This year marks the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. States, cities and patriotic groups will celebrate and honor the event in many ways. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) will play an important role. This column will focus on the war, the history of DAR and one local DAR chapter.
The Revolutionary War was a conflict between the 13 American colonies and Great Britain. It began as a demand for reform in the early 1770s and ended in the complete separation of the colonies from Great Britain. George Washington was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In 1776 the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In 1781, colonial forces won the decisive battle of Yorktown and forced King George III to acknowledge American independence which was formalized by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Many Georgians in the early 1770s were reluctant to oppose the British because the colony had prospered under its rule. Those who remained loyal to the king were called Tories or Loyalists. Anti-British Georgians were called Whigs or Patriots…