WEBVTT NOTE 62. The Final Battle 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Volume 4, Chapter 62, The Final Battle 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:12.000 The previous two years had not been easy for Virginia, and she was ill-prepared for the part she now had to play, 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:22.000 for Cornwallis's decision to march north in April 1781 meant that the main theater of war now had shifted to her territory. 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:32.160 In May 1779, General Edward Matthew and 1800 men had landed unopposed at Portsmouth, in 5 00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:39.040 the southeastern corner of that state, and plundered and burned all the towns and plantations 6 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:45.600 in the Portsmouth-Suffolk area, inflicting a property loss of 2 million pounds without 7 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.120 the loss of a single man. 8 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:55.280 At the end of December 1780, General Benedict Arnold was sent from New York with 1600 men 9 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:02.480 to destroy military supplies and provide a diversion for Cornwallis's operations. 10 00:01:02.480 --> 00:01:10.080 Arnold sailed up the James River, but Virginia, apathetic and its supplies exhausted by furnishing 11 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:17.840 provisions for green, failed to assemble militia even in the face of the Arnold threat. 12 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.060 India was indeed in desperate straits. The fault lay neither with the people of that 13 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:30.240 state nor with its governor, Thomas Jefferson. All during 1780, as it became clear that the 14 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:36.720 South was the major theater of war, Jefferson had pleaded for supplies from the Continental 15 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:44.280 Congress. Yet, beginning in the spring of 1780, Congress refused and continued to send 16 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:51.000 all of its men and munitions to the north where they were scarcely needed. George Washington 17 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:57.680 having concurred in this ghastly decision, Congress in fact incredibly decreed that the 18 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:04.000 whole burden of the war in the south had to be borne by the southern states themselves. 19 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.640 And with the capture of George and the Carolinas, this meant that upon the citizens of Virginia 20 00:02:09.640 --> 00:02:15.560 Virginia alone was placed the entire burden of supplying both the North Carolina Theatre 21 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:21.840 and George Rogers Clark and the War in the West. All of Virginia's stock of ammunition 22 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:29.200 was therefore poured forth to aid the Carolina Campaign during 1780, and no entreaties could 23 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:35.680 move either Washington or the Continental Congress. As a result, by the end of 1780, 24 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:42.320 There were only 2,500 pounds of vital lead on hand in Virginia, and only a little over 25 00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:48.480 50,000 pounds of essential gunpowder, and much of this was damaged. 26 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:54.460 It was no wonder that such Virginia leaders as Richard Henry Lee were bleakly pessimistic 27 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:57.200 by the end of 1780. 28 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:04.360 Arnold sliced in to capture the capital, Richmond, on January 5, again without resistance from 29 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:10.160 from the demoralized Virginians and burned it to the ground, including its stores and 30 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:11.160 records. 31 00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:17.520 He also destroyed Virginia's only powder laboratory at Westham, its only cannon foundry, 32 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.680 and five or six tons of gunpowder. 33 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.040 He then retired to Portsmouth for the winter. 34 00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:30.360 Jefferson is often criticized for being unprepared, but despite the exhaustion of the state's 35 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:22.360 Washington, despite his comfortable position at Morristown, New Jersey, had not sent a single continental soldier to aid his home state. Instead, he hoarded supplies, refused to send aid, and led the denouncing of lifeless and inactive Virginia. 36 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:32.360 Green and Steuben, detailed by Washington, to recruit men in arms for the Southern Army, kept blaming Virginia for its troubles. 