Questions to Focus Inquiry: The World Turned Upside Down

The questions below will focus your attention during the video. They will help you understand the British defeat in the South. They also focus on other issues that were important at this time.

1. In late 1779 the British generals believed that they might win victories in the Southern colonies and keep at these colonies within the empire. What were at least three reasons why they believed that this was possible?

2. What were the two parts of the Crown's plan in 1779 to win the Southern colonies?

3. Explain why each part of the Crown's plan failed.

4. Define the terms traitor and betrayal.

5. Benedict Arnold's turning traitor greatly affected the individuals on both sides of the Atlantic who supported the cause of the Continental Congress. Suggest three likely effects on the rebels of his turning traitor.

6. What were the major characteristics of Nathanael Greene's crab-like strategy for winning the South?

7. How does the statement "lost the battles but won the war" characterize the efforts of Greene's army during the southern campaign?

8. The Crown forces were very unsuccessful in restoring the authority of the Crown in the South. What were the major reasons why they were unsuccessful?

9. Between 3,000 and 5,000 blacks joined Cornwallis to defeat the colonists and accompanied him in his retreat to Yorktown. What did Cornwallis order his army to do to these people?

10. What were at least three reactions by people in England to the news of Cornwallis's surrender?

11. After the surrender at Yorktown, many in England decided to end their efforts to win back the colonies. What were the major reasons for this decision?

Student Resource 5-B

Context and Overview: The World Turned Upside Down

The description below is an overview of the video entitled "The World Turned Upside Down". It follows the story in the video, but expands the context and focuses of the general moods and attitudes of the men and women involved in these events.

Unable to win in the northern colonies, Crown officers decided to switch the war to the southern colonies. They heard that there was strong Loyalist support for Britain. They also heard that there were lots of men ready to fight alongside Crown troops to defeat the rebels. They thought that they could quickly capture a major port city, spread inland from that city, and quickly restore royal governments in each local community. If all worked well, then the army could place Loyalists in charge of each community and move on. This plan would restore the royal government where ever the army went. The British generals then believed the army could move northward into colonies that offered far more resistance. The plan was simple. But were the rumors about Loyalist support correct? Could the Loyalists help the army enough to insure victory?

In December 1779, Crown soldiers began what was called the southern campaign. After a six-week struggle, they captured Charleston, South Carolina. This was the political, social and economic capital of the southern colonies. The initial success brought many Loyalists to openly pledge loyalty to the king and Britain. General George Clinton was overwhelmed by this support. He concluded that he would have an easy time winning the rest of the south. He then turned over his command to General Charles Cornwallis and returned to New York City. Cornwallis had to conquer the rest of the southern colonies, which he could do only by leading an army into the countryside. There he expected much Loyalist support and easy victories.

He found that he had Loyalist support but that it did him little good. There were not enough Loyalists to help him win the battles decisively and to keep control of the land or a community once the army left. Moreover, there were not enough who were able to govern the community without an army being present. Cornwallis also found that many Loyalists wanted to spend their time getting revenge against the colonists who sided with the Continental Congress. Cornwallis, to his dismay, found a violent and intense civil war in each colony which he invaded. Often the men on both sides of the civil war were less concerned with re-establishing or stopping the return of a royal government in a community than they were with protecting what they had. Cornwallis found that many of the Loyalists in the countryside had long resented the political power, status, money and landed estates of those who later sided with the Continental Congress. For decades the people in the rural areas were upset by the way the wealthy merchants and plantation owners governed the colony. Many of these rural people saw the war between the colonies and Britain as a convenient way to get back at the wealthy. Eventually civil wars broke out in nearly every colony. In the South these wars resulted in a great deal of destruction of property and thousands of deaths. These were the forgotten wars of the Revolution.

Meanwhile a French army of 6,000 men arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. This army was under the command of Count Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau. He came to help Washington, but he would not use his army when he thought it would lose. While Rochambeau's army trained for months, Washington became quite upset that he would not help him attack New York City.

During 1780-1781, Cornwallis moved through South Carolina, then North Carolina and finally into Virginia. He never could get the Loyalist support he needed. Instead he found himself fighting battles against General Nathanael Greene. Greene's tactic was like that of a crab. He moved around and never stayed long enough to be captured. Although Cornwallis defeated Greene's army in battle after battle, Cornwallis seemed to be losing the war. In addition, his food and supplies got very low. His army had traveled hundreds of miles overland with little to show for its effort. After two years of this invasion, very little territory except for Charleston was under full control of the Loyalists. Cornwallis's frustrations increased.

Cornwallis decided to go back to the coast and get supplies and reinforcements. He wanted to let Clinton know that the South was not going to be easy to control. He decided to go to Yorktown, Virginia. There he would wait for fresh supplies, reinforcements and new orders. On the way he tried once again to get the Loyalists' support he needed. He found little support. The rebels controlled all the countryside except where Cornwallis's army was. Even worse, Nathanael Greene's army followed Cornwallis to Yorktown. This time Greene's army spent much of its time sniping at Cornwallis's men and attacking his supply wagons. In late summer 1781 Cornwallis arrived outside Yorktown. He was sure that he would soon be safe.

What Cornwallis did not know was that the French Admiral Francois de Grasse had sent a message to Rochambeau from the Caribbean Sea. It said that for a period of about two weeks his fleet would be in the area of Chesapeake Bay. After two weeks it would return to the Caribbean. De Grasse offered to use his fleet to help the Continental army. At the time, de Grasse did not know that Cornwallis was in Yorktown. To take advantage of this situation, Washington and Rochambeau had to march their armies from Rhode Island and New York to Yorktown before de Grasse's fleet left. And they would have to defeat Cornwallis by October 15, the date de Grasse would leave. They did not even know if de Grasse would keep his promise. It would take a miracle, some thought, for all their plans to work. Speed and timing were very important. In addition, Washington did not want Clinton in New York City to know that he had moved most of his army away from the city.

