-America's diplomatic successes
-England's naval problems
-Wartime profiteering
-Native American participation in the war
-The Second Southern Campaign
-The defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown
-The end of the war

[SLIDE 1]

Benjamin Franklin, the first American ambassador to France, was received enthusiastically in France. His wit and charm were appreciated by all, whether aristocrat or commoner. There was a good deal of popular sentiment in France in favor of the American Revolution. It was felt to be the embodiment of Enlightenment ideas. Moreover, France was still smarting from its losses to England in the French and Indian War and was enjoying this vicarious punishment of the British. Popular French support brought some important volunteers to the war, like Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who would later design Washington, D.C., and the Marquis de Lafayette, who became a military aide to George Washington and a combat general. To harm its rival, France had secretly been sending America military supplies—especially gunpowder—all along. It was French gunpowder that had brought the colonists victory against Burgoyne. Still, France hadn't wanted to stick its neck out too far while it was still recovering from its last encounter with the British. This was why Franklin had been unable to secure France's formal recognition of American independence. Now, following the Burgoyne disaster, King George was suddenly interested in a compromise. The Continental Congress, however, having tasted success, was no longer interested in mere compromise, but France did not know that. Fearing that England and America would reach a compromise, France acted to keep the war going, which was what Franklin had been maneuvering France to do. Signing a treaty with the U.S. meant France would be entering the war. Under the terms of the treaty, neither country could make a separate peace with England. Over the next two years, England's other two major enemies also recognized the United States, bringing Spain and the Dutch into the war, although the Dutch never formally declared war. George's resources would now be spread quite thin. It was France's participation that would win the war for the Americans.

[SLIDE 

With America gaining the support of other European nations, Great Britain now had larger issues to content with. It became necessary to guard its holdings in the Caribbean and to protect the British coastline against incursion from elsewhere in Europe. This meant scattering the ships of the royal navy, undermining Britain's sea blockade of the American coast. Worse still, France's participation meant British troops could be stranded in the U.S.

[SLIDE 3]

With France protecting ships and goods, merchandise became available in the colonies again. As often happens, trade with the enemy occurred at the same time as the war. Many of the manufactured goods coming to the colonies were made in England. These products became available on the black market. A surplus of paper money printed by Congress made it possible to buy such goods, but as time went on, that money became devalued because of its abundance. War profiteers sold essential goods to the army or the public at exorbitant rates. Officials sold government supplies for their own profit, which is called "graft.” Soldiers, recruiters, officers, and merchants all found corrupt ways to pocket money. By 1778, inflation was rampant and the government was broke. Knowledge that the government couldn't pay its soldiers caused enlistment to drop. The army began to resort to impressment, hardly an ideal way to create a committed fighting force.

[SLIDE 4]

Henry Clinton was now the commander of Britain's army in North America, having taken over command from General William Howe, who had in turn replaced Thomas Gage. Clinton knew that the coming French fleet could blockade the Delaware River and cut off the British army in occupied Philadelphia. Consequently, he intended to move his army to New York. He divided the troops into two divisions. The main body would go first more rapidly, followed by a massive baggage train accompanied by the second division. George Washington had spent the winter at Valley Forge rebuilding his army, and now the alliance with France had tilted the strategic balance. He decided to attack the slow-moving baggage train, comprised of 1,500 wagons. General Charles Lee was  ordered to lead the attack, but when the British return fire, Lee orders a retreat. Washington rides into the fray, rallies the troops, and orders them to stand their ground. With the discipline instilled in them by von Steuben, the American troops hold their lines. Lee's retreat had prevented a decisive victory, but Washington kept the day from being a rout. Then, a planned joint attack on Newport, RI, fails when the French admiral changes his mind. 

