- ...it should be in our power in better days to go there in such force and remain long enough to establish a post, and it can be kept afterwards with a small force, I request you to go on providing such materials as you shall judge necessary.
- Command of all the Provincials... and Liberty to raise several Corps of Blacks upon the Promise of Freedom.
- ...he had been forced to abandon property worth upwards of £35,000 in America, including thousands of acres of land, over fifty slaves, about a dozen indentured servants, teams of farm animals, race horses, and all sorts of household furnishings.
- We are all slaughtered men.
- There shall be a firm and perpetual Peace between his Britanic Majesty and the said States, and between the Subjects of the one and the Citizens of the other, wherefore all Hostilities both by Sea and Land shall from henceforth cease: All prisoners on both Sides shall be set at Liberty, and his Britanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his Armies, Garrisons & Fleets from the said United States, and from every Post, Place and Harbour within the same; leaving in all Fortifications, the American Artillery that may be therein: And shall also Order & cause all Archives, Records, Deeds & Papers belonging to any of the said States, or their Citizens, which in the Course of the War may have fallen into the hands of his Officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and Persons to whom they belong.
- Virginia Museum of History and Culture
Washington wanted to load his troops on French ships and sail quickly to the next attack. The compte de Grasse felt there was not enough time to attack Charles Town, but initially indicated a willingness to participate in a siege at Wilmington if Washington could obtain the supplies needed for his army. Washington indicated that if the fleet joined in an attack on the British base there, and the ships carried 2,000 soldiers to Carolina, then the Marquis de Lafayette would command the ground forces.
On October 24, after detailed planning with pilots who understood the challenges of navigating in the Carolina waters, the French naval commander changed his mind. He feared that his ships would not have time to load and debark 2,000 extra men and for a siege to be completed before the Royal Navy forced to to fight another high-risk battle at sea.
The decision to abandon the attack on Wilmington was not received by Washington until October 28. Though disappointed, he quickly responded with a suggestion that the French fleet return to the Chesapeake Bay in May 1782 and coordinate a new assault on Charles Town or New York. The compte de Grasse declined to make any commitment to return, saying that orders from France would determine his future plans.
The French fleet sailed back to the Caribbean in order to protect the sugar islands there from the British. The British, aware of their vulnerability at Wilmington, abandoned it on November 18.
Washington sent some troops south to reinforce General Nathanael Greene. He marched back to New York with most of the Continental Army, leaving Williamsburg on November 3. The Continental Army went into 1781-1782 winter quarters at Newburgh. It remained near New York, to keep the British trapped there, until the Peace of Paris was signed.
The French army spent the winter of 1781-1782 in Williamsburg, Yorktown, Hampton, and West Point. It was warmer in Virginia, and supplies could be provided without burdening the countryside around Newburgh. Local residents welcomed the hard currency (specie) that they paid to cover expenses.
The French stay in Williamsburg was not incident-free. The home of Reverend James Madison, the president of the College of William and Mary, was damaged in an accidental fire on November 23 while being used as a hospital. The Governor's Palace also was converted into a hospital, and it burned down completely on December 22. The French paid compensation for Madison's home, but not for the loss of the Governor's Palace.
Most of the French troops started marching north, retracing the Washington-Rochambeau route, on July 1, 1782.2
The French fleet that returned to the Caribbean was defeated on April 12, 1782 by the Royal Navy in a decisive victory known as the Battle of the Saints. That ended the ability of the French to assist Washington, but the Parliament and King George III had already accepted that hopes of winning a military victory were unrealistic. Great Britain needed to agree to independence and negotiate and end to the fighting in North America, in order to focus of fighting the French, Spanish, and Dutch.
Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown did not end all fighting in the United States. It did not even end efforts by Lord Dunmore to return to Hampton Roads.
In the summer of 1781, there had been high expectations in London that Cornwallis would suppress the rebellious colonists. Dunmore was sent back to Virginia to reclaim his position as royal governor. Loyalists who had fled Virginia and were receiving a stipend for living expenses were ordered to return with him, or lose the financial support. Dunmore and the loyalists were traveling across the Atlantic Ocean when news came of the British surrender at Yorktown.
Dunmore ended up in Charleston, landing in December 1781. There he developed a plan to arm 10,000 South Carolina men who has escaped enslavement. He insisted that the men be paid and promised freedom. General Henry Clinton in New York, who was being blamed for the military defeat and not focused on opening a new campaign, ignored the proposal.
