America: The Story of Us (Part 2: Revolution)

The United States of America was built on hardship, sacrifice, and discovery. In 2010, the history channel have created this 12-part docu-series where it talks about many of those hardships, sacrifices, and discoveries.

This is Part 2 of this 12-part wiki series, in this part we talk about the episode "Revolution" where it talks about the American Revolution.

Before we begin, I have to tell you that this page will only talk about what was in the episode, there's already a wiki series about the American Revolution, click here to read about the wiki series.

## Revolution

### The fight for New York

The episode begins in New York where the rebels are trying to make defenses throughout the city against a British invasion.

George Washington and his force of ragtag rebels try to build up a tight defense in New York as they know that an invasion by Britain was inevitable, especially on how well the rebels fought for Boston despite retreating.

Before the Brits invade, on July 4, 1776 the Continental Congress have passed the Declaration of Independence declaring the 13 colonies free from the rule of Great Britain, and (as we all know the United States of America was born on this day.

But unlike today where we celebrate the birth of our nation, there was no celebration as the American Continental Army had to get ready for the Brits to invade, and around a few days after Independence, the Brits launched an attack on New York as they would land on Long Island.

But for several months, Washington and his ACA would suffer a series of defeats trying to defend New York, this would allow the Brits to take the port city and (according to the episode) set parts of it on fire with Washington and the ACA looking on. But Washington would get a Christmas miracle as he would catch a group of mercenaries from what would be known as Germany that were occupying Trenton and obtained a much needed victory.

### Getting an edge

The episode than goes to upstate New York where the rebels would get a much needed edge over the Brits.

After taking New York, the Brits decide to head north as their orders were to split the northern colonies as they would be easier to manage. But what they don't realize is that the heavy wilderness of Upstate New York is where the rebels would get an edge over their British rivals since the Brits are nearly impossible to defeat through conventional means, so the rebels will use the wilderness to fight a gorilla war against the Brits.

By using the shadows of the trees, the rebels have picked off British Soldiers one-by-one, and with this they were able to retake the forts of Ticonderoga and Stanwix from the Brits and even forced some British forces back to what would be known as Canada. But it would be during the battle of Saratoga where picking off soldiers would make a big difference especially if it was, say, a commanding officer. That officer was Simon Frasier, it took 3 shots to kill him, but once he died on his horse, his forces fell and suffered over 1,000 casualties. Only a group of 3 rebels took down a capable British officer, and because of his death as well as other things, this forced John Burgoyne to surrender.

### Destitution

The episode than goes to another remote part of the nation, this time to Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.

George Washington would again suffer defeats in Pennsylvania as he and his forces try to defend Philadelphia from the Brits. With these defeats, the ACA had no choice but to set up a winter quarter at Valley Forge as they would build 900 huts (each housing 12 soldiers) in this remote region. Food and clothing were in short supply as the region was so remote the Continental Congress had problems giving the starving rebels the provisions they need to survive.

Diseases such as dysentery (since the water at the valley was of bad quality) and Smallpox was rampant throughout the camp. So Washington decided to use an African method of trying to stifle the spread of Smallpox by smearing a lymph-node of an infected person onto a healthy person, this gives the body time to stop the illness from spreading by creating antibodies, this is an early version of vaccination, and it greatly reduced the spread of Smallpox by the time spring arrived.

As the rebels won over the Brits in Saratoga, this would secure foreign aid, the French would aid the ACA in any way they can, the Prussians would also get into the act as they would bring over their retired officer; Baron von Steuben who would not just rearrange Valley Forge, but also train the ACA to become a formidable fighting force.

The episode also talks about some kind of spy system for the American Rebels as people in the cities would spread intel and give it to other American rebels, even a woman would use her laundry as a sign of code for the sailors, an early version of the flag communication system which is still in use today.

### The Final Battle

The Episode fast forwards through the rest of the Revolution and goes to Virginia where the final battle at Yorktown would take place.

The ACA is dug in for a siege of Yorktown for several months waiting for the right time to strike, along with aid from the French Navy, the Americans were getting closer by the week.

As the ACA were getting close to the British occupied town, they took a lot of Brits with them. Eventually on October 19, 1781, the British officer Charles Cornwallis surrendered.

The war would continue until in 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed which saw Britain give up their territories to the US, and the US paying any reparations it had owed Britain. The war may be over, but the United States and its story has just begun.

That'll do it for this part. In Part 3, we will talk about the voyages to the untamed American West. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.