The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, Was Fought Between Independence Fighters, Led By

The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela.

The Battle of Lake Maracaibo was fought on 24 July 1823 in Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo between Admiral José Prudencio Padilla and royalist Captain Ángel Laborde.

The battle was won by the republican forces, and was the last battle of the Venezuelan War of Independence in particular and the larger Spanish American wars of independence. The ships belonged to the forces of Gran Colombia led by Simón Bolívar.

The Battle of Carabobo of 1821 is usually seen in the historiography as the culminating battle for Venezuelan independence, but many historians point out that if the Battle of Lake Maracaibo had been a victory for the royalist forces, the Spanish Crown might have set a new front in Western Venezuela from which to attack the republican forces stationed in Venezuela. As a result of the loss, the Spanish Crown did not send any new regiments to Venezuela, and finally accepted Venezuelan independence as a result of this second decisive patriot victory, although it did not formally recognize the new nation for more than a decade afterwards.

The Battle of Chacabuco, fought during the Chilean War of Independence, occurred on February 12, 1817. The independentist army led by José de San Martín defeated the Spanish force led by Rafael Maroto. It was a defeat for the Captain Generalcy of Chile, the Spain-controlled government established after the division of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

San Martín sent his troops down the mountain starting at midnight of the 11th to prepare for an attack at dawn. At dawn his troops were much closer to the Spanish than anticipated, and fought hard and heroically. Soler’s troops had to go down a tiny path that proved long and arduous, and took longer than expected. General O’Higgins, supposedly seeing his homeland and being overcome with passion, defied the plan of attack and charged along with his 1,500. What exactly happened in this part of the battle is fiercely debated. O’Higgins claimed that the Spanish stopped their retreat and started advancing towards his troops. He said that if he were to lead his men back up the narrow path and retreat, his men would have been decimated one by one. San Martín saw O’Higgins early advancement and ordered Soler to charge the Spanish flank, which took the pressure off of O’Higgins and allowed his troops to stand their ground.

The firefight then ensued into the afternoon, and the tides turned for the Patriots as Soler captured a key Spanish artillery point. At this point, the Spanish set up a defensive square around the Chacabuco Ranch. O’Higgins charged the center of the Spanish position, and Soler got into place behind the Spanish forces, effectively cutting off any chance of retreat. O’Higgins and his men overwhelmed the Spanish troops and they attempted to retreat but Soler’s men cut off their retreat and pushed towards the ranch. Hand to hand combat ensued in and around the ranch until every Spanish soldier was dead or taken captive. 500 Spanish soldiers were killed and 600 taken captive. The Patriot forces only lost twelve men in battle, but an additional 120 lost their lives from wounds suffered during the battle.[2]

The Battle of Maipú was a battle fought near Santiago, Chile on April 5, 1818 between South American rebels and Spanish royalists, during the South American wars of independence. Victory came to the rebels commanded by José de San Martín, leader of the resistance to Spain in southern South America, and it completed the independence of Chile from Spanish domination. n 1817, the Argentine General José de San Martín led an army across the Andes and defeated the Spanish at the battles of Chacabuco and Chalchuapa and captured Santiago. The Spanish viceroyalty sent a Spanish army to Santiago under General Mariano Osorio, which defeated San Martin at the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada. The drive for independence never diminished, however, and the following year San Martin launched a final offensive, which was to decide the outcome of the war. The victory produced tremendous results. The victory ended the struggle for Chilean independence and so demoralized the Spanish army in South America that San Martin was able to easily sweep through and liberate Peru. The battle left 2,000 Spaniards dead and 3,000 captured; the patriots lost about 1,000 men.

