lis chasing
without losing his own army. That was about all he could hope to do for a
while.

But when he received recruits from Virginia, he thought it wise to strike
a blow, even though he could not win a victory. Turning, therefore, upon
his enemy, he fought a battle at Guilford Court House, North Carolina
(March, 1781).

He was defeated, but came off as well as he expected, and so crippled the
British army that Cornwallis had to retreat. He went to the coast to get
supplies for his half-starved men. Like the battle of Bunker Hill, it was
a dearly bought victory for the British.

Cornwallis now saw clearly that he could not hope longer for success in
the south, and having taken on fresh supplies, he marched northward to try
his luck at Yorktown, Virginia.

Washington, with an army of French and American troops, was at the time in
camp on the Hudson River, waiting for the coming of the French fleet to
New York. That city was still in the hands of the British. As soon as this
fleet should arrive, Washington expected to attack the British army in New
York by land, while the fleet attacked it by sea.

But the French fleet was well on its way to the Chesapeake instead of to
New York as expected. When this information came to Washington, he worked
out a bold and brilliant scheme. It was to march his army as quickly and
as secretly as possible to Yorktown, a distance of four hundred miles,
there join the American army under Lafayette, and, combining with the
French fleet on its arrival, capture the British under Cornwallis.

This daring scheme succeeded so well that Cornwallis surrendered his
entire army of eight thousand men on October 19, 1781. This important
event, which practically ended the war, we shall speak of again.

The surrender at Yorktown ended the fighting, although the treaty of peace
was not signed until 1783. By that treaty the Americans won their
independence from England. The country which they could now call their own
extended from Canada to Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Mississippi River.

After the treaty of peace was signed, and the army disbanded, General
Greene went home. In 1785 he moved with his family to a plantation which
the State of Georgia had given him. Here he lived in quiet and happiness,
but only a short time, for he died of sunstroke at the age of forty-four.
His comrade Anthony Wayne, voiced the feeling of his countrymen when he
said: "I have seen a great and good