Marc Liebman's Blog, page 27

Avarice and Greed Contributes to Cornwallis’ Surrender

One of the more hotly contested theaters of the American Revolution was the Caribbean. American, British, French and Spanish privateers prowled the waters. The French were hell bent on recouping their losses in the Seven Years War and aggressively went after Caribbean islands held by the British.

First to fall was Dominica in September 1778. The British then took St. Lucia from the French in December 1778. France captured St. Vincent in June 1779 which was followed up by seizing Grenada in July of the same year. Many single ship battles and fleet actions were fought in Caribbean waters. One affected the land war raging in the Thirteen Colonies in ways that none of the participants anticipated.

On February 3rd, 1781, Vice Admiral Rodney and his fleet descended on the Dutch island of Sint Eustatius because the island was being used as a base for American warships and privateers. When his fleet arrived, there were 130 merchant ships anchored in the bay defended by only a small Dutch frigate and five American warships. The Dutch quickly surrendered the island.

Sensing a fortune in prize money, Rodney stayed to supervise surveying the ships and consolidating cargoes to bring to England. The prize money pool estimate was £3,000,000 (£542,020,500 or $693,786,240.00 in 2021). Based on the Royal Navy’s prize money formula, Rodney’s share as the fleet commander was 1/8 or 12.5% of the total. Today, his £375,000 would be worth a tidy £62,752,562.50 or $86,723,280.00.

Rodney’s orders were to follow the Comte de Grasse and the French Caribbean fleet that was headed to Chesapeake Bay to support Washington’s campaign against Cornwallis. Instead, Rodney (and his fleet) stayed in Sint Eustatius while he was personally involved in the valuation of the captured ships and their cargo. Rodney sent Rear Admiral Hood’s squadron north.

Hood didn’t find de Grasse and went to New York to join forces with Admiral Graves. Together, Graves and Hood sailed south to relieve Cornwallis. They found de Grasse off Chesapeake Bay and failed to defeat the French Admiral, thus sealing Cornwallis’ fate at Yorktown.

Had Rodney went north, the Royal Navy would have outnumbered the French Navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake. Had he done so, the outcome of Yorktown may have been different.

While at Sint Eustatius, Rodney decided to loot the island’s large Jewish community. First, he extorted money from the wealthy Jewish merchants, going so far as having them strip searched and their clothes ripped open to make sure they were not hiding money or valuables. Finding none, he ordered graves to be dug up hoping to find money, gold and jewelry. None were found and the anti-Semitic Rodney ordered Sint Eustatius’ wealthiest Jews taken to prisons on St. Kitts. British control of the island lasted only 10 months and eventually, all the deported Jews returned to the island.

Rodney’s actions at Sint Eustatius were condemned publicly in Parliament which demanded an investigation into the Rodney’s actions. Lord North, the prime minister, left Rodney in command of his fleet and operations in the Caribbean.

Rodney’s avarice and greed didn’t pay off. Most of the ships were recaptured by the French on the way back to England and the prize money Rodney received was a pittance compared to what he anticipated.

Cornwallis’ defeat led to the fall of Lord North’s government and the start of peace negotiations in March 1781. Lord Rockingham’s new government demanded Rodney be relieved for cause. Before the orders arrived, Rodney decisively defeated the French and Spanish Navies at the Battle of the Saintes and stopped a Franco/Spanish invasion of Jamaica.

After Rodney’s victory, the French secretly opened negotiations with the British. Buoyed by the Saintes’ victory, the British changed their position on what concessions they would grant to the Americans in a peace treaty. The Battle of the Saintes saved Rodney’s career because when he returned to England, he was given a peerage.

Image is a Dutch engraving comparing Rodney’s actions on Sint Eustatius to Caligula and Nero.

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Naval Battle That Knocked France Out of the American Revolution

By early 1782, the British knew they had lost the war against the Thirteen Colonies. Cornwallis had surrendered in October 1781 and Parliament dictated that offensive operations in North America shall cease. North’s government fell in March 1782 and the new government under Lord Rockingham opened negotiations to end hostilities.

But the fighting continued. General Greene was slowly regaining control of Georgia and South Carolina but Savannah and Charleston were still occupied and General Clinton was still holed up in New York.

A separate alliance, unknown to the Americans pit France and Spain against Britain. Spain desperately wanted Gibraltar back and the French wanted control of the Caribbean. By 1782, the French had captured Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts, Saint Vincent and Tobago.

