[FONT="]SLIPPING THE NET:
A TALE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION[/FONT]
by teg
[FONT="]A TALE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION[/FONT]
by teg
Inspired by this thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=268440, by SpanishSpy, although it will not be a direct copy of the scenario proposed in that. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Cornwallis Slips the Net[/FONT]
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1781. For the last seven years, the thirteen British colonies along the eastern seaboard of the American continent had been fighting a war of independence against the British Empire, since 1777 with the support of Royalist France. The war had largely reached a stalemate in the north, but through 1780 and 1781, the British had won a series of victories in the south that saw large sections of Georgia, North and South Carolina and parts of Virginia fall back under their control. However in December 1780, the American Army under George Washington was reinforced by a French army under Rochambeau. Furthermore, the British general Clinton had ordered the army that had invaded Virginia to march to Yorktown and build fortifications for a deep water port. With the French West Indian Fleet heading north to escape the hurricane season, the possibility now emerged that Cornwallis and his army could be trapped and destroyed in Yorktown. After some probing attacks on New York, Washington consented to the march south, and on August 19th, 3000 American and 4000 French troops began to march south. After a dispute over pay was resolved in early September, the combined Franco-American army reached Yorktown on September 28th. At this point, Washington had under his command 7800 Frenchmen, 3100 militia and 8000 regular American troops, bringing his forces up to about 19000 men. Against this, Cornwallis only had 9000 men from Britain and its German allies. On September 5th, the French West Indian Fleet under Admiral Francois Joseph Paul defeated a British fleet out of New York. Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown, or so it seemed.[FONT="]
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By October 9th, the allies had succeeded in digging a trench line and gun emplacements, allowing an aggressive bombardment of Yorktown to begin. Many of the British ships in the harbour were damaged or destroyed during the bombardment, and many of the British guns began to fall silent as the Americans fired all night in order to prevent repairs being made. By October 11th, the Americans and French had begun to dig a second line of trenches and on October 14th, stormed two redoubts blocking the digging of these trenches. An attempted British counter-attack to spike the American and French cannons was only partly successful. By the morning of October 16th, Cornwallis' situation was growing desperate. However the general did have one last trick up his sleeve.
On the night of the 16th, Cornwallis ordered his men to begin an evacuation to Gloucester Point on the other side of the York River. If they could reach the point, then they would be able to break through allied lines and escape. At first, it seemed possible that rough weather would prevent the evacuation but fortunately the sea stayed calm and in a brilliantly executed evacuation, the whole of Cornwallis' army except for those who were too sick to move, and a small number of deserters, was ferried across the York River. [In OTL, a squall scuttled the British evacuation]. The British then surged through the American lines and broke out, marching north as fast as they could. As dawn rose on October 17th, the Americans and French realized to their horror that the British had escaped.
Cornwallis' army was not yet out of the woods however. It either had to wait for Clinton to arrive with ships for an evacuation, or it faced a grueling march north to New York. Neither of these two options were appealing; the fighting capabilities of Cornwallis' troops was degraded by malaria and a march would entail abandoning the sick and wounded. Temporarily paralyzed by indecision, Cornwallis encamped his army at Gloucester while he tried to decide what to do. The French and Americans quickly took advantage of this and attempted to swarm Cornwallis' army, only to suffer defeat on October 20th at Gloucester Point and then on October 22nd at King and Queen Court House. Low on ammunition and artillery, the position of Cornwallis and his men was again appearing bleak by October 23rd. Then the dawn broke once more on October 24th, as Clinton finally arrived with a fleet of ships to take Cornwallis and the battered remnants of his army away.
The Yorktown campaign of 1781 was a tremendously frustrating experience for the Franco-American alliance. While Cornwallis only managed to escape with about his half his army, the fact he had escaped was a huge blow to the allies. It also severely eroded Washington's trust in Rochambeau, whose idea the Yorktown campaign had been. The American economy was also nearing collapse by 1781. Washington commented grimly that it, "Took a wagon-load of money to buy a wagon-load of hay". Desertions in the Continental Army increased dramatically after Yorktown and by the time that Washington's army returned to New Jersey to winter, it had no more than 10,000 men. The condition of the British however was hardly better by 1781; the British armed forces were stretched thin trying to fight a major war not just in America but also in Europe and India, and unlike in the Seven Years War, without a major European as an ally. The political costs of the war were also mounting as 1781 came to an end, while many of the British elite considered America and Britain to be one and the same, they were less than determined to fight a war to maintain the empire. While neither side realized it, by 1782, both sides were looking for a way out of the war.
The war however continued into 1782. While Cornwallis’ army was mauled by Yorktown, it was not destroyed and the British still had 30,000 troops left in North America, more than enough to defeat Washington and his French allies. They could not, however, successfully subdue the whole of the thirteen colonies. Therefore while support for the war was slumping in Britain by 1782, the King, Lord North and his cabinet were determined to reinforce the The brief French command of the sea ensured by Yorktown was undone in the Battle of the Saints in April 1782. This allowed the British to begin shipping additional troops across the Atlantic and to tilt the balance of power in favor of the British. Realizing that the situation was rapidly slipping out of their control, the Continental Congress issued a request for terms from the British government and when word of this slipped out to the public, the British Prime Minister Lord North was forced to begin negotiations by pressure from a war weary public.
After this point, events moved quickly and by the start of 1784, a preliminary peace deal had been signed between the Americans and British. The war was formally concluded on November 8th of that year with the Treaty of Paris (between the British and the Americans), and the Treaty of Versailles (between the British and its other opponents). For the Franco-American alliance, the treaty was a disappointment; while the United States did gain its independence, it was boxed in by British land to the west. By this token, the peace was not a complete loss for the British, although they were forced to recognize the independence of the United States, control over the Ohio and the lands west of the Appalachians was recognized as British, except for Louisiana which was returned to France. Florida was also returned to the Spanish, but the British did not consider this a great loss. As a result, the new American nation found itself encircled by a ring of British loosely held British territory stretching from Nova Scotia in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. By this token, the biggest winners of the peace process were probably the native Americans, principally the Iroquois, who found that the British were once more dependent on them to block the American advance into the interior. Paradoxically, despite being on the winning side, France had arguably lost more than it had gained; the retaking of Louisiana and the partial humiliation of Britain, was a poor substitute for a massive increase in the national debt. This was exacerbated by the weakness of the French economy and tax infrastructure in contrast to Britain's. (As a comparison, during the American War of Independence, the British were paying $7,000,000 for their national debt, while the French were paying twice for a national debt that was only slightly bigger)
Above: Dark Red; the United States in 1785. The light red includes the lands that would become the Kingdom of Louisiana, the Kingdom of Canad[FONT="]a, the Empire of Mexico, the Republic of Florida and the Kingdom of Appalachia.
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Any comments and feedback are welcome. Enjoy.
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