250th Anniversary of the American Revolutionary War
- Kirsten
- Jun 30
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 9
Here in Washington DC we have been actively preparing for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Museums are rotating and installing new exhibits, buildings are being cleaned and events are being planned. This important American milestone is a testament to the longevity of the founders’ novel experiment.
However, the American Revolutionary War and its underlying ideas began long before independence was established by the Continental Congress and even before the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. This year is the 250th anniversary of all of the events that led up to the Declaration of Independence and each was pivotal in bringing our nation and those representatives to a place where they were willing to commit themselves as traitors in order to form our, more perfect, union.
March - April 1775
First Shots of the American Revolutionary War
The British army began occupying Boston in 1768 to suppress rebellion, and after the Boston Tea Party, were joined by the navy in 1774. Their task was to enforce the “Coercive Acts,” later called the “Intolerable Acts,” a series of punitive laws designed to punish Massachusetts for their resistance to the Stamp Act and Tea Tax. However, the military governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gage, had already lost control of the rest of the colony. In February 1775, King George declared the colony of Massachusetts to be in open rebellion in an address to both houses of Parliament.
On March 30, The Massachusetts Provincial Congress countered with a resolution that any march out of Boston by the British armed forces with artillery was a threat and an attack on the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and should be met with a response by the local militias. All rebel leaders, except for Joseph Warren and Paul Revere, evacuated Boston by the first week of April.
Intelligence gathered by patriot sympathizers – possibly military governor Thomas Gage’s own wife, Margaret Kemble Gage– indicated that the British would mount an expedition on April 19th to seize the stores of weapons and gunpowder at Concord. That information sparked a series of horseback rides beginning on April 18th by Samuel Prescot, William Dawes, and most famously Paul Revere. The riders triggered a series of alarms to muster the militia. Besides hand-delivered messages, these effective warning systems included bells, drums, artillery, and bonfires, resulting in quick transmission of information. Rebels in towns 25 miles from Boston knew about the troop movement within hours.
Marching out of Boston, approximately 700 British regulars approached the commons in Lexington around sunrise. 77 militia men trooped out of a nearby tavern where they were waiting to observe. Initially the Continentals were instructed not to fire unless fired upon, just to be visible. Accounts conflict as to who fired the first shot, but sources generally agree the British officer Pitcairn initially ordered the Continentals to disperse and drop their weapons.
Regardless of whether a Continental or British soldier fired the first individual shot, that shot resulted in the British firing on the militia. A handful of the militia returned fire before fleeing. In response, the British charged with bayonets. Eight Continentals were killed and ten wounded, while one British soldier was wounded. The Continentals fled, while the British carried on to Concord. Tensions in Concord were even higher than Lexington and the situation quickly devolved into a battle scene with two Continentals and three British soldiers killed in the opening shots, "the shot heard round the world." From this point the militias chased the British back to Boston, sniping from trees and other cover as vengeance for blood spilled earlier in the day. In the end, the British sustained 300 casualties while the militias had just under 100. Regardless of the numbers involved, the curtain was up and the first act of the American Revolutionary War had begun.
May 1775
Organizing the American Revolution
The first Continental Congress convened in October 1774 to petition King George for a repeal of the Intolerable Acts, and coordinate acts of protest such as boycotts between different colonies. Twelve colonies sent delegates: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Continental Congress agreed to reconvene in 1775 if the Intolerable Acts were not addressed. Anticipating that the Crown would not fix their grievances by 1775, the delegates agreed to invite seven other British Colonies–Quebec, Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, and St. John’s Island–to join the second Continental Congress. Only Georgia took up the cause.
The second Continental Congress convened on May 10th, 1775. The first order of business was to assume centralized leadership of the war effort, which up to that point had been conducted on a highly localized and minimally coordinated level. Although not all the delegates supported the idea of independence and rebellion, like John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress assumed the role of a governing body and began work on creating a national army and currency. These early steps enabled the Declaration of Independence to pass the following year.
June 1775
George Washington takes charge
On June 14th, 1775, Congress voted to incorporate militia units around Boston into the official Continental Army, leading to this year’s 250th anniversary of the Army. The next day Congress approved a motion to make George Washington, commander-in-chief of the new fighting force.
Recovering slowly from their shock of casualties at Lexington and Concord, the British received reinforcements by sea in Boston until they reached approximately 6,000 soldiers. Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne also arrived during this period. While the colonial militias had no hope of facing the British on the water, approximately 15,000 men surrounded Boston with the goal of freeing the city from British occupation.
The British lacked the manpower to fight the Continentals on land, and could not gain control of Roxbury Neck, the narrow and naturally defensive strip of land connecting Boston to the mainland. Realizing their superior numbers wouldn’t last forever, the Americans worked quickly force the British out of Boston. They planned to use nearby barrier islands and peninsulas to set up artillery and bombard Boston. At the same time, the British planned to assault the Continental militias, also using the barrier islands and peninsulas as a launch point to break out of Boston. The British set the date of their attack for June 18th.
Unfortunately for the British, plans for the attack were overheard by an unknown gentleman from New Hampshire and reported to Continental forces. General Artemas Ward, who was commanding the siege of Boston, ordered that defenses be set up on Charlestown Peninsula, specifically on Bunker Hill. On the night of June 16th, 1,200 men under Colonel William Prescot snuck onto Charlestown Peninsula under the cover of darkness to set up artillery and dig trenches. After some discussion, the officers decided to dig defensive breastworks on Bunker Hill, and their central redoubt (basically a pit) with 6 foot high walls on Breed’s hill, closer to Boston. While the British were aware of activity on Breed’s Hill, they did not consider it cause for alarm until morning when they could see.