37 00:04:32.360 --> 00:04:47.360 As a means of striking a blow against the Jefferson administration, Steuben even engineered the ouster of George Muter as head of the Committee of the War Office of Virginia, making him a scapegoat for the success of Arnold's raid. 38 00:04:47.360 --> 00:05:00.360 And with the French fleet nowhere in sight, the British fleet harassed and blockaded the Virginia coast, their gunboats ranging up and down Virginia's rivers, plundering in hit-and-run raids. 39 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:14.360 Finally, in March 1781, the Virginia Assembly unofficially drew up a blistering remonstrance protesting their plight and sent it privately to the state's delegates in Congress. 40 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:43.360 This remonstrance pointed out that Virginia had gladly supplied Boston and the North when they were at stake, but now, after exhausting its resources, and with the South almost completely lost, the North sent no aid in return. Yet, despite these pleas and the intense shortage of lead and powder, no munitions aid was to be received from the North until September. 41 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:56.360 Washington had decided to try to pen Arnold in at Portsmouth, Virginia and had Lafayette set sail for Annapolis in early March 1781 with 1200 of Washington's troops. 42 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:05.360 At the same time, the French fleet and 1200 soldiers embarked from their base at Newport also to sail against Portsmouth. 43 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:12.360 But on March 16, Admiral Arbuthnot overtook the French at the mouth of the Chesapeake. 44 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:17.360 The British defeated the French task force and forced it to return to Newport. 45 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:25.360 At the same time, Arnold was superseded by General William Phillips, who arrived at Portsmouth with 2,600 men. 46 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:34.360 Then, in mid and late April, the two raided Petersburg, Virginia, and burned a large amount of tobacco. 47 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:41.520 They did the same at Manchester and Warwick and burned and sank a host of ships that the 48 00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:47.400 Americans had been preparing at Osborne's below Richmond. 49 00:06:47.400 --> 00:06:54.720 When Cornwallis began his march north from Wilmington on April 25, the situation in Virginia 50 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:58.280 was clearly auspicious for the British. 51 00:06:58.280 --> 00:07:05.280 Cornwallis' and Philip's armies joined at Petersburg on May 20. Now, with reinforcements 52 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:14.080 sent by Clinton, Cornwallis had a large force of 7,200 under his command at Petersburg. 53 00:07:14.080 --> 00:07:20.960 He was ready to roll. By this time, however, relations between Clinton and Cornwallis had 54 00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:27.400 deteriorated even further. Properly worried about the French fleet, Clinton abandoned 55 00:07:27.400 --> 00:07:34.040 his plans for a Chesapeake offensive temporarily, and withdrew the bulk of Cornwallis's forces 56 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:40.880 to New York. From this base an attack on Philadelphia could again be launched, after which Clinton 57 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:46.960 would return to the Chesapeake. The rest of Cornwallis's force was to take up its base 58 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:54.120 on the Chesapeake. But Cornwallis was determined on a Virginia offensive, and he ignored Clinton's 59 00:07:54.120 --> 00:08:08.120 He saw the weaknesses of Clinton's plan, which overlooked the immediate danger of attack by the French fleet on the Chesapeake, as well as the long-range volley of relying upon Tories. 60 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:17.120 But Cornwallis had no real plan either. Once he was in Virginia, with the public against him, what could he do with it? 61 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:33.120 Facing him at Petersburg was an army of 3,000 militia and continentals at Richmond under Lafayette with 500 new continental recruits under Steuben on the upper James River at Point of Fork. 62 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:40.120 After dispatching a force to reoccupy Portsmouth, Cornwallis moved north against Lafayette. 63 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:51.120 With his inferior force, Lafayette realized that the best he could do was to imitate Green's guerrilla tactics in avoiding and harrowing Cornwallis. 64 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:57.120 But when Cornwallis advanced northward, Lafayette quickly retreated to the northwest. 65 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:47.120 and then further south, Lafayette had received welcome reinforcements, over 900 Continentals under Anthony Wayne, 600 mounted riflemen under Colonel William Campbell, veteran of Kings Mountain, and Steuben's force of 500, who had managed to elude the British. 66 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:53.720 Swollen to 5,000 by mid-June, Lafayette's force was able to pressure Cornwallis toward 67 00:09:53.720 --> 00:10:01.200 Williamsburg and harass him as he went, Cornwallis finally arriving there on June 25. 