Winning the War

Chapter 4Section 4

Yarr!! Piracy and the

RevolutionWith 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 64 1,697

Total guns on ships

1,242 14,872

Enemy ships captured

196 2,283

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 ConvenienceDemocratic 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, 1783The 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.

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– Victory at Camden

• 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, 1781

http://www.britishbattles.com/images/yorktown/map-l.jpg

Surrender of the British at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.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.

Peace at ParisTreaty 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