If you ask most people who did we fight in revolutionary war, the answer is usually a quick, "The British." It's the standard textbook response. We picture guys in bright red wool coats marching in straight lines while American farmers hid behind trees. But honestly? That’s barely scratching the surface of what was actually a messy, global, and often heartbreakingly personal conflict.
It wasn't just a "us versus them" scenario.
The American Revolution was a civil war, a world war, and a colonial rebellion all rolled into one chaotic decade. To really understand who the Continental Army was staring down across the musket smoke, you have to look past London. You have to look at German mercenaries, Native American nations caught in an impossible vice, and even neighbors who lived just down the road in places like New Jersey or South Carolina.
The British Regulars: More Than Just "The Enemy"
The core of the opposition was, of course, the British Army. These were the "Redcoats" or "Lobsterbacks." By 1775, the British military was arguably the most professional fighting force on the planet. But here's the thing: they weren't all mindless drones of King George III.
Many British officers actually had a lot of sympathy for the American cause. Take General William Howe, for instance. He had gone on record before the war saying he didn't think the British should use force against the colonists. Imagine being sent across an ocean to kill people you actually kind of agree with. It made for some very hesitant military strategy in the early years of the war.
The average British soldier wasn't a pampered aristocrat either. Most were poor men from England, Scotland, or Ireland who joined the army because they needed a job and a regular meal. They were incredibly well-trained. They could fire three or four aimed shots a minute with a Brown Bess musket, which is terrifying when you're an untrained militia member holding a hunting rifle.
The British Navy was the real nightmare, though.
They controlled the seas. This meant they could pop up anywhere along the coast, from Boston to Savannah, while Washington’s army had to trudge through the mud for weeks just to move a few hundred miles. If you were wondering who did we fight in revolutionary war, the Royal Navy was the wall that kept the colonies from ever feeling truly safe.
The "Hessians" and the Business of War
About one-third of the troops the British sent to America weren't actually British. They were Germans. Specifically, they mostly came from the landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, which is why we call them Hessians.
King George III didn't have enough men to suppress a continent-sized rebellion. His solution? Rent an army. He struck deals with German princes who basically "leased" their professional soldiers to the British Crown.
These guys were elite.
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They were famous for their discipline and their terrifying use of the bayonet. When Americans heard the Hessians were coming, they genuinely panicked. There were rumors that Hessians didn't take prisoners (which wasn't true, but it made for great propaganda).
But here is a weird twist you don't hear often: thousands of these German "enemies" ended up staying in America. After the war, they looked at the vast farmland and the lack of a rigid class system and decided, "Yeah, I'm not going back to Hesse." Today, millions of Americans are actually descended from the very mercenaries George Washington fought at the Battle of Trenton.
A Civil War: The Loyalists Next Door
This is the part that gets really uncomfortable. When we ask who did we fight in revolutionary war, we often forget we fought ourselves.
Historians estimate that about 20% of the colonial population were Loyalists. These weren't "traitors" in their own minds; they were people who believed that law, order, and their connection to the British Empire were more important than a risky experiment in self-rule.
In places like the Carolina backcountry, the war was brutal. It wasn't formal battles with flags and drums. It was neighbors burning down each other's barns. It was "Tory" militias and "Whig" militias hunting each other through the woods.
- The King's American Regiment
- The Royal Ethiopia Regiment (composed of enslaved people seeking freedom)
- Butler’s Rangers
These were American-born units fighting for the Crown. For many, the Revolution wasn't a glorious fight for liberty; it was a terrifying period of domestic violence where you couldn't trust the person living in the next farmhouse over.
The Native American Dilemma
For the various Indigenous nations living on the edge of the colonies, the Revolution was a disaster no matter who won. But most ended up siding with the British.
Why? Because the British government had at least tried to stop the colonists from moving west past the Appalachian Mountains with the Proclamation of 1763. The Americans, on the other hand, were hungry for land. To many Native American leaders, like the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), the British were the "lesser of two evils."
The Iroquois Confederacy, which had stood for centuries, was actually ripped apart by this question. The Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the Americans, while the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga sided with the British.
It was a tragedy.