In the spring of 1782, Governor Dunmore sailed to New York. Before he was replaced by General Guy Carleton, Clinton was more receptive to a proposal by Lieutenant Colonel James Moncrief to establish new British outposts at Old Point Comfort (now Fort Monroe) and Sewell's Point (now Naval Station Norfolk). Clinton wrote to Montcrief that if:3
Dunmore added to the proposal the possibility of arming black men who had fled to British lines. He asked London officials for:4
Soon after General Carleton took command, Dunmore gave up and returned again to London. He took his seat in the House of Lords and advocated for the interests of the loyalists. From 1783-1787, he led the efforts of Virginia loyalists to obtain the compensation envisioned in the Treaty of Paris. He pressed for full compensation of his losses. He estimated that:5
He received substantial payments from the government prior to the Treaty of Paris. After fleeing Virginia in 1776, he had been given £15,000. He was given an annual £750 allowance and continued to receive a salary as royal governor, which was increased from £2,000 to £3,000 annually. He claimed he was still entitled to £10,000 in compensation, but the claims commission said it was improper for him to even apply.:6
The civil war, especially in the Carolinas, continued after Cornwallis's surrender. Small conflicts between British forces and the "rebels" continued until the Preliminary Articles of Peace were signed on November 30, 1782. Fighting with the Native Americans on the western edge of the new United States of America was a different story; that continued long afterwards.
Loyalists were reluctant to agree to the concept that the war was ending. In North Carolina, loyalist David Fanning led the "Bloody Sabbath" raid in March, 1782. Three of the revolutionary leaders in Randolph County, south of Greensboro, were murdered. The estates of four others were plundered. The harsh civil war between Americans continued without the British launching any new campaigns from their bases in Charles Town, Wilmington, or New York.7
On the western frontier, a small number of British soldiers continued to work with Native Americans. They managed to launch two major assaults in 1782.
On August 19, 1782, 50 British soldiers and 300 Native Americans clashed with 182 Kentucky militiamen at the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky. The Americans had been pursuing the British/Native American force which had attacked Bryan's Station and, after failing to capture it, headed north to cross the Ohio River.
Daniel Boone warned the Kentucky militia that they were following a too-obvious trail, and an ambush lay ahead. Other leaders chased on anyway, to avoid accusations of cowardice. Boone followed, commenting:8
Boone was correct. About 1/3 of the Kentuckians - including Boone's son Israel - died that day.9
In another assault by British rangers and Native American warriors, Fort Henry on the Ohio River was surrounded in September, 1782. The defenders inside the fort at Wheeling were just the local residents. They raced inside just before the raiders appeared. A few other Virginians, including the family of Ebenezer Zane, fled to the nearby blockhouse where the gunpowder was stored.
The fort's defenders repelled two attacks on the first night, but ran low on gunpowder by morning. Elizabeth Zane ran from the fort to the blockhouse, filled her apron with gunpowder, and raced back to the fort under fire from the attackers. That enabled the defenders to continue their resistance. The attackers had brought only enough supplies for a few days, and soon abandoned the siege.10
The American retaliation in the west came in November, 1782. George Rogers Clark led an army into Ohio and burned five Shawnee villages in the Northwest Territory, to which Virginia had only recently ceded its claims to the Continental Congress. The Shawnee retreated rather than fight, but the expedition is often described as the "last battle" of the American Revolution.11
It took four months after the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown for Parliament to accept that the war in North American could not end in a British victory.
Parliament voted three times on ending the war. On December 12, 1781, a motion to end the war was defeated by a 220-179 vote. Another vote on February 22, 1782 ended with a majority still in support of continuing hostilities, but the vote was 194-193. Five days later, with 65 more members of Parliament in attendance, the decision to end the war was adopted by a 234-215 vote. There would be no restoration of 13 North American colonies as subservient to London officials, though Quebec and Florida never seceded.
Negotiating the terms of the peace treaty took 18 more months. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war and acknowledged American independence, was signed on September 3, 1783. The Confederation Congress formally ratified it on January 14, 1784.
Great Britain offered generous terms, seeking to drive a wedge between the new United States of America and France. The treaty required the Americans to pay their debts to loyalists and British merchants in sterling, not depreciated currency issued by the separate states or the Continental Congress.
Article Seven included a provision of great significance (underlined) to Virginia planters:12
The British officers in Charles Town and New York ignored the requirement in the treaty to leave behind the enslaved workers who had fled to freedom. To the great frustration of George Washington and others who sought to recover what they considered to be private property, those men, women, and children were transported to Canada, the Caribbean, and various other locations.