Sunlight also showed the Americans that their defenses were imperfect and vulnerable to being flanked. Still, the British decided to gather information, discuss their options, and call for reinforcements rather than attacking immediately, and the militia shored up their defenses throughout the morning and early afternoon on June 17th.
By 2pm on the 17th, British reinforcements had arrived and the commanding officers settled on a strategy. Embarking for Breed’s Hill, they noted a larger number of American soldiers than they initially believed they were facing, and presumed this large number of soldiers to be reinforcements–they balked, calling for even more British reinforcements.
The colonists’ added reinforcements of their own including troops with Joseph Warren, and Colonel John Stark with his sharpshooters. Knowing the militias would ultimately be limited by their very low stock of ammunition, Stark placed a stake in the ground only 100 feet from the Americans’ defensive breastworks and ordered no one to fire until the British crossed it. The iconic phrase, “hold your fire until you see the white of their eyes,” is frequently attributed to William Prescott, but it may have been said by Stark or be totally apocryphal.
Additional soldiers flooding into both the British and American ranks after the battle had begun, plus artillery fire coming from many different directions, led to confusion and chaos on both sides. Colonial forces repulsed two assaults on their position successfully, before General Howe ordered a more concentrated attack specifically on the redoubt on Breed’s Hill. During the third effort, the defenders ran out of ammunition, turning the battle into hand-to-hand fighting. Joseph Warren, darling of the Sons of Liberty, was killed during the third assault either by a bayonet thrust or a shot to the back of the head.
Unable to hold their line without ammunition, the colonial forces withdrew in a surprisingly orderly manner, even managing to save most of their own wounded as they retreated. William Prescott later asserted they could have held Breed’s Hill indefinitely with enough ammunition.
Despite controlling the Charlestown Peninsula and theoretically being able to break out of Boston in the near future, the British sustained such heavy losses that the “victory” was hardly worthwhile. At their peak in numbers, the Americans fielded approximately 2,400 soldiers and suffered only 450 casualties; the British fielded over 3,000 and suffered 1,054 casualties. British General Howe attempted frontal assaults throughout the battle instead of using the superior British navy to shell the Continental defenders. The frontal assault favored the Americans and directly contributed to high casualties. Conversely, Continental officers noted that untrained and undisciplined American soldiers were very likely to desert once shots were actually fired. By the third assault, only 800-900 Americans were still fighting. Ultimately, both sides perceived the Battle of Bunker Hill as a loss.
July - August 1775
The last hope for reconciliation
When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May, most of the delegates initially supported –or were at least hopeful about the possibility of – reconciliation with Great Britain, and did not support the idea of independence. A smaller faction within the Continental Congress, led by John Adams, already believed that there was no way forward except war with Britain. The larger faction, which liked the idea of reconciliation, was led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Although a strong advocate for the rights of American Colonists, John Dickinson lived adjacent to the Quaker community and did not consider war with Great Britain justified based on the level of provocation nor did he consider it possible to win. As a last-ditch effort to prevent war, the Olive Branch Petition was primarily authored by Dickinson. The petition requests that King George reconsider the way the Crown (and Parliament) were governing the colonies in the Americas. However, the body of the text does not specifically outline why the colonists are upset or changes they want implemented; in fact, Dickinson specifically states in the Olive Branch Petition that the Continental Congress will not enumerate the colonists “fears and jealousies” because spelling their sentiments out will doubtlessly offend King George and undermine the “reverent” tone of the letter. The majority of the text is spent praising the British empire and assuring George of his American subject’s loyalty. Nonetheless, The Continental Congress accepted the Olive Branch Petition and John Hancock signed it on July 5th before making its trip to King George. Unfortunately for John Dickinson, the Olive Branch Petition was dead on before arrival.
While Dickinson was drafting the Olive Branch Petition, John Adams wrote a letter to a friend venting, in detail, about John Dickinson and the petition, describing it as a waste of time and effort. According to Adams, it was too late to avoid war with the Crown and Americans should have already imprisoned British officials and gone on the offensive. Adams’ letter was intercepted by British intelligence and its contents reached King George before the Olive Branch Petition.
Unsurprisingly, King George rejected the Olive Branch Petition immediately. George’s unwillingness to entertain the Olive Branch Petition demonstrated John and Samuel Adams’ belief that there was no viable option besides officially declaring independence. This credibility was needed to win over more allies in the Second Continental Congress and eventually collect enough votes for independence and for the formal text of the Declaration of Independence.
250 years ago, in July 1775 in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress was completing the Olive Branch Petition, a written hope to remain British citizens. By August, the King drafted a proclamation declaring that every rebel would be considered a traitor and treated accordingly. With their hopes of reconciliation effectively dashed, the second Continental Congress found itself on the path to independence, although it would take them almost a year to formalize that idea.
To celebrate the accomplishments of these early patriots and those who joined them over the following year, join us for tour of the National Archives, Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery. Our website lists all of the options for exploring some or all of these museums with a knowledgeable guide who brings history to life.
To plan your visit to Washington DC, contact our office at info@unscripted.city or at 202-590-4460. We can help you make the most of your trip while enjoying the 250th special exhibits and events and everything else that Washington DC has to offer.
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