Revolutionary War: The World Turned Upside Down

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Revolutionary War: The World Turned Upside Down

Chasing an Elusive Foe. After Cowpens, Gen. Charles Cornwallis chased Daniel Morgan and Nathanael Greene into Virginia, then made his headquarters at Hillsboro, North Carolina. Almost immediately Greene marched back and awaited Cornwallis’s attack at Guilford Courthouse. Cornwallis won the battle against superior numbers, but at an unacceptable price: while Greene was able to march off with most of his troops, Cornwallis had lost one-third of his soldiers. There was no option for Cornwallis but to leave the Carolinas and march into Virginia. As soon as he did so, Greene began pressing on to Charleston. It took months, and Greene lost engagements at Hobkirk’s Hill, Fort Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs, but by September he had invested Charleston and had a free hand in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Yorktown Campaign. Arriving in Virginia, Cornwallis added to his command those troops who had been fighting there under Benedict Arnold, who was now wearing a British uniform. In command of eight thousand men, he spent from May to July trying to maneuver Gen. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette’s American army of about thirty-five hundred into battle. He could not do so, and, acting under orders sent from New York by Sir Henry Clinton, moved his troops to Yorktown at the tip of the York peninsula to establish another naval base from

which to conduct amphibious operations. Even as he did so, George Washington was in contact with the French fleet under Adm. François-Joseph-Paul de Grasse, hoping to arrange for the French fleet either to assist in an attack on New York or secure the Chesapeake Bay area. De Grasse sailed north from the West Indies on 13 August, at about the time Washington learned of Cornwallis’ move to Yorktown. By 21 August, Washington had left a small force at New York to decoy the British and was marching his army south. By 31 August, De Grasse had landed troops at Yorktown to augment Lafayette’s forces. After beating back a British fleet that sought to drive him from the area, De Grasse sent ships up Chesapeake Bay, made contact with Washington, and transported his army to Williamsburg. The perfect coordination of the French navy and the Continental Army had doomed Cornwallis.

“The World Turned Upside Down.” Cornwallis was too much of a professional to misread the situation. His eight thousand troops faced over seventeen thousand American Continentals, Virginia militia, and French regulars. He held his position for a month, then negotiated a surrender. The British regiments laid down their arms and marched out to the sound of military bands playing a peculiarly appropriate song, “The World Turned Upside Down.” The disaster at Yorktown deprived the British of the means and the will to carry on. Washington moved back to New York to renew the blockade of Clinton. The power of the British in the colonies reached only to the outskirts of New York. Peace negotiations began in April and the Treaty of Paris ending the war was signed on 30 November. The French troops had already returned home to France. The Patriots in the colonies were left to construct their own nation and restore order and prosperity. Those who were most discomfited were those colonials who had been loyal to the King. They now faced the wrath of their neighbors in a new nation, or exile.