With Gibraltar under siege by a combined Spanish/French force, the three Spanish and French goals in 1782 were (1) continue to aid the Americans and help them recapture their cities; (2) capture the last of the British held Windward Islands – The Grenadines; and (3) conquer Jamaica.

Britain anticipated the Franco-Spanish plan and sent Vice Admiral George Rodney and Rear Admiral Samuel Hood and a fleet of ships to the Caribbean to prevent further losses of British territory. French Admiral deGrasse was in command of the combined Spanish/French fleets as well as an invasion force that would attempt to take Jamaica.

The two fleets met off a small cluster of islands known as The Saintes located in the Guadeloupe Channel between Guadeloupe and Dominica. The battle took place between April 9th and April 13th, 1782 and was a disaster for the French and Spanish. British seamanship, tactics and gunnery carried the day. DeGrasse and his flagship were captured. In the battle, French and Spanish lost 7,000 to 8,000 men while the butcher bill for the Royal Navy was 243 dead and 813 wounded.

Rodney’s decisive victory was a watershed event in naval history because it changed the way battles would be fought in the future. Not as well-known is the significant impact the Battle of the Saintes had on the newly begun negotiations that would ultimately lead to American independence. Confident of victory, the Americans asked for Canada, Newfoundland as well as the land from the Atlantic to the Mississippi all of which, prior to the Battle of the Saintes, the British were prepared to give up. After the Battle of the Saintes, their position stiffened and Canada and Newfoundland were taken off the table.

France’s defeat at Saintes meant that the French navy would not take on the Royal Navy’s North American squadron protecting Clinton in New York. Nor would there be any aid to General Greene to help him recapture Charleston and Savannah.

The battle effectively knocked France out of the war in North America. Already deep in debt and realizing that they could not afford the siege against Gibraltar as well as help the Americans, the French used the repatriation of deGrasse as the vehicle to open negotiations with the British. Neither the British nor the French bothered to inform the Americans.

By directly negotiating with the British without the Americans, the French knowingly violated the Treaty of Alliance and the Franco-American alliance fell apart. In the end, the French lost more than they gained. In North America, Britain regained all the islands they lost and kept Canada and Newfoundland. France’s only gain was that it kept the Caribbean island of Tobago and some turf in Senegal. The siege of Gibraltar failed and Spain’s treaty with Britain allowed it to keep the island of Minorca but nothing else.

Nonetheless, getting the Treaty of Paris negotiated required 17 long months. The rise and fall of three British governments (Rockingham 3/27/1782 – 7/1/1782; Shelburne 7/7/1782 – 3/26/1783 and Cavendish 4/2/1783 – 12/18/1783) complicated the process before the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3rd, 1783.

The agreement didn’t become effective until May 4th, 1784 under a fourth British government led by William Pitt who became prime minister on December 19th, 1793. He would lead the country until March 4th, 1801 and would spend most of his time in office fighting the French!

Image is a 1795 engraving of deGrasse surrendering to Rodney by an unknown artist.

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What did Jefferson Really Buy?

When the Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase on October 20th, 1802, no one in Washington really knew what the country bought for $15,000,000. The boundaries were not well defined and it was not until 1819 – 17 years, three expeditions and three treaties later – that the U.S. had a much better definition of the borders of the land bought from France.

On August 31st, 1803, Lewis and Clark set off from St. Louis on what would become one of the most significant and epic voyages of discovery in U.S. history. They returned on September 25th, 1806 – three years and 25 days later – with a treasure trove of information. However, they only explored a fraction of the 828,000 square miles of what was bought.

The Red River Expedition, a.k.a. the Freeman-Custis Expedition set out on April 16th, 1806 from near what is now known as Natchez, Mississippi. Heading west, the 24 men wanted to find the headwaters of the Red River. The expedition ran into Spanish soldiers 615 miles west of where they started. At a place now known as Spanish Bluff, they turned back.

Expedition three is named the Pike Expedition that lasted 14 days short of a year. Led by Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, their mission was to explore what is now the state of Colorado. Unfortunately, they went “off course” and wound up in New Mexico. Taken prisoner by the Spanish, Pike was ultimately released, but some of his men were kept as POWs for several years.

