Notes

Delegates to Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776. Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
George Washington led 2,400 soldiers to victory against Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, New Jersey, after crossing the Delaware River. This battle known as the Battle of Trenton was the colonists’ first major military success.
The French government sent reinforcements to support Continental troops after British General Cornwall surrendered at Saratoga. The added reinforcements helped the colonists win the American Revolution.
The Continental army suffered losses at Brandywine and Germantown in late 1777. They made camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for the winter of 1777-78. The soldiers faced hardships such as hunger and extreme cold. Surviving those hardships helped transform the army into a powerful military force with a renewed spirit.
The battle of Yorktown in Virginia sealed victory for the Continental army. It forced British Parliament to end the war.
The signing of the Treaty of Paris officially ended the American Revolution. Britain acknowledged that the United States was a free and independent nation.