Colonial America timeline

  • Battle of Cowan's Ford

    On January 31, Cornwallis began to move his army despite the heavy rain fearing any further delay would cause him to lose his chance of destroying... Read more

  • Pyle's Massacre

    The most commonly accepted account of the battle, pieced together from reports from Lee and Captain Joseph Graham, indicates that Lee's deception... Read more

  • Articles of Confederation Adopted

    The political push for the colonies to increase cooperation began in the French and Indian Wars in the mid 1750s. The American Revolution in... Read more

  • Battle of Guilford Court House

    The advance guard met near the Quaker New Garden Meeting House. Banastre Tarleton's Light Dragoons were briefly engaged by Light Horse Harry Lee's... Read more

  • Skirmish at Waters Creek

    Lord Cornwallis, while on his Peninsula campaign, sent Captain Brown on a foraging mission. This mission brought Brown, and his group of 40... Read more

  • Battle of Hobkirk's Hill

    On the morning of April 25, 1781, Rawdon was still under the impression that the Continental army was without its artillery. At approximately 9am... Read more

  • Battle of Spencer's Ordinary

    Anthony Wayne, leading the Marquis de Lafayette's van, received word of Simcoe and the Queen's Rangers foraging near Spencer's Ordinary (about six... Read more

  • Battle of Green Spring

    Lord Cornwallis having failed to defeat the Marquis de Lafayette in the campaign in Virginia, was marching from Williamsburg to position his army... Read more

  • Lochry's Defeat

    On the night of August 18, 1781, Clark and his men floated past the mouth of the Great Miami River, near the present-day border between Ohio and... Read more

  • Battle of the Chesapeake

    When the British fleet of 19 ships, now under Graves's command, arrived back at the Chesapeake on the morning of September 5, they found 25 French... Read more

  • Battle of Fort Griswold

    One of the last battles fought during the American Revolutionary War was fought near New London, Connecticut at a small fort called Fort Griswold... Read more

  • Battle of Eutaw Springs

    The Battle of Eutaw Springs was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, the last engagement of the war in the Carolinas. On May 22, 1781,... Read more

  • Battle of Yorktown

    By October 14, the trenches were within 150 yards (140 m) of redoubts #9 and #10. Washington ordered that all guns within range begin blasting the... Read more

  • General Charles Cornwallis Surrenders To General George Washington At Yorktown

    On October 19, 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army of some 8,000 men to General George Washington at Yorktown, giving up... Read more

  • British Evacuate Savannah, GA

    On this day in 1782, British Royal Governor Sir James Wright, along with several civil officials and military officers, flee the city of Savannah,... Read more

  • Battle of Blue Licks

    The Kentuckians reached the Licking River on the morning of August 19, near a spring and salt lick known as the Lower Blue Licks. On the other side... Read more

  • Preliminary Articles of Peace Signed

    His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, Viz New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,... Read more

  • Congress Ratifies Peace With Great Britain

    On this day in 1783, the Continental Congress of the United States officially ratifies the preliminary peace treaty with Great Britain that was... Read more

  • Treaty of Paris

    The treaty document was signed at the Hôtel de York – which is now 56 Rue Jacob – by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay (representing the... Read more

  • British Evacuate New York

    In mid-August 1783, Sir Guy Carleton received orders from London for the evacuation of New York City. He told the President of the Continental... Read more

  • Washington Resigns as Commander

    On this day in 1783, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, General George Washington resigns as commander in chief of the Continental Army... Read more

  • United States Constitution Signed by Members of the Constitutional Convention

    The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The first three Articles of the Constitution establish... Read more