Key Battles of the Revolutionary War

Key Battles of the Revolutionary War

The Revolutionary War started when a few colonists fired their muskets against the British Empire, then the world's military superpower. It ended—against all reasonable expectations— with an independent American and the ideas of liberty and self-governance spreading across the globe. All that happened because the rebels won the major battles. This podcast dives deep into each of them.

Episodes

Prologue to Key Battles of the Revolutionary War

March 4, 2020 • 1 min
A couple of announcements from host Scott Rank. He tells you what this series will be about and where to find his main podcast History Unplugged (http://historyunpluggedpodcast.com).

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The World of the American Revolution

March 5, 2020 • 40 mins
Grab your musket and your portion of rum, Yankee, because we have a war to fight! James Early returns to the History Unplugged Podcast to kick off a massive series called Key Battles of the Revolutionary War. We get in-depth into the battles that determined the outcome of one of the most consequential wars in history. But we also go deep into the background of social, political, cultural, and theological aspects of the of the 18th ...

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Background to the War

March 6, 2020 • 51 mins
Our series is picking up steam as we jump to the years immediately prior to the Shot Heard ‘Round the World. James and Scott discuss the interregnum between the French-Indian War and the Revolutionary War, the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), then Townsend Acts (1767), the Boston Massacre (1770), the Tea Act (1773), and the Coercive Acts (1774).

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Lexington and Concord

March 7, 2020 • 63 mins
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were of minor military significance but of world-historical importance in the modern era. They were the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War, marking the outbreak of armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen colonies on the North American mainland. Fought on April 19, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord ruin British political strategy of ending colonial oppositi...

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Sidetrack Episode: British and Continental Soldiers

March 8, 2020 • 53 mins
The Continental Army and the British Army were significantly different in their organizational structure, levels of experience, and funding. The Continental Army was an undisciplined, unprepared fighting force with makeshift uniforms and sloppy tactics (at least at the beginning of the war). The British Army was the world’s elite fighting force and fresh of victory of the globe-spanning Seven Years War against France and her allies...

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Bunker Hill (1/2)

March 9, 2020 • 42 mins
With the Revolutionary War turning from cold to hot, the British made plans to send troops from Boston to break the Colonials’ siege of that city and occupy the surrounding hills. About one thousand militiamen fortified Breed’s Hill to prepare for the coming onslaught. It was the first serious battle that pitted the fiery but inexperienced colonists against the battle-hardened British.

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Bunker Hill (2/2)

March 10, 2020 • 49 mins
“Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes!” — famous words, and smart strategy for using terribly inaccurate muskets, but what were the conditions that gave rise to that advice? Find out in this episode, as the Battle of Bunker hill wraps up.

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The Quebec Campaign

March 11, 2020 • 42 mins
The Continental Army thought they could rally the French-speaking residents of Canada in their uprising against the British. Such thinking led to the Quebec Campaign. Although a major defeat for the Americans, it showed the dogged determinism of American commander Benedict Arnold, who also showed his bravery in the Battle of Saratoga before defecting to the British.

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The Battle of Quebec

March 12, 2020 • 33 mins
The Battle of Quebec, fought on December 31, 1775, marked the end of American offensive operations in Canada. General Richard Montgomery was killed, Arnold wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than four hundred American soldiers taken prisoner. Returning forces of the Continental Army arrived ragged and nearly starved.

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Sidetrack Episode: The Declaration of Independence

March 13, 2020 • 69 mins
In the background of the opening battles of the Revolutionary War, an assembly of colonial statesmen issued a document announcing their formal separation from the British Empire. How did this document come about, what did the British make of it, and how revolutionary were these ideas to an eighteenth-century audience?

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The New York Campaign (1/2)

March 14, 2020 • 42 mins
When the British left Boston, George Washington realized that their eventual destination would be New York City. He quickly traveled to NYC to oversee the building of defenses, organized the Continental Army into divisions, and prepared for the invasion. What happened next was the largest battle of the entire war and (if not for a miraculous stroke of good luck in the form of fog) the near-total defeat of the Patriots.

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The New York Campaign (2/2)

March 15, 2020 • 35 mins
The New York Campaign ended in a decisive victory for the British and terrible defeat for the Continental Army, which barely escaped destruction. It was completely driven out of New York fro the rest of the war, and the British used it as a base of attack against other targets for years to come.

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Crossing the Delaware

March 16, 2020 • 36 mins
At the end of 1776 George Washington was in a desperate situation. The Continental Army had retreated completely out of New York after losing Long Island to British General William Howe. Many of his soldiers’ contracts were set to expire at years end. He needed a dramatic victory, and fast. An opportunity arose when intelligence revealed Hessian forces camped in Trenton, New Jersey that were vulnerable to a sneak attack.

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The Battle of Princeton Proves George Washington Was So Lucky, It Was Almost Supernatural

March 17, 2020 • 28 mins
Washington and his men had their work cut out for them after crossing the Delaware River. Over the next ten days, they won two battles. First, the Patriots defeated a Hessian garrison on December 26th. They then returned to Trenton a week later to draw British force south, then launched a night attack to capture Princeton on January 3rd. With the victory, New Jersey fell into Patriot hands.

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The Saratoga Campaign: Turning Point of the Revolutionary War

March 18, 2020 • 35 mins
The Saratoga campaign gave a decisive victory to the Americans over the British during the American Revolutionary War. The battle also saw great heroics by Benedict Arnold.

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The Battle of Saratoga Was Won by American Hero Benedict Arnold

March 19, 2020 • 46 mins
The Battle of Saratoga was an incredible turn of fortunes for the United States. British Gen. John Burgoyne thought he would cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. Instead, he lost the battle and was forced to surrender 20,000 troops. Saratoga was also Benedict Arnold's finest hour. He loathed American commander Horatio Gates, who relieved Arnold of his command. Nonetheless, at the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, ...

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Victory At Saratoga: France Enters the War

March 20, 2020 • 56 mins
Benedict Arnold’s fierce attack disordered the enemy and led to an American victory. The decisive Patriot victory compelled France to enter the war as an ally with the United States.

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The Philadelphia Campaign: When Britain Took Over Ben Franklin's House

March 21, 2020 • 36 mins
The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777-8 was a British attempt to capture Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States and the seat of the Continental Congress, led by Gen. William Howe. They did capture the city, but British disaster loomed north in the Saratoga campaign, threatening any British gains.

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The War Moves South (And Benedict Arnold Commits Treason)

March 22, 2020 • 39 mins
In 1788, the battle lines of the Revolutionary War moved from New England to the southern colonies. Lord George Germain, the British secretary responsible for the war, wrote to Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton that capturing the southern colonies was "considered by the King as an object of great importance in the scale of the war" Germain and the king believed that the majority of southern colonists were loyalists and that if t...

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King’s Mountain & Cowpens: The Revolutionary War's Largest 'All-American Fight'

March 23, 2020 • 27 mins
The Battles of King's Mountain and Cowpens were fought in 1781, between the Continental Army under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Sir Banastre Tarleton, as part of the campaign in the Carolinas. Daniel Morgan, who had been sent south by Washington, joined Nathanael Greene’s army. Greene decided to send Morgan with a force of militia and cavalry westward. This dividing of his army was ris...

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