Revolutionary Tales - Book One Quiz

Answer: Samuel Prescott

Only Samuel Prescott got through to Concord to warn of the approaching British. He was a physician from Concord. Earlier that evening he had been visiting with his girlfriend in Lexington and happened upon Revere and Dawes quite by chance. He served as a surgeon for the Continental Army until he was captured by the British. He is believed to have died in 1777 at a prison camp in Nova Scotia.

Initially all three were stopped by British troops. Prescott and Dawes managed to escape, but Dawes was thrown from his horse. Revere sat in British custody, but his became the name associated with this heroic act thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Answer: North Carolina

The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, on February 27, 1776, a little north of Wilmington, NC, was a decisive Patriot victory. It ended British control of North Carolina and emboldened North Carolina's revolutionary spirit.

On April 12, 1776, in Halifax, North Carolina, the Fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the Halifax Resolves which instructed its delegation to the 2nd Continental Congress to support any resolution made toward independence. The Resolves did not instruct their delegation to propose a resolution, only to support one. North Carolina became the first colony to officially do so. Most delegations from other colonies had no such instructions.

Answer: Berkshire Mountains

When General Washington wrote Henry Knox and asked him to seek artillery in Fort Ticonderoga or elsewhere because, "The want of them is so great, that no Trouble or Expense must be spared to obtain them", Knox was technically a civilian and the men he hired were teamsters and were not subject to military discipline. Henry Knox's trek was 300 miles (483 km) and was made in 56 days.

The journey plowed through deep snow, frozen lakes, and the Berkshire Mountains. An entry in Knox's diary for January 10, 1776, notes, "Climb'd mountains from which we might have seen all the Kingdoms of the Earth." Somehow, he managed to keep every piece of artillery intact. He arrived at Dorchester Heights on January 25, 1776. British General Gage is said to have remarked that the rebels had accomplished more in one night than his troops could accomplish in a month. Knox became the youngest major general in the Continental Army.

Answer: Charleston, SC

The Battle of Sullivan's Island saved Charleston and the colony of South Carolina for the Americans. In late June 1776, just days before the Declaration of Independence, a hastily built fort (which later became Fort Moultrie, after its commander) in Charleston Harbor withstood a furious British bombardment. It was Britain's first major naval loss of the war.

Charleston is a deep-water port, strategically placed on the eastern seaboard. During the Revolutionary Period it was the world's largest exporter of rice. Rice, indigo, and later cotton became export goods that generated a lot of wealth as Charleston became an important stop on the triangular trade route.

Answer: Virginia

Lord Dunmore, Virginia's Royal Governor, issued such a proclamation. Note that the proclamation applied only to enslaved people owned by rebels. The response was significant in terms of numbers, as an estimated 1,000-2,000 people answered the call. Virginia's rebel slave owners responded with their own proclamation which stated that any slave who returned to his master would not be punished - if they returned within 10 days.

The proclamation was significant in that it inspired enslaved people in other colonies to seek British protection.

Answer: The Battle of Long Island

In August 1776 the Continental Army, having driven the British from Boston, now prepared to defend New York City. British General Howe, with a force of over 32,000 soldiers had General Washington and the Continental Army with 20,000 soldiers bottled up at the foot of Manhattan Island.

But Washington managed to escape with what was left of his army after the battle. The British occupied New York City and Long Island for the next eight years. This was the first major battle since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Answer: Princeton

During the Battle of Princeton, which was fought in January 1777, legend has it that Alexander Hamilton commanded a battery that he ordered to fire on a building in which British troops were hiding. That building was on the campus of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). Hamilton took extra pleasure in demolishing the building because he had applied to Princeton and been rejected.

Princeton's achieves contain no information that Hamilton ever applied. There is a report that Princeton's president, James Witherspoon, rejected Hamilton because he requested an accelerated course of study. Contrarily, Witherspoon had admitted others who requested an accelerated course of study. It is also possible that Witherspoon rejected Hamilton because of his illegitimate birth. There is considerable controversary amongst historians on this subject. Hamilton did matriculate to King's College, which is now Columbia University.

Answer: Barry St. Leger

Barry St. Leger was to lead the western third of General Burgoyne's three-part invasion of New York. St. Leger was to join up with Burgoyne in Albany, NY. St. Leger's problems began when he tried to cross the Mohawk River. It seems that the Colonials had built a rather substantial fort there - Fort Stanwix. The Colonials refused to surrender, so St. Leger laid siege to the fort thereby delaying his rendezvous with Burgoyne.

To add insult to injury, Benedict Arnold concocted a scheme that convinced St. Leger and his troops that thousands of Continental troops were en route to reinforce the garrison at Fort Stanwix. The British abandoned the siege in less than a month, as both fear and desertion depleted British ranks, all of which contributed to the American victory at Saratoga.

Answer: putrid fever

Putrid fever, or typhus, is a bacteria spread by body lice, which occurs when overcrowding and poor hygiene exist. The disease causes foul-smelling lesions to appear on the skin.

Disease in general was the major of death to both sides during the Revolutionary War. Washington had instituted a smallpox inoculation drive. Smallpox and typhus were major diseases; while people could be inoculated against smallpox, there was no such preventative for typhus. The British had severe outbreaks of typhus aboard transport ships.

Answer: The Wyoming Massacre

In Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley over 300 settlers were killed by British Loyalists and their Iroquois allies in what became known as "The Wyoming Massacre". Americans retaliated by destroying several Native American towns. The Iroquois retaliated by killing more settlers in what became known as "The Cherry Valley Massacre".

Incidents such as these were to foreshadow the white man's treatment of Native Americans.