68 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:07.060 Harried by Lafayette's excellent strategy and maneuvering, his military abilities had 69 00:10:07.060 --> 00:10:12.560 clearly matured over the course of the war. Cornwallis's high hopes for the Virginia 70 00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:19.800 Campaign had taken but a month to sour. At Williamsburg began the tangled and hopeless 71 00:10:19.800 --> 00:10:26.960 quarrel about strategy between Clinton and Cornwallis. The outcome of Clinton's flurry 72 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:33.200 of confused and contradictory directives was that Cornwallis should take up a defensive 73 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:40.480 spot on the Chesapeake as a base for a future Chesapeake campaign and Cornwallis moved his 74 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:55.480 and his troops from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. During this March, Lafayette's tactics slipped, and both he and Wayne were drawn into a sharp but minor engagement at Greenspring on July 6. 75 00:10:55.480 --> 00:11:05.480 In spite of this defeat for the Americans, the disgruntled Cornwallis failed to follow up his advantage to try to destroy Lafayette's army. 76 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:10.480 Finally, pursuant to Clinton's orders about the Chesapeake, he transferred his army at 77 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:17.240 the end of July by sea from Portsmouth to Yorktown, at the mouth of the York River. 78 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:23.760 There he sat, on the defensive, his bold Virginia campaign as shambles around him. 79 00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:29.920 He was obviously a sitting duck for a properly organized American force. 80 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:33.800 The War of the Revolution was now entering its final phase. 81 00:11:33.800 --> 00:11:39.600 The last phase of a revolutionary guerrilla war, which the American war had been in its 82 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:46.280 victorious campaigns in the New York and Southern campaigns, if not in Washington's series of 83 00:11:46.280 --> 00:11:51.600 disastrous pitched battles, is always the most difficult. 84 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:57.400 In this final phase, even though the war is going well, a final coup de grace must be given 85 00:11:57.400 --> 00:12:00.080 to the cornered and dangerous enemy. 86 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:06.040 The Burgoyne's worn-down army, in its final phase, had been neatly surrounded in the woods 87 00:12:06.040 --> 00:12:10.480 and trapped by a rising and gathering local militia. 88 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:16.720 That was easy, but if the enemy is in a city, especially if that city is near the sea and 89 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:24.440 can be defended by naval forces, the guerrilla army must, to execute its final coup, become 90 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:29.640 a conventional force and fight in frontal attack. 91 00:12:29.640 --> 00:12:35.440 And that is not so easy. New York City, for example, was never to be recaptured by the 92 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:42.520 American forces. It was true that Cornwallis, obliged to hold the Chesapeake, did not have 93 00:12:42.520 --> 00:12:50.040 the advantage of being in a city, but he was in a port. The key to besieging and surrounding 94 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:59.040 him therefore lay in control of the sea, or rather the lower Chesapeake Bay outside Yorktown. 95 00:12:59.040 --> 00:13:05.280 Washington had never given up his reckless dream of a frontal assault on New York City. 96 00:13:05.280 --> 00:13:11.600 On May 21, Washington arranged a conference at Weathersfield, Connecticut with the Comte 97 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:17.480 de Rochambeau, the head of the formidable French force that had occupied Newport since 98 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:20.400 mid-1780. 99 00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:25.520 Washington managed to persuade him to join him in an attack on New York. 100 00:13:25.520 --> 00:13:33.520 Accordingly, the French marched westward and joined Washington at White Plains north of New York in early July. 101 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:40.520 But it soon became clear even to Washington that the French fleet was required for the attack. 102 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:47.520 Admiral de Grasse wrote that he was bringing the French fleet and 3,000 French troops from the West Indies. 103 00:13:47.520 --> 00:13:54.520 He would be sailing on August 13 but to the Chesapeake and not to New York. 104 00:13:54.520 --> 00:14:14.520 De Grasse had been slowly influenced by Rochambeau's reluctance about the New York scheme. It was now clear to everyone that Cornwallis at Yorktown should be the target of all the allied efforts, and Washington finally prepared to march the bulk of his force to Virginia. 105 00:14:14.520 --> 00:14:19.520 There were only two ways Clinton could prevent the surrounding and finish of Cornwallis. 106 00:14:19.520 --> 00:14:29.520 He could follow Washington down and reinforce his colleague, or he could intercept and repulse De Grasse with the British fleet. 