Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western Cive. Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty five, The American Revolution, Part three. Now, France would
Speaker 1: formally enter the American Revolution in February seventeen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: as a consequence mostly of the colonial victory over the
Speaker 1: British at the Battle of Saratoga. At that moment, the
Speaker 1: struggle between Britain and her thirteen colonies was suddenly transformed
Speaker 1: from a rebellion into a global war. What had begun
Speaker 1: is a colonial uprising among the Atlantic seaboard, now threatened
Speaker 1: to draw in the great powers of Europe, changed the
Speaker 1: balance of Empire. The Alliance came, as I mentioned, at
Speaker 1: the stunning American victory at Saratoga in October that previous
Speaker 1: fall seventeen seventy seven, to the French court. This victory
Speaker 1: proved that the Americans could stand against the British regulars.
Speaker 1: In Paris, Benjamin Franklin, draped in a simple fur camp
Speaker 1: and spectacles, presenting himself as a man of rustic Republican virtue,
Speaker 1: pressed the American cause with skill. The Treaty of Alliance
Speaker 1: was signed in February seventeen seventy eight. France recognized American
Speaker 1: independence and promised to fight until it was secured. For Britain,
Speaker 1: this was nothing less than a calamity. It faced not
Speaker 1: just a colonial revolt, but a European enemy with a
Speaker 1: great navy and a thirst for revenge. After the Seven
Speaker 1: Years' War, France's entry spread the conflict far beyond America's shores.
Speaker 1: The Caribbean, with its sugar islands, became a major theater.
Speaker 1: French and British fleets clashed in the West Indies, and
Speaker 1: Britain was forced to divert ships and men away from
Speaker 1: North America to protect its lucrative colonies. By seventeen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: Spain had also joined France against Britain, though it did
Speaker 1: not recognize American independence. Soon the Dutch Two would be
Speaker 1: drawn in. By seventeen eighty, Britain was facing a hostile
Speaker 1: coalition of nearly every single great maritime power in Europe.
Speaker 1: The Global War gave the Americans their greatest advantage. Britain
Speaker 1: could no longer concentrate its power on the rebellion alone. Yet,
Speaker 1: for all that, the fighting within the colonies themselves was
Speaker 1: still brutal and uncertain. The years immediately following France's entry
Speaker 1: into the war were frustrating for George Washington. The French
Speaker 1: fleet under Admiral Destain sailed into American waters in seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, but cooperation with Washington proved clumsy at best.
Speaker 1: An attempt to adjoint assault at Newport Rhode Island ended
Speaker 1: in quarrels and withdrawal. Washington's army meanwhile endured years of privation.
Speaker 1: Supplies were scarce, pay was irregular, and discipline strained. A
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania soldier lamented in seventeen seventy nine, we are reduced
Speaker 1: to the greatest extremities of want. Our nakedness is beyond description. Still,
Speaker 1: Washington held the core of his army together, shadowing the
Speaker 1: British while avoiding ruinous battles. In seventeen seventy eight, the
Speaker 1: British evacuated Philadelphia and retreated to New York, and this
Speaker 1: set the stage for Washington to strike at them in
Speaker 1: New Jersey at the Battle of Monmouth in June. In
Speaker 1: the spring of seventeen seventy eight, the war entered a
Speaker 1: new phase. France had now signed its alliance with the
Speaker 1: United States in February, and Britain, wary of French fleets,
Speaker 1: threatening New York and Philadelphia, decided to consolidate him. At
Speaker 1: the same time, General Sir Henry Clinton, who had now
Speaker 1: replaced General William Howe as the commander in chief, ordered
Speaker 1: the evacuation of Philadelphia. The British army, numbering around ten
Speaker 1: thousand troops, began a grueling march across New Jersey toward
Speaker 1: New York City. In June. George Washington, encamped with his
Speaker 1: rejuvenated army at Valley Forge, saw his opportunity. His continentals,
Speaker 1: thrilled in European tactics by the Prussian officer Baron von Steuben,
Speaker 1: were no longer the raw, ragged militia of earlier campaigns.
