Teacher Resources
Cambridge
Inquiry Question
What does it actually take to turn a group of volunteers into an army?
Primary Sources
What Teachers and Students Use
Washington's General Orders from Cambridge (1775-1776)
PRIMARY · National Archives / Library of Congress, Founders Online
5 analysis prompts
Henry Knox's Artillery Proposal Letter (November 1775)
PRIMARY · Massachusetts Historical Society / Library of Congress
4 analysis prompts
Martha Washington's Cambridge Letters (Winter 1775-1776)
PRIMARY · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association / Virginia Historical Society
4 analysis prompts
Downloads
Ready to Print
Student packet, teacher guide with answer key, and quiz — each formatted for classroom printing.
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Lesson Plan
In the Classroom
Learning Objectives
- 1Students will explain why Cambridge became the headquarters of the Continental Army in 1775
- 2Students will analyze Washington's General Orders to understand the challenges of commanding an untrained army
- 3Students will describe the enlistment crisis of 1775-76 and its implications for the Revolution
- 4Students will evaluate how logistical problems shaped the course of the Siege of Boston
Warm-Up · 10 minutes
Display a map showing Cambridge and Boston in 1775. Ask students: "You have just been put in charge of thousands of volunteers camped around a city occupied by professional soldiers. What do you need to figure out first?" List student responses and revisit them at the end of the lesson.
Direct Instruction · 20 minutes
· Context: after Bunker Hill, the colonial forces surrounded Boston but could not take it
· Washington arrives in Cambridge, July 1775: what he found versus what he expected
Closure · 10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name one challenge Washington faced in Cambridge that you did not know about before this lesson. Why do you think this challenge is less well-known than the battles?"
Differentiation Strategies
Struggling Learners
Simplified General Orders excerpts with vocabulary support, sentence starters for the writing assignment, paired reading during source analysis
Advanced Learners
Full-text General Orders for comparison, research extension on Henry Knox's Ticonderoga expedition, essay connecting the enlistment crisis to later Continental Army reforms
ELL Support
Bilingual glossary of military terms, visual map-based activities, graphic organizer with sentence frames
Explore Further
Cambridge in the Knowledge Graph
The lesson packet draws from these pages. Use them to extend the lesson or give students primary source context.
Comparative Study
Connected Towns
The corroborate prompts in the student packet point to these towns. Teachers can assign cross-town comparisons.
Assessment
Cambridge: Headquarters of the Revolution
Answer all questions based on our study of Cambridge in the American Revolution. For short answer questions, use specific evidence from the sources we studied. · 7 questions · Answer key in Teacher Guide PDF
Why did Cambridge become the headquarters of the Continental Army in 1775?
multiple choice
When Washington arrived in Cambridge in July 1775, he found a well-organized professional army ready for his command.
true false
What was the enlistment crisis of 1775-76?
multiple choice
+ 4 more in the full quiz PDF
Ready to Print?
All three documents below — student packet, teacher guide, and quiz — are formatted for letter-size classroom printing.