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
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