George Washington

B

10

Alliance With France

On May 1, 1778, Washington heard the news that transformed the nature of the war: A treaty of alliance had been signed between the United States and the king of France. Washington’s reaction was immediate: “If there is war between France and Britain, Philadelphia is an ineligible situation for the Army under Sir William Howe.” This remark is the first definite evidence of the idea taking form in Washington’s mind: to catch a British army in a situation where it could be hemmed in by a superior land force, with its escape or reinforcement by sea cut off. Washington did not know it, but blockading the British army in Philadelphia was exactly the enterprise that the French admiral the Comte d’Estaing, already at sea, had in mind. General Sir Henry Clinton, who took control of the British forces when Howe resigned that spring, was forewarned of the aim of the French fleet and withdrew his men and equipment to New York City. Washington ordered an attack on the retreating British at Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 28, 1778, but the attack failed because of the perfidy of General Charles Lee, who had been released and had resumed his command. Lee ordered his troops to retreat, an action that was revealed many years later as part of a plan of betrayal that he had agreed to with the British while they held him prisoner (see Monmouth, Battle of).

B

11

Effects of the Campaign

A letter written by Washington contains a striking description of the military situation in the summer of 1778: “It is not a little pleasing ... to contemplate that after two years’ manoeuvring and undergoing the strangest vicissitudes ... both armies are brought back to the very place they set out from, and that the offending [British] army at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickaxe for defense.”

Washington was aware of the negative effect produced in Britain by the utter collapse of British military efforts in America. His strategy became one of infinite patience, avoiding at all costs any serious disaster to his army, keeping the French firmly convinced of American reliability, and watching and planning to present the British with one more defeat comparable to Saratoga. Then the will of the British people to sustain the American war might well suffer a complete collapse.

C

The War Moves South

During 1779, Washington strengthened the positions that held the main British army in New York City. He also sent a strong expedition to lay waste the land of the Iroquois, whose British-incited raids on the frontier had become intolerable. But there was little he could do to stem British successes in the south. Savannah, Georgia, was lost in 1778 and Charles Town (now Charleston), South Carolina, in 1779, and Cornwallis had 5000 troops in the South to “reduce the Carolinas to the King’s obedience.”

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C

1

Naval Superiority

In July 1779 a French force of 6000 under the Comte de Rochambeau arrived, escorted by a naval squadron under Admiral de Ternay. Washington’s note discussing future operations began with a most significant sentence: “In any operations and under all circumstances, a decisive naval superiority is to be considered as a fundamental principle ....” This superiority was finally attained for the siege of Yorktown more than a year later.

C

2

Yorktown

The victory at Yorktown was one of Washington’s greatest triumphs. He had been forced to check his strong urge for a “vigorous offensive” until the second French fleet arrived. This happened in the late summer of 1781, and Washington with great energy coordinated a sea and land operation against Cornwallis’s force that trapped it in the city. With the British surrender on October 19, Washington obtained the victory he hoped would end the war. The following March the House of Commons, a chamber of Britain’s Parliament, declared its unwillingness to support the war in America.

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