Tough Winters

• 1777-1778, Valley Forge• 1778-1779, New York and New Jersey• 1779-1780, Morristown, New Jersey – one of

worst winters on record• 2 regiments mutiny demanding food• GW sends home 400 troops because he can’t feed

them• 1780-1781- milder winter but another mutiny over

food and no pay

Traitor

Southern Campiagn

Southern Campaign

• Battle of Kings Mountain – Oc. 1780

• American Patriot militia vs. American Loyalist militia

• Patriots charged up hill and defeated a larger Loyalist army

Battle of Cowpens• Jan. 1781• General Morgan vs. Col. TarletonTarleton was sent by

Cornwallis to crush American force in South Carolina

Morgan delivers masterful strategic victory and forces Cornwallis to abandon SC

Guilford Courthouse

• Cornwallis decides to destroy General Greene’s army in North Carolina

• They meet at Guilford Courthouse and it is a terrible close quarters fight

• Cornwallis fired canon into his own troops• “I never saw such fighting since God made me”• Cornwallis lost a quarter of his forces and so

weakened him that he retreated into Virginia for resupplies

Virginia

• General Arnold (now with the British) invades Virginia and reeks havoc on the area

• GW sends General Lafayette south to fight Arnold

• Cornwallis hopes to meet up with Arnold after Guilford Courthouse and he does so but must later be resupplied and heads to the coast and area called Yorktown

Yorktown

• GW and the French have tension. GW wants to attack General Clinton in New York while the French want to take on Cornwallis in the South.

• Finally, the French navy from the West Indies headed toward the Chesapeake and GW and the French headed south on a 450 mile march

Geography of Yorktown

• Located on the tip of a peninsula surrounded by the James and York Rivers

• Was on high and open ground

• Cornwallis and his army could easily be trapped

Yorktown

• Classic European siege• 9,000 Brits vs. 19,000 Americans and French• US/French created parallel lines of trenches

closer and closer to British• Oct.14th, two attacks on redoubt 9 and

redoubt 10• Close enough now to inflict even heavier

damage

“The World Turned Upside Down”

• Formal capitulation occurs on Oct. 19, 1781• The surrendering British march out of

Yorktown to the song “the World Turned Upside Down”

• GW heads his army north to New York until the final peace papers are signed in Paris

• Treaty of Paris – Sept. 3, 1783

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surrender_of_Lord_Cornwallis.jpg

Another mutiny?

• GW waits for final wording on treaty with his army in and around New York and New Jersey

• March, 1783 a meeting is held by officers looking to overthrow Congress because of the lack of pay

• GW surprises the meeting of the officers and implores them that he too has sacrificed but would not throw away all they have gained

New York City

• With the peace treaty, the British leave Manhattan Nov. of 1783 and GW enters triumphantly

• Farewell dinner with his troops takes place in early Dec. 1784 at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan

Cincinnatus

• GW heads to Annapolis, Maryland where Congress was situated.

• There he offered his resignation as commander on Dec. 23, 1783

• He treated his commission as a public trust to be returned as soon as possible to the people’s representative

• “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world” King George III

French quote on GW and army

“I admire the American troops tremendously!” “it is incredible that soldiers composed of men of every age, even of children of 15, of whites and blacks, almost naked, unpaid, and rather poorly fed, can march so well and withstand fire so steadfastly.” Credit goes to “the calm and calculated measures of General Washington, in whom I daily discover some new and eminent qualities.”

Greatness

• Read handout page 457-458 from Chernow bio of Washington

• General Gage• General Howe• General Clinton• General Cornwallis• General Guy Carleton

Treaty of Paris - 1783

1. Recognize US as a country2. Fishing rights off the banks of Canada3. Return confiscated loyalist property and no

prosecution of Loyalists4. US would pay debts occurred before the war

with England5. Increased land of US to Mississippi River and

North to Great Lakes