Transcript The World Turned Upside Down

THE WORLD
TURNED
UPSIDE DOWN
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
• The BIG mistake that cost the British…
• The general in charge of British armies in the South was
Lord Charles Cornwallis
• Had spent a year chasing American forces in the South
• Decided to move his army to Virginia
• Felt he could defeat the soldiers in Virginia, and that would crush
the Americans and end the war
• Chose a small town called Yorktown for his base
• Located on the York River, which flows into the ocean
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
• The general in charge of British armies in the South was Lord
Charles Cornwallis
• Had spent a year chasing American forces in the South
• Decided to move his army to Virginia
• Felt he could defeat the soldiers in Virginia, and that
would crush the Americans and end the war
• Chose a small town called Yorktown for his base
• Located on the York River, which flows into the ocean
• Ships could easily reach him to get him supplies
• Also left his troops without a place to retreat. If they
were attacked, they’d have to retreat toward the river
and ocean, where they would get stuck!
• But Cornwallis felt safe with the British navy nearby...
WASHINGTON RESPONDS
• While Cornwallis was setting up his base at
Yorktown, Washington was meeting with
French general Rochambeau in Rhode Island
• The French had already sent an army to help
out, and had a large French fleet of ships on the
way
• Washington and General Rochambeau were
making a plan to attack in New York City,
when the news of Yorktown arrived
• Washington recognized the mistake
Cornwallis had made…
WASHINGTON RESPONDS
• Washington decided to forget about attacking in New York City- the American and
French armies should head to Virginia immediately!
• The two armies combined could trap Cornwallis with his army’s back against the river
• If the French fleet could arrive in time, they could prevent the British fleet from helping
Cornwallis
• Then Cornwallis would have to surrender! In one single victory, Washington could win
the war!
• But Yorktown was 500 miles away… Washington’s military career had begun with a 500
mile journey during the French & Indian War, and that journey ended in failure and
disappointment- could this journey end in victory and success?
TRAVELING TO YORKTOWN
• It took more than a month for
the American and French
armies to get to Yorktown
• Then, they took a few days to
fortify Yorktown
• Built trenches around the
town, surrounding it by
land
THE BATTLE
• October 9, 1781 at 5:00 PM
• The first cannon was fired, and the battle
began!
• For once, the American army had more
weapons and ammo, and the British were
outnumbered:
• British + Germans = 9,000 soldiers
• Americans (about 11,000 soldiers) + French
(about 8,800 soldiers) = nearly 20,000
soldiers!
THE BATTLE, CONT.
• Cornwallis looked to the sea for help
• No help came! The French fleet had driven off the British fleet!
• Cornwallis and his army were on their own…
• Each day, Washington moved his army closer and closer, tightening
the half-ring a bit more
• Washington rode back and forth amongst his men, taking the chance
of being shot as he rode through the troops
• His soldiers cheered him on, grateful for their leader
THE BATTLE, CONT.
• Cornwallis was trapped, his back to the water, amidst the fire of guns
and the roar of cannons
• On October 17, recognizing that it was useless to continue, General
Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington
THE BATTLE, CONT.
• Two days later, the American and French
forces formed two long lines
• The defeated British troops marched between
the armies that had beaten them, as they left
the town
• While they marched out of Yorktown, a
British army band played a tune they all
knew, an old nursery rhyme…
• Strange song to play, perhaps, but it was
chosen for its words-
BRITISH NURSERY RHYME
If buttercups buzzed after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men, and if grass ate the corn,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mammas sold babies for half a crown,
If summer were spring, and the other way ‘round,
Then all the world would be upside down
VICTORY & INDEPENDENCE
• A ragtag collection of citizen soldiers
had defeated one of the world’s greatest
armies
• For the first time in world history,
colonists had defeated a mother country
• The United States of America had been
created, and the British Empire had
been humbled
• American colonies were now officially
“free and independent states”
A FINAL WORD…
• The American Revolution produced many of the world’s finest
heroes:
• George Washington, John Paul Jones, Nathan Hale, to name just a
few
• Most of the heroes from the war were just ordinary people, whose
names never made it to the history books
• They were the Minutemen at Lexington
• The soldiers shivering at Valley Forge
• The women who cared for the ill and wounded, and kept farms
and towns running
• Farm families who shared food with soldiers
• Townspeople who gave the soldiers housing
• Women, children, and older men who made weapons and
gunpowder
• Ordinary people who did extraordinary things to raise the spirits
of the soldiers, and to keep the war going
A FINAL WORD…
• At the beginning of the war, the question for Americans was, “Are we capable of
winning?”
• When the war was over, people across the world asked, “How could the American
colonies have possibly won a war against the one of the world’s greatest military
powers?”
• The answer was obvious to the Americans… The main reason the Revolutionary
War was won is that ordinary Americans refused to lose it.