# Is there an exact tally of battles and skirmishes fought during the American Revolution?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 17, 2023, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242 "2023-09-17T09:28:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2023, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242/1 "2023-09-17T09:28:52Z")

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Has anyone come up with an exact tally of battles and skirmishes fought during the American Revolution?

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242/2 "2023-09-17T12:43:02Z")

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The minimal skirmish size would be between one British soldier and one American soldier so doubtful if all those type skirmishes would be completely counted.

> **[Revolutionary War Battles - History of Massachusetts Blog](https://historyofmassachusetts.org/revolutionary-war-battles/)**
>
> In total, more than 1,500 Revolutionary War battles occurred during the American Revolution. These skirmishes and battles occurred in all thirteen colonies. The first battles occurred in Massachusetts but the majority of the battles occurred in New...

So probably there is a list of these 1500 somewhere.

Partial list here:

> **[List of American Revolutionary War battles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Revolutionary_War_battles)**
>
> 1776
> 1777
> 1778

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**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242/3 "2023-09-17T15:05:51Z")

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Thank you PastTense. Far more than I had thought.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2023, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-exact-tally-of-battles-and-skirmishes-fought-during-the-american-revolution/990242/4 "2023-09-17T15:58:13Z")

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A lot of the very tiny skirmishes are recorded. I don’t know if anyone ever counted them up. I have seen historical reports of smaller battles and larger skirmishes that would include notes about incidents of minor contact between the sides. Historians have pored over all the details available in diaries and personal letters in addition to speeches and other retellings. In my teens I lived within sight of Valley Forge and many nearby areas where the sides engaged so I read with interest some of the battle histories that included details of individual’s travel in the days up to a battle, meeting up with more soldiers on the way to the point of engagement.

Developing metrics of this type could be done with AI.