The British Move South |
With the French now involved, the British, still believing
that most Southerners were Loyalists, stepped up their efforts
in the Southern colonies. A campaign began in late 1778, with
the capture of Savannah, Georgia. Shortly thereafter, British
troops and naval forces converged on Charleston, South Carolina,
the principal Southern port. They managed to bottle up American
forces on the Charleston peninsula. On May 12, 1780, General
Benjamin Lincoln surrendered the city and its 5,000 troops, in
the greatest American defeat of the war. But the reversal in fortune only emboldened the American
rebels. South Carolinians began roaming the countryside,
attacking British supply lines. In July, American General
Horatio Gates, who had assembled a replacement force of
untrained militiamen, rushed to Camden, South Carolina, to
confront British forces led by General Charles Cornwallis. But
Gates's makeshift army panicked and ran when confronted by the
British regulars. Cornwallis's troops met the Americans several
more times, but the most significant battle took place at
Cowpens, South Carolina, in early 1781, where the Americans
soundly defeated the British. After an exhausting but
unproductive chase through North Carolina, Cornwallis set his
sights on Virginia. Questions with answers in bold: 1. What was the principal Southern port in the American colonies? |
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Text courtesy of the U.S. State Department, Bureau of International Information Programs, 2005 |