[SLIDE 5]

Native Americans remained "wild cards" in the war. Both sides tried to exploit their services. In Kentucky and western Virginia, Indian attacks were being incited by a British official willing to accept colonial scalps. This was an appalling practice exploited by both sides of the war, as evidenced in the nickname of Hamilton's colonial opponent, George "Long-Knife" Rogers Clark, who was leader of the patriot militia in Kentucky. In New York, an English-educated Mohawk who had grown up with many British connections in a multicultural environment, led a band of loyalists and Mohawk known as "Brant's Volunteers." Joseph Brant believed that if the Americans won, the Iroquois would lose. The ensuing Sullivan Expedition would break the power of the Iroquois, resulting in many of them moving to Canada for British protection. This would leave upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, the Ohio Country, Great Lakes region, and other areas safe for settlement by colonists.

[SLIDE 6]

While the war in the North stagnated, and Washington waited for the French fleet to help him, the focus of the war would again shift to the South. The opening move in Britain's new southern campaign was the capture of Savannah, Georgia, which occurred with loyalist assistance. Clinton then sailed for Charleston to avenge his earlier humiliation there. Several thousand Continental Army troops marched there to bolster the South Carolina militia in the defense of the city. The patriot base was a fortification known as the Citadel, from which they fired projectiles of broken bits of anything they could find, while the British fired mortars from their ships. After 6 weeks of siege, Charleston fell. Loyalists and patriots had been engaged in a civil war in the Carolinas since the British were defeated there in 1776. Now the loyalists joined British general Charles Cornwallis. Leading resistance to Cornwallis with a group of white and black volunteers was the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, who is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare. In the general state of lawlessness now seizing the Carolinas, outlaws pretending to be soldiers terrorized patriots and loyalists alike. In 1780, General "Granny" Gates, the hero of Saratoga, suffered a crushing defeat at Camden, South Carolina. Not long after, Washington replaced Gates with Nathanael Greene, who was able to soothe tensions somewhat in South Carolina. In the midst of America's difficulties in the South, General Benedict Arnold defected. The British had made overtures to several officers they knew were disillusioned with the course of the war and their treatment by Congress. It was Benedict Arnold who responded to their efforts. He planned to turn over the fort at West Point to the British but the plot was discovered and foiled.

[SLIDE 7]

Greene's strategy was to wear out the British chasing him. He sent Daniel Morgan and a large number of sharpshooters to western South Carolina to entice Banastre Tarleton into pursuit. Against his orders, Morgan met Tarleton in direct confrontation at the Battle of Cowpens, which he won decisively. It was a turning point in the struggle to retake South Carolina. Cornwallis now pursued Greene's main army, determined to destroy it, and they met in battle at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Although the British were victorious, the British losses were so great that the Americans won a strategic victory. Cornwallis retreats from the Carolinas. The Battle of Guilford Courthouse would ultimately lead to Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. Meanwhile, on the march to Virginia, he raided every farm and plantation he came to, commandeering horses and freeing slaves. He added 12,000 black troops to his army in this way. Other freed slaves sought refuge in Canada or the British stronghold of New York.

[SLIDE 8]

In the late spring of 1781, the final stages of the war began to take shape. Instead of attacking Clinton in Manhattan, Washington's Continental Army joined with the French forces of General Rochambeau and moved south toward Cornwallis in Virginia, while the French fleet under de Grasse left the West Indies and headed for the Chesapeake. French soldiers remarked on the fortitude and dedication of the near-naked, half-starved, unpaid American troops. Cornwallis, not knowing of these troop movements, moved to the port of Yorktown, under orders from Clinton to build a defensible port. When De Grasse's fleet arrived, the British fleet was still in the Caribbean. Yorktown was bombarded by both land and sea, and Cornwallis was forced to surrender. Britain now was forced to begin negotiating an end to the conflict, but the war did not neatly come to an end. 

[SLIDE 9]

The British still occupied Savannah, Charleston, and New York. Fighting between loyalists and patriots and between settlers and Native Americans continued. But in March 1782, Britain made clear that it had given up trying to win this conflict. 

[SLIDE 10]

The chief American negotiators were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. They knew that France had its own agenda and that England still wanted some degree of control in America. They demanded recognition of American independence as a precondition for any negotiations. The British had to agree. Negotiations then continued for a year, culminating in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. In order to reach an agreement, some of the terms of the treaty were vague: although there was a promise that the government would have states return confiscated property to loyalists, there was no provision for forcing the issue.