Haitian Revolution

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Battle on Santo Domingo, a painting by January Suchodolski depicting a struggle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels Date 22 August 1791 — 1 January 1804 Location Saint-Domingue Result Haitian Victory Expulsion of the French colonial Territorial government. Establishment of the changes independent Republic of Haiti. Belligerents France Haiti Polish Legions Commanders Toussaint Charles Leclerc L'Ouverture Vi'comte de Jean-Jacques Rochambeau Dessalines Napoleon Bonaparte Strength Regular army: <55,000, Regular army: 60,000, Volunteers: <100,000 86 warships and frigates Casualties and losses Military deaths: 37,000 combat deaths Military deaths: unknown 20,000 yellow fever Civilian deaths: 100,000 deaths Civilian deaths: ~25,000 [show] v • d • e French Revolutionary Wars

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Chronology Before 1492 1492-1791 1791-1804 1804-1843 1843-1915 1915-1986 1986- present Topics Saint-Domingue Haitian Revolution United States occupation of Haiti 2004 Haitian rebellion Timeline Military history

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Battle at "Snake Gully" in 1802.

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a period of brutal conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled by people of African ancestry. Although hundreds of rebellions occurred in the New World during the centuries of slavery, only the revolt on Saint-Domingue, which began in 1791, was successful in achieving permanent independence under a new nation. The Haitian Revolution is regarded as a defining moment in the history of Africans in the new world.

Although an independent government was created in Haiti, its society continued to be deeply affected by the patterns established under French colonial rule. The French established a system of minority rule over the illiterate poor by using violence and threats. Because many planters had provided for their mixed-race children by African women by giving them education and (for men) training and entrée into the French military, the mulatto descendants became the elite in Haiti after the revolution. By the time of war, many had used their social capital to acquire wealth and some already owned land. Some had identified more with the French colonists than the slaves, and associated within their own circles. Their domination of politics and economics after the revolution created another two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers.[1] In addition, the still-new nation's future was literally mortgaged to French banks in the 1820s as it was forced to make massive reparations to French slaveholders in order to receive French recognition and end the nation's political and economic isolation. These payments permanently affected Haiti's economy and wealth.[2] Contents

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 1 Background  2 Situation in 1789  3 Impact of French Revolution  4 1791 slave rebellion  5 Leadership of Toussaint  6 Resistance to slavery  7 Free republic  8 Impact  9 Literature and art  10 See also  11 Notes  12 References

 13 External links [edit] Background

The riches of the Caribbean depended on Europeans' taste for sugar, which plantation owners traded for provisions from North America and manufactured goods from European countries. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. By the 1740s Saint-Domingue, together with Jamaica, had become the main supplier of the world's sugar. Sugar production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh Saint-Domingue colonial plantation economy. The white planters who derived their wealth from the sale of sugar knew they were outnumbered by slaves by a factor of more than ten; they lived in fear of slave rebellion.[3] In 1758, the white landowners began passing legislation that set restrictions on the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. Most historians have classified the people of the era into three groups. One was the white colonists, or blancs. A second was the free blacks (usually mixed-race, known as mulattoes or gens de couleur libre, free people of color). These tended to be educated, literate and often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and slave mothers. The males often received education or artisan training, sometimes received property from their fathers, and freedom. The third group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. A high rate of mortality among them meant that planters continually had to import new slaves. This kept their culture more African and separate from other people on the island. They spoke a patois of French and West African languages known as Creole, which was also used by native mulattoes and whites for communication with the workers.[4]

White colonists and black slaves frequently had violent conflicts. Gangs of runaway slaves, known as maroons, lived in the woods away from control. They often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations. The success of these attacks established a black Haitian martial tradition of violence and brutality to effect political ends.[5] Although the numbers in these bands grew large (sometimes into the thousands), they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to accomplish large-scale objectives. The first effective maroon leader to emerge was the charismatic François Mackandal, who succeeded in unifying the black resistance. A Vodou priest, Mackandal inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and religions. He united the maroon bands and also established a network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 through 1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in 1758, large armed maroon bands persisted in raids and harassment after his death.[3][6] [edit] Situation in 1789

In 1789 Saint-Domingue, producer of 40 percent of the world's sugar, was the most profitable colony the French owned. It was the wealthiest and most flourishing of the slave colonies in the Caribbean. The lowest class of society was enslaved blacks, who outnumbered whites and free people of color by eight to one.[3] The slave population on the island totaled almost half of the one million slaves in the Caribbean by 1789.[7] They were mostly African-born. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of enslaved Africans continued. The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to overwork; inadequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care; and an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women.[8] Some slaves were of a creole elite class of urban slaves and domestics, who worked as cooks, personal servants and artisans around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class was chiefly born in the Americas, while the under-class born in Africa labored hard under abusive conditions.