Net net, these expeditions still didn’t give us precise information on what the Louisiana Territory boundaries were, some of which were still in dispute. The treaty gave us all the territory to the 50th parallel in what is known as Rupert’s Land which was then and still is part of Canada. The western boundary was defined as the crest of the Rocky Mountains and the drainage basin of the Mississippi River. The eastern boundary was simple, the west bank of the Big Muddy.

While the French were negotiating the purchase, they didn’t have the documents that gave them title to the land sold to the Americans. The loosely bounded territory was originally French but as the big loser in the Seven Years War, they ceded the land to Spain. Even after the American Revolution, the French still had dreams of owning territory in North America that they could eventually use as a base to take back Canada from the hated English.

Napoleon, through the very secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso which was signed on October 1st,1800, got the Spanish to give back the Louisiana Territory in exchange for territory in what we now know as Italy. Spain delayed turning over the paperwork because they were mad at the French for not fulfilling many of the clauses of this and other treaties.

The transfer of the land left the U.S. to negotiate with Spain and Britain to more accurate define the Louisiana Territory’s borders. The Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 also ended British hopes designs on turf south of Canada. In the treaty, the British gave up any claim to the Louisiana Territory and withdrew from the forts it had built in the region. This agreement set the stage for the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 which set the northern border of the U.S. west of the Great Lakes along the 49th parallel where it resides today.

Dealing with Spain took much longer. In 1819, the U.S. concluded the Adams-Onis Treaty that better defined the western boundaries of the Louisiana Territory. The agreement gave the Louisiana which had been a state since April 30th, 1812, land in the Mississippi delta, the land that is now southern Mississippi and Alabama and set the western boundary of Florida to what it is today. Spain also ceded Florida to the U.S. which didn’t become a state until March 3rd, 1845!

 

Image courtesy of Wikipedia shows Louisiana Territory after the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819

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Financing the Louisiana Purchase

The new United States of America had a Mississippi River problem because in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Britain was guaranteed access to the river that ran down the middle of the North American land mass. The treaty that ended the American Revolution gave the U.S. the land east of the Mississippi, not both sides of the river. Through New Orleans, the French controlled the entrance to the land west of the Big Muddy and could prevent any ship from going up the river.

France, now led by Napoleon, had a North American problem. To him, maintaining a large portion of North America seemed impossible given the French loss of Canada to the British during the Seven Years War. His focus was on England and Europe and believed he could not defend a large portion of the North American continent. However, to prevent the British from capturing New Orleans, he sent more troops to defend the city that controlled the entrance to the Mississippi.

That didn’t play well in Washington. President Madison’s representative in France was already discussing buying the land around the mouth of the Mississippi. Discussions led by Robert Livingston were progressing slower than Madison wanted so James Monroe, his Secretary of State, was dispatched to speed the talks along before Napoleon changed his mind.

Shortly before Monroe arrived in Paris, Napoleon’s representative in the talks – François Barbé-Marbois – offered to sell the whole Louisiana Territory to the U.S. All 880,000 square miles for $15,000,000 or roughly $.65/acre.

Undaunted, the Americans quickly agreed to the price and set about finding the financing. Monroe and Livingston were faced with two immediate problems. One, they were only authorized to commit to up to $10,000,000. Two, the U.S. government didn’t have the money.

The pair turned to an unlikely source, a British merchant bank named Barings. Founded in 1762 by German born British wool merchant, Francis Baring, the firm already had worked with man American merchants before and after the American Revolution.

As an aside, this is the same Barings Bank that in 1995 Nick Leeson stuck with £887 million in losses from fraudulent investments and bad commodity trading decisions. Forced to close after 233 years in business. the Dutch firm ING bought the bank that same year for £1.

Back to funding the Louisiana Purchase. What emerged was a series of financial transactions based on the exchange rate of 5.3 French francs to each U.S. dollar. First, the United States government assumed $3.75 million debts owed to American citizens by the French government, companies and individual Frenchmen.

The balance of $11.25 million was funded by issuing U.S. bonds with an interest rate of six per cent and semi-annual payments of $337,500/year. The bonds would amortize over 15 years.

Napoleon needed money to pay for his wars and in steps Francis Barings who sensed an opportunity. He and Barings Bank purchased of all the bonds at a 12.5% discount. Barings paid $.875/dollar of value and agreed to pay the French $1,132,208 within 30 days and $377,358 a month until the balance was paid off. So, Napoleon got his cash and now, Barings Bank held $11.25 million in U.S. bonds that would generate six per cent interest on the principal for which he paid only $9.843,375.

