The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during th: The English language is far and away the most widely used in the United States. Its roots trace back to the British colonial era, which began with the settlement in present-day Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. While German was the predominant language among German immigrants, who arrived primarily in eastern Pennsylvania, English was ultimately widely adopted throughout the Thirteen Colonies that ultimately launched both the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War against the Kingdom of Great Britain, then ruled by King George III and establishing the United States as an independent sovereign nation in September 1783.