Saratoga-Yorktown 1777-1781 by Izabella Rusinowa

The British successfully captured New York on Septemand launched the next phase of the plan in 1777.

The new British strategy at this point was to capture New York City and use it as a base of operations. The British then decided to abandon Boston altogether and flee for Nova Scotia, Canada on March 17, 1776. When the British saw the cannons on Dorchester Heights, they made an attempt to attack the heights but were thwarted by a storm. On March 4, they mounted the largest cannons on Dorchester Heights. When powder for the cannons finally arrived on March 2, the Americans began firing on Boston. This proved difficult though when the British suffered devastating casualties at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1775 during the Siege of Boston.Īfter the Americans captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York, they brought the fort’s cannons to Cambridge, where they arrived on January 24, 1776, and planned to fortify the hills overlooking Boston harbor in an attempt to break the siege. The British strategy at the beginning of the war was simply to contain the American Revolution in Massachusetts and prevent it from spreading. The following is an overview of the strategies used in the Revolutionary War: British Strategy:īritish strategy changed throughout the course of the war as the British came up against more obstacles and challenges than they anticipated. In fact, numerous Revolutionary War strategy games are based on these very strategies and some types of battle reenactments, such as tactical battles or tactical events, use these strategies to try to defeat their opponents in recreations of the Revolutionary War battles. These strategies were also influenced by the geography of the region, which often affected the outcome of the battles.īoth sides had their own ideas on how to accomplish these goals and the strategies they used have been widely studied, scrutinized and even recreated. The battles and events that took place were often strategically planned with the hopes of gaining more control over a region, getting access to supplies and outmaneuvering the enemy all while trying to avoid as many casualties and military defeats as possible. To get a better understanding of the events of the Revolutionary War, it is helpful to evaluate the strategies of the Continental army and the British army in the war and how they both planned to win.

Saratoga-Yorktown 1777-1781 by Izabella Rusinowa