Barings sold all the bonds to investors in London and Amsterdam. Barings made a healthy 12.5% gross profit from the transaction. In the end, Napoleon received far less than his asking price of $15 million because $3.75 of the deal was really debt forgiveness. Apply the 12.5% discount Napoleon gave Barings for the $11.25 million, and Napoleon only received about $9.84 million in cash for the Louisiana Territory.

Image of Louisiana Bond courtesy of Howe & Ruisling’s website.

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Jefferson’s Big Land Buy

Even before the U.S. had “digested” the land the fledgling United States acquired from England through the Treaty of Paris, its third president, Thomas Jefferson wanted more land. Known as the Louisiana Purchase, the un-surveyed territory included parts or all of 15 future states and two Canadian provinces.

Louisiana was the southern anchor of France’s presence in North America and changed hands several times during the 18th Century. After France’s defeat in the Seven Years war, in 1762 the territory was split. Land east of the Mississippi went to Great Britain and everything west of the river was ceded to Spain.

Through the secret 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, Spain gave the Louisiana territory to France. French citizens living east of the Mississippi who didn’t want to live under British rule were allowed to migrate to land west of the “Big Muddy.” Later, they learned they were now subjects of King Carlos of Spain. None of these terms were disclosed while France was negotiating the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War.

Twenty years later, as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution, England gave the new U.S. all its land south of Canada and east of the Mississippi. The boundary between the U.S. and Spanish Florida was ill defined.

In 1794, Spain closed the Mississippi to American merchants. America’s ambassador to Great Britain, Thomas Pickney, negotiated a treaty with Spain known by three names – Pinkney’s Treaty, Treaty of San Lorenzo or Treaty of Madrid to more precisely define the southern boundary given to the U.S. by England in the Treaty of Paris. Signed on October 27th, 1795, the document established the northern border of the state of Florida and the southern borders of what are now the states of Alabama and Mississippi along the 31st parallel.

Spain, however, had designs on other territory. With war raging in Europe, Spain and France negotiated Third Treaty of San Ildefonso treaty signed in October 1800. Through this secret deal, Spain traded the Louisiana territory back to France for the Italian dukedom of Tuscany.

In the Caribbean, in 1801 Napoleon was trying to put down a slave rebellion in Haiti led by Toussaint Louverture. Jefferson followed a two-faced policy. Publicly, he said the U.S. was neutral but covertly, he sent munitions to the rebels.

Armed with accurate intelligence on French intentions in North America, Jefferson sent his Secretary of State James Monroe who would later become the fifth President of the U.S. and Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate with Napoleon. The Americans went to France thinking they might be able to acquire New Orleans in order to control access to the Mississippi River.

What they didn’t know was that Napoleon’s had decided to end his attempt at rebuilding France’s empire in North America. He was now focused on France’s traditional enemy England and offered the entire Louisiana territory to the U.S. for then astronomical sum of $15 million (~$313 million in 2021).

There were three obstacles to the deal. One, Spain hadn’t officially turned over the land as per the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. Two, Napoleon’s foreign minister, Charles Talleyrand (the same man who helped convince King Louis XVI to support the American Revolution) opposed the deal. And last, Jefferson faced opposition in the U.S. The country didn’t have the money.

Federalists in Congress opposed the treaty saying it was unconstitutional. Using Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution that gives the president the power to negotiate treaties, Jefferson gave the Congress six months to ratify the purchase and raise the needed funds.

The treaty was signed on April 30th, 1803 in Paris but not announced in the U.S. until July 4th of the same year. On November 30th, the Spanish finally turned over the documents officially giving the land to France. The territory was formally turned over to the U.S. in New Orleans on December 20th, 1803.

 

Image is an 1804 map of the Louisiana Territory.

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Origin of the Scope of the First Amendment

During the years before the American Revolution and throughout the nine year-long conflict, our Founding Fathers had the support of most of the newspapers in the Thirteen Colonies.

The Stamp Act of 1765 was an attempt to get the citizens of the Thirteen Colonies to help England pay for the Seven Years War. King George III reasoned that Britain’s victory benefited all Thirteen Colonies.