Speaker 1: Washington decided to pursue Clinton's army, hoping to strike it
Speaker 1: as it lumbered across New Jersey's scorching heat. Washington sent
Speaker 1: a vanguard under Major General Charles Lee, a brilliant but
Speaker 1: erratic officer recently released from British captivity, to harass the
Speaker 1: British Rear Guard and slow their march. Lee, skeptical of
Speaker 1: the plan, commanded about five thousand men, including light infantry,
Speaker 1: under the fiery General Anthony Wayne. Washington followed with the
Speaker 1: main army. The goal was to hit the British column hard,
Speaker 1: weaken it, and then perhaps deliver the decisive blow before
Speaker 1: it reached the safety of New York. The battle began
Speaker 1: on June twenty eighth. Clinton's army was stretched thin as
Speaker 1: it crossed near Monmouth Courthouse modern day Freehold, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: The day was brutally hot, as temperatures swored near one
Speaker 1: hundred degrees fahrenheit, and heatstroke would claim as many lives
Speaker 1: as musket fire. Lee's advance guard attacked the British rear
Speaker 1: guard under Lord Cornwallace in the morning, but confusion quickly
Speaker 1: set in, and accounts do differ here. But Lee's orders
Speaker 1: were muddled, lines poorly coordinated, and when British reinforcements pressed forward,
Speaker 1: he ordered a retreat. The withdrawal turned into a route
Speaker 1: with American soldiers streaming backwards in disorder. But it was
Speaker 1: at this critical moment that Washington arrived with the main army.
Speaker 1: Furious at what he saw, Washington confronted Lee in a
Speaker 1: famous exchange. According to the eyewitness accounts, Washington demanded, quote,
Speaker 1: what is the meaning of this, sir? A desire to
Speaker 1: know the meaning of this disorder and confusion. Lee Stammering
Speaker 1: insisted it was a planned maneuver, but Washington took command.
Speaker 1: He quickly rallied the retreating Continentals, placing them on a
Speaker 1: high ground. Artillery under General Henry Knox opened a steady
Speaker 1: fire while von Steuben's training bore fruit. The soldiers wheeled
Speaker 1: into line with precision and met the British advance head on.
Speaker 1: Throughout the afternoon, the two armies clashed in punishing heat.
Speaker 1: General Wayne's troops fought a fierce holding action, while Continental
Speaker 1: artillery pounded the British with devastating accuracy. The British launched
Speaker 1: repeated assaults, but each was repelled. The fields near Monmouth
Speaker 1: Courthouse became a furnace of smoke, thunderous cannon fire everywhere.
Speaker 1: One of the most enduring legends of the day arose here.
Speaker 1: Mary Ludwig Hayes, known as Molly Pitcher, wife of an
Speaker 1: artilleryman who carried water back and forth the sweltering soldiers.
Speaker 1: When her husband collapsed, she allegedly took his place at
Speaker 1: the cannon, swabbing and loading under fire. Though embellished in
Speaker 1: later retellings, her story symbolizes the grit of ordinary Americans
Speaker 1: and their commitment to the cause of independence. As the
Speaker 1: day wore on, he'd exhaustion crippled both armies. Dozens collapsed
Speaker 1: from sunstroke. The British eventually pulled back under cover of night,
Speaker 1: resuming their march towards New York. Washington, though eager to press,
Speaker 1: lacked cavalry to pursue effectively. The Battle of Monmouth ended
Speaker 1: without a decisive victor, but the symbolism was profound. The
Speaker 1: Continental Army, once dismissed as little more than a mob,
Speaker 1: had stood its ground against Britain's best troops in a
Speaker 1: set peace battle. Casualties were roughly even, around three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty for the Americans and three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: to four hundred for the British, with many dead from heatstroke.
Speaker 1: Washington emerged with an enhanced stature. His ability to seize
Speaker 1: control at a moment of near disaster and his steady
Speaker 1: army proved his leadership beyond doubt. Lee, by contrast, faced
Speaker 1: a course marshal for disobedience and misconduct, effectively ending his career.
Speaker 1: The larger strategic consequence was that the war in the
Speaker 1: North settled into a stalemate. The British soon shifted their
Speaker 1: main effort southward, launching campaigns that would culminate in Charleston, Camden,
Speaker 1: and ultimately Yorktown. But at Monmouth, Washington's army showed it
Speaker 1: could fight the British in the open and that the
Speaker 1: revolution would not be easily crushed. From seventeen seventy nine onward,
Speaker 1: the British strategy shifted, Believing the southern colonies were home
Speaker 1: to strong loyalists support, London ordered an invasion of the South.
Speaker 1: Savannah fell in late seventeen seventy eight, and Charleston, the
Speaker 1: South's greatest port, was besieged and captured in seventeen eighty.
Speaker 1: It was one of the worst American defeats of the war.
