in the South, Greene fought a number of hard battles without winning a single one, yet English and American critics have called this campaign one of the most brilliant in American history. Although he was never strong enough to win a decisive victory over the British, he weakened their forces, used up their supplies, and finally made them retire to the seaport towns of Savannah, Charleston, and Yorktown.

The battle of Yorktown.In the battle of Guilford Courthouse, Greene inflicted such losses on the army of Cornwallis that it retired to the coast. Cornwallis then marched north to the peninsula of Yorktown in Virginia, where he hoped to receive supplies and reënforcements by sea.

Washington suddenly (August, 1781) received word from the French admiral that he was starting from the West Indies for Chesapeake Bay, but that he could not remain there long. Washington made the British forces in New York think that he was planning to attack them while he and a French army, which had previously landed at Newport, Rhode Island, rapidly marched to Yorktown. The French fleet arrived in time to keep Cornwallis from being rescued by the British fleet. Cornwallis was

trapped on the narrow Yorktown peninsula with his army of 8000. Washington at the head of an army of 16,000, about half of them French, came and shut off hope of escape by land. Cornwallis was soon forced to surrender. (October 19, 1781). The British band played "The World Turned Upside Down," while the captured soldiers laid down their arms.

The surrender of Cornwallis practically ended the war of the Revolution. Great Britain could have fought longer, but British leaders opposed to the king were strong enough in Parliament to stop the unpopular contest. There was an agreement to cease hostilities and to appoint commissioners to arrange the terms of peace. We should remember that it is doubtful if we could have secured our independence at that time without the aid of French money and of the French fleet and army.

The treaty of peace.-Three American commissioners, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, were sent to Paris to confer with the French and British on the terms of peace. The treaty of peace with Great Britain, signed by the American commissioners (1783), provided that the thirteen colonies should be "free, sovereign, and independent states." This was the object of the war. The treaty also gave to the United States the great interior territory west to the Mississippi. France gained but little for her sacrifice. Spain, which also had gone to war with Great Britain, received the territory of Florida, which then extended along the Gulf of Mexico almost to the Mississippi.

Washington resigns his commission.-Some of the soldiers wished to make Washington king at the end of the war, but he was indignant at such a proposal. The army was angry because Congress had not paid it, and there was danger that the soldiers might compel payment and take a step toward a military despotism. When Washington heard of this danger, he went before the officers and said, as he unfolded a paper containing his written address: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the

WASHINGTON SAYS FAREWELL TO HIS OFFICERS AT NEW YORK

just before boarding a boat to take him across the Hudson River on his way home to Mount Vernon. From a painting by Andrew C. Gow, exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (a world's fair) at St. Louis in 1904. The officers shown, from left to right, are Colonel Alexander Hamilton (p. 220); General Nathanael Greene (p. 208); Colonel Josiah Harmar, afterward (1789-1790) commander of the United States Army; General Thomas Sumter (p. 207); General Henry Knox (who is seen grasping General Washington's hand), a trusted officer, afterward (1785-1795) Secretary of War; and Baron Steuben (p. 195).

service of my country." His appeal drew tears from many and shamed those who would have liked to collect by force the money due them. So great was his influence that the soldiers disbanded and went home "without a settlement of their accounts or a farthing of money in their pockets."

After the treaty of peace had been signed and this danger from the army had passed, Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief and went to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, intending to live as a private citizen.

Summary of Points of Emphasis for Review. (1) Fighting in middle colonies, (2) Long Island, Fort Washington, Trenton, and Princeton,