British Isles had been paying a similar tax, but less intrusive tax since 1712, so the British Parliament reasoned that those living in North American should pay similar fees. The way the Stamp Act of 1765 was written, every sheet of paper, blank or printed was subject to the tax.

Whether justified or not, the colonials living in North America saw it as a means to restrict newspapers and pamphleteers freedom of the press. Resistance to the new tax came from both those who favored continued British rule as well as those who opposed it. Printers and publishers argued the tax was regressive and affected the economics of their business because it could not be passed onto their customers.

Resistance grew and newspaper publishers as printers turned their businesses into voices of dissent. Writers such as Benjamin Edes, William Bradford, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry put pen to paper and wrote not only about the unfairness of the Stamp Act, but the evils of continued British rule of the colonies.

Much to the chagrin of the British, the editorials were often inflammatory, even accusatory toward King George III and the British government. The result was a growing resentment toward continued British rule.

During the Revolutionary War, George Washington and members of the Continental Congress placed stories in newspapers with friendly editors and writers. Today, we would call this practice “sharing talking points.”

Others were outright fabrications by the author. Today, we call this “fake news.”

The intent of both types of stories was to mislead the British and bolster support for what was turning out to be a long and costly war. Net net, the practice was effective in that support for the revolution wavered, but never faltered. And, the Commander of British Forces in North America, General Sir Henry Clinton was misled.

So when members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 began write the document we know as the Constitution of the United States, the First Amendment focused on freedom of the press but is also much broader. It reads “Congress shall pass no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

What is not well known is that Alexander Hamilton insisted expanding the First Amendment to include freedom of religion. As the bastard stepson of Scotsman James Hamilton and Rachell Faucette, Hamilton could not attend any of the Anglican or Catholic schools on the Caribbean island of Nevis. However, since Rachelle was Jewish, Alexander Hamilton was allowed to attend the local Jewish school.

From his mother whose ancestry was French, he learned about persecution of Huguenots by the French, Scottish Catholics by the Church of England and Jews by the Spanish/Portuguese. So when it came time to write the Constitution, Hamilton insisted that freedom of religion be inserted into the amendment that gave freedom to the press.

Image is Alexander Chappell painting of Captain Alexander Hamilton, Continental Army Artillery.

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Difficulties Enforcing the Treaty of Paris

Once the Treaty of Paris became effective on May 12th, 1784, the Second Continental Congress now faced the challenge of enforcing its terms. The Articles of Confederation did not give the Congress any administrative powers to enforce any treaty or levy taxes or even sue the member states. Under the articles, all the Congress could do is “request” the member states follow its guidelines or wishes. In other words, it was powerless.

One sticking point during negotiations with the British was how the U.S would treat both the Loyalists a.k.a. Tories who remained in the country and those that left. The Treaty of Paris required the Continental Congress to “earnestly” protect the rights of the Loyalists and return any confiscated property. Plus, the new country agreed not to take any legal action against Loyalists.

That concept might have been the desire of John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Laurens as they negotiated the treaty for the U.S., but reality back in the U.S. was different. Animosity toward Loyalist ran high because those who fought for independence saw them as traitors even though all that remained swore allegiance to the new United States.

In states where there was either a large British occupying force – New York, Charleston, Savannah – or where the British Army destroyed farms as a means to disrupt the economy – Virginia, North and South Carolina – feelings against Loyalists ran high. Sometimes by mob rule and sometimes through legal action.

For example, in direct violation of the Treaty of Paris, New York passed the Trespass Act in 1787 that allowed its residents to sue Loyalists for damage to their property. Virginia passed laws that prohibited its citizens from paying debts to British creditors or Tories. These violated Article 4 of the treaty which stated that all contracted debts were to be paid in full by both sides.

As you can imagine, the British were not happy. However, they too violated the terms of the treaty by not evacuating all territory granted to the United States. Irritated by the U.S. failures to keep its side of the bargain, the British kept troops in seven forts inside the boundaries of the new country. Three were in the State of New York – Fort Niagara, Fort Ontario and Fort Oswegatchie. Two were in what would become in in 1827, the State of Michigan. One was on Mackinac Island and the other was a complex of two forts – Lernoult and Detroit – near each other.

In what would become the State of Vermont but was now the Republic of Vermont whose territory was claimed by the State of New York, there were two forts – Fort au Fer and Fort Dutchman’s Point. (see blog post on 7/19/2020 – https://marcliebman.com/the-republic-of-…tate-of-new-york/). Both were on the shores of Lake Champlain. Fort Miami on the Ohio River was the seventh fort.

