CHAPTER 4 Section 4 WINNING THE WAR

Mr. Clifford US 1

Main Idea & Why It Matters Now

Main Idea

Strategic victories in the South and at Yorktown enabled the Americans to defeat the British.

Why it Matters Now

o The American defeat of the British established the United States as an independent nation

KEY TERMS

Yorktown Friedrich von Steuben Marquis de Lafayette Charles Cornwallis Treaty of Paris Egalitarianism

Analyzing Causes, Recognizing Effects

British move their operations to the South

(Claim early victories in South Carolina) Washington orders Nathaniel Greene to go after Cornwallis Cornwallis retreats from the Carolinas to Yorktown American & French troops converge on Yorktown British forced to surrender. WAR IS OVER

European Allies Shift the Balance

Friedrich von Steuben: Prussian captain & drillmaster volunteered his services to Washington at Valley Forge. Steuben taught the colonial soldiers to: stand at attention, execute field maneuvers, fire & reload quickly, & wield bayonets. The Continental Army was becoming an effective fighting force.

Lafayette & the French

Marquis de Lafayette: brave, 20 year old French aristocrat. Lafayette cared passionately about the American cause and wanted to help the Continental Army any way he could. Lafayette joined Washington’s staff at Valley Forge. He would lobby for French reinforcements in France in 1779, and eventually led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. France needed time to organize forces and send them to America.

The British Move South

After Saratoga, the British changed their military strategy. In the summer of 1778 Britain began to shift their operations to the South. Britain hoped to rally Loyalists in the South & reclaim their former

colonies.

Britain would then slowly fight their way back north.

Early British Success in the South

By 1780, the British captured: (Savannah, Georgia & Charlestown, South Carolina) General Charles Cornwallis commanded the British troops in the south. Britain proclaimed that: any slave who joined the British forces would be set free after the war. Thousands of African Americans escaped slavery to join the British Army .

British Reverses in 1781

Washington ordered Nathaniel Greene to march south and to harass Cornwallis. Daniel Morgan, with 600 soldiers, was ordered to march into South Carolina. Morgan and his men led the British on a grueling chase through rough countryside. At Cowpens, South Carolina, Morgan’s army would defeat the British.

British Reverses in 1781 continued

Cornwallis decided to chase Greene’s army north into Virginia. Cornwallis led his army of 7,200 onto a peninsula between the James & York river in a town called Yorktown. Cornwallis planned to fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and them move north to meet British General Henry Clinton’s army in New York.

CORNWALLIS’S BELIEVED THAT THE BRITISH NAVY WOULD CONTINUE TO SUPPLY HIS TROOPS IN THE VIRGINIA COAST.

The British Surrender at Yorktown

In 1780, a French army of 6,000 landed in Rhode Island. They had stationed one fleet there and another in the West Indies. Marquis de Lafayette suggested that the two French armies join forces with the French fleets to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown. The Americans and French, led by French General Rochambeau closed in on Cornwallis. The French fleet blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and cut off British supply lines.

Victory at Yorktown

The siege at Yorktown lasted 1 month. On October 17, 1781 Continental troops outnumbered 2 to 1.

Cornwallis’s army was surrounded. The French fleets cut off British supply ships on the east and the Continental/French troops surrounded Cornwallis’s troops.

Cornwallis finally surrendered: October 19 th the surrender of the British. Washington accepted

to begin peace talks.

Seeking Peace

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay went to Paris in 1782 The American diplomats refused to begin peace talks until Britain recognized American independence. Once Britain agreed to full independence the talks officially opened.

Seeking Peace continued

In 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed US independence and set the boundaries for the new nation. US now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.

34,000 British troops and thousands of Loyalists packed their belongings and left the United States in November 1783.

The War Becomes a Symbol of Liberty

- Former British subjects now possessed a new identity as free Americans, loyal to a new ideal. The American Revolution would inspire the world as both a democratic revolution and a war for independence.

The Impact of American Society

During the war, class distinctions between the rich

and poor begun to vanish. Egalitarianism

: a belief in the equality of all people – which fostered a new attitude: the idea that ability, effort, and

virtue, NOT WEALTH OR FAMILY; defined a person’s worth.

The Impact of American Society continued

Egalitarianism

: 1780’s applied only to white males. Most African Americans were still enslaved and free African Americans faced discrimination and poverty. The Declaration of Independence spurred the opposition to slavery. Abolitionist movements spread through the Northern and Middle colonies and by 1804 many states had taken steps to outlaw slavery. - The women of the revolution had shown that they were capable of serving their nation as more than just wives and mothers. These women helped create a foundation for future changes in their status – both in family and society