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Showing results 81 – 90 of 202

Glossary Term – Person

Charles Gravier

Charles Gravier, count de Vergennes (1719–1787), was the French foreign minister who successfully advocated for an alliance with the rebellious colonies during the American Revolution. He rallied French support by pointing to the Revolution as an opportunity to avenge Great Britain’s treatment of France in the Seven Years’ War. He gained the approval of King Louis XVI in 1776. Vergennes negotiated an alliance with the colonies in 1778, which led to France’s declaration of war against Great Britain.

Glossary Term – Person

Christopher Gadsden

Christopher Gadsden (1723–1805) was a wealthy merchant and one of the most prominent leaders of the Revolution in the southern colonies. Gadsden was among the founders of the Sons of Liberty in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1765 he served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. Gadsden was later a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as an officer in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1783. In August 1780 Gadsden was captured by the British and held as a prisoner for forty-two weeks before being released in 1781...

Glossary Term – Person

François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse

François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse (1722–1788) was a French naval commander during the American Revolution. De Grasse was instrumental in the successful siege of Yorktown in 1781, leading his fleet from the West Indies to the Chesapeake and blockading Cornwallis’s army while waiting for the arrival of Franco-American forces under Washington and Rochambeau.

Glossary Term – Person

Frederick North

Lord North (Frederick North, the 2nd Earl of Guilford) (1732–1792) was the British prime minister from 1770 to 1782. As prime minister, North bore much of the responsibility for Great Britain’s actions leading up to and during the American Revolution. North and his ministry failed to anticipate colonists’ anger over British acts such as the Tea Act of 1773. When colonists staged the Boston Tea Party in 1773, North’s government passed the antagonistic Coercive Acts of 1774. The North government’s response to colonial...

Glossary Term – Person

Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens (1724–1792) was a Charleston, South Carolina, merchant and planter. From 1777 to 1778, Laurens served as the president of the Continental Congress. In August 1780, Laurens sailed for Holland to negotiate a loan on behalf of Congress, but he was captured by the British navy and eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London. In December 1781, the British government exchanged Laurens for Lord Charles Cornwallis. In 1782, Laurens served as a commissioner in peace negotiations and retired soon after.

Glossary Term – Person

Horatio Gates

English-born General Horatio Gates (1728–1806) served in North America and the West Indies during the French and Indian War before settling in Virginia. He was appointed a general in the Continental Army. After the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, Gates was placed in command of the Northern Department. Subsequently, he won a great victory at Saratoga, New York. In the wake of his victory, Gates found himself at the center of the Conway Cabal, a short-lived attempt to supplant George Washington as commander in chief. In July 1780, Congress...

Glossary Term – Person

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur (Comte de Rochambeau) (1725–1807) was the commander of the French army in North America during the American Revolution. Rochambeau and his army arrived in Newport, Rhode Island in July 1780 and a year later, he joined his troops with George Washington’s at White Plains, New York. Washington and Rochambeau’s combined forces moved to Yorktown, Virginia, and, with support from the forces of the Marquis de Lafayette and Admiral de Grasse, trapped the British army of Lord Charles Cornwallis. The tactic forced...

Glossary Term – Person

John Andre

John Andre (1750–1780) purchased a commission in a British military unit in 1771 and went on to serve in Canada. He was captured during the siege of St. John’s (1775). Rough treatment as a prisoner of war in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, increased his resentment toward the rebels. He was sent to British-held New York in a 1776 prisoner exchange. Andre was promoted to captain and joined the staff of General Charles Grey. In 1778 he became an aide and confidant to General Sir Henry Clinton, the commander of British land forces in America. He...

Glossary Term – Person

John Laurens

John Laurens (1754–1782) was an American officer born in Charleston, South Carolina, and educated in Europe. The son of Revolutionary leader Henry Laurens, John returned  from Europe to join the Continental Army in 1777. As lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to George Washington, Laurens fought at Brandywine and Germantown. In 1780 he sailed to France to negotiate support for the army. Laurens returned to the colonies in 1781, and he took part in the siege of Yorktown and negotiated Cornwallis’s surrender. Laurens was killed in a...

Glossary Term – Person

John Sullivan

John Sullivan (1740–1795) was a Continental Army general during the American Revolution who defeated the British-allied Iroquois in New York in 1779. Sullivan served in both the First and Second Continental Congresses and became a brigadier general in the Contintental Army in 1775. He led troops at the Battle of Long Island, at which he was captured but soon released. He also took part in battles at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. He wintered with Washington at Valley Forge in 1777–1778, and in 1779 was ordered to lead a...