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1781 In The United States
Events from the year 1781 in the United States. This year marked the beginning of government under the Articles of Confederation as well as the surrender of British armed forces in the American Revolution. Incumbents *President of the Second Continental Congress: Samuel Huntington (until February 28) *President of the Continental Congress: ** March 1-July 6: Samuel Huntington ** July 10-November 5: Thomas McKean ** starting November 5: John Hanson Events January-March * January 2 – Virginia passes a law ceding its western land claims, paving the way for Maryland to ratify the Articles of Confederation. * January 5 – American Revolution – Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold. * January 17 – American Revolution – Battle of Cowpens: Americans under Daniel Morgan defeat British forces. * January 20 – Pompton Mutiny * February 2 – The Articles of Confederation are ratified by Maryland, the 13th a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Articles Of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification. The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after ratification by all the states. A guiding principle of the Articles was to establish and preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states. The weak central government established by the Articles received only those powers which the former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament. The document provided clearly written rules for how the states' "league of friendship" (Perpetual Union) would be organized. During the ratification process, the Congress looked to the Articles for guidance as it conducted business, directing the war effort, conducting diploma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and, at the time, was also used to refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced under the Constitution of the United States. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 1774 and 1789. The First Continental Congress was called in 1774 in response to growing tensions between the colonies culminating in the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. It met for about six weeks and sought to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nation's second vice president of the United States, vice president under John Adams and the first United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state under George Washington. The principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating Thirteen Colonies, American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at state, national, and international levels. During the American Revolution, Jefferson represented Virginia in the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration of Independence. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Jouett
John Jouett Jr. (December 7, 1754 – March 1, 1822) was an American farmer and politician in Virginia and Kentucky best known for his ride during the American Revolution. Sometimes called the "Paul Revere of Southern United States, the South", Jouett rode to warn Thomas Jefferson, then the outgoing governor of Virginia (and the Virginia legislature who had fled the new state's capitol before electing his successor) that British cavalry had been sent to capture them. After the war, Jouett moved across the Appalachian Mountains to what was then called Kentucky County. He thrice served in the Virginia House of Delegates, first representing Lincoln County, Kentucky, Lincoln County and later Mercer County, Kentucky, Mercer County before Kentucky's statehood (which occurred in 1792). Jouett also represented Mercer County at the Danville Separation Convention in 1788. He later served three terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives, first representing Mercer County, then adjoining W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congress Of The Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States of America during the Confederation period, March 1, 1781 – March 4, 1789. A unicameral body with legislative and executive function, it was composed of delegates appointed by the legislatures of the several states. Each state delegation had one vote. It was preceded by the Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) and was created by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union in 1781. The Congress continued to refer itself as the Continental Congress throughout its eight-year history, although modern historians separate it from the two earlier congresses, which operated under slightly different rules and procedures until the later part of American Revolutionary War. The membership of the Second Continental Congress automatically carried over to the Congress of the Confederation when the latte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bank Of North America
The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first ''de facto'' central bank. Chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 1782, it was based upon a plan presented by US Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris on May 17, 1781, based on recommendations by Revolutionary era figure Alexander Hamilton. Although Hamilton later noted its "essential" contribution to the war effort, the Pennsylvania government objected to its privileges and reincorporated it under state law, making it unsuitable as a national bank under the federal Constitution. Instead Congress chartered a new bank, the First Bank of the United States, in 1791, while the Bank of North America continued as a private concern. History Congressional charter In May 1781 Alexander Hamilton revealed that he had recommended Robert Morris for the position of Superintendent of Finance of the United States ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Ninety-Six
