Week 12: The Tide Turns

Sorry we missed you Liam, Miah and Morgan! Here is a quick recap of the info we went over class, with links to the videos we watched:

This week we sped through some crucial events that happened from 1778 to 1780. The Americans were feeling pretty low at the beginning of the winter of '78, after suffering through a hard winter at Valley Forge. But by spring, they were ready to pick up the fighting again. In June, when Washington heard that the British were leaving Philadelphia for New York, he seized the opportunity to attack the British as they marched the 12-mile stretch of road. The two sides clashed in a 12-hour battle at Monmouth, NJ, in 100+ degree temperatures. Casualties on both sides were about the same, with many men dying from heat exhaustion, but in the end, the British retreated, so Washington took it as well as a victory.

By fall, the British hadn't made any real progress in beating the Americans back into submission in the northern states, so they turned their attentions to the south. With General Charles Cornwallis as the lead commander of the "southern strategy" to regain control of the north by first taking the south, British forces captured Savannah, GA in December of 1778, then Charleston, SC (two major port cities) the following spring. This sounds like the Americans were really in trouble by this time, right? Well, as luck would have it, during this time, both France and Spain had declared war on Great Britain, so now British troops and ships were spread very thin, across half the globe--which was great for us!

The Americans settled down for the winter of 1779-'80 at Morristown, NJ in a place called Jockey Hollow. It was the worst winter that even the "oldest people alive" could remember, with 23 blizzards and the coldest temperatures on record. Even New York Harbor froze! Even though supplies were still astonishingly low, the men were more experienced with this kind of hardship, and very few died despite the difficult conditions.

Meanwhile, in the south, the British and the Americans were still battling it out. The battle at Camden, SC showed that our American General Gates was a weasel and a coward when he fled from the fighting and ran for 60 miles, non-stop, to Charlotte, NC, but second-in-command, General Johann de Kalb fought like a lion with 600 men against Cornwallis' 2000. De Kalb didn't stop until he fell over dead from eleven mostly fatal wounds, including a saber-slash to the scalp! Things started going downhill for the British later that fall, when we won some decisive victories at King's Mountain, NC, and then at Cowpens, SC, where we captured or killed 9/10 of Colonel Banastre "Terrible" Tarleton's army. The bloodiest battle of the Revolution occurred in March 1781 at Guilford Courthouse in NC, where Americans killed or wounded over 30% of Cornwallis' forces. At this point, Cornwallis gave up on the "southern strategy" and headed back north to rebuild his army at Yorktown, which as we'll discover next week, didn't quite go as planned...

I strongly encourage you to learn more about these and other battles, by visiting this fascinating site: 

Revolutionary War | American Battlefield Trust (battlefields.org)

Please watch this video about the Marquis de Lafayette (one of Washington's most trusted aids and closest friends):

ASSIGNMENTS:

WRITING: When the War was over, and thousands had died, was it all worth it? Remember to use examples and/or quotes from credible sources to validate your opinions.

PRESENTATIONS: Great job to Kellen on teaching us about Benjamin Franklin and the Treaty of Paris. Loved the word search! Next week we'll hear from Miah on colonial fashions, and from Liam on spies. I can't wait!

READING: Work on Freedom Factor by Gerald Lund. We'll be discussing it on Feb. 10th. I want to see everybody bring written notes to the discussion. No notes, no treats!

DEVOTIONAL: Sarah, I'm giving it to you, because Miah is signed up to give it, but she is giving a presentation the same day.

CANDY TRIVIA:

How did President Andrew Jackson honor the Marquis de Lafayette when he died?

BONUS:

How many U.S. cities and towns are named in honor of Lafayette? (This includes any version of his name, such as Fayette, or Fayetteville, etc.)