In the middle of the night, two ships approached each other and some things were said between each other. Then, a grenade was seen flung into the air from one ship and landed in the other ship causing a battle. On April 6, 1776, a fleet of seven American ships attacked one British ship, which became to be known as the Battle of Block Island. It was a naval battle. It took place in the waters near Block Island, Rhode Island, during the nighttime. The Battle of Block Island was one of the first naval engagements between the Americans and the British in the American Revolution, which ended out bad for the American Navy.
An American naval commander, Commodore Esek Hopkins, led a successful raid with a fleet of ships at Nassau in the Bahamas. There, he took supplies from a British supply base at Nassau and set on a return voyage back to the colonies. On his return voyage, he captured two British ships named the HMS Hawk and the HMS Bolton which were then manned by some of his crew. The fleet under his command sailed south of Block Island, Rhode Island as Hopkins wanted more prizes he can get a hold of before being docked at a harbor to unload his loot. Soon enough, one of the ships in the fleet spotted the HMS Glasgow, a British ship, several miles away. The HMS Glasgow under Captain Tryingham Howe, ran into Hopkins because it cruised off to Block Island before going to Virginia (which was its destination) to sail with other two ships, Hawk and Bolton, knowing they were there. Unknowing to Howe, the two ships were already captured by Hopkins. As a result, it ended up finding Hopkins’ fleet instead. Captain Howe wanted to know what ships were in company with the brig and to which Hopkins replied with “the Columbus and the Alfred, a tw...
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... ships in the British Navy. The only good thing that came out of this battle was that Captain John Hazard was cashiered for not entering the fight with his ship the USS Providence and command of that ship was given to John Paul Jones, the soon to be most successful rebel navy officer in the fight for America’s independence.
Works Cited
"Action off Block Island." Jfjcccmuseum.com. JAMES F. JUSTIN MUSEUM, CCCcompany Entrance, n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
"The Battle off Block Island: “. . . Yelping from the Mouths of Her Cannon . . .”." Awiatsea.com. Awiatsea, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
"Battle of Block Island." TotallyHistory.com. Totally History – Facts About Famous Events & Records of the Past, n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
"Continental Navy Loses the Battle of Block Island." RevolutionaryWarandBeyond.com. Revolutionary War and Beyond, 6 Apr. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
When Congress formed the "Continental Navy," Jones offered his services and was commissioned as first lieutenant. His first ship was the Alfred. The navy at this time consisted of the ships Alfred and Columbus, the brigantines Andrew Doria and Cabot and the sloop Providence. Thirteen frigates were ordered to be built. As lieutenant of the Alfred and later the Providence, Jones gained many skills and a variety of experience in naval warfare. In 1777 he sailed in the "Ranger" for France, where he struck up a connection with the American commissioner in Paris, with Benjamin Franklin and at Quiberon forced the French to salute the American flag. It was the first time the American flag had been hoisted in a foreign harbor.
It could be said that if Howe and the British continued the attack, this rebellion could have been put down right away. This will not be the first time that Howe fails to do this, and it will lead to him being replaced later in the war by Sir Henry Clinton. Even though his army was thoroughly defeated, Washington is able to get his troops off of Long Island back to Manhattan in the middle of the night, this will also not be the last time that Washington is able to get his &n The author briefly discusses the troubles at Kip’s Bay and Fort Washington. The next subject that Buchanan goes into is Washington’s retreat through the state of New Jersey. The key part of this retreat is when Washington crosses the Potomac River he collects all boats from both shores of the river.
The British chose to attack the Americans from the north by way of Isle aux Pois in the mouth of the Pearl River because this was the only only stable water they had found that ships could ride and anchor. When hearing that the british where coming this way, Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones and his five gunboats went to try and Barackade the Rigolets trying to make sure they wouldn’t enter. His 185 men and 23 guns awaited the British. At 10:30 on December 14th 1814 three columns of British ships, 42 to 45, armed with 43 guns and 1,200 under the command of Captain Lockyer met the American blockade. Fierce fighting began and the British had finally captured the five American boats. Losses were 17 British and 6 Americans killed, 77 British and 35 Americans wounded. This gave Gerneral Andrew Jackson six days more to improve his defenses. The British at the very beginning of the war had demolished almost all of Jacksons sea power. Jackson only had the Carolina, Louisiana, and one gunboat left.
The Battle of Long Island took place in New York and caused the Americans to suffer a huge loss and end up retreating. Great Britain did more than double the damage to America than America did to them. William Howe, the British general, led the Loyalists in this battle and caused the Patriots to flee from New York and lose their spying fort. Despite their efforts, America lost this battle, but did indeed end up winning the war.
