Winning the War

Chapter 4Section 4

Yarr!! Piracy and the

RevolutionWith no real navy, the Congress enlists the aid of privateers to raid British shipping.

+ provides gold and captured goods for the cause

- graft and corruption, i.e. Benedict Arnold

John Paul Jones commands a small fleet of enterprising ships. (French and Spanish navies do most of the fighting.)

A Marriage of ConvenienceDemocratic America & Aristocratic France

(Ben Franklin plays matchmaker)

Alliance between France and Americans, 1778

TIPPING POINT: Balance of Power is against GB

French Navy and the Marquis De Lafayette

Baron Friedrich Von Steuben (Prussia)

Howe must retreat to NY and w/d from Philly.

France menaces British lines of supply.

Baron von Steuben training troops at Valley Forge

Lafayette at Yorktown by Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, 1783The brilliant young French general appears here with his African-American aide, a Virginia slave named James. Among other services to Lafayette, James spied on Cornwallis before the latter's surrender. (Art Gallery, Williams Center, Lafayette College )

Lafayette at Yorktown by Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, 1783

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The British Move South• New Plan: Summer 1778 take port cities in

South, rally Loyalists /slaves to the British– Early Success

• GA. Falls (Savannah Dec 1788)• SC. Charleston (May 1780) Camden (Aug 1780)

• 1781 Washington sends Nathaniel Greene to bother Cornwallis as he moves into N.C.– Victory at Cowpens in SC (Daniel Morgan)– However: defeat at Guilford CH (in NC)– Cornwallis move to the coast

The Yorktown Campaign Aug.-Oct., 1781

Victory at Yorktown• Lafayette suggests attacking Cornwallis at

Yorktown– 17,000 Fr and Colonial troops siege the British

at Yorktown– Fr. Navy under DeGrasse defeated the British

navy (Battle of the Capes) and cut off their escape route

– After one month Cornwallis surrendered

Battle of Yorktown, Oct. 17, 1781

http://www.britishbattles.com/images/yorktown/map-l.jpg

Surrender of the British at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.French naval power combined with American military savvy to produce the decisive defeat of the British. French provide all of the naval power and half of the troops (Library of Congress)

Surrender of the British at Yorktown

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Peace at ParisTreaty of Paris of 1783:

• Recognized the independence of the United States• Recognized Mississippi and Old North West (Ohio,

etc.) as part of U.S.• Negotiated by Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay,

and Whigs (Tories, Lord North, and George III out)• Americans make a separate peace with England,

frustrating French and Spanish imperial ambitions