The Plaine du Nord on the northern shore of Saint-Domingue was the most fertile area with the largest sugar plantations. It was the area of most economic importance. Here enslaved Africans lived in large groups of workers in relative isolation, separated from the rest of the colony by the high mountain range known as the Massif. This area was the seat of power of the grand blancs, the rich white colonists who wanted greater autonomy for the colony, especially economically.[9]

Among Saint-Domingue’s 40,000 white colonials in 1789, European-born Frenchmen monopolized administrative posts. The sugar planters, the grands blancs, were chiefly minor aristocrats. Most returned to France as soon as possible, hoping to avoid the dreaded yellow fever, which regularly swept the colony.[10] The lower-class whites, petits blancs, included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint- Domingue’s free people of color, the gens de couleur, numbered more than 28,000 by 1789. Many of them were also artisans and overseers, or domestic servants in the big houses.[11]

In addition to class and racial tension between whites, free people of color, and enslaved blacks, the country was polarized by regional rivalries between the North, South, and West. There were also conflicts between proponents of independence, those loyal to France, allies of Spain, and allies of Great Britain - who coveted control of the valuable colony. [edit] Impact of French Revolution

Further information: French Revolution

In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, constituted itself as the National Assembly, made radical changes in French laws, and on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man, declaring all men free and equal. The French Revolution shaped the course of the conflict in Saint-Dominque and was at first widely welcomed in the island. So many were the twists and turns in the leadership in France, and so complex were events in Saint-Domingue, that various classes and parties changed their alignments many times.[citation needed]

The African population on the island began to hear of the agitation for independence by the rich European planters, the grands blancs, who had resented France's limitations on the island's foreign trade. The Africans mostly allied with the royalists and the British, as they understood that if Saint-Domingue's independence were to be led by white slave masters, it would probably mean even harsher treatment and increased injustice for the African population, The plantation owners would be free to operate slavery as they pleased without minimal accountability to their French peers.[9]

On the 4th of February 1794 under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, the French Convention voted for the abolition of slavery [...] Robespierre is still revered by the poor of Haiti today.

Centre for Research on Globalization[12] Saint-Dominque's free people of color, most notably Julien Raimond, had been actively appealing to France for full civil equality with whites since the 1780s. Raimond used the French Revolution to make this the major colonial issue before the French National Assembly. In October 1790, Vincent Ogé, another wealthy free man of color from the colony, returned home from Paris, where he had been working with Raimond. Convinced that a law passed by the French Constituent Assembly gave full civil rights to wealthy men of color, Ogé demanded the right to vote. When the colonial governor refused, Ogé led a brief insurgency in the area around Cap Francais. He was captured in early 1791, and brutally executed by being "broken on the wheel".[6] Ogé was not fighting against slavery, but his treatment was cited by later slave rebels as one of the factors in their decision to rise up in August 1791 and resist treaties with the colonists. The conflict up to this point was between factions of whites, and between whites and free coloreds. Enslaved blacks watched from the sidelines.[3]

Leading 18th-century French writer Count Mirabeau had once said the Saint-Domingue whites "slept at the foot of Vesuvius",[13] an indication of the grave threat they faced should the majority of slaves launch a sustained major uprising. [edit] 1791 slave rebellion

Part of a series of articles on...

