Winning the War Chapter 4 Section 4

Yarr!! Piracy and the Revolution With no real navy, the Congress enlists the aid of privateers to raid British shipping. + provides gold and captured goods for the cause -graft and corruption, i.e. Benedict Arnold John Paul Jones commands a small fleet of enterprising ships. (French and Spanish navies do most of the fighting.)

Continental Navy Privateers Total ships 641,697 Total guns on ships 1,24214,872 Enemy ships captured 1962,283 Ships captured by enemy ?1,323 Privateers and Mariners in the Revolutionary War The 13 Colonies, having declared their Independence, had only 31 ships comprising the Continental Navy. To add to this, they issued Letters of Marque to privately owned, armed merchant ships and Commissions for privateers, which were outfitted as warships to prey on enemy merchant ships. Merchant seamen who manned these ships contributed to the very birth and founding of our Republic. Comparison of Navy vs. Privateers in Revolutionary War

A Marriage of Convenience Democratic America & Aristocratic France (Ben Franklin plays matchmaker) Alliance between France and Americans, 1778 TIPPING POINT: Balance of Power is against GB French Navy and the Marquis De Lafayette Baron Friedrich Von Steuben (Prussia) Howe must retreat to NY and w/d from Philly. France menaces British lines of supply.

Baron von Steuben training troops at Valley Forge

Lafayette at Yorktown by Jean- Baptiste Le Paon, 1783 The brilliant young French general appears here with his African-American aide, a Virginia slave named James. Among other services to Lafayette, James spied on Cornwallis before the latter's surrender. (Art Gallery, Williams Center, Lafayette College ) Lafayette at Yorktown by Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, 1783 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Surrender of the British at Yorktown, October 19, French naval power combined with American military savvy to produce the decisive defeat of the British. French provide all of the naval power and half of the troops (Library of Congress) Surrender of the British at Yorktown Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The British Move South The New Plan: Summer 1778 take port cities in South, rally Early Success: GA. Falls, Lord Cornwallis captures Charleston S.C. –Slaves and Loyalists assist Br. Army 1781 Washington sends Nathaniel Greene to bother Cornwallis as he moves into N.C. –Victory at Cowpens, defeat at Guilford CH.

The British Army in the South

The Yorktown Campaign Aug.-Oct., 1781

Victory at Yorktown Lafayette suggests attacking Cornwallis at Yorktown –17,000 Fr and Colonial troops siege the British at Yorktown –Fr. Navy defeated the British navy and cut off their escape route –After one month Cornwallis surrendered

Battle of Yorktown, Oct. 17,

Peace at Paris Treaty of Paris of 1783: Recognized the independence of the United States Recognized Florida, Mississippi and Old North West (Ohio, etc.) as part of U.S. Negotiated by Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Whigs (Tories, Lord North, and George III out) Americans make a separate peace with England, frustrating French and Spanish imperial ambitions