The siege of Ninety Six was a siege in western South Carolina late in the American Revolutionary War. From May 22 to June 18, 1781, Continental Army Major General Nathanael Greene led 1,000 troops in a siege against the 550 Loyalists in the fortified village of Ninety Six, South Carolina. The 28-day siege centered on an earthen fortification known as Star Fort. Despite having more troops, Greene was unsuccessful in taking the town, and was forced to lift the siege when Lord Rawdon approached from Charleston with British troops. The area is now protected as Ninety Six National Historic Site and was designated a National Historic Landmark. Many of the surviving Loyalists were later relocated by the Crown and granted land in Nova Scotia, where they named their township Rawdon to commemorate their rescuer. Background The British Army's "southern strategy" for winning the American Revolutionary War, which had been successful in taking Charleston and winning submission of much o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Augusta
The siege of Augusta took place between May 22, 1781, and June 6, 1781. American Patriot forces, led by General Andrew Pickens and Colonel Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, were successful in capturing Augusta, Georgia held by British loyalist militia. Fort Cornwallis, the primary British defence, was successfully exposed to cannon fire by the construction of a tower high on which the Americans mounted a small cannon. The British surrendered on June 6. Background The arrival of the British regular army in Georgia in 1778 was shortly followed by the occupation of Augusta by loyalist Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brown, leading the East Florida Rangers on January 31, 1779. Brown and the East Florida Rangers retreated from Augusta following the British defeat at the Battle of Kettle Creek in February 1779. Brown and his militia unit, rebranded as the King's Carolina Rangers retook August on June 8, 1780. On 14 September 1780 Elijah Clarke and Patriot forces launched a surprise assa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action At Osborne's
The action at Osborne's (sometimes spelled Osburn's or Osborns), Virginia was a minor naval–land engagement on April 27, 1781, in the James River during the American Revolutionary War. The battle resulted in the near-complete destruction of the Virginia State Navy as well as a large stockpile of Virginian tobacco (in use as a currency at the time). Action With American troops having been driven from Petersburg at the Battle of Blandford, and the tobacco stored the having been destroyed, on April 27, the British Army left in search of fresh supplies. British General William Phillips, with the light-infantry, and part of the jägers, and of the cavalry of the Queen's Rangers, marched to Chesterfield Court House, where he destroyed a range of barracks which could accommodate two thousand men, three hundred barrels of flour, and other stores. At the same time, General Benedict Arnold moved to Osborne's, a small village on the south side of the James River, about south of Richm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Hobkirk's Hill
The Battle of Hobkirk's Hill (sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Camden) was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on April 25, 1781, near Camden, South Carolina. A small American force under Nathanael Greene occupying Hobkirk's Hill, north of Camden, was attacked by British troops led by Francis Rawdon. After a fierce clash, Greene retreated, leaving Rawdon's smaller force in possession of the hill. Despite the victory, Rawdon soon fell back to Camden and two weeks later found it necessary to abandon Camden and withdraw toward Charleston, South Carolina. The battle was one of four contests in which Greene was defeated, though his overall strategy was successful in depriving the British of all South Carolina except Charleston. The battlefield marker is located at Broad Street and Greene Street two miles north of the center of modern Camden.Greene p. 228-233 Background After the Battle of Guilford Court House, Cornwallis's force was spent and in great need of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Blandford
The Battle of Blandford (or Blanford), also called the Battle of Petersburg, took place near Petersburg, Virginia on 25 April 1781, late in the American War of Independence. Roughly 2,300 British regulars under the command of Brigadier General William Phillips defeated about 1,000 militia under Major General Baron von Steuben. The introduction of a British troop presence led by turncoat general Benedict Arnold into Virginia in early 1781 prompted an increase in militia activity to counter the British force. The militia were, however, poorly trained and equipped, and were unable to prevent Arnold from moving freely. Arnold was reinforced in March 1781 by additional troops led by General Phillips, who targeted Petersburg in a raiding expedition. Militia forces led by von Steuben and Peter Muhlenberg decided to make a stand at Blandford, then a separate community. When the battle was joined, the outnumbered militia provided remarkably stiff resistance to the British advance, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Cape Henry
The Battle of Cape Henry was a naval battle in the American War of Independence which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 16 March 1781 between a British squadron led by Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot and a French fleet under Admiral Charles René Dominique Sochet, Chevalier Destouches. Destouches, based in Newport, Rhode Island, had sailed for the Chesapeake as part of a joint operation with the Continental Army to oppose the British army of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold that was active in Virginia. Destouches was asked by General George Washington to take his fleet to the Chesapeake to support military operations against Arnold by the Marquis de Lafayette. Sailing on 8 March, he was followed two days later by Admiral Arbuthnot, who sailed from eastern Long Island. Arbuthnot's fleet outsailed that of Destouches, reaching the Virginia Capes just ahead of Destouches on 16 March. After manoeuvring for several hours, the battle was joined, and both fleets suffer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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