1712 New York Slave Revolt (New York City, Suppressed) 1733 St. John Slave Revolt (Saint John, Suppressed) 1739 Stono Rebellion (South Carolina, Suppressed) 1741 New York Conspiracy (New York City, Suppressed) 1760 Tacky's War (Jamaica, Suppressed) 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution (Saint-Domingue, Victorious) 1800 Gabriel Prosser (Virginia, Suppressed) 1805 Chatham Manor (Virginia, Suppressed) 1811 German Coast Uprising (Territory of Orleans, Suppressed) 1815 George Boxley (Virginia, Suppressed) 1822 Denmark Vesey (South Carolina, Suppressed) 1831 Nat Turner's rebellion (Virginia, Suppressed) 1831–1832 Baptist War (Jamaica, Suppressed) 1839 Amistad, ship rebellion (Off the Cuban coast, Victorious) 1841 Creole, ship rebellion (Off the Southern U.S. coast, Victorious) 1859 John Brown's Raid (Virginia, Suppressed)

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Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in the 1780 edition of his history of European colonization. He also predicted a general slave revolt in the colonies, saying that there were signs of “the impending storm”.[14] One such sign was the action of the French Revolutionary government to grant citizenship to wealthy free people of color in May of 1791. Because white plantation owners refused to comply with this decision, within two months isolated fighting broke out between the former slaves and the whites. This added to the tense climate between slaves and grands blancs.[15]

Raynal’s prediction came true on 22 August 1791, when the slaves of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war. The signal to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of August 14.[16] Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt. Whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters through “pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death”.[17] Because the plantation owners long feared a revolt like this, they were well armed and prepared to defend themselves. Nonetheless, within weeks, the number of slaves who joined the revolt reached approximately 100,000. Within the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 whites and burned or destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.[17]

By 1792, slaves controlled a third of the island. The success of the slave rebellion caused the newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to realize it was facing an ominous situation. To protect France’s economic interests, the Legislative Assembly needed to grant civil and political rights to free men of color in the colonies. In March 1792, the Legislative Assembly did just that.[17] Countries throughout Europe as well as the United States were shocked by the decision of the Legislative Assembly. Members of the Assembly were determined to stop the revolt. Apart from granting rights to the free people of color, they dispatched 6,000 French soldiers to the island.[18]

Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The white planters in Saint Domingue made agreements with Great Britain to declare British sovereignty over the islands. Spain, who controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola, would also join the conflict and fight with Great Britain against France. The Spanish forces invaded Saint Domingue and were joined by the slave forces. By August 1793, there were only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. To prevent military disaster, a French commissioner freed the slaves in his jurisdiction. The decision was confirmed and extended by the National Convention in 1794 when they formally abolished slavery and granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies. It is estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 whites.[19]

The author Thomas Carlyle described these events dramatically:

"[describes disorders and shortages in France] ... not so much as Sugar can be had; for good reasons ... With factions, suspicions, want of bread and sugar, it is verily what they call déchiré, torn asunder this poor country: France and all that is French. For, over seas too come bad news. In black Saint-Domingo, before that variegated Glitter in the Champs Elysées was lit for an Accepted Constitution, there had risen, and was burning contemporary with it, quite another variegated Glitter and nocturnal Fulgor, had we known it: of molasses and ardent-spirits; of sugar-boileries, plantations, furniture, cattle and men: skyhigh; the Plain of Cap Français one huge whirl of smoke and flame! What a change here, in these two years; since that first 'Box of Tricolor Cockades' got through the Custom-house, and atrabiliar Creoles too rejoiced that there was a levelling of Bastilles! Levelling is comfortable, as we often say: levelling, yet only down to oneself. Your pale-white Creoles, have their grievances: — and your yellow Quarteroons? And your dark-yellow Mulattoes? And your Slaves soot-black? Quarteroon Ogé, Friend of our Parisian Brissotin Friends of the Blacks, felt, for his share too, that Insurrection was the most sacred of duties. So the tricolor Cockades had fluttered and swashed only some three months on the Creole hat, when Ogé's signal-conflagrations went aloft; with the voice of rage and terror. Repressed, doomed to die, he took black powder or seedgrains in the hollow of his hand, this Ogé; sprinkled a film of white ones on the top, and said to his Judges, "Behold they are white;" — then shook his hand, and said "Where are the Whites, Ou sont les Blancs?" ... Before the fire was an insurrection by the oppressed mixed-race minority. So now, in the Autumn of 1791, looking from the sky-windows of Cap Français, thick clouds of smoke girdle our horizon, smoke in the day, in the night fire; preceded by fugitive shrieking white women, by Terror and Rumour. ..."[20] [edit] Leadership of Toussaint

