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