107 00:14:29.520 --> 00:14:37.520 De Grasse, with a firm grasp of the importance of the occasion, boldly decided to send his entire fleet to America 108 00:14:37.520 --> 00:14:43.520 and to abandon the expected huge convoy from the West Indies to France. 109 00:14:43.520 --> 00:14:49.880 In contrast, the British Admiral Rodney not only remained for months to plunder St. Eustatius 110 00:14:49.880 --> 00:14:57.040 at his leisure, and so lost the precious opportunity to engage and cripple the French fleet, but 111 00:14:57.040 --> 00:15:01.520 also took several of his largest ships home to England. 112 00:15:01.520 --> 00:15:06.960 Instead of intercepting De Grasse then, the British fleet was depleted and sailed late 113 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.200 to America. 114 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:13.600 As for Clinton, Washington fooled him until the very last moment. 115 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:19.760 Preparing to march with 5,000 of Rochambeau's men and 2,000 of his own to Virginia, he made 116 00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:26.200 it look as if his forces were basing themselves at Chatham, New Jersey, for an attack on Staten 117 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:27.520 Island. 118 00:15:27.520 --> 00:15:32.560 Maneuvering in this way all during the last week of August, Washington struck swiftly 119 00:15:32.560 --> 00:15:38.920 southward on August 29, leaving only 2,500 men to guard the Hudson. 120 00:15:38.920 --> 00:15:45.080 Boehm's only hope of stopping Washington had been to race out and smash him in New Jersey, 121 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:50.120 but he was completely duped and lost his last chance to save the day. 122 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:56.320 In the meantime, de Grasse arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake on August 30, landed 123 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:01.920 his troops and blockaded the mouths of the York and James Rivers. 124 00:16:01.920 --> 00:16:05.700 The blockade of Yorktown had begun. 125 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:11.260 The British West Indies fleet had been left to Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, but his depleted 126 00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:15.100 force could not now defeat de Grasse. 127 00:16:15.100 --> 00:16:20.580 The British still might have intercepted de Grasse, however, if Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, 128 00:16:20.580 --> 00:16:26.540 commanding the fleet at New York, had rushed south to join Hood and check the French. 129 00:16:26.540 --> 00:16:34.340 Instead, he had wandered ineffectually off Boston and waited passively for Hood to arrive 130 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:40.820 at New York. Finally united, Hood and Graves came upon De Grasse at the entrance to the 131 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:51.060 Chesapeake on September 5. The depleted British fleet had 19 ships against De Grasse's 24. 132 00:16:51.060 --> 00:16:57.060 The British desperately needed a smashing naval victory, but the French needed only 133 00:16:57.060 --> 00:17:03.980 a draw to maintain control of Chesapeake Bay. Graves missed several signals and passed 134 00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:10.620 asked up two good opportunities for quick victory, and the French got their draw. 135 00:17:10.620 --> 00:17:16.220 Hood urged a further attack on the Chesapeake, and had Graves agreed, Cornwallis might have 136 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:17.740 been saved. 137 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:23.860 It was still possible for French Admiral Barras to have been prevented from joining de Grasse 138 00:17:23.860 --> 00:17:28.380 out of Newport with his siege equipment and eleven ships. 139 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:34.240 The British fleet might have helped Cornwallis to break out of the siege by land. 140 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:39.340 Even more important than these considerations, however, was the possibility that the British 141 00:17:39.340 --> 00:17:46.580 ships, blockaded in the Chesapeake, might be surrounded and captured themselves, and 142 00:17:46.580 --> 00:17:51.820 that would have meant not just the loss of the war against the Americans, but the loss 143 00:17:51.820 --> 00:17:55.340 of the broader war against the French as well. 144 00:17:55.340 --> 00:18:00.580 The British, after all, had a worldwide empire to protect. 145 00:18:00.580 --> 00:18:05.740 In light of this, Graves' decision to give up and return to New York was probably the 146 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:13.140 prudent one, even though it doomed Cornwallis and the entire British effort in America. 147 00:18:13.140 --> 00:18:19.260 De Grasse, in the meantime, used the French fleet to move most of the Washington Rochambeau 148 00:18:19.260 --> 00:18:31.260 from the Upper Chesapeake to the James River by water, and by late September, Washington's Army had joined Lafayette to besiege Yorktown. 149 00:18:31.260 --> 00:18:43.260 For his part, Clinton, having missed his chance at New Jersey, lacked the numbers to march to Virginia by land, and was prevented from relieving Cornwallis by the French fleet. 150 00:18:43.260 --> 00:18:53.260 Only the reinforced and refitted Navy could go, but the Navy was bogged down by poor morale and graves as sloth and indecision. 