In celebrating the Fourth of July, see how many questions you can answer about "the great act that brought a nation to its birth," the American Revolution.

1. By what trade did Patriot Paul Revere make a living?

2. What the signal agreed upon by patriot messengers to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington that the British were coming to arrest them?

3. What was the first naval battle of the American Revolution, since referred to by historians as the "Lexington of the sea"?

4. What was Thomas Paine’s 47-page pamphlet that captured the high ideals of American patriotism?

5. How old was Thomas Jefferson at the time of his writing of the Declaration of Independence?

6. What was the capitol of the new government until captured by the British in September 1777?

7. On what Boston hill did the battle of Bunker Hill on June 7, 1775 actually occur?

8. In terms of losses, what was the greatest American defeat in the war of American Independence?

9. What other European nations fought against Britain during the American war of independence?

10. What was Henry Know, Washington’s artillery chief, before the war?

11. What was the name of the mercenaries hired by England to help conquer the rebelling colonies?

12. What river did Washington and 2,400 men cross on the night of December 25, 1776 to successfully attack, Trenton, then Princeton?

13. What was the "American Turtle’?

14. He commanded the American forces in the south, 1780-81, never winning a battle, but ultimately winning the campaign?

15. Who fought valiantly during the early stages of the war and was instrumental in building a small navy on Lake Champlain to forestall the British from cutting the colonies in two by using the lake as an invasion route?

16. What was Benedict Arnold’s reward from the British for becoming a turncoat?

17. What battle on October 17, 1778 is known as the turning point of the war and the rebel victory that led directly to the French alliance?

18. Who was the American ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War?

19. What battle in the south led to the forced retreat by the British and their eventual defeat at Yorktown?

20. What famed cavalry leader successfully fought the British and later fathered the Civil War leader Robert E. Lee?

Answers:
1. Silversmith

2. Two lanterns would glow from the spire of Old North Church if the British were out and moving by water across the Charles River, one lantern if they went by land across Boston neck.

3. On June 12, 1775, a band of local patriots in Machias, Maine under the command of Jeremiah O‘Brien, armed with farm implements, captured the British armed schooner Margaretta in Machias Bay.

4. Common Sense

5. Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old.

6. Philadelphia

7. Breed’s Hill

8. Camden, August 16, 1780, where the American Revolutionaries under General Gates lost nearly 2,000 killed, 3,000 wounded.

9. France, from 1778; Spain, from 1779; Netherlands, from 1780

10. Bookseller

11. Hessians came to be applied, quite inaccurately, to the 30,000 men sent to the colonies from six German states during the war. More than half of the troops came from Hesse-Cassel, hence the loose usage of Hessian.

12. Delaware

13. It was the first American submarine built by David Busnell. On September 6, 1776, it attacked the British man-of-war Eagle with only partial success.

14. Nathaniel Greene

15. Benedict Arnold

16. A cash payment of 6,315 British pounds, a Brigadier General’s rank in the British Army, a pension of 500 pounds annually to his wife Peggy and the scorn and distrust of the British who had bought him.

17. Saratoga

18. Benjamin Franklin

19. Battle of Guilford Court House

20. Colonel Henry "Light-horse Harry" Lee.