147. France acknowledges our Independence. In October, 1776, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain. But now, when it seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6, 1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us.

148. The British leave Philadelphia. - Hearing of the approach of the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York. Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in command.2 Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on the field in time to stop it.

After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson.s

149. Stony Point. In hope of drawing Washington away from New York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July, 1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history.

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150. Indian Raids. — That nothing might be wanting to make the suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians

1 For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 253-270.

2 After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a British officer. 3 See map on p. 136.

were let loose. Led by a Tory' named Butler, and by Brant, a Mohawk chief, a band of Tories and Indians marched from Fort Niagara to Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one of the most awful massacres in history. Another party led by Brant repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y.

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151. George Rogers Clark. Meantime the British mander at Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi.

152. Sullivan's Expedition. In 1779 it seemed so important to punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations,2 in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly destroyed the Indian power in that state.

153. The South invaded. For a year and more there had been a lull in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in 1775–1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful loss of life.

These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and (May 12) easily captured Charles

1 Not all the colonists desired independence.

loyal to the King were called Tories.

Those who remained

2 By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.

ton, with Lincoln and his army. By dint of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina, and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it, and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.

154. The Treason of Arnold. The outlook was now dark enough; but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it, and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British agent in the negotiation was Major John André, who one day in September met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to New York, three Americans' stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him, and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold. News of the arrest of André reached Arnold in time to enable him to escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and then sought a refuge in England. André was tried as a spy, found guilty, and hanged. 155. Victory at Kings Mountain. - After the defeat of Gates at Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and 1 The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart.

killed, wounded, or captured the entire band.

156. Victory at the Cowpens. Meantime a third army was raised for use in the South and placed under the command of

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Nathanael Greene, than whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed.

Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of 200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further, and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah.

Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some Virginian seaport. 157. Surrender of Cornwallis. Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August, 1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia, and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea. Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed' he was about to attack New York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781, forced the British general to surrender.

158. The War on the Sea.

The first step towards the foundation of an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775.