When the Jay Treaty (see blog post on 6/20/2020 – https://marcliebman.com/the-jay-treaty-a…national-dispute/) was negotiated in 1794, the British agreed to leave and actually did vacate these forts. However, for 10 plus years, British troops were on U.S. territory agitating the Native Americans against the winners of the Revolutionary War.

Image is 18th Century cartoon by Granger Smith

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Freeing Georgia and South Carolina

Under the Royal Governor, James Wright, the British had pacified much of the Royal Province of Georgia, particularly the southern portion of the state along the coast. The British had forces on Amelia Island in Florida as well as Savannah and used their base in Augusta to keep the Native Americans stirred up against the rebels.

However, General Greene had several advantages. One, he had outstanding leaders and tacticians under his command. Besides the small force of about 1,500 Continental Army regulars let by Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne and Harry “Lighthorse” Lee, he could also count on militia units led by William Sumter, Andrew Pickens and of course, the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion. While these men didn’t command large numbers of troops, those they did have were highly motivated and experienced guerilla fighters.

Greene’s brilliance was in how he coordinated their movements in 1781 and 1782. He forced the British to abandon their fort in the Ninety-Six District which is near modern Columbia, SC in July 1781.

By late 1781, the British had lost any control they had of the interior of Georgia and South Carolina. Greene kept the pressure on the British, forcing them back toward Charleston. Tactically, the British Army and their Hessians and Loyalist allies won their share of battles but were losing the war.

Lord North’s government finally fell in March 1782 opening the door to “official” negotiations to end the door. Meanwhile, the fighting continued.

Augusta fell to the Continental Army and South Carolina militia units on May 11th, 1782. Just two months later on July 11th, the British pulled out of Savannah. Some of the troops along with the British Indian allies marched to St. Augustine while approximately 1,200 soldiers and an equal number of civilians boarded Royal Navy ships. General Wayne promised those Loyalists who remained and swore allegiance to the new nation would not be prosecuted after they paid a tax of 10% of the value of their assets.

Farther north, General Greene had bottled up the British Army on the James peninsula, just west of Charleston. He maintained the pressure on General Leslie’s army by preventing foraging parties from gathering food. In early December 1782, General Greene and General Leslie agreed to let the British evacuate without being fired upon. By December 14th, 3,300 British, German and Loyalist troops, 5,000 slaves and an equal number of civilians were on board Royal Navy ships. Most went to New York and Halifax while some were taken to St. Augustine, Florida and several Caribbean islands.

The departures from Savannah and Charleston left the British with only New York. When negotiations began between England and the delegation from the Continental Congress, the British still held out hope that that new U.S. would agree to be part of the British Empire. That was, to use a modern term, a “non-starter.” It was not until late in the summer of 1782 that Lord Shelburne told his supporters in Parliament and the King that he’d agreed to full independence.

Both sides agreed to the terms of the treaty on November 30th, 1782. The only hold-up was getting the treaty through Parliament and negotiating the end of hostilities with France. The Netherlands and Spain. That would take until September 3rd, 1783. Ratification by the Continental Congress occurred on January 14th, 1784 and on that day, we the people of the United States of America were FREE!!!

Image is Howard Pyle’s 1898 painting of the evacuation of Charleston.

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Chasing Cornwallis Out of the Carolinas

When Cornwallis marched out of Charleston, SC on January 7th, 1781, he began what became the beginning of the end of the major fighting in the American Revolution. Washington gets all the credit for the siege of Yorktown and Cornwallis’ surrender in October 1781. However, it was General Nathaniel Greene’s brilliant campaign that sent Cornwallis fleeing to Wilmington, NC. Re-supplied and reinforced, Cornwallis marched north to join with General Benedict Arnold with 1,500 men and General William Phillips with another 2,300. Phillips died of disease and Arnold was sent back to England before Yorktown leaving Cornwallis and his 8,000 men to surrender to the tune “the World Turned Upside Down.”

After the Continental Army debacle at Camden in August 1780 in which General Horatio Gates ran from the battlefield, Washington sent Nathaniel Greene south with Daniel Morgan to take command and rebuild the Continental Army. Greene arrived in the fall of 1780 and what followed the next winter and summer was one of the most masterful campaigns in modern military history. Greene waged a classic guerilla war that attacked the British Army’s supply train and rarely engaged in set-piece battles only at a time and place of his choosing.

