BOSTON
A Short-lived Victory

After the battle at Lexington/Concord, New England militia gathered at Boston's Breeds Hill and gunned down 40 percent of British forces before running out of ammunition. Their subsequent flight from Bunker Hill, however, allowed Britain to claim victory. Congress quickly authorized a volunteer Continental Army, appointing George Washington as Commander-in-Chief. The General formed an eight-mile blockade around Boston that languished for months before the British evacuated to New York City. There they were joined by 40,000 fresh troops, while only 10-15,000 untrained men remained in the new American army.

CANADA
The Fourteenth Colony?

Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys along with Captain Benedict Arnold and his company of Connecticut militia were sent to northern New York. There they gained hero status after successfully capturing Fort Ticonderoga! Hoping to enlist the French majority in British Canada to join sides with America, the regiments were then sent on to Quebec.

Canada proved most difficult, however. Allen and 30 of his men were captured, and remained prisoners for two and a half years. Benedict Arnold was shot in the leg as the Continentals tried to capture Quebec in December 1775. He turned command over to Daniel Morgan who was soon surrounded after being abandoned by the rest of the army. Morgan and 371 frontier sharpshooters languished in Canadian jails for almost two years. (However, this was not the last time that Morgan and his riflemen would prove to be heroes.) Arnold, meanwhile, retreated with his men to a small island in Lake Champlain.