The American Revolution In The South by Dave Booz

1. The American Revolution In The SouthbyDave Booz

2. The British decide to conquer the South • Benjamin Lincoln • The Americans, led by General Benjamin Lincoln, held Savannah and Charleston but the British thought that most of the population would be on the King’s side. • Savannah fell quickly to the British at the end of 1778. • The Americans, with French help, tried to re-capture the city.

3. American and French forces attack Savannah, October 9, 1779

4. The Charleston Campaign

5. British Leaders in the South • Lord Charles Cornwallis • Colonel Banastre Tarleton

6. The Swamp Fox • Francis Marion

7. Gates and de Kalb • Horatio Gates • Baron Johan de Kalb

8. Gates had force marched his menthroughbarren lands of the Carolina coast • These men of the Maryland Line would form the backbone of the American Army in the South, but they paid heavily in blood. • These Continentals were the match of any army in the world.

9. Battle of Camden, August 1780 • Gates had moved his men through barren land and he placed too much hope on his militia. • The British routed the American militia within minutes and the Maryland and Delaware Continentals fought to the finish. • Gates, on his race horse, ran off when the militia broke and did not stop until he got tot Charlotte, N.C. • De Kalb stood and died with his men.

10. British regulars flanked the Americans and the militia ran away

11. More Regulars marched to attack the Continentals from the front.

12. Hessians – These troops continued to fight for the King of England

13. Royal Highlanders

14. Defending Charleston • Forts Moultrie and Sullivan defended Charleston in 1776 when the British made their first attempt to capture the city. The Americans held the powerful British navy off and kept the city safe for the next 3 and a ½ years.

15. The Southern Campaigns in 1780

16. Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780 • Major Patrick Ferguson, an Irishman fighting for the King, led 1,000 Tories into the western regions of the Carolinas to destroy Rebel resistance. He warned the frontiersmen that he would “Lay waste to their country with fire and sword.” • The “over the mountain men”, led by Colonels Isaac Shelby, Jon Sevier, William Campbell, Charles McDowell, Joseph McDowell, and Benjamin Cleveland, come after Ferguson.

17. …a battle in the woods • The frontiersmen surrounded Kings Mountain and charged up the hill, surprising the Tories. • The battle raged back and forth for about an hour – Tory bayonets versus American rifles. • Ferguson was shot down and the Toryforce surrendered. • Firing continued for a while after the surrender – this was truly a civil war.

18. Kings Mountain had far reaching results • The Tories lost over a thousand men and Cornwallis’ plan to march north into North Carolina was greatly delayed. • The Americans tried 36 Loyalists for war crimes and hanged 9 of them. This was partly a result of local rivalries and partly the result of the way the British had massacred American troops in the South. • This battle revived American hopes and morale in the South at a time when it was desperately needed.

19. Morgan and Greene • Daniel Morgan • Nathanael Greene

20. The Southern Campaign in 1781

21. Cowpens, January 1781 • Dan Morgan waited at the Cowpens for Tarleton. • Morgan asked his militia to be in the front line and they only had to fire two times and then they could retreat! The Continentals would form his main line. • Tarleton pushed his men hard and all night long to get to Cowpens; he was very confident that he would destroy the Americans.

22. The Continentals – from Maryland, Delaware and Virginia – outfought the British regulars

23. William Washington fighting Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens

24. Tarleton’s force was destroyed • The Americans lost 12 killed and 124 wounded; the British lost 110 killed, 229 wounded and 900 prisoners, plus 2 cannons. Tarleton did manage to escape. • Another wing of the British force in the South was destroyed. • Morgan’s use of the militia was brilliant. • American morale soared and many Tories switched sides.

25. Greene had to train and equip his men to get them ready to continue the fight

26. Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781 • Nathaniel Greene attacked Lord Cornwallis at Guilford Court House in North Carolina. • The Americans outnumbered the British but the British were a very tough professional force and confident of victory. • Severe fighting was only decided when Cornwallis ordered his artillery to fire into the mass of infantry, hitting his own men as much as the Americans. • The British lost over 25% of their men but held the field – a terrible Pyrrhic victory. • “I never saw such fighting as God made me. The Americans fought like demons.” – Lord Charles Cornwallis

27. Guilford Court House

28. The Battle of Eutaw Springs, • General Nathaniel Greene wanted to drive the British out of South Carolina. He also wanted to re-capture Charleston. • The British, under Alexander Stewart, moved out to screen the city of Charleston and met Greene at Eutaw Springs plantation. • The fighting was bloody and desperate and the British had brick walls and a brick house, on the plantation for protection.

29. Eutaw Springs, September 8,1781

30. Washington moves to Virginia Cornwallis had moved into Virginia after the battle at Guilford Court House and established a base at Yorktown. During the summer of 1781 the British raided into Virginia and hoped that they would receive large reinforcements. Washington had sent the Marquis de Lafayette and Baron von Steuben to watch Cornwallis and try to stop him. With the help of the French Washington moves south

31. The Siege of Yorktown • The French navy, under Admiral Comte de Grasse, beat the British under Admiral Graves at the Battle of the Chesapeake and the British were trapped in Yorktown. • The Americans and French cooperated wonderfully and laid siege to the British. The cannons fired day and night and the Allies dug trenches to get closer to the British forts. • The Allies captured several British forts and made it impossible for the British to get any rest.

32. Yorktown

33. Washington and Rochambeau formed a great team

34. The British Surrender at Yorktown

35. Results of Yorktown • The Allies lost 72 killed and 180 wounded. • The British lost 309 killed, 326 wounded, and 8,087 prisoners – another army was captured by the Rebels. • British public opinion was very much against continuing this war. • The British had now lost almost all of their conquests except New York. • British diplomats agree to meet the Americans and French to conclude a peace treaty. This treaty will be the Treaty of Paris of 1783 in which the British recognize the independence of the United States of America.

36. Summary of the War in the South • The British were very successful at first but they could not control all of the land and American forces survived disasters to fight another day. • The Americans finally found the right leaders and gained local support; they did not win all of the big battles but they always managed to inflict heavy loses on the British after Kings Mountain. • The British lost the support of the local populations in the South and also lost the support of the people at home so that the war became very unpopular in Britain. This led to the end of the war.