The Battle of Cold Harbor in spring of 1864 was one of General Ulysses S. Grant’s worst offensive defeats during the Civil War. Grant failed to describe his mission command to his subordinate, direct his units to correct movement, understand his operational environment, and lead his army with a coordinated plan. Grant had a stronger, bigger, and better-equipped army than his enemy, but his failure in the mission command process led to fatal mistakes before and during the battle. Due to failed leadership, the Union preparation for this war was so poor that it suffered nearly 7,000 casualties in under an hour, making it one of the most brutal confrontations of the Civil War.
Boom, Bang, Crack! The sounds of muskets being fired, its ammunition ricocheting off rocks and splintering trees are heard all around. The pungent smell of gun powder stings the nose, and its taste makes the mouth dry and sticky. The battle is still young, but blood soaked uniforms and dead or dying men can already be seen, causing the fear of death to enter many of the soldiers' minds. It is remembered that freedom is what the fight is for, so we must continue to gain independence. The battle has been going on for a short time now, although vision is already obscured from all the smoke and dust in the air. It is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe, with all of these air borne substances entering my lungs. People are still being struck by musket balls for the cries of agony rise above the many guns' explosions. This is how the battle to be known as Bunker Hill began.
The Boston Massacre occurred in the evening of March 5, 1770. A crowd of people began harassing the soldiers. One event lead to another and the crowd began hurling snowballs and rocks. One of the snowballs stuck a soldier and he fired his weapon causing a series of shots toward the crowd. “...the frightened soldiers fired into the crowd.” (Doc 3). As a result of this incident, three people were killed on the scene and two were mortally wounded. The soldiers were also ordered not to fire. The colonists did not think that they should have been shot at or killed, this infuriated them. This event was said to have started the American Revolution. This leads to the British seizing power over the
The battle I will be discussing is the battle of Tora Bora. The engagement took place in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan from December 12, 2001 to December 17, 2001. The units involved were from the CIA, numerous Special Forces groups, Pakistani soldiers and local anti-Taliban fighters. The mission given to the forces was to kill Osama bin Laden from the caves, leave the body with the Taliban and disrupt the Al Qaeda organization by removing their leader. The intent was to infiltrate the cave system, remove bin Laden and return home.
The Americans started out as a bunch of uncivilized colonies, but after the revolutionary war, they become a strong country that beat Britain for freedom. On Christmas night General George Washington makes a bold decision to cross the Delaware and ambushed the Hessians. Although risky, Washington brought new life to his rag tag army. General Burgoyne decides that in order to win this war, he needs to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne’s plan sounded like a good idea to the British, but this action could be argued to be the reason why Britain did not win this war. Nearing the end of the war, the British were scarce on man and supplies. Washington took his army and his French allies to Yorktown and finished the British off ending the war. The most pivotal battles in determining the outcome of the American Revolution were battle of Trenton, Battle of Saratoga, and battle of Yorktown.
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
...definite that Major General William Howe was in possession of Philadelphia, and George Washington had no choice but to leave and eventually go into winter quarters at Valley Forge. The Americans had lost 152 men, 521 were wounded, and more than 400 were captured. The British had lost 70 men and 450 were wounded (Axelrod 1) (Purcell 2).
One night, on March 5, 1770, a street fight occurred between a group of American patriots and some British soldiers stationed in Boston. The Americans harassed the troops by yelling and shouting names at them and throwing snowballs and sticks. A crowd formed and in the noise and confusion, weapons were fired. In the end, ...
The Battle of the Atlantic was the most destructive, longest, and most complex naval battle of history, lasting throughout World War 2. It was a six year long battle that started on September 3rd, 1939 and ended on May 8th, 1945 and Canada played a very important role in this battle. This battle was a struggle between the Allied and the Axis, (with the Allied being countries including, Canada, Britain, Australia, etc, and the Axis being the alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan), for the control of the sea routes between America, Europe and Africa. This battle had been mainly triggered since Germany kept cutting off Britain’s supply. Britain had always relied on imports such as, oil, food, and other important industrial goods from other places to meet the needs of its growing population. Germany, (and later Italy), had saw this as an opportunity to use their naval forces and warships to try and cut off this vital supply to starve Britain. When the Germans started causing a lot of damage to these vital supply’s, Britain decided to act. They declared war on Germany, which meant that Canada would be pulled into the war. Although the Royal Canadian Navy wasn’t that powerful at the beginning of the war, by 1943 Canada’s Navy was making a very important contribution to the war effort, especially in the Battle of the Atlantic.
...in later years. Pontiac’s rebellion also caused Britain to be short of cash after having to pay for two consecutive battles. The British looked to the colonies for money without giving the colonies any say in the matter. This lead to the famous phrase, “no taxation without representation.” Another thing that happened during the French and Indian war was a much underpublicized meeting between the colonists. This was the first meeting the colonists ever had by their own accord. The meeting was called by Benjamin Franklin and was known as The Albany Plan of Union. Although the meeting got very little accomplished it still has to be considered a success because it showed that there were colonists willing to have independence. The over taxation and the fact the colonists got to see someone stand up to the British were the major events that lead to the American Revolution.