After the victory at Saratoga, Patriot and British forces eventually find themselves in a stalemate around New York City with neither side able to achieve any significant victories. Frustrated by lack of progress in the north, British officials decide to open a new theater in the south, since it is speculated to have a massive Loyalist presence. General Henry Clinton launched the Southern Campaign by capturing Charleston, South Carolina, in May, 1780. Clinton leaves General Lord Charles Cornwallis in charge of restoring order in the southern colonies. British commanders underestimated just how strenuous conditions were between Patriot and Loyalist militias. The Southern Campaign quickly proved to be a brutal civil war as well as a fight for independence. British forces faced another problem: they were winning battles, but did not have the manpower to actually hang onto these captured territories. When General Nathanael Greene takes over command of Patriot forces in the south, the Patriots adopt a new strategy: make the British fight for every mile of territory.
Cornwallis eventually becomes trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, where combined Patriot and French forces under command of Generals George Washington and Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau force Cornwallis to surrender in October, 1781. The Siege at Yorktown is the last major engagement of the Revolutionary War. With the Revolutionary War becoming increasingly expensive and unpopular in England, Parliament decides to end the war, and the Treaty of Paris officially signaled the end of the revolution. The Founding Fathers could finally look to building a new nation!