The two armies quickly and quietly marched southward. As they marched, the French navy defeated a fleet of British ships sent to assist Cornwallis. Washington and Rochambeau arrived as scheduled. The combined armies exceeded 17,000 men. Cornwallis, with 9,000 men, many of whom were injured or sick, was surrounded but not defeated. However, the supplies and reinforcements never reached him. His attempted escape failed. Meanwhile, French and Americans began a siege. They dug ditches closer and closer to Cornwallis's fortifications. Their cannons caused numerous deaths and injuries and much destruction, and by mid-October they were very close to the last line of defense of Cornwallis's army. With no hope for victory, Cornwallis surrendered. The date of the actual surrender of weapons was four years to the day that Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga. Humiliated, embarrassed and not wanting to admit defeat to Washington, Cornwallis refused to be present when his sword was turned over to Washington.

In September 1783, nearly two years after Cornwallis's defeat, a treaty of peace was signed in Paris. Although the American Revolutionary War was over, the Revolution continued.

Questions:

1. What were three reasons why in fall 1779 the British decided to send an army to the Southern colonies?

2. If you were a general of the British army in fall 1779, would you have approved or disapproved of this plan?

3. What is a definition of a civil war?

4. What was the background of the two groups who fought against one another in these civil wars?

5. What were two important ways these civil wars hurt the chances of the Loyalists gaining control in the colonies?

6. What were the main characteristics of Greene's strategy for fighting Cornwallis?

7. It is sometimes said that the Battle of Yorktown was won by a miracle. What were at least three events that contributed to the miracle in October 1781 that enabled the Americans and French to force Cornwallis to surrender?

8. At Yorktown, what did Cornwallis order his men to do with the escaped slaves who had joined the British army?

9. Imagine you were Cornwallis and you just sent your troops out to surrender their weapons. What words would you use to address your troops?

10. Imagine you were George Washington and your troops are watching the British and Hessian troops surrender their weapons. What words would best describe your emotions at that time?

11. Soon after the surrender at Yorktown, Parliament decided to stop the war in the colonies. What were three important reasons for this decision?

Student Resource 5-C

Noteworthy Quotations: The World Turned Upside Down

This exercise provides quotations illustrative of the various moods and feelings in the period from December 1779 to Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. You should be able to interpret each quotation in the context of the person and situation within which the words were stated.

"Let us encourage the Negroes in the Southern Provinces to rise up against their masters. . . . The Negroes will arise and steep their hands in the blood of their masters."

-- A Crown soldier on the hopes of the Crown in securing victory in the South, 1779

"They calls us a pack of beggars--those Charleston gentry in their fine linens."

-- One of the poor Scots-Irish Loyalists from the backwoods of South Carolina, 1780

"Their country is ruined. They have nothing, not a single coin. . . . Send men, money and ships, but don't count on any help from these people."

-- General Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau's early assessment of Washington's army and the colonial situation, 1780

"I've never witnessed such scenes of desolation, bloodshed and deliberate murder. . . . We too have become savages."

-- General Nathanael Greene's reaction to what he observed during the civil wars soon after assuming command of the Continental army in the South, 1780

"I run as fast backwards as forwards, to convince our enemy that we are like a crab. We can run in any direction, as long as it is away."

-- General Nathanael Greene's description of his strategy for defeating the Crown army under Cornwallis, 1780

"I now see what 'enthusiasm'--what these ragged fellows call 'liberty'--can do. Out of this rabble rises a people who defy kings."

-- Remarks from the diary of Johann Ewald, a Hessian soldier fighting in the South, 1781

"My dear fellow, I'll let you in on one of my great secrets learned from years of experience. Frenchmen aren't invincible. Our troops are easily beaten when they lose confidence in their leaders."

-- French General Rochambeau in a letter to Marquis Marie Joseph de Lafayette, 1781

"The French! The French! I wish to God they wouldn't keep raising our hopes, then letting us down."

-- General Washington on hearing of General Rochambeau's refusal to send troops to capture New York City, 1781

"Count de Grasse will be arriving in the Chesapeake area with 29 war boats. . . . We must make use of it promptly and efficiently."

-- General Rochambeau's letter to Washington, August 1781

"Tomorrow we will move as close as possible to Yorktown, and then our troops will just wait for the pear to ripen. We will of course yield precedence to the Americans. We will allow them to claim the victory."

-- General Rochambeau's message to French Admiral Francoise Grasse after de Grasse's fleet has shut off supplies to Yorktown, October 1781

"If that happens [and we have to surrender], the blame will be on Clinton, not on us."

-- General Charles Cornwallis in response to one of his soldier's concern about their ability to stand up against the siege, October 1781

"It's harsh. Our Black friends served our army well, and now we drive them out by force between firing guns. Now they will have to face the rewards of their cruel masters. . . . I just can't talk about what we're doing to them."

--Remarks from the diary of Johann Ewald, a Hessian soldier in Yorktown, October 1781

"I would suggest that it is all over but for the fact that there are three other wars that have grown out of it, and we are forty million pounds in debt."

-- Horace Walpole, English essayist, upon hearing the news of Cornwallis's surrender, 1782

"We didn't say much. We've lived together for eight years--young men with warm hearts. . . . It's a sad time. By now everyone's heard that old story of the soldiers tracking the blood of their feet on the frozen ground. It literally happened. But you don't know a thousandth part of how we suffered. You never can."

-- From diary of Joseph Plumb Martin, a Continental soldier, in reference to being discharged from the army, 1782