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When you look at the Sullivan Expedition in 1779, where American forces burned dozens of Iroquois villages and crops in New York, you see that "who we fought" included people who were just trying to protect their ancestral homes from total erasure.
Black Soldiers on the "Wrong" Side
One of the most effective tools the British used was Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation. In 1775, the Royal Governor of Virginia declared that any enslaved person who fled their rebel masters and joined the British Army would be granted their freedom.
Thousands took the risk.
The "Ethiopian Regiment" was formed, wearing sashes that said "Liberty to Slaves." It’s a massive historical irony: while Thomas Jefferson was writing about "all men are created equal," the British were actually offering the most direct path to freedom for Black Americans at the time.
So, when Continental soldiers looked across the battlefield, they often saw Black men wearing British uniforms. These men weren't fighting for King George because they loved monarchy; they were fighting for their own personhood.
The Global Players: Why it Became a World War
By 1778, the question of who did we fight in revolutionary war got even more complicated because the British were suddenly fighting everyone else, too.
Once the French jumped in on the American side after the Battle of Saratoga, the conflict exploded. Then the Spanish joined. Then the Dutch.
The British suddenly had to worry about defending their possessions in the Caribbean, India, and even Gibraltar. They couldn't focus all their energy on Washington anymore. This global pressure is arguably the only reason the Americans won. If the British hadn't been spread so thin across the entire globe, fighting off French and Spanish fleets, they likely would have eventually crushed the rebellion through sheer attrition.
Misconceptions That Stick Around
We often think the British were "dumb" for wearing red and standing in lines.
That’s a myth.
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In the 18th century, muskets were incredibly inaccurate. You had to stand in a line and fire all at once just to hit anything. The British were actually very good at adapting to the American woods. They developed "light infantry" tactics, moving in smaller, more flexible groups.
Another misconception is that the "Americans" were a united front. They weren't. Washington spent half his time begging the Continental Congress for money and the other half trying to keep soldiers from deserting because they hadn't been paid or fed in months.
The British weren't just fighting an army; they were fighting a vast, decentralized geography and a population that refused to admit they were beaten.
What This Means for Us Today
Understanding who did we fight in revolutionary war changes how you see American history. It wasn't a clean break. It was a messy, painful divorce that split families and forced people into impossible choices.
It reminds us that:
- Independence wasn't a foregone conclusion.
- The "enemy" was often someone who looked, spoke, and thought just like the "patriots."
- The war had massive consequences for people—like the Iroquois and enslaved Black Loyalists—who are often left out of the Fourth of July parades.
Actionable Steps for Deep Diving into Revolutionary History
If you want to move beyond the textbook and see the reality of who was involved in the fight, there are specific ways to engage with the history that feel a lot more "real" than a classroom lecture.
Visit the "Other" Battlefields
Most people go to Yorktown or Saratoga. Try visiting the Cowpens National Battlefield in South Carolina or the site of the Battle of Oriskany in New York. These were places where the fighting was largely "American vs. American"—Loyalist against Patriot. It changes your perspective on the "civil war" aspect of the Revolution.
Research the Black Loyalists
Look into the archives of the "Book of Negroes." It's a real historical document that lists 3,000 Black Loyalists who were evacuated by the British from New York in 1783. You can find digital versions of these records through various Canadian and American historical societies. It’s a powerful way to see the names and stories of people who fought for the "other side" to win their freedom.
Track the Hessian Diaspora
If you have German ancestry in the Eastern U.S., there is a decent chance you might be related to a "mercenary." The Johannes Schwalm Historical Association is a great resource for tracking the records of German soldiers who stayed in America after 1783.
Read Primary Sources from the "Losers"
To get a balanced view, read the letters of Loyalists like Jonathan Boucher or the journals of British officers like John André. Seeing the war through the eyes of those who lost makes the "who we fought" part of the story much more human and much less like a cartoon villain.
The Revolutionary War was won by the Americans, but the "enemy" wasn't a monolith. It was a collection of professionals, mercenaries, neighbors, and people seeking their own versions of freedom in a world that was rapidly changing. Identifying exactly who was on that battlefield helps us realize just how fragile—and how lucky—the American experiment actually was at its start.