Larry Mendte Curtis Sliwa America 250th July 01

Larry shares the story of the final battle of the American Revolution and George Washington’s victory in Yorktown Virginia.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Curtis and Larry celebrate two fifty stories they made America On.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sevent ten Wars.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
It was late in the Revolutionary War and the British
generals were more than a little frustrated with the inability
to break the impregnable fortress of New Jersey. They controlled
New York, and if they could just take the continental
capital of Philadelphia, the war would be over and the
British Empire would have its greatest prize. But New Jersey

(00:32):
was unbreakable, and after an embarrassing loss for the British
at the Battle of Springfield, it was time for a
new strategy, a Southern strategy. The Southern strategy was a
simple one. With a superior navy, they could rule the ports.
They had already taken the strategic port of Savannah. Now

(00:53):
they had their sights set on the port of Charleston.
In seventeen eighty, Charleston was the largest city in the
Colonies and was by far the wealthiest. The vast majority
of the New World's abundance of wheat, rice, tobacco, and
indigo traveled from the port of Charleston. General Sir Henry

(01:14):
Clinton was the new commander of the British forces in
the Revolutionary War. He and his second in command, General
Charles Cornwallis, led an armada from New York City and Newport,
Rhode Island for a massive siege on the port of Charleston.
The armada consisted of nine thousand troops and five thousand sailors,

(01:36):
traveling on ninety troop ships and fourteen warships. By early
seventeen eighty, they had Charleston surrounded by land and by sea,
but General Clinton wasn't taking any chances. After watching superior
forces lose in New Jersey, he issued what is now

(01:57):
called the Phillipsburg pri Acclamation, promising freedom for slaves owned
by the Patriots if they joined the British cause. Historians
estimate between ten thousand and twenty thousand slaves, men, women,
and children would answer the call. The British used them
in combat, but also as vital scouts, guides, and laborers.

(02:21):
The bloody siege on Charleston would last six weeks, but
on May twelfth, seventeen eighty, Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln,
commander of the Charleston Garrison, surrendered his forces to the British.
It was the worst defeat for the Continental army of
the war. The British captured over five thousand American troops,

(02:44):
thirty three thousand rounds of ammunition, three hundred pieces of artillery,
forty nine ships and barrels and barrels of flower rice
and room. General George Washington was in Morristown, New Jersey
when he heard about the defeat in Charleston. He was furious,
not only at the defeat, but that General Lincoln wasn't

(03:06):
afforded something called the honors of war when he surrendered.
You see, in the seventeen hundreds, war was more gentlemanly.
It was customary in victory to allow the defeated army
the honors of war were the officers, and many of
the troops were allowed to just march away with their
flags still flying, playing marching tunes, and their bayonets still fixed.

(03:28):
None of that was allowed, and most of the men
were taken as prisoners of war. Washington would get his
revenge immediately. Washington and his generals started formulating plans for
a major counterattack. Washington wanted to attack New York, but
his generals disagreed. The argument ended when they got word

(03:50):
that a French fleet led by the brilliant. French Admiral
Francois Joseph pal de Grasse was on its way to
form a blockade of the char Elston Bay and encourage
Washington to send his troops to surround them. Washington joined
with French troops under the command of French General Jean
Baptiste Rosambeau for a six hundred and eighty one mile

(04:15):
trip to the Chesapeake Bay, specifically a town on the bay,
a Virginia town called Yorktown, where British General Cornwallis had
set up headquarters. Yorktown would be the final battle of
the Revolutionary War, and the Continental Army won it convincingly.

(04:35):
It was the exclamation point on the Declaration of Independence
signed five years earlier. The war was over and the
United States of America was now a sovereign nation, and
no after a stunning and overwhelming victory, Washington would not
afford General Cornwallis the honors of war. He would not

(04:58):
accept his sword. Instead, he said, give it to General Lincoln,
the man he disrespected in Charleston a year earlier.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Brilliant, I mean Larry outstanding, and in fact, for all
of you out there to hear, all of our America
two fifty segments. No other program, no other station is
doing this in radio, TV, on cable, on the stream, nothing.
Just go to seven ten WR dot com Slash America.

(05:29):
And just as we've seen a void of any attention
to our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in our region,
we are going all out as we broadcast till July
fourth with the remaining segments. And outstanding job again.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Larry, Well, you've got the next couple. I can't wait
to hear them, especially the big finale on Friday before
the fourth of July. And it's amazing. New York's not
celebrating it, as you said, but you are yes, and
you got WR two, So thank you for that and
congratulations on that well