CHAPTER 16. Independence

INDEPENDENCE

157. Fall of Charleston, 1780.--It seemed quite certain that Clinton could not conquer the Northern states with the forces given him. In the South there were many loyalists. Resistance might not be so stiff there. At all events Clinton decided to attempt the conquest of the South. Savannah was easily seized (1778), and the French and Americans could not retake it (1779). In the spring of 1780, Clinton, with a large army, landed on the coast between Savannah and Charleston. He marched overland to Charleston and besieged it from the land side. The Americans held out for a long time. But they were finally forced to surrender. Clinton then sailed back to New York, and left to Lord Cornwallis the further conquest of the Carolinas.

158. Gates's Defeat at Camden, 1780.--Cornwallis had little trouble in occupying the greater part of South Carolina. There was no one to oppose him, for the American army had been captured with Charleston. Another small army was got together in North Carolina and the command given to Gates, the victor at Saratoga. One night both Gates and Cornwallis set out to attack the other's camp. The two armies met at daybreak, the British having the best position. But this really made little difference, for Gates's Virginia militiamen ran away before the British came within fighting distance. The North Carolina militia followed the Virginians. Only the regulars from Maryland and Delaware were left. They fought on like heroes until their leader, General John De Kalb, fell with seventeen wounds. Then the survivors surrendered. Gates himself had been carried far to the rear by the rush of the fleeing militia.

159. King's Mountain, October, 1780.--Cornwallis now thought that resistance surely was at an end. He sent an expedition to the settlements on the lower slopes of the Alleghany Mountains to get recruits, for there were many loyalists in that region. Suddenly from the mountains and from the settlements in Tennessee rode a body of armed frontiersmen. They found the British soldiers encamped on the top of King's Mountain. In about an hour they had killed or captured every British soldier.

160. The Cowpens, 1781.--General Greene was now sent to the South to take charge of the resistance to Cornwallis. A great soldier and a great organizer Greene found that he needed all his abilities. His coming gave new spirit to the survivors of Gates's army. He gathered militia from all directions and marched toward Cornwallis. Dividing his army into two parts, he sent General Daniel Morgan to threaten Cornwallis from one direction, while he threatened him from another direction. Cornwallis at once became uneasy and sent Tarleton to drive Morgan away, but the hero of many hard-fought battles was not easily frightened. He drew up his little force so skillfully that in a very few minutes the British were nearly all killed or captured.

161. The Guilford Campaign, 1781.--Cornwallis now made a desperate attempt to capture the Americans, but Greene and Morgan joined forces and marched diagonally across North Carolina. Cornwallis followed so closely that frequently the two armies seemed to be one. When, however, the river Dan was reached, there was an end of marching, for Greene had caused all the boats to be collected at one spot. His men crossed and kept the boats on their side of the river. Soon Greene found himself strong enough to cross the river again to North Carolina. He took up a very strong position near Guilford Court House. Cornwallis attacked. The Americans made a splendid defense before Greene ordered a retreat, and the British won the battle of Guilford. But their loss was so great that another victory of the same kind would have destroyed the British army. As it was, Greene had dealt it such a blow that Cornwallis left his wounded at Guilford and set out as fast as he could for the seacoast. Greene pursued him for some distance and then marched southward to Camden.

162. Greene's Later Campaigns.--At Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, the British soldiers who had been left behind by Cornwallis attacked Greene. But he beat them off and began the siege of a fort on the frontier of South Carolina. The British then marched up from Charleston, and Greene had to fall back. Then the British marched back to Charleston and abandoned the interior of South Carolina to the Americans. There was only one more battle in the South--at Eutaw Springs. Greene was defeated there, too, but the British abandoned the rest of the Carolinas and Georgia with the exception of Savannah and Charleston. In these wonderful campaigns with a few good soldiers Greene had forced the British from the Southern states. He had lost every battle. He had won every campaign.

163. Cornwallis in Virginia, 1781.--There were already two small armies in Virginia,--the British under Arnold, the Americans under Lafayette. Cornwallis now marched northward from Wilmington and added the troops in Virginia to his own force; Arnold he sent to New York. Cornwallis then set out to capture Lafayette and his men. Together they marched from salt water across Virginia to the mountains--and then they marched back to salt water again. Cornwallis had called Lafayette "the boy" and had declared that "the boy should not escape him." Finally Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, and Lafayette settled down at Williamsburg. And there they still were in September, 1781.

164. Plans of the Allies.--In 1780 the French government had sent over a strong army under Rochambeau. It was landed at Newport. It remained there a year to protect the vessels in which it had come from France from capture by a stronger British fleet that had at once appeared off the mouth of the harbor. Another French fleet and another French army were in the West Indies. In the summer of 1781 it became possible to unite all these French forces, and with the Americans to strike a crushing blow at the British. Just at this moment Cornwallis shut himself up in Yorktown, and it was determined to besiege him there.

165. Yorktown, September-October, 1781.--Rochambeau led his men to New York and joined the main American army. Washington now took command of the allied forces. He pretended that he was about to attack New York and deceived Clinton so completely that Clinton ordered Cornwallis to send some of his soldiers to New York. But the allies were marching southward through Philadelphia before Clinton realized what they were about. The French West India fleet under De Grasse reached one end of the Chesapeake Bay at the same time the allies reached the other end. The British fleet attacked it and was beaten off. There was now no hope for Cornwallis. No help could reach him by sea. The soldiers of the allies outnumbered him two to one. On October 17, 1781, four years to a day since the surrender of Burgoyne, a drummer boy appeared on the rampart of Yorktown and beat a parley. Two days later the British soldiers marched out to the good old British tune of "The world turned upside down," and laid down their arms.

166. Treaty of Peace, 1783.--This disaster put an end to British hopes of conquering America. But it was not until September, 1783, that Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay brought the negotiations for peace to an end. Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States. The territory of the United States was defined as extending from the Great Lakes to the thirty-first parallel of latitude and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Spain had joined the United States and France in the war. Spanish soldiers had conquered Florida, and Spain kept Florida at the peace. In this way Spanish Florida and Louisiana surrounded the United States on the south and the west. British territory bounded the United States on the north and the northeast.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS