CR,
As I said the French army was there -You do not call and army
Franco-American because they took their holidays in Paris! Ben Franklin
(or was it Ben J?) wooed the French government to send their troops
over. Anyway history books are written accordingly for the country in
which they will be sold/used. But the main facts remain - Old George was
an idiot and thought the "colonies" were a ragtail band of ruffians and
acted accordingly. The French were wooed by Ben baby and did send troops
without whom the battle/war would have had a different
story...............and when the war was fought BOTH sides were British!!!
At 06:40 PM 7/4/2003 -0500, Charles & Peggy Robinson wrote:
>Well, gee, no, I don't find any history books that say the British
>opposition at Yorktown was a large french army. It was a
>"Franco-American" army, approximately 6,000 french under Rochambeau and
>9,000 of the Continental Army (CA) under Washington and La Fayette. The
>Brits, under Cornwallis, were outnumbered but not by a French army.
>
>Actually, the Continental Army (CA) was made up, in great part, by
>formerly conscript Hessian soldiers who had deserted their involuntary
>service with the Austrians and Brits and enlisted in the CA on promise of
>land grants, etc, when the war was over. Another part was several rebel
>militias, which the Brits didn't think could fight. The rest were
>re-enlisted rebels from the original cadres and other volunteers.
>
> The rebel Virginia Militia was a force the Brits brought on
> themselves, by pillaging a formally pacific countryside on the word of a
> few Virginia Tories who were after feathering their own nests. The
> commander of the Tory irregulars was a particularly bloodthirsty british
> officer. He got himself killed eventually, by the Virginians.
>
> If the french fleet, under De Grasse hadn't defeated the british fleet
> in the Chesapeake Bay and blockaded the York river, preventing the
> british troop and supply ships getting in, Cornwallis would have been
> reinforced or evacuated to fight another day. Instead, he was stuck and
> had to capitulate.
>
> It is on record that Cornwallis tried to surrender to a french general
> officer, attached to Washington's staff, because he didn't want to
> surrender to a "ragtag militia officer." Poor old Cornwallis lost twice
> to Washington; once at Trenton and Princeton up north and finally at
> Yorktown in the south. Bad Karma.
>
> In Cornwallis' defense, he didn't want to fortify Yorktown, recognising
> that it wasn't good ground to defend. Governor-General Clinton insisted,
> and Cornwallis obeyed. Clinton thought the British navy could support
> Cornwallis if the nitty got gritty. However, the french won the naval
> battle and Cornwallis' goose was cooked.
>
> Interesting stuff, huh?
>
> CR
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Barrie Robinson wrote:
>>
>>As to history I do not suppose that many will remember that the
>>relatively small British army at the battle of Yorktown had to face a
>>large French army and navy imported through Ben Franklin's lobbying
>>during many years residency in France.
>>
>
Regards
Barrie
Barrie Robinson
barrier@bconnex.net
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