A Time Line of the Revolutionary War

April 19, 1775 War beings with the battle of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

May 10, 1775   Americans under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Fort Ticonderoga, New York from the British.

June 17, 1775  Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, Massachusetts.

July 3, 1775   George Washington takes command of the American forces at Cambridge, Massachusetts; Siege of Boston begins.

December 31, 1775   Americans, under Montgomery and Arnold, defeated at Quebec.

March 1776 British evacuate Boston; American Army moves to New York City.

 July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence proclaimed.

August 26, 1776 British defeat Americans at the Battle of Long Island, New York.

August 27, 1776  American Army is secretly rowed across the East River to Manhattan at night to avoid being captured by the British Army.  

1776 Colonel Bernardous Swartwout sets up the first military encampment of the war on the Van Cortlandt grounds.  His men stay for three days and the Colonel use the House as his headquarters.

October 12, 1776  General George Washington sets up temporary headquarters at Van Cortlandt House.  Philip Van Cortlandt, cousin of James who owned the house, states in his memoirs “ … I arrived at the Headquarters of General Washington near Kingsbridge at the house of my kindsman Colo. James Van Cortlandt the day the British landed at Throgs Neck … I remained a few days as aid to the Commander in Chief.”

October 18, 1776  Washington’s troops departed Van Cortlandt House heading for White Plains.  

October 18, 1776  Battle of Pell's Point fought.  Colonel Glover and 1,500 troops engaged the British Army slowing their advance enough to allow Washington’s troops to arrive at White Plains first.  

October 28, 1776  British army arrives at White Plains, attacks and captures Chatterton Hill.

November 5, 1776  British leave White Plains.

November 1776 After the battle of White Plains, British General Sir William Howe uses Van Cortlandt House as temporary headquarters as he moves his army to New York City to attack Fort Washington and pass the winter in the City.  For most of the remaining years of the war, Van Cortlandt House sat behind or near British lines.

November 12,1776   Washington crosses the Hudson River into New Jersey, loses Forts Washington & Lee.

December 25 - 26, 1776 Washington crosses the Delaware; Americans defeat Hessians at Battle of Trenton, NJ.

January 3, 1777  Americans defeat the British at the Battle of Princeton, NJ.  Americans go into winter quarters at Morristown, NJ.

September 26, 1777 British defeat Americans at the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania.

October 17, 1777 Americans commanded by General Gates and Arnold defeat British at Battle of Saratoga.

December 15, 1777   Americans go into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

February 6, 1778  France and American Colonies sign the Treaty of Commerce and Alliance.

June 18, 1778  British evacuate Philadelphia.

June 28, 1778  American and British forces clash at Battle of Monmouth, NJ.  No clear victor.

February 25, 1779 George Rogers Clark recaptures Vincennes, Indiana from the British.

December 1, 1779   Americans go into winter quarters at Morristown for the second time.

August 16, 1780   Gates defeated by Cornwallis, at Camden, South Carolina.

September 23, 1780   Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British is discovered.  

January 17, 1781  Americans under Daniel Morgan defeat British at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina.

October 19, 1781  After a major siege the British surrender the city of Yorktown, Virginia to a combined army of American and French forces.

April 1, 1782  George Washington establishes headquarters at the Hasbrouck House in Newburgh, New York.

April 1782  Preliminary Peace negotiations being in Paris.

 July 1782  British evacuate Savannah, Georgia.

October  1782  French forces temporarily reunite with the American army encamped  at Verplanck’s Point, New York; French subsequently depart.

October 18, 1782   Left wing of the American army arrives at New Windsor from Verplanck’s Point. Followed by the right wing on October 30.

November 4, 1782    Troops begin constructing their huts at New Windsor Cantonment in accordance with the orders of Quartermaster   General Timothy Pickering.

November 30, 1782 Preliminary Articles of Peace agreed to in Paris.

December 1782  British evacuate Charleston, South Carolina.

December 25, 1782 General Washington approves the construction of the Temple Building at New Windsor.