The Forage War of January through March 1777 was a sustained guerrilla campaign by Continental regulars and New Jersey militia against British and Hessian forces attempting to forage for food and supplies in the New Jersey countryside. Following Washington's victories at Trenton and Princeton, British and Hessian troops confined to their winter cantonments faced severe supply shortages and were forced to send out increasingly large foraging parties. Patriot forces attacked these parties in scores of engagements across the state, inflicting cumulative casualties and denying the British the provisions they needed. The Forage War helped keep the Continental Army viable through the difficult winter of 1776-1777, demonstrated that the British could not safely operate in the New Jersey interior, and sustained Patriot morale at a critical moment of the war.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) grew from colonial resistance to British taxation without parliamentary representation — a dispute that radicalized through the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Boston Massacre (1770). Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775; the Continental Congress declared independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Army under George Washington faced severe shortages of supplies and troops, enduring the brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778) before French alliance and French financing turned the military balance. Major engagements included Bunker Hill (1775), Trenton (1776), Saratoga (1777) — which secured French intervention — and Yorktown (1781), where British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in service, from combat, disease, and captivity. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded British territory east of the Mississippi, though it left unresolved questions about Indigenous land rights and the status of Loyalists.
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