Wars That Shaped the Nation

Wars That Shaped the Nation. The Revolutionary War. , In 1775, American minutemen at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, fired the “shots heard around the world.” The colonists fought the British to establish their independence from New York to Georgia and from Massachusetts Bay to the Indian territories beyond the Appalachian Mountains. From 1776 to 1778, fighting centered near New York and Philadelphia. In 1780, the British focused on a campaign in the South. Unsuccessful and pursued by Generals Nathaniel Greene and George Washington, the British retreated to Yorktown, Virginia. In 1781, under the tightening siege of French and American forces, the British, under Lord Cornwallis, surrendered. The Continental Army moved to nearby New Windsor, New York, until the British recognized American independence with the Treaty of Paris in 1783., West Point’s role in the American Revolution was critical. At the time of the Revolution, the Hudson River was a major transportation route in the colonies. The bend in the river here was the only major obstacle that a ship had to negotiate between New York City and Albany. The Americans recognized this at the outset of the war and began the first of a number of plans to fortify the ground on both sides of the river and construct a chain obstacle from West Point to Constitution Island. The British raided the island in 1777 as part of a campaign to take the entire river. In 1778, the Americans shifted to the higher ground at West Point and its surrounding hills, building a fortress the British never challenged., The weapons of the Revolution show the state of the gunmaker’s art at the end of the eighteenth century. All the guns were imported from Europe because America had no cannon foundries at the beginning of the war. Made of bronze, the guns ornate detailing characterizes the artistic nature of cannon casting in France and England. These smoothbore muzzle loaders could fire solid shot weighing 6 to 12 pounds. The shorter weapon on the carriage is a howitzer captured at Saratoga, that was designed to deliver plunging fire from a high angle onto entrenched troops.