AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Path to Victory

1778 British forces moved South

Thought that the Southern loyalists would support the British

British were failing in the North, too much countryside to control

South was close to British colonies in the West Indies○ British planned to shift troops and supplies

back and forth

1780 1778 British General Henry

Clinton landed in South CarolinaTrapped American forces in

Charles Town5,000 American soldiers

surrenderedWorst American defeat of the war

In retaliation, General Gates formed a new army in the southHeaded to Camden, SC to

challenge the British General Lord Cornwallis

Francis Marion Known as the ‘Swamp

Fox’ Met up with Gates on

his way to Camden Gates was forced to

retreat as his forces were unprepared for the British

Francis Marion hears about the defeat and frees American prisoners and returns them to Gates

Francis Marion cont’d Francis Marion

used ‘guerilla warfare’ in the South Carolina swamplandsGuerilla Warfare:

Small band of fighters who weaken the enemy with surprise raids and hit and run attacks

Southbound Many battles were taking place in the

Southern United StatesVicious fighting1780, Battle of King’s Mountain

○ 1,000 Loyalists killed by the Americans in retaliation for British & Loyalist massacres on Patriots