American Victory 1778-83

Winter of 1777-8 → problems for Americans

Low morale:

• Gates’ victorious army at Saratoga disintegrated → militamen went home

• Washington’s army went to Valley Forge

• More than 3000 die at Valley Forge and more desert

In 1778 however Washington’s fortunes begin to mend…

• Army increased to some 12,000 men

• Re-equipped

• Ensured that were better trained by Friedrich von Steuben

• Surrounded by a number of overseas military ‘experts’ (but did not have that much expertise)

February 1778 who is Howe replaced by?

Sir Henry Clinton, British commander-in-chief in North America 1778-82

What did Lord Germain tell Clinton in February 1778? Outcome?

• Told Clinton that Britain’s main military effort was to be directed against French possessions in the Caribbean

• Clinton stripped of 5000 troops

• Forced to evacuate Philadelphia and concentrate forces in New York

What does Clinton do mid-June 1778?

Sets off for New York with 10,000 soldiers and a 20km long baggage train

What happens 28 June 1778?

• Failed American attack on British rear-guard at Monmouth Court House - Washington blames failure on General Charles Lee, his second in command

• Lee insists on a court martial to vindicate his conduct; Washington complies

• Court martial finds Lee guilty of disobeying orders, he is suspended

Meanwhile where do Clinton’s army reach?

New York

What does Admiral d’Estaing do July-August 1778?

Besieges but fails to capture Newport, Rhode Island (with 4000 French troops), then sails to the Caribbean, bent on capturing British (sugar) islands

Where does Clinton send troops 1778-9?

Clinton sends troops into New Jersey, Washington could not be drawn + Clinton similarly cautious

Where is American encampment for winter 1779-80?

Morristown

Effects of winter of 1779-80 on American troops

Death + desertion → army reduced to 8000 men, 1/3 not fit for duty

Who was Benedict Arnold

One of America’s war heroes + major general (e.g. served in Battle of Quebec) before 1780

What does Benedict Arnold do 1780?

• Plots to turn over fortress of West Point to Britain

• Fails (when Clinton’s emissary is captured)

• Arnold fights for Britain from 1780

What do French do July 1780?

French army of 6000 troops (commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau) landed in Rhode Island but achieved very little

Where did the French fleet remain?

The Caribbean

What happens January 1781?

• The Pennsylvania Line regiment mutinied

• Due to discontent → food and clothing inadequate, pay was months overdue

• Refused to return to duty unless promised redress of their grievances; promise given

• Encourages the New Jersey Line to mutiny but Washington stopped this one with force (some ringleaders executed)

What happens February 1781?

Massachusetts and New Jersey troops clashed with each other in a serious riot at Princeton

Native Americans

• Most of 100,000 or so who lived south of Great Lakes + east of Mississippi → fought for British

• Wanted to drive back settler colonists

• Western state governments → pressure for assistance against Native American attack

• But unreliable, divided, antagonised neutrals and loyalists

Britain launches a new campaign in 1778 - where and why?

• In the south as lots of loyalists supposedly

• Hoped to take control of Georgia and the Carolinas and then advance northwards

Where does Clinton send a (3000-strong) expedition under Colonel Campbell in late 1778?

Georgia

What does Colonel Campbell do in December 1778?

Captures Savannah (Georgia), losing only 3 dead and taking 500 prisoners

What does Colonel Campbell do in January 1779?

Takes Augusta (Georgia)

What does Campbell stop his troops from doing?

Prohibits his troops from ill-treating the Georgians, who responded by flocking to join newly organised loyalist militia

What do British do in South in March 1779, and outcome

Defeat Patriot forces at Briar Creek; Americans lose 400 casualties + most of survivors go home rather than rejoining General Lincoln’s patriot army in South Carolina

Why is Britain’s position in Georgia precarious?

• Population divided - half loyalists, half patriots

• General Lincoln’s (Americans) forces outnumbered British

• September 1779 Admiral d’Estaing returned from the Caribbean and a combined Franco-American force besieged Savannah, but the siege collapsed in mid-October → d’Estaing sailed away and Lincoln returned to Charleston

Who is Charles Cornwallis

General for Britain, will surrender at Yorktown (which will lead to Britain’s defeat in the War of Independence)

What do General Corwallis + Clinton do February 1780?

Besieges Charleston, South Carolina, largest town in southern colonies

What does General Lincoln (American) do in May 1780?

Surrenders

Outcome of British taking Charleston

British take 5000 American prisoners as well as artillery pieces and muskets (worst American military disaster of the war)

Where do British forces go after taking Charleston?

South Carolina’s interior

What happens 29 May 1780 South Carolina?

Colonel Tarleton (British) and 300 dragoons defeated 350 Virginians at Waxhaw Creek - even if they tried to surrender Virginians were ruthlessly killed

Example of very savage warfare British

Why did it seem like South Carolina would be brought under British control

Government fled, many people took oath of allegiance to the Crown

What does Clinton do next, before departing north as fearing attack on NY (leaving Corwallis in command of 4000 men in the south)?

Issues a proclamation that required that all adult males should openly support Britain or be treated as rebels; neutrality impossible

following Charleston

Where did Corwallis face the most trouble?

• The interior of the Carolinas, where there were fierce divisions between loyalists and patriots

• Fierce fighting summer of 1780 -. success for patriot forces North Carolina

Who was commander of Continental forces in the south from around August 1780?

Horatio Gates

What does Gates do in August 1780?

• Leads an army into South Carolina

• Beaten at Camden (16 August) by British force, sustained 1800 casualties (6x British)

What does Cornwallis begin doing September 1780?

Begins his invasion of North Carolina

What happens 7 October 1780?