Greene’s strategy was to keep his force intact so that no matter how much territory the British occupied, his army could always threaten the British and its supply lines. This was essentially the same strategy Washington followed. However, Greene up the ante by waging a combination of guerilla war and small set piece battles times and places of his choosing.

At Cowpens on January 17th, 1781, Greene’s Continentals and militia decimated Tarleton’s British Legion. Only Tarleton and less than 200 of his men avoided death or capture. More determined than ever to destroy Greene’s army, Cornwallis destroyed much his supply train and set off after Greene.

Several skirmishes (Cowan’s Ford, Haw River, Wetzell’s Mill) followed. During each one, the Continental Army struck and then disappeared. On March 15th, 1781, Greene allowed a set-piece battle to occur at Guilford Court House near Hillsborough, NC. The 4,500-man Continental Army under Greene outnumbered the 1,900 soldiers Cornwallis rushed to the battlefield.

Although Greene and his army was forced from the field by the British Army and is considered a British victory, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a strategic defeat for Cornwallis. Over 500 of the British 1,900 soldiers were either dead, wounded, missing or POWs. Greene’s losses were heavier, but his army was still intact.

Almost out of supplies, Cornwallis headed for Wilmington, NC where the British Army’s 82nd Regiment of Foot, supported by artillery held the port city. Cornwallis Army arrived on April 7th. Rested, reinforced and re-supplied, Cornwallis started north from Wilmington on April 24th to meet Phillips, Arnold and ultimately, Yorktown.

Meanwhile, General Greene still had work to do. He now faced in General Francis Rawdon, one of the youngest and best generals in the British Army, and 8,000 British, German and Loyalist soldiers. Greene’s mission – free Georgia and South Carolina. Next week’s post covers Greene’s campaign to take back both colonies and push the British out.

Image is Battle of Cowpens painting by Don Trioani.

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Independence Equals Freedom to Expand Westward

The Treaty of Paris that granted the Thirteen Colonies independence also set our country’s initial boundaries. The new United States encompassed all the British territory south of the Canadian border and west of the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River. Our southern border was defined by Florida which was given back to Spain by the British.

While this looked good on paper, much of the territory of the new country was not explored except by the trappers who roamed the area. None one bothered to explain to the Native Americans that they were now U.S. citizens and that their land now belonged to the new United States of America.

Despite the treaty, the British kept forts manned by British soldiers inside our new national boundaries. This officially unofficial presence was a violation of the Treaty of Paris and the British finally pulled out after the War of 1812. But that is another story for another post and, to be frank, getting ahead of the story.

So, looking at the image accompanying this post, you can see the claimed boundaries of the Thirteen Colonies at the time the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783. Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina said all the land from their Atlantic Coasts to the Mississippi was theirs. Connecticut wanted a piece of what is now Ohio and Massachusetts claimed most of present-day Maine.

When the American Revolution ended, the country was governed by the Articles of Confederation which really was a loose alliance of the Thirteen Colonies. Under the articles, there was no central entity that could manage, read control, westward expansion.

Even before the Constitution was ratified in 1787, the map, or at least the boundaries of the states began to change. In 1785, Massachusetts ceded its claims to parts of what is now Michigan and Wisconsin. Connecticut did the same in 1786 when it gave up claims to what is now northern Pennsylvania, northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. South Carolina gave up its strip of land from its western border to the Mississippi in 1787.

Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution established a process through which a territory could become a state. On March 4th, 1791, Vermont became the 14th state. Virginia gave up land that became Kentucky to join as our 15th state on June 1, 1791. Tennessee was carved out of land claimed by North Carolina and became the 15th state on June 1st, 1796.

The Louisiana Purchase was signed on April 30th, 1803 and virtually doubled the land mass of the U.S. By the time Lewis and Clark set off on their grand adventure of exploration on August 31st, 1805, Ohio was admitted as the 17th state on March 1st, 1803.

There would be a hiatus of almost nine years before another state, this time Louisiana was admitted as our 18th state in the middle of the War of 1812 on April 30th, 1812. This helped set the stage for the British attack on New Orleans. Why? In the Treaty of Paris, we granted England free access to the Mississippi River and the British were afraid the U.S. would not allow them to use the river.

 

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

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