3 Consequential Days in the American Revolution

This year, the nation celebrates its 250th birthday, marked by the approval of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress enacted a resolution declaring the separation of the 13 American colonies from Great Britain. Two days later, in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, penned by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and others. 

The 56 signers of the document were aware they were risking their lives, as the British considered this act treasonous. 

On those three eventful days, while Congress was meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Army, Navy and Marine Corps, along with state militia, were battling British forces, German hired troops, loyalists and Native American tribes allied with Great Britain during the Revolutionary War.

Gen. George Washington, the commander in chief of the Army, was in New York City leading about 10,000 troops preparing defenses against nearly 20,000 British combined forces, who had landed on Staten Island July 2. 

It was the largest battle of the war in terms of the number of combatants, with the outcome resulting in the British occupying Manhattan and the port of New York. The British held New York City until Nov. 22, 1783. 

Washington received word of the declaration signing July 9 and ordered it read to his troops.

From July 2 until July 4, 1776, Army Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold was in the vicinity of Crown Point, New York, leading the retreating American forces from Canada and overseeing the construction of a naval fleet on Lake Champlain in New York. 

Beginning July 3, 1776, the North Carolina militia fought against the Cherokee at the Battle of McDowell’s Station near present-day Morganton, North Carolina. The battle ended July 12, 1776, with the Cherokee withdrawing. 

While Continental forces were retreating from Canada and New York City in early July 1776, success would come later.

After a series of losses, Washington’s forces defeated the British at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey over the winter of 1776-1777. Those victories revitalized the troops’ morale. 

The Battle of Saratoga in New York in 1777 was a turning point in the war, convincing France to enter the war as an American ally. 

Other battles followed, the last major one being the British defeat at the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. 

After eight years of battle, the Treaty of Paris, signed Sept. 3, 1783, formally ended the war.