an eleven-month siege without a set-piece battle on the scale of Bunker Hill. Artillery, fortification and geography combined to make the British position in Boston strategically untenable.
Boston CampaignTrois-Rivières on June 8, 1776 was an attempted counterstroke during the collapsing Canadian invasion. The Americans entered difficult ground, failed to achieve surprise and were pushed back toward the Lake Champlain line.
Canadian CampaignSullivan’s Island on June 28, 1776 was an artillery and naval-positioning battle. William Moultrie’s unfinished palmetto fort absorbed a punishment that British planners expected to be decisive, while shoals and weak army-navy coordination frustrated the larger attack on Charleston.
Southern Campaign of 1775–1776The first major battle after the Declaration of Independence was a major British tactical victory. The subsequent East River evacuation preserved Washington’s main army, while competing force and casualty estimates require careful separation by source and measurement scope.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe Battle of Kip’s Bay on September 15, 1776 was an amphibious landing on Manhattan’s East River shore that converted the British victory on Long Island into a direct threat to the American army still spread across lower Manhattan. Naval gunfire, a rapid landing of roughly 4,000 Crown troops, and the collapse of the militia line forced Washington to accelerate the withdrawal toward Harlem Heights. Its importance lies less in a long firefight than in the way sea power, landing-site choice, command uncertainty and road geometry nearly turned an evacuation into an encirclement.
New York and New Jersey CampaignA morale-important American battlefield success fought in upper Manhattan one day after the landing at Kip’s Bay.
New York and New Jersey CampaignValcour Island was a tactical defeat that served a wider delaying purpose. Arnold’s improvised fleet could not defeat the stronger British squadron, yet the fight forced the northern invasion to spend precious time winning control of Lake Champlain.
Lake Champlain and Northern Frontier Campaign, 1775–1776A delaying engagement in the Westchester phase of the 1776 New York campaign.
New York and New Jersey CampaignA British victory during Washington’s retreat north of New York City, with major source-definition differences in commonly repeated troop-strength figures.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe fall of Fort Washington was one of the most damaging American defeats of the 1776 New York campaign.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe Battle of Fort Lee on November 20, 1776 was principally an evacuation race. Four days after Fort Washington fell across the Hudson, Cornwallis crossed into New Jersey, landed north of Fort Lee and threatened to close on Nathanael Greene’s garrison. The Americans escaped before being trapped, but left guns, stores and equipment behind. The action opened the hard retreat across New Jersey that carried Washington’s army toward the Delaware and, one month later, the counterstroke at Trenton.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe Battle of Mount Holly, also called the action at Iron Works Hill, was a three-day sequence of skirmishes in Burlington County from December 21 to 23, 1776. Samuel Griffin’s small militia force repeatedly withdrew before Carl von Donop’s much larger Hessian detachment. Tactically the Crown troops drove the Americans from successive positions and occupied Mount Holly. Strategically, however, Donop’s movement placed a substantial Hessian force well south of Trenton on the eve of Washington’s attack there, which is why the episode matters far beyond the number of shots fired.
New York and New Jersey CampaignWashington’s surprise attack at Trenton transformed the immediate strategic mood of the war and opened the Ten Crucial Days.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe Second Battle of Trenton on January 2, 1777, also known as the Battle of the Assunpink Creek, was the defensive hinge between the victories at Trenton and Princeton. Cornwallis advanced toward Trenton with a stronger Crown column while Edward Hand’s Americans delayed him along the road. Washington then formed south of Assunpink Creek, where repeated attacks against the bridge and crossings failed to break the line before darkness. The American success was incomplete until Washington solved the next problem: how to avoid being pinned and destroyed the following morning. His answer was the night march toward Princeton.
New York and New Jersey CampaignThe culminating victory of the Ten Crucial Days, fought on January 3, 1777.
New York and New Jersey Campaign