Best Little Stories from the American Revolution

by C. Brian Kelly

  Nathanael Greene ignores Cornwallis now and returns to lower South to begin systematic reduction of British outposts—and eventual recapture of Charleston—over the next two years. Meanwhile, on April 6, Lafayette is ordered into Virginia with instructions to recapture Richmond. April 24, Lord Cornwallis leaves Wilmington for campaigning in Virginia as well. April 29, with Arnold and British allies still on the loose nearby, Lafayette retakes Richmond. May 9, British garrison at Pensacola falls to Bernado de Galvez—Spain controls both East and West Florida. May 20, Cornwallis appears in Petersburg, Virginia, with his reduced army of 1,500—reinforcements soon will swell his ranks to 7,200. June 4, British dragoons under Banastre Tarleton just miss capturing outgoing Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson and his legislature in lightning raid on Charlottesville, Virginia. June 10, Anthony Wayne and his troops join Lafayette in Virginia; Cornwallis by June 20 begins to move down the Virginia peninsula. He soon will pass through Williamsburg, cross the James River for brief respite at Portsmouth, Virginia, then recross the James and settle into Yorktown on the York River, also holding Gloucester Point on the far shore to protect his flank. Cornwallis is fully confident that he can be safely supplied by sea.

  August 14, in the North, French Count Rochambeau receives word from French Admiral de Grasse that he and his fleet are prepared to sail into the Chesapeake Bay as a screen between Cornwallis and his Royal Navy. August 21, George Washington and Rochambeau begin hasty march south to Virginia, hoping to find Cornwallis bottled up at Yorktown. August 26, de Grasse arrives off Virginia and can now plug the approaches to Yorktown well ahead of any British naval force trying to rescue or resupply Cornwallis. September 2, the French and Americans marching southward reach Philadelphia. September 5, French and British fleets engage off Virginia’s Cape Henry—victory goes to the French. With their naval relief force denied access and a large Franco-American land force approaching, the fate of the British at Yorktown is sealed. September 28, French and Americans take siege positions around Yorktown. October 19, formal surrender of the British forces at Yorktown, a French-American victory widely considered ever since the symbolic end of the Revolutionary War…but not quite so in practical fact. Many minor battles and skirmishes remain to be fought over the next two years as negotiators in Paris tackle their assignment of producing a final peace treaty recognizing American independence and an end to her war with Great Britain.

  Year 1782—July 11, British leave Savannah. August 15–19, frontier battles of Bryan’s Station and Blue Licks, both in Kentucky. November 30, preliminary peace terms signed in Paris. December 11, British disengagement continues with evacuation of Charleston.

  Year 1783—September 3, Treaties of Paris and Versailles officially end the war and all hostilities among the warring parties. November 25, last British garrison still in the future United States departs the long-held city of New York, along with about 7,000 Loyalists, or 7 percent of the 100,000 Loyalists who have fled the former colonies as a result of the Revolution. December 4, George Washington’s tearful farewell to his officers gathered at Fraunces’ Tavern in New York, followed by his own departure from the city. December 23, more emotion as George Washington bids farewell to Congress, assembled now at Annapolis, Maryland, and turns in his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army. He is wrong when he says, “I…take my leave of all the employments of public life.” He will soon reappear in public life as the new republic’s first president. In the meantime, however, this chapter of American history is over.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  C. BRIAN KELLY, A PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST, is a former columnist for Military History magazine and its first editor. He is also a lecturer in newswriting at the University of Virginia. As a reporter for The Washington Star, he was named 1976 Conservation Communicator of the Year by the National Wildlife Federation; he was also cited for his political reporting by the American Political Science Association and for local reporting by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

  Ingrid Smyer, his wife and coauthor, also boasts a background in journalism, along with service on community historical boards. She is a member of the Charlottesville (Va.) Historical Resources Committee and former member of the board for the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.