Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

In March 1864 Lincoln rewarded Grant

by giving him command of all the

Union armies. While Grant fought in

Virginia, Sherman went to Georgia. He

captured Atlanta in September. Then he

led his troops on a march to Savannah, a

port on the Atlantic Ocean. Along the

way they destroyed railroads and sup-

Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson

(left) and Robert E. Lee are pictured

together in 1863. Jackson died after being

wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville in

that year.

Union Army officers are photographed in

Virginia in August 1865.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA American Civil War 97

 

plies. Sherman captured Savannah in

December.

By March 1865 Lee was very short of

men and supplies. On April 3 Grant

captured Richmond, the Confederate

capital. He accepted Lee’s surrender in

Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9. By

the end of May all Confederate armies

had surrendered.

Reconstruction

After the war the defeated states were

gradually allowed back into the United

States. The South rebuilt damaged property

and changed its economy so it no

longer depended on slaves. This period

was known as Reconstruction. It lasted

until the last U.S. troops left the South

in April 1877.

#More to explore

AbolitionistMovement • Confederate

States of America • Davis, Jefferson

• Emancipation Proclamation • Grant,

Ulysses S. • Kansas-Nebraska Act • Lee,

Robert E. • Lincoln, Abraham •Missouri

Compromise • Reconstruction • Slavery

American

Indians

#see Native Americans.

American

Revolution

The American Revolution was the war

in which Great Britain’s 13 American

colonies won their independence. The

colonies became a new country, the

United States. The revolution began in

1775 and ended in 1783.

Background

Before the 1760s the colonies had a lot

of freedom even though they were under

British rule. The British government was

across the Atlantic Ocean, more than

3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) away.

The colonies had their own leaders and

learned to solve their own problems.

Plus, because Britain was often at war, it

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee

(right) surrendered to General Ulysses S.

Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.

The first shots of the American Revolution

were fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, on

April 19, 1775.

98 American Indians BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

did not always pay close attention to the

colonies.

In the 1760s, however, the British government

tried to take more control over

the colonies. One major reason for this

change was the French and IndianWar.

Britain defeated France in the war in

1763. But the war had been very costly.

Afterward, Britain decided that its

American colonies should help to pay its

debts.

Taxes

To raise money, Britain forced the colonies

to pay new taxes. In 1765 the British

lawmakers, called Parliament, passed

a law called the Stamp Act. The act put

a tax on legal papers, newspapers, and

other printed items. The colonists protested

against the tax. They were especially

angry because Parliament was

taxing them even though they had no

representatives in Parliament. Because of

the protests, the British government

ended the tax in 1766.

In 1767, however, a British official

named Charles Townshend got Parliament

to pass several new tax laws. The

Townshend Acts taxed tea, lead, paint,

paper, and glass coming into colonial

ports. These taxes made the colonists

even angrier.

Boston Massacre and the Tea

Party

To keep order, the British government

sent soldiers to Boston, Massachusetts.

On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired

shots into a crowd of colonists. Crispus

Attucks and several other Americans

were killed. This event became known as

the Boston Massacre.

On the same day as the Boston Massacre,

Parliament did away with most of

the Townshend Acts. They kept a tax on

tea, however. Then, in 1773, Britain

passed a law that allowed a British company

to sell tea more cheaply than colonial

merchants. On December 16, 1773,

colonists boarded British ships in Boston

Harbor and threw their cargo of tea into

the water. This event became known as

the Boston Tea Party.

Intolerable Acts

The British government then passed

laws that were even harsher. The colonists

called them the Intolerable Acts.

The strongest of these acts closed the

port of Boston until the colonists paid

for the tea they had ruined. Massachusetts

was put under military rule.

The colonists realized that the colonies

had to act together. In 1774 representatives

from every colony except Georgia

met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The

meeting was called the Continental

Congress. The representatives called on

Britain to cancel the Intolerable Acts.

The British government answered by

sending in even more troops.

Early Battles

By this time many colonists believed

that their problems with Britain could

not be worked out peacefully. They prepared

to fight. They formed groups of

soldiers called minutemen. The minute-

Patriots in different

colonies

kept in touch

with each

other through

groups called

Committees of

Correspondence.

Samuel

Adams of

Massachusetts

started the first

one in 1772.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA American Revolution 99

 

men were to be ready to fight “at a

minute’s warning.”