Lord Cornwallis, finding General Greene successful in Carolina, marched to Virginia, collected his forces, and fortified himself in Yorktown. In the mean time Arnold made an incursion into Connecticut, burnt a part of New London, took Fort Griswold by storm, and put the garrison to the sword. The garrison consisted chiefly of men suddenly collected from the little town of Groton, which, by the savage cruelty of the British officer who commanded the attack, lost, in one hour, almost all its heads of families. The brave Colonel Ledyard, who commanded the fort, was slain with his own sword, after he had surrendered.
The Marquis de la Fayette, the brave and generous nobleman, whose services command the gratitude of every American, had been dispatched with about two thousand light infantry, from the main army, to watch the motions of lord Cornwallis in Virginia. He prosecuted this expedition with the greatest military ability. Although his force was much inferior to that of the enemy, he obliged them to leave Richmond and Williamsburgh, and to seek protection under their shipping.
About the last of August, Count de Grasse arrived with a large fleet in the Chesapeak, and blocked up the British troops at Yorktown. Admiral Greaves, with a British fleet, appeared off the Capes, and an action succeeded; but it was not decisiv.
General Washington had before this time moved the main body of his army, together with the French troops, to the southward; and as soon as he heard of the arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeak, he made rapid marches to the head of Elk, where embarking, the troops soon arrived at Yorktown.
A close siege immediately commenced, and was carried on with such vigor, by the combined forces of America and France, that lord Cornwallis was obliged to surrender. This glorious event which took place on the 19th of October, 1781, decided the contest in favor of America; and laid the foundation of a general peace.[46]
A few months after the surrender of Cornwallis, the British evacuated all their posts in South Carolina and Georgia, and retired to the main army in New York.
The next spring, (1782) Sir Guy Carleton arrived in New York, and took the command of the British army, in America. Immediately on his arrival, he acquainted General Washington and Congress, that negociations for a peace had been commenced at Paris.
On the 30th of November, 1782, the provisional articles of peace were signed at Paris; by which Great Britain acknowleged the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America; and these articles were afterwards ratified by a definitiv treaty.
Thus ended a long and arduous conflict, in which Great Britain expended near an hundred millions of money, with an hundred thousand lives, and won nothing. America endured every cruelty and distress from her enemies; lost many lives and much treasure; but delivered herself from a foreign dominion, and gained a rank among the nations of the earth.
Holland acknowleged the independence of the United States on the 19th of April, 1782; Sweden, February 5th, 1783; Denmark, the 25th of February; Spain, in March, and Russia in July, 1783.