151 00:18:53.260 --> 00:19:07.260 On October 19, after a month of desperate pleas from Cornwallis, Clinton, the fleet and 7,000 troops at last began to sail south in an effort to relieve the Army at Yorktown. 152 00:19:07.260 --> 00:19:18.260 Admiral Barras joined de Grasse on September 10 and the siege of Yorktown by land and sea began on September 28. 153 00:19:18.260 --> 00:19:22.260 The Franco-American forces were enormous. 154 00:19:22.260 --> 00:19:29.260 The huge French fleet, nearly 7,800 French troops and over 8,800 Americans, 155 00:19:29.260 --> 00:19:38.860 of whom nearly 3,200 were newly gathered Virginia militia, a force as the Americans had not gathered since the beginning of the war, 156 00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:45.260 was pitted against Cornwallis's army of only a little more than 7,000. 157 00:19:45.260 --> 00:19:51.660 Siege guns began their continual fire upon Yorktown on October 9, 158 00:19:51.660 --> 00:19:59.660 And the Franco-American forces were able to push Cornwallis inward and to move their own guns forward. 159 00:19:59.660 --> 00:20:09.660 Trying desperately to ferry his troops across the river to Gloucester on the night of October 16, Cornwallis was foiled by a storm. 160 00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:14.660 Finally, his battered troops could take the bombardment no longer. 161 00:20:14.660 --> 00:20:21.580 Cornwallis proposed surrender terms on October 17 and surrendered his force two days later 162 00:20:21.580 --> 00:20:28.300 as the British band appropriately played The World Turned Upside Down. 163 00:20:28.300 --> 00:20:35.220 The southern strategy was irrevocably over and it became clear to the stunned and discouraged 164 00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:41.260 British that they could not hope to defeat the American rebellion. 165 00:20:41.260 --> 00:20:47.460 At the last it had been the French siege guns and the American artillery wielded and commanded 166 00:20:47.460 --> 00:20:55.460 by General Henry Knox that had proved to be the decisive tactical stroke in forcing surrender. 167 00:20:55.460 --> 00:20:59.900 Failing this bombardment, Cornwallis would have been able to hold on until Clinton's 168 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:05.740 arrival and it was at least possible that Clinton's army and navy could have relieved 169 00:21:05.740 --> 00:21:07.460 Cornwallis. 170 00:21:07.460 --> 00:21:10.740 As it was, he could only turn back to New York. 171 00:21:10.740 --> 00:21:16.560 In the larger sense, however, it is doubtful that even a successful relief of Cornwallis 172 00:21:16.560 --> 00:21:21.500 could have accomplished much for British hopes of crushing the rebellion. 173 00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:27.000 The southern strategy was finished, and Clinton's upper Chesapeake scheme was the only thing 174 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:28.640 left to try. 175 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:35.980 When it failed, Britain would have been left, albeit at some time later, as it was then, 176 00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:43.060 with only Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington and New York City as outpost in the United 177 00:21:43.060 --> 00:21:47.820 States and with no hope of advancing from them. 178 00:21:47.820 --> 00:21:54.900 While the war, for all intents and purposes, was over after Yorktown, this was not known 179 00:21:54.900 --> 00:22:01.140 at the time, although everyone knew that the surrender was a staggering blow. 180 00:22:01.140 --> 00:22:06.860 For one thing, mopping up operations were still needed in the Lower South. 181 00:22:06.860 --> 00:22:13.500 After his strategic victory at Utah Springs, Green had pushed the British into Charleston, 182 00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:17.100 but he was soon in heavy internal trouble. 183 00:22:17.100 --> 00:22:21.960 Encamped at the high hills of the Santee, his militia departed. 184 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:28.620 His hungry, unclothed and unpaid continentals began to threaten mutiny, and even to plot 185 00:22:28.620 --> 00:22:35.620 not turning green over to the British. But with Cornwallis's capture, American reinforcements 186 00:22:35.620 --> 00:22:41.760 could arrive, and General Author St. Clair and a force of 2,000 Continentals marched 187 00:22:41.760 --> 00:22:49.000 south from Yorktown, driving the British garrison out of Wilmington and into Charleston, and 188 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:56.920 mopped up South Carolina. Bans under William Washington and Harry Lee, meanwhile, incessantly 189 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:02.280 harassed and helped pen the British Inn at Charleston. 190 00:23:02.280 --> 00:23:07.480 Wayne was detached from St. Clair's force and moved into Georgia, mopping up Tory and 191 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:11.760 Indian bands and penning the British Inn at Savannah. 192 00:23:11.760 --> 00:23:17.040 He continued pressing the British in Savannah while Green did the same in Charleston, but 193 00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:21.920 the return of de Grasse's fleet to the West Indies meant that the British could not be 194 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.680 be immediately conquered in either of these two cities.