Yorktown

Long and desultory debates followed, and it was not until late in 1777 that Congress presented to the states the Articles of Confederation.

Provincial jealousies delayed ratification, and it was the spring of 1781, a few months before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, when Maryland, the last of the states, approved the Articles.

This plan of union, though it was all that could be wrung from the reluctant states, provided for neither a chief executive nor a system of federal courts.

It created simply a Congress of delegates in which each state had an equal voice and gave it the right to call upon the state legislatures for the sinews of government, money, and soldiers.

His ringing call to arms was followed by another and another until the long contest was over.

CHAPTER VII.

Military Affairs The Two Phases of War The war, which opened with the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, and closed with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, passed through two distinct phases, the first lasting until the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, and the second until the end of the struggle.

During the first phase, the war was confined mainly to the north, The outstanding features of the contest were the evacuation of Boston by the British, the expulsion of American forces from New York, and their retreat through New Jersey, the Battle of Trenton, the seizure of Philadelphia by the British, September 1777, the invasion of New York by Burgoyne, and his capture at Saratoga in October 1777. and the encampment of american forces at valley forge for the terrible winter of seventeen seventy seven to seventeen seventy eight the final phase of the war opening with the treaty of alliance with france on february sixth seventeen seventy eight was confined mainly to the middle states the west and the south In the first sphere of action the chief events were the withdrawal of the British from Philadelphia, the Battle of Monmouth, and the enclosure of the British in New York, by deploying American forces from Morristown, New Jersey, up to West Point.

This expedition was commanded by Edward Cornwallis, the newly appointed Governor and Captain General of Nova Scotia.

He was a young officer of thirty-six, twin brother of the Reverend Frederick Cornwallis, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and uncle of the more famous Lord Cornwallis, who surrendered at Yorktown thirty-two years later.

With the colonists came many officers and disbanded soldiers.

came also the soldiers of the garrison which had occupied Louisbourg before the peace, for the new settlement, named Halifax in honour of the President of the Lords of Trade, was to be a military stronghold, as well as a naval base, and the seat of government for the province.

Between him and Rochambeau walked around together and had this argument.

Should we fight what we hope will be the final battle in Virginia at Yorktown or in New York City?

Rochambeau gradually over time convinces Washington that in fact the war can be won and it can be won in the American South and it can be won while Cornwallis is trapped at Yorktown.

Washington and Rochambeau join forces, and for the first time in the war, it looks like they may be able to make a decisive impact together.

They're marching quickly into the American South, to Virginia, where Cornwallis is holed up at Yorktown.

They were trying to get to Yorktown before the British forces in New York knew where they were going and had time to send reinforcements to help Cornwallis.

They marched south with a 19,000-man joint army, 450 miles to Yorktown.

In order for the combined Franco-American army to reach Virginia, they have to march 15 to 20 miles a day right through some British-occupied territories in the outskirts of New York City.

Many also went home quickly.

M- s- many also made significant battlefield contributions, which Lafayette did, but Lafayette uniquely didn't only take a bullet through the leg at Brandywine, help trap Cornwallis at Yorktown, leading to American independence, but I think uniquely was able to embrace the American cause, the American people, ingratiate himself to not only George Washington, who he formed a father-son relationship with, other American soldiers, but etched himself in the American mind long before the events that transpire in The Last Adieu.

And part of it, uh, is, you know, I love to compare Lafayette's early impressions of America once he arrived here in 1777 versus some of the other s- more seasoned French soldiers who accompanied him.

Um, some of his peers looked at the American cause as hopeless, the army as impotent, the American men as grotesque, the women as ugly, but Lafayette immediately was writing home to his wife Adrienne that the people were beautiful, the landscape was wonderful, the Americans had such simple Republican manners.

... true, yeah, symbolic, uh, evidence of their, uh, the, the intimacy of their relationship.

And Lafayette, of course, wrote back to Adrienne, uh, these letters are so effusive, effusive and maybe a little gilded, that he shared a tent with Washington, and they carried on like brothers.

So they were, they were close immediately, and then after the, the, the war ended, and w- Lafayette went home after Yorktown, and then the war ended in 1783.

Their correspondence is quite interesting because Lafayette was asking Washington to come to, to France to meet his family, and Washington said, "No, you come here.