Speaker 1: Thousands of soldiers surrendered. British General Cornwallace then marched Inland,
Speaker 1: seeking to rally loyalists, but the South proved a graveyard
Speaker 1: of British hopes. Patriot partisans. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox
Speaker 1: and Thomas Sumter the Gamecock harassed enemy troops with ambush's
Speaker 1: and raids. In October seventeen eighty, a backcountry militia crushed
Speaker 1: a Loyalist force at King's Mountain. Meanwhile, General Nathaniel Greene
Speaker 1: took command of Southern Continental forces, with tactics that would
Speaker 1: make the old Roman general Fabian proud. He led Cornwallace
Speaker 1: on a weary chase throughout the Carolinas. In seventeen eighty one,
Speaker 1: at Gulliford Courthouse, Green's army was forced to retreat, but
Speaker 1: all along the British forces suffered devastating losses. Cornwallace's weary
Speaker 1: troops staggered into Virginia seeking some relief, and that brings us,
Speaker 1: of course, to the pivotal and really final conflict of
Speaker 1: the American Revolution, Yorktown in seventeen eighty one. French assistance
Speaker 1: was decisive. Ships laden with muskets, gunpowder, uniforms, and gold
Speaker 1: arrived in America. Most important was the French army under
Speaker 1: the Comte de Rochambeau, which landed in Rhode Island in
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty. At last, Washington had professional allies at his side.
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty one, an extraordinary opportunity presented itself. Cornwallis,
Speaker 1: entrenched at Yorktown on the Virginia coast, found himself vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Washington and Rochambeau secretly marched their combined army south from
Speaker 1: New York, while a fleet under the Admiral de Gracy
Speaker 1: sailed up from the Caribbean. In September, de Graci fought
Speaker 1: off the British Navy at the Battle of Chesapeake, sealing
Speaker 1: Cornwallis's escape by sea. Then, in October seventeen eighty one,
Speaker 1: American and French forces, nearly seventeen thousand strong, laid siege
Speaker 1: to Yorktown. Trenches crept closer each day. On the night
Speaker 1: finally of October fourteenth, American and French troops stormed the
Speaker 1: British redoubts with bayonets. Alexander Hamilton led one of the assaults.
Speaker 1: He would later recall quote the works were carried in
Speaker 1: an instant corton Wallace, his position hopeless surrendered on the
Speaker 1: nineteenth of October. Yorktown was not the end of the war,
Speaker 1: but it was the end of Britain's hopes of victory.
Speaker 1: When news reached London, Lord North, then the Prime Minister
Speaker 1: is said to have cried out, oh God, it is
Speaker 1: all over. The war dragged on for nearly two more years.
Speaker 1: Skirmishes continued in the South, and the global struggle raged
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, in India, but in Britain, political will collapsed.
Speaker 1: The costs were staggering and the public was weary. Negotiations
Speaker 1: opened in Paris seventeen eighty two. The American delegation Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker 1: John Adams, John Jay and Henry Lawrence proved shrewd. Though
Speaker 1: allied with France, they secretly negotiated with Britain to secure
Speaker 1: the best terms. The result was the Treaty of Paris
Speaker 1: on September the third, seventeen eighty three. The treaty recognized
Speaker 1: the independence of the United States. Its borders stretched from
Speaker 1: the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, from Canada to Spanish Florida.
Speaker 1: Britain retained Canada, but otherwise it abandoned its claims to
Speaker 1: the Thirteen Colonies, and the Americans also secured valuable fishing
Speaker 1: rights off Newfoundland. Franklin exalted, writing to a friend, quote
Speaker 1: the war being now happily concluded, I am returned to
Speaker 1: my own country after an absence of nearly ten years.
Speaker 1: The Revolution had begun as a colonial quarrel, it ended
Speaker 1: as a world war that reshaped empires. France had achieved
Speaker 1: its vengeance, though at a terrible cost in finance, one
Speaker 1: that would contribute to its own revolution. About a decade later,
Speaker 1: Spain regained Florida. Britain lost its richest mainland colonies but
Speaker 1: preserved its empire. Elsewhere, the United States, fragile and poor,
Speaker 1: but independent, I merged onto the world stage. For Washington,
Speaker 1: who resigned his command in December of seventeen eighty three,
Speaker 1: the triumph was not just military but moral. He told Congress.
Speaker 1: I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last
Speaker 1: solemn act of my official life by commending my dearest
Speaker 1: country to the protection of Almighty God. The war was over,
Speaker 1: A new nation had begun, and next week we will
Speaker 1: see how it is built.