Page 161 - American Stories, A History of the United States

on Washington’s staff. Greene joined Daniel Morgan, leader of the famed Virginia
5.1 Riflemen. In tactically brilliant engagements, they sapped the strength of Cornwallis’s
army, at Cowpens, South Carolina (January 17, 1781), and Guilford Courthouse, North
Carolina (March 15). Clinton fumed that the inept Cornwallis had left “two valuable
5.2 colonies behind him to be overrun and conquered by the very army which he boasts to
have completely routed but a week or two before.”
Cornwallis pushed north into Virginia, shadowed by about 4500 American troops

5.3 under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. Planning, apparently, to establish
yorktown virginia market town a base on the coast, Cornwallis began to fortify Yorktown, a sleepy tobacco market
on a peninsula bounded by the on a peninsula bounded by the York and James rivers. Washington watched these
York and james rivers, where Lord maneuvers closely. The canny Virginia planter knew this territory intimately. He
5.4 cornwallis’s army was trapped by
the Americans and French in 1781. sensed that Cornwallis had made a blunder. When Washington learned the French
fleet could gain temporary dominance in the Chesapeake Bay, he rushed south from
New Jersey to join Lafayette, who was now maneuvering to contain the British forces.
With Washington went thousands of well-trained French troops under the Comte de
Treaty of Paris 1783 Agreement Rochambeau. All the pieces fell into place. The French admiral, the Comte de Grasse,
establishing American indepen- cut Cornwallis off from the sea, while Washington and his lieutenants encircled the
dence after the Revolutionary War.
it also transferred territory east British on land. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his entire army of 6000
of the Mississippi River, except men. When Lord North heard of the defeat at Yorktown, he moaned, “Oh God! It is
for spanish Florida, to the new all over.” The British still controlled New York City, Charles Town, and Savannah but
republic. except for a few skirmishes, the fighting ended. The task of securing the independence
of the United States was now in the hands of the diplomats. The agreement signed
in Paris on September 3, 1783, not only guaranteed the independence of the United
States; it also transferred all the territory east of the Mississippi River, except Florida,
Quick Check which Britain surrendered to Spain, to the new republic. The Treaty of Paris of 1783
Why did the “Southern Campaign” established generous boundaries on the north and south (effectively ceding away the
not work out as British strategists land of their erstwhile Indian allies) and gave the Americans important fishing rights
had anticipated?
in the North Atlantic.

the Loyalist Dilemma

No one knows how many Americans supported the crown during the Revolution.
Some Loyalists undoubtedly avoided making a public commitment that might have
led to banishment or loss of property. But for many, neutrality proved impossible.
Almost 100,000 men and women permanently left America. While some of these exiles
had been imperial officeholders—Thomas Hutchinson, for example—they came from
all ranks and backgrounds. More than 30,000 farmers resettled in Canada. Others relo-
cated to England, the West Indies, or Africa.
The political ideology of the Loyalists was not substantially different from that
of their opponents. Like other Americans, they believed that men and women were
entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the Loyalists were convinced
that independence would destroy those values by promoting disorder. By turning their
backs on Britain, a source of tradition and stability, the rebels seemed to have encour-
aged licentiousness, even anarchy in the streets. The Loyalists suspected that Patriot
demands for freedom were self-serving, even hypocritical, for as Preserved Smith, a
Loyalist from Ashfield, Massachusetts, observed, “Sons of liberty . . . did not deserve
the name, for it was evident all they wanted was liberty from oppression that they might
have liberty to oppress!”
The Loyalists were caught in a bind. The British never trusted them. After all, they
were Americans. During the early stages of the war, Loyalists organized militia compa-
nies and hoped to pacify large areas of the countryside with the support of the regular
army. The British generals were unreliable partners, however, for no sooner had they
called on loyal Americans to come forward than the redcoats marched away, expos-
ing the Tories to rebel retaliation. And in Britain, they were treated as second-class
citizens. While many received monetary compensation for their sacrifice, they were
never regarded as the equals of native-born British citizens. The Loyalist community
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