Loyalist force wiped out by patriots at King’s Mountain → causes Cornwallis to abandon his invasion of North Carolina and return south

Winter of 1780-1 on south

• Patriot and loyalist militias → backcountry turned into wasteland of plunder and slaughter, routinely torturing prisoners and hanging enemies

• Hard for Britain to protect loyalist areas

• Corwallis, short of men, dependent on loyalists to make up numbers for his field army, but loyalists dependent on British military support

Who was General Nathanael Greene?

Washington’s choice of successor should he die

What did General Nathanael Greene do late 1780 in the south?

• Took command of the Continental Army in the south

• Changed strategy → divided forces, relied on hit-and-run attacks supported by patriot militia

Greene’s strategy (two-pronged)

• Daniel Morgan sent with 700 men to probe British defences in the South Carolina backcountry

• Other forces cooperated with militia in attacks on British coastal positions

What happens January 1781

Daniel Morgan (America) defeats Tarleton (British) at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina

Cornwallis response to Cowpens, and events that follow

• Undeterred - determined to drive Greene out of North Carolina

• Series of costly victories for British, such as at Guildford Court House in March 1781; North Carolina

• Greene marches into South Carolina, April Lord Rawdon defeats him at Hobkirk’s Hill

• But patriot forces continue capturing scattered British outposts as victory not followed up

• But still by mid-1781 only Charleston, Savannah and remote Fort Ninety-Six remained in British hands in South Carolina and Georgia

What does Cornwallis do April-May 1781?

Instead of returning to South Carolina to deal with Greene, heads north to Virginia and reaches Petersburg 20 May 1781

Overview of above southern strategy key events

• December 1778 British capture Savannah, Georgia

• May 1780 fall of Charleston, South Carolina to British

• August 1780 Battle of Camden - British victory, Gates defeated (South Carolina)

• October 1780 Battle of King’s Mountain - American victory (North Carolina)

• January 1781 Battle of Cowpens (Morgan, time of Greene strategy), American victory (South Carolina)

American commanders in the south

Benjamin Lincoln (1778–1780)

Horatio Gates (August–October 1780)

Nathanael Greene (December 1780–1783)

What does Benedict Arnold do 1780-1?

Leads a series of raids into Virginia, inflicting major damage

In March 1781 what happens?

• General Phillips, a British artillery officer, arrives in Virginia with 2000 more men

• Cornwallis’ junction with the British forces already in Virginia gave him command of an army of 8000 men

• This military presence - several counties proclaim support for Britain, but most Virginians committed to driving out British

Why does Cornwallis then move to Yorktown?

Fails to destroy an American detachment led by Lafayette

What does Cornwallis start to do August 1781?

Starts to construct a base at Yorktown

Problems for Cornwallis - navies

French fleet with 20 ships of the line, commanded by Admiral de Grasse, appeared in American waters; Admiral Rodney failed to send sufficient ships from the Caribbean to deal with the threat

When did Washington learn that de Grasse’s fleet was on its way?

May 1781

What was Washington’s initial plan, and the one he ended up deciding on

• Initially planned to use American and French forces to attack New York

• Persuaded by Rochambeau to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown

What happened September 1781?

French-American army, 16,000 strong, reached Virginia; confronted Cornwallis with a force twice he size of his own, trapped Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula

What sealed Cornwallis’ fate?

Delay in dispatching a relief expedition from New York

October 1781 events (Yorktown)

Cornwallis’ army at Yorktown, in a weakly fortified position and short of supplies, was trapped

On 19 October, after a 3 week siege, Corwallis and his 8000-strong army surrendered

Aftermath of Yorktown

• Britain still controlled New York, Charleston and Savannah and still had over 30,000 troops in America; immediate aftermath of Yorktown not collapse of British position

• De Grasse sailed for West Indies, and without French naval support Americans could achieve very little

• After Cornwallis’ surrender British government discontinued offensive operations in America - public and Parliament sceptical of continuing war

February 1782 what did the Commons do?

To George III’s chagrin, Commons resolved to end military measures against the Americans

March 1782 what happened?

North resigned, replaced by the Marquis of Rockingham; the Earl of Shelburne, who became colonial secretary, wanted peace

April 1782 Rockingham’s ministry did what?

Ordered evacuation of New York, Charleston and Savannah

July 1782 what happened?

Rockingham dies, Shelburne PM

Informal peace negotiations when

Americans representatives entered into informal talks with British officials in Paris in April 1782

Formal peace negotiations when

September 1782

What did Shelburne want to do?

Intent of separating France and the USA< prepared to be generous to Americans

Opinions of John Jay and John Adams, leaders of the American peace delegation

• Suspicious of British motives

• Distrusted French Foreign Minister Vergennes - suspected he was ready to support the Spanish claim to the trans-Appalachian region, an area Americans wanted to control

Jay and Adams solutions

Without consulting either side, opened separate discussions with Britain

November 1782 what happened?

American commissioners signed a preliminary peace treaty with Britain, terms of treaty accepted provisionally in January 1783

When was the Treaty of Paris signed, and by whom?

• 3 September 1783

• By Britain, the USA, France, Spain, and the Netherlands

Terms of the Treaty of Paris

• Britain recognised American independence

• Agreed to boundaries of USA - should extend west to the Mississippi River, north to the St Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, + south to the 31st parallel, northern boundary of Florida (expanded territories)

• Americans ‘liberty’ to fish the Newfoundland Banks + and to dry and cure fish Nova Scotia and Labrador

• British merchants should meet with no lawful impediment in seeking to recover pre-war American debts

• Congress should ask states for restoration of confiscated loyalist property

• Florida ceded from Britain to Spain