Spring brought a revival of American hopes in the form of more supplies, new recruits, and, above all, word of the French alliance. In May 1778 the British replaced General Howe as commander with General Clinton, who decided to transfer his base back to New York. While Clinton was moving across New Jersey, Washington attacked him at Monmouth Court House. The fight was inconclusive, but the Americans held the field when the day ended and were able to claim a victory.
Thereafter British strategy changed. Fighting in the northern states degenerated into skirmishes and other small-unit clashes. Instead, relying on sea power, The supposed presence of many Tories in the South, and the possibility of obtaining the help of slaves, the British concentrated their efforts in South Carolina and Georgia. Savannah fell to them late in 1778, and most of the settled parts of Georgia were overrun during 1779. In 1780 Clinton led a massive expedition against Charleston. When the city surrendered in May, more than 3,000 soldiers were captured, the most overwhelming American defeat of the war. Leaving General Cornwallis and some 8,000 men to carry on the campaign, Clinton then sailed back to New York.
The Tories in South Carolina and Georgia came closer to meeting British expectations than in any other region, but the callous behavior of the British troops persuaded large numbers of hesitating citizens to join the Patriot cause. Guerrilla bands led by Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” Thomas Sumter (after whom Fort Sumter, famous in the Civil War, was named), and others like them provided a nucleus of resistance in areas that had supposedly been subdued. (For an additional perspective on this campaign, see Re-Viewing the Past at the end of this chapter about the movie, The Patriot.)
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SPANISH TERRITORY
Campaign in the South, 1779-1781 In 1779 the British moved south, seeking support from Loyalist strongholds in the port cities of Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, as well as some interior regions. After taking Charleston, the British were harried throughout South Carolina and North Carolina, prompting their retreat northward to Virginia.
But the tide soon turned. In 1779 the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Jose de Galvez, administered a stinging defeat to British troops in Florida, and in 1780 and 1781 he captured the British-held Gulf ports of Pensacola and Mobile. More important, in June 1780 Congress placed Horatio Gates in charge of a southern army consisting of the irregular militia units and a hard core of Continentals transferred from Washington’s command. Gates encountered Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina. Foolishly, he entrusted a key sector of his line to untrained militiamen, who panicked when the British charged with fixed bayonets. Gates suffered heavy losses and had to fall back. Congress then recalled him, sensibly permitting Washington to replace him with General Nathanael Greene, a first-rate officer.
A band of militiamen had trapped a contingent of Tories at King’s Mountain and forced its surrender. Greene, avoiding a major engagement with Cornwallis’s superior numbers, divided his troops and staged a series of raids on scattered points. In January 1781, at the
Battle of Cowpens in northwestern South Carolina, General Daniel Morgan inflicted a costly defeat on Colonel Banastre Tarleton, one of Cornwallis’s most effective officers. Cornwallis pursued Morgan hotly, but the American rejoined Greene, and at Guilford Court House they again inflicted heavy losses on the British. Then Cornwallis withdrew to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he could rely on the fleet for support and reinforcements. Greene’s Patriots quickly regained control of the Carolina backcountry.
World History