One of the most successful black commanders was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a self- educated former domestic slave. Like Jean François and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish Crown in this period. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue, L'Ouverture decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free all the slaves. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1793. L'Ouverture worked with a French general, Étienne Laveaux, to ensure all slaves would be freed. He brought his forces over to the French side in May 1794 and began to fight for the French Republic. Many enslaved Africans were attracted to Toussaint's forces. He insisted on discipline and restricted wholesale slaughter. Under the military leadership of Toussaint, the forces made up mostly of former slaves succeeded in winning concessions from the British and expelling the Spanish forces. In the end, Toussaint essentially restored control of Saint-Domingue to France. Having made himself master of the island, however, Toussaint did not wish to surrender too much power to France. He began to rule the country effectively as an autonomous entity. L'Ouverture overcame a succession of local rivals (including the Commissioner Sonthonax; André Rigaud, a free man of color who fought to keep control of the South; and Comte d'Hédouville). Hédouville forced a fatal wedge between Rigaud and Toussaint before he escaped to France.[21] Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in 1798. In addition, he led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo (December 1800), and freed the slaves there in January 3, 1801.

In 1801, L'Ouverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue which provided for autonomy and decreed that he would be governor-for-life. In retaliation, Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large expeditionary force of French soldiers and warships to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, to restore French rule. They were under secret instructions to later restore slavery. [5] The numerous French soldiers were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud, mulatto leaders who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier. During the struggles, some of Toussaint's closest allies, including Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defected to Leclerc.

L'Ouverture was promised his freedom, if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French Army. L'Ouverture agreed to this in May 1802. He was later deceived, seized by the French and shipped to France. He died months later while imprisoned at Fort-de- Joux in the Jura region.[6] [edit] Resistance to slavery

Jean Jacques Dessalines

For a few months the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery (because they did so on Guadeloupe), Dessalines and Pétion switched sides again, in October 1802, and fought against the French. In November, Leclerc died of yellow fever, like much of his army.[6]

His successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, fought an even more brutal campaign. His atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the rebel cause. The French were further weakened by a British naval blockade, and by the unwillingness of Napoleon to send the requested massive reinforcements. Having sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803, Napoleon began to lose interest in his failing ventures in the Western Hemisphere. Dessalines led the rebellion until its completion, when the French forces were finally defeated in 1803.[6]

The last battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Vertières, occurred on 18 November 1803, near Cap-Haitien. It was fought between Haitian rebels led by Jean- Jacques Dessalines and the French colonial army under the Viscount of Rochambeau. On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name. This major loss was a decisive blow to France and its colonial empire. [edit] Free republic

On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. The country was crippled by years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent.[22][1]

Haiti was forced to make reparations to French slaveholders in 1825 in the amount of 150 million francs, reduced in 1838 to 60 million francs, in exchange for French recognition of its independence and to achieve freedom from French aggression. This indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury. It mortgaged Haiti's future to the French banks that provided the funds for the large first installment, permanently affecting Haiti's ability to be prosperous.[23]

The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of colonialism in Haiti. The social conflict cultivated under slavery continued to affect the population. The revolution left in power an affranchi élite as well as the formidable Haitian army. France continued the slavery system in Martinique and Guadeloupe.[9] [edit] Impact

The Haitian Revolution was influential in slave rebellions in the United States and British colonies. The loss of a major source of western revenue shook Napoleon's faith in the promise of the western world, encouraging him to unload other French assets in the region, including the territory known as Louisiana. In the early 1800s, thousands of refugees, including free people of color and white planters, of whom some in both categories owned slaves which they brought with them, settled in New Orleans, adding many new members to both its French-speaking mixed-race population and African population.[citation needed] In 1807 Britain became the first major power to permanently abolish the slave trade. However, slavery was not fully abolished in the British West Indies until 1833. It continued in the French colonies until 1848. The Haitian Revolution stood as a model for achieving emancipation for slaves in the United States who attempted to mimic Toussaint L'Ouverture's actions. L'Ouverture remains a popular figure to this day.

