The War In 1778–79

Fearing a blockade of Philadelphia by a French fleet, the British army in June, 1778, abandoned the city to strengthen its position in New York City. With a reinforced army, Washington attacked the British near Monmouth Court House, New Jersey. This thrust was ruined by the poor generalship of Charles Lee, who did not press the attack and then ordered a retreat. Washington prevented a rout by rallying the patriots. He planned an attack for the next day, but the British slipped away and continued their march.

A French fleet under Admiral Jean Baptiste d'Estaing appeared off the Atlantic coast near New York City in July. A combined land and sea attack was planned, but abandoned for an assault on a British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island. The attack made excellent progress until a storm battered the French fleet just as it was engaging an inferior British naval force. The French withdrew, leaving the Americans without naval support and causing a near disaster. Except for a few skirmishes, the war in the north then became a stalemate.

Although Burgoyne's defeat had ended the threat of a serious attack from Canada, the British continued to harass frontier settlements with Indian raids, usually led by Tories (loyalists). Raids were especially serious in the Mohawk Valley of New York, in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, and in Kentucky.

In August, 1779, Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton defeated Indians and Tories at Newton (now Elmira), New York, and destroyed the Indian villages. In 1778–79 Colonel George Rogers Clark overran British posts in Illinois and Indiana, helping to curtail Indian raids in Kentucky. However, the Americans failed to capture the main British bases—Fort Niagara (in New York) and Detroit—and militia continued to fight Indians and Tories throughout the war.

For the remainder of the war the South was the main theater of action. It was British strategy to capitalize upon the loyalty of many Southerners to the crown. Late in 1778, the British captured Savannah, Georgia, and soon controlled Georgia and the interior of the Carolinas. General Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts, sent south to organize a counterattack, failed in an attempt to retake Savannah in 1779. In May, 1780, he surrendered an army of 5,000 at Charleston. General Gates was then sent south, but suffered a smashing defeat at Camden, South Carolina. American despair over these reverses was heightened by the news that Benedict Arnold, one of Washington's best generals, had turned traitor.