THE WAR MOVES TO THE SOUTH

After their defeat at Saratoga, the British abandoned their strategy of fighting in New York and New England and decided to concentrate their efforts in the Southern colonies, where they imagined more loyalists to live. Despite their victory at Saratoga, the winter of 1777-1778 was the low point for the Continental Army. The British camped for the winter in Philadelphia, while Washington's army stayed at Valiev Forge. Cold weather, malnutrition, and desertion horribly hurt the army. Morale improved when daily drilling began under the leadership of Baron von Steuben, a Prussian who had volunteered to help the colonists. As a result, the Continental Army that emerged in the spring was a much tougher and more disciplined unit.

Nevertheless, at first the British southern strategy was successful. By the summer of 1780, the British captured Georgia and South Carolina. Desertions continued, and General Benedict Arnold went over to the British side.

Things soon turned against the British. A Virginia army under George Rogers Clark defeated a British force and their Native American allies at Vincennes, Indiana, securing the Ohio River region for the colonies. By the summer of 1781, French army forces joined the Continental Army as two regiments marched from New York to Virginia. The British southern campaign, now headed by General Cornwallis, was constantly hampered by attacks by colonial guerrilla bands, led by Francis Marion and other rebel leaders.

Cornwallis decided to abandon the southern strategy and went into Virginia, where he was ordered to take up a defensive position at York- town. Once the British troops began to dig in, they were cut off by a combination of French and continental forces. Cornwallis hoped to escape by sea, but ships of the French navy occupied Chesapeake Bay, For three weeks Cornwallis tried to break the siege; on October 17, 1781, he finally surrendered. Fighting continued in some areas, but on March 4, 1782, Parliament voted to end the British military efforts in the former colonies.