The War Record

The first shots of the Revolutionary War. Gage's actual orders and a militia deposition survive.

A fort taken without a shot, and three eyewitness accounts that don't agree. All three survive.

The costliest single engagement of the war for the British. Ten primary documents survive at MHS.

Washington congratulated Arnold on a victory that hadn't happened yet. Both letters survive.

Cannon hauled from Ticonderoga forced an evacuation. Washington's own letters survive.

A half-finished palmetto fort turned back nine British warships. Charles Lee's report survives.

The largest battle of the war and Washington's narrowest escape. The actual Council of War record survives.

The rearguard stand that bought the army its escape. The commander's own casualty letter survives.

Washington's gamble across the ice-choked Delaware. Knox's own orders and letter survive.

Washington's tactical masterpiece. His own report to Congress survives in full.

More soldiers engaged than any other Revolutionary battle. Lafayette's first wound.

A complex night attack that nearly destroyed a divided British army. Washington's actual orders survive.

The surrender that brought France into the war. Gates's and Burgoyne's own letters survive.

Not a battle, but where the army was rebuilt. NPS's own research found much of the legend untraceable.

A rebellion becomes a world war. The actual treaty text survives at the National Archives.

The longest single day of combat in the war. Washington and Lee's furious exchange survives.

A storm wrecked the first Franco-American joint operation. Sullivan and Washington's letters survive.

Taken in an afternoon, then lost again trying to retake it. Howe's and Lincoln's own letters survive.

Clark's letter and his prisoner's eyewitness journal tell two very different stories of the same siege.

An entire American army lost. Lincoln's own account of the surrender survives.

Gates's catastrophic defeat in the South. His own letter explaining it survives.

The battle that turned the Southern campaign. A Loyalist officer's diary survives.

Morgan turned militia everyone else distrusted into a trap. His full report survives word for word.

Cornwallis held the field and lost the campaign. Greene's own letters explain why.

Marion's militia took a fort with no artillery, using a tower built overnight. His own letters survive.

Washington gave Cornwallis the same terms Britain once gave the Americans at Charleston.

Two days after Yorktown, the king stood before Parliament and vowed to keep fighting anyway.

Adams called the day's work six months for nothing. The commissioners' own letters tell the real story.

Washington and Carleton argued face to face over thousands of formerly enslaved people's freedom.

American, British, and French muskets compared, what soldiers ate, and the ship's biscuit recipe.