The American Revolution 1775-1783

[Bootie]

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America.

In this period the colonies first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them without representation, and formed self-governing independent states. These states then joined against the British to defend that self-governance in the armed conflict from 1775 to 1783 known as the American Revolutionary War (also: American War of Independence).

This resulted in the independent states uniting to form one nation, breaking away from the empire in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, rejecting not only the governance of Parliament, but also now the legitimacy of the monarchy to demand allegiance. After seven years of war came effective American victory on the battlefield in October 1781, with British recognition of the United States' independence and sovereignty in 1783.

 

[PoorOldSpike]

Grenade-launchers were used as early as the 1700's consisting of a brass cup attached to the muzzle of a flintlock carbine. These carbines had a special extra thick barrel capable of withstanding the pressure. The grenade would be placed in the cup and the force of the charge when fired would throw it a couple of hundred yards.

Here's one type in the film 'Last of the Mohicans'-

 

[PoorOldSpike]

Colonial fort

 

[ACSpectre]

Shays Rebellion

This monument marks the site of the last battle in Shays Rebellion. It is about 10 miles from my home, just over the state line in Massachusetts.

 

[Louis]

Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – 24 November 1807) was a Mohawk military and political leader.-
He led four of the six Iroquois nations on the British side in the American Revolution.-
After the war, he discouraged further Indian warfare on the frontier and aided the U.S. commissioners in securing peace treaties with the Miamis and other western tribes.-

Joseph Brant statue, Valiants Memorial, Ottawa.

 

[Louis]

James Aitken, aka John the Painter, was a Scottish-born domestic terrorist who served the cause of the American Revolution by attempting to burn down the royal dockyards in Britain. He was 24 years old when he was tried and hanged for his crimes (10 March 1777), and his body was gibbeted and hung on display near the Portsmouth harbor. Some 20,000 people reportedly witnessed the execution.-

 

[lawman56]

Sadly, the Mohawk have always been a point of contention for upstate New Yorkers, even to this day. All the nastiness aside, people like myself, who grew up in the Adirondacks and have a love of history, have been torn. On the one hand, had it not been for the Mohawk, Mahican, and Iroquois, among others, there would have been nothing to stop Montcalms advance down the Hudson Valley through Fort Edward, and on to Albany. Possibly even New York City as well. On the other hand, believing that a British victory would ensure a peaceful co-existence between native and settler, not withstanding the agreement between the British and the Iroquois Confedration, Brant tried to do what was best for all.

I often wonder, what would have happened had Brant sided with the patriots? Would we have peacefully co-existed? Sadly, if how we treated American Indians during the westward expansion is any proof, I fear not.

Sometimes we Americans forget that the west was not the only place the settlers exploited the kindness and honor of the natives.

 

[Louis]

Cleaning of lost images.