A Short History of the United States Part 17

[Sidenote: Clark's conquest of the Northwest, 1778-79. _Hero Tales_, 31-41.]

155. Clark's Western Campaign, 1778-79.--The Virginians had long taken great interest in the western country. Their hardy pioneers had crossed the mountains and begun the settlement of Kentucky. The Virginians now determined to conquer the British posts in the country northwest of the Ohio. The command was given to George Rogers Clark.

Gathering a strong band of hardy frontiersmen he set out on his dangerous expedition. He seized the posts in Illinois, and Vincennes surrendered to him. Then the British governor of the Northwest came from Detroit with a large force and recaptured Vincennes. Clark set out from Illinois to surprise the British. It was the middle of the winter. In some places the snow lay deep on the ground. Then came the early floods.

For days the Americans marched in water up to their waists. At night they sought some little hill where they could sleep on dry ground. Then on again through the flood. They surprised the British garrison at Vincennes and forced it to surrender. That was the end of the contest for the Northwest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WEST POINT IN 1790.]

[Sidenote: Benedict Arnold.]

[Sidenote: His treason, 1780 _Higginson_, 209-211; _McMaster_, 144]

156. Arnold and Andre, 1780.--Of all the leaders under Was.h.i.+ngton none was abler in battle than Benedict Arnold. Unhappily he was always in trouble about money. He was distrusted by Congress and was not promoted. At Saratoga he quarrelled with Gates and was dismissed from his command. Later he became military governor of Philadelphia and was censured by Was.h.i.+ngton for his doings there. He then secured the command of West Point and offered to surrender the post to the British. Major Andre, of Clinton's staff, met Arnold to arrange the final details. On his return journey to New York Andre was arrested and taken before Was.h.i.+ngton. The American commander asked his generals if Andre was a spy. They replied that Andre was a spy, and he was hanged. Arnold escaped to New York and became a general in the British army.

CHAPTER 16

INDEPENDENCE

[Sidenote: Invasion of the South.]

[Sidenote: Capture of Charleston, 1780.]

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.

[Sidenote: Battle of Camden, 1780.]

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.

[Battle of King's Mountain, 1780. _Hero Tales_, 71-78.]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS.]

[Sidenote: General Greene.]

[Sidenote: Morgan's victory of the Cowpens, 1781.]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL MORGAN THE HERO OF COWPENS.]

[Sidenote: Greene's retreat.]

[Sidenote: The Battle of Guilford, 1781.]

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.

[Sidenote: Greene's later campaigns, 1871-83.]

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.

[Sidenote: Lafayette and Cornwallis, 1781.]

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.

[Sidenote: The French at Newport, 1780.]

[Sidenote: Plans of the allies, 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 crus.h.i.+ng blow at the British. Just at this moment Cornwallis shut himself up in Yorktown, and it was determined to besiege him there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1783.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Siege of Yorktown.]

[Sidenote: The march to the Chesapeake.]

[Sidenote: Combat between the French and the British fleets.]

[Surrender of Yorktown, October 19, 1781. _Higginson_, 211-212.]

165. Yorktown, September-October, 1781.--Rochambeau led his men to New York and joined the main American army. Was.h.i.+ngton 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 Gra.s.se 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.

[Sidenote: Treaty of Peace, 1783.]

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 lat.i.tude 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

CHAPTER 14

---- 134-136.--_a_. Compare the advantages of the British and the Americans. Which side had the greater advantages?