In 2004, Haiti celebrated the bicentennial of its independence from France. [edit] Literature and art he Battles of Saratoga, sometimes referred to as The Battle of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American Revolutionary War, (known in the UK as the American War of Independence) and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war. The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, nine miles (14.5 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne, whose campaign to divide New England from the southern colonies had started well but slowed due to logistical problems, won a small tactical victory over General Horatio Gates and the Continental Army in the September 19 Battle of Freeman's Farm at the cost of significant casualties. His gains were erased when he again attacked the Americans in the October 7 Battle of Bemis Heights and the Americans captured a portion of the British defenses. Burgoyne was therefore compelled to retreat, and his army was surrounded by the much larger American force at Saratoga, forcing him to surrender on October 17. News of Burgoyne's surrender was instrumental in formally bringing France into the war as an American ally, having previously given supplies, ammunition and guns, notably the de Valliere which played an important role in Saratoga.[8] French formal participation changed the war to a global conflict. This war also resulted in Spain contributing to the war on the American's side.

The first battle, on September 19, began when Burgoyne moved some of his troops in an attempt to flank the entrenched American position on Bemis Heights. Benedict Arnold, anticipating the maneuver, placed significant forces in his way. While Burgoyne succeeded in gaining control of Freeman's Farm, it came at the cost of significant casualties. Skirmishing continued in the days following the battle, while Burgoyne waited in the hope that reinforcements would arrive from New York City. Militia forces continued to arrive, swelling the size of the American army. Disputes within the American camp led Gates to strip Arnold of his command.

Concurrent with the first battle, American troops also attacked British positions in the area of Fort Ticonderoga, and bombarded the fort for a few days before withdrawing. British General Sir Henry Clinton, in an attempt to divert American attention from Burgoyne, captured American forts in the Hudson River highlands on October 6, but his efforts were too late to help Burgoyne. Burgoyne attacked Bemis Heights again on October 7 after it became apparent he would not receive relieving aid in time. In heavy fighting, marked by Arnold's spirited rallying of the American troops (in open defiance of orders to stay off the battlefield), Burgoyne's forces were thrown back to the positions they held before the September 19 battle, and the Americans captured a portion of the entrenched British defenses.

Yorktown, Virginia founded in 1691, was a busy 18th-century tobacco port but the town is best remembered as the site of the Battle of Yorktown, which effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Nine 18th-century buildings survived the 1781 Battle of Yorktown and can still be seen.

In the late summer of 1781 when George Washington and Rochambeau heard of Lord Cornwallis' encampment in Yorktown they raced southward from New York to link up with the French fleet under Admiral Comte de Grasse in Chesapeake Bay. Washington arrived just in time to bottle-up the British, who were anticipating reinforcements that never came from either General Henry Clinton or the British fleet.

Off shore, the French fleet effectively blocked aid from Cornwallis while Washington made life unbearable for the British troops with three weeks of shelling. Thomas Nelson a signer of the Declaration of Independence was also engaged in the final siege of Yorktown. Nelson being a true patriot, urged General Washington to fire on his own home, the Nelson House, where Cornwallis had his headquarters.

Lord Cornwallis' finally surrendered on October 19, 1781 and this ended the disastrous British southern campaign. The loyalist and Patriot forces in the south had fought a series of savage fights that left both sides bloodied. These engagements sent Cornwallis limping into Yorktown in late summer trailed by a force led by the Marquis de Lafayette a French Ally. Cornwallis attempted to surrender over 8,000 men to the French through his second-in-command, Charles O'Hara. French General Comte de Rochambeau, however, directed O'Hara to George Washington, who steered the British officer to his own second in command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln. .The surrender occurred while the British band played The World Turned Upside Down, a tune that underscored the strange turn of events. This battle effectively ended the Revolutionary War with Great Britain.