** the American Revolution Revolutionary War Western campaign








Revolutionary War: The Western Campaign


Figure 1.-- The British attempted to gain control of the Illinois Territory by building Fort Sackville near what is now Vincennes, Indiana. A small American militia force commanded by George Rogers Clark defeated a British garrison (1779). Roughly half of Clark's men were Canadian volunteers sympathetic to the Americans. Clark executed a daring wintertime march and was able to force the British to surrender. This left the Illinois Territory in American hands. The American victory at Vincennes was the most westerly of the American victories it gave the United States a claim to the entire Ohio valley all the way west to the Mississippi River. Clark's ultimate goal was to seize the British fort at Detroit, but he never recruited a sufficient force

The major Revolutionary battles were fought east of the Appalachians. There were, however, important engagements in the unsettled land west of the Appalachians. The Western theater was fought west of the Appalachian Mountains--the region which became the Northwest Territory after the War as well as the more southern stares of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. The western engagements were fought between American Indians with their British allies in Detroit, and American backwoods settlers south and east of the Ohio River. The British from their base in Detroit armed the Indians and encouraged them to raid Cameraman settlements west of the Appalachians. The British after the French and Indian Wars sold Fort Pitt (modern Pittsburgh) to two colonists. Thus this would be the main American base for the western campaign. The Americans had a majir dvntage. The further lnto the nterior the greater the American advantge. And you could not get further from the coast and the Royal Navy than the Ohio Valley. The British had to rely on the Indians to do their fighting in the Wrst. The Canadian colonial population was very small. The American could drawn on the backwoods settler for their fighters and colonial legislatures to finnce opertions. The American backwoodsmen would not only fight in the western theater, but in the eastern operations when the British ventured away from the coast. Many but not all of the Native Americas sided with the English. The all-important Scotts-Irish, however proved to be ardently anti-British. And British alliance with the Native Americans only sharpened their opposition to the British. Just before the War, Daniel Boone led settlers into Kentucky--in violation of British ordinances. Settlers there fought off Native Americans supported by the British who besieged Boonesville. While the western campaigns were relatively limited in terms of number of combatants--at stale was a huge unsettled territory larger than the territory of the 13 colonies. Backwoods settlers also played a key role in the American victory at Saratoga (1777). The British attempted to gain control by building Fort Sackville near what is now Vincennes, Indiana. A small American militia force commanded by George Rogers Clark defeated a British garrison (1779). Roughly half of Clark's men were Canadian volunteers sympathetic to the Americans or more likely opposed to the British. . Clark executed a daring wintertime march and was able to force the British to surrender. This left the Illinois Territory in American hands. The American victory at Vincennes was the most westerly of the American victories it gave the United States a claim to the entire Ohio valley all the way west to the Mississippi River. Clark's ultimate goal was to seize the British fort at Detroit, but he never recruited a sufficient force to do so. Backwoodsmen would also defeated a British force at Kings Mountain (1780), an important battle in the southern campaign. They also proved to be of immense significance in the peace negotiations. The success of the Americans enabled them to claim a huge swath of unsettled land west to the Mississippi at the Paris Peace talks (1783).








CIH -- Revolutionay War








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Created: 5:18 AM 1/30/2021
Last updated: 5:18 AM 1/30/2021