The Declaration of Independence was prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author.

Many of the major political and intellectual figures behind the American Revolution associated themselves closely with the Enlightenment. Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence. And James Madison incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in 1787.

Nathan Hale volunteered on September 8, 1776, to go behind enemy lines and report on British troop movements in New York City, but he was captured by the British and executed. Hale has long been considered an American hero and, in 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.

The Treaty of Alliance was a defensive alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States of America formed amid the American Revolutionary War with Great Britain. This agreement marked the official entry of the United States on the world stage, and formalized French recognition and support of U.S. independence that was to be decisive in America's victory.

On November 16, 1776, Margaret Cochran Corbin was allowed to accompany her husband into battle as a nurse for injured soldiers. She was standing next to her husband when he fell during battle and took his post firing a cannon until she too was seriously wounded.

On November 30, 1776, Richard Stockton, a lawyer from Princeton, was captured by the British and thrown in jail. After months of harsh treatment and meager rations, Stockton repudiated his signature on the Declaration of Independence and swore his allegiance to King George III.

The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal battle that took place on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware was the first move in a surprise attack against Hessian forces (German auxiliaries in the service of the British) garrisoned at Trenton. After a brief battle, almost two-thirds of the Hessian force was captured, with negligible losses to the Americans. The battle significantly boosted the Continental Army's waning morale, and inspired re-enlistments.

Acting with the Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, Francis Marion used irregular methods of warfare and is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare.

In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape British capture. After failing to retake the city, Washington led his 12,000-man army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, located approximately 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Philadelphia. They remained there for six months, while Prussian allied General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben drilled the largely untrained Continental Army into an organized fighting unit. During this time, starvation, disease, malnutrition, and exposure killed more than 2,500 American soldiers.

While a general on the American side, Benedict Arnold obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York and planned to surrender it to the British forces. The plan was exposed in September 1780, and he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.