While the first battles of the American Revolution were fought at Lexington and Concord in the colony of Massachusetts more than 251 years ago on April 19, 1775, the United States of America was born officially on July 4, 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
By signing these venerated words, the Founding Fathers of the fledgling republic set her upon a course of conflict lasting just over seven years and resulting in a new, independent nation. The Americans lost approximately 25,000 men in the conflict (far more due to sickness and privation than to battle wounds).
After the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on Sept 3, 1783, in which Great Britain gave formal recognition of the independence of the American colonies, land-hungry former colonists began moving westward into the frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana and Illinois…