Open warfare was ended by the Peace of Paris. At the end of the American Revolution, five of Great Britain's colonies on the North America Continent had declined to join the new United States of America. The colonies of Nova Scotia, Quebec and St. John's Island (modern Prince Edward Island) remained part of Great Britain, and the Hudson's Bay Company controlled Rupert's Land west of Quebec.
East and West Florida were transferred to Spain. Spain also asserted control over the territory west of the Mississippi River, though in reality the land north of Mexican settlement and west of the Ohio River was still dominated by the Native Americans.13
Economic and diplomatic disputes continued. As President of the United States, George Washington sought to end many of the disputes when he endorsed the Jay Treaty that was negotiated with Great Britain in 1794.
For years, Great Britain ignored the requirement in Article 7 of the peace treaty to "withdraw all his Armies, Garrisons & Fleets from the said United States, and from every Post, Place and Harbour within the same." British forces stayed in forts at Detroit, Niagara, Michilimackinac/Mackinac, and other places stretching to the Mississippi River.
In 1794, the British built Fort Miami in Ohio to deter Gen. Anthony Wayne from leading an American army towards Fort Detroit. Wayne defeated the Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The US Senate ratified the controversial Jay's Treaty in 1796, and the British finally abandoned the last of their western forts that year.14
The War of 1812 failed to resolve the disputes, but the defeat of Napolean ended the need for a large Royal Navy.
After Great Britain stopped impressing American sailors to staff a large navy, peaceful trade has dominated the relationship between the two countries. Multiple disputes over the border between the United States and the British colony of Canada did not erupt into war before Canada finally gained its independence after the American Civil War.
During World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill established a "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain; the economies and military defense strategies of the one-time adversaries are now tightly integrated.15
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783
Source: Iowa Historical Society, Treaty of Paris
A Monument In Petersburg Honoring a British General Who Invaded Virginia in the Revolutionary War
Battle of Yorktown
Loyalists in Virginia During and After the American Revolution
Revolutionary War Pensions
The Revolutionary War in Virginia
Virginia Military District - Kentucky
Virginia Military District - Ohio
Winning the Illinois Country in the American Revolution
Links
References
1. "From George Washington to Francois-Joseph-Paul, comte de Grasse-Tilly, 20 October 1781," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07215 (last checked July 7, 2026)2. Joshua Wheeler, "The Abandoned American Offensive After Yorktown: the Attack That Never Was," Journal of the American Revolution, https://allthingsliberty.com/2026/06/the-abandoned-american-offensive-after-yorktown-the-attack-that-never-was/; "Chronology of Events After The Siege," National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/york/learn/historyculture/afterthesiege.htm; Michael Cecere, "The French Army in Williamsburg, Virginia, 1781–1782," Journal of the American Revolution, December 13, 2022, https://allthingsliberty.com/2022/12/the-french-army-in-williamsburg-virginia-1781-1782/ (last checked July 8, 2026)
3. James Corbett David, Dunmore's New World, 2013, pp.125-134, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dunmore_s_New_World/V3qz3CccKc0C (last checked August 11, 2026)
4. James Corbett David, Dunmore's New World, 2013, p.134, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dunmore_s_New_World/V3qz3CccKc0C (last checked August 11, 2026)
5. James Corbett David, Dunmore's New World, 2013, p.134, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dunmore_s_New_World/V3qz3CccKc0C (last checked August 11, 2026)
6. James Corbett David, Dunmore's New World, 2013, pp.134-139, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dunmore_s_New_World/V3qz3CccKc0C (last checked August 11, 2026)
7. Josh Wheeler, "The Complicated History of David Fanning's Murderous 1782 Bloody Sabbath Raid, Journal of the American Revolution, July 22, 2025, https://allthingsliberty.com/2025/07/the-complicated-history-of-david-fannings-murderous-1782-bloody-sabbath-raid/; "Preliminary Articles of Peace; November 30, 1782," The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/prel1782.asp (last checked July 7, 2026)
8. Gregory J. W. Urwin, "'Abandoned to the Arts & Arms of the Enemy:' Placing the 1781 Virginia Campaign in Its Racial and Political Context," 2014 Harmon Memorial Lecture, US Air Force Academy, https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/Harmon57.pdf; John M. Trowbridge, "'We Are All Slaughtered Men:' The Battle of Blue Licks," Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 2, Number 2 (Winter 2006), p.59, https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/ancestorsbluelicks.pdf (last checked May 5, 2020)
9. John M. Trowbridge, "'We Are All Slaughtered Men:' The Battle of Blue Licks," Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 2, Number 2 (Winter 2006), p.59, https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/ancestorsbluelicks.pdf (last checked May 5, 2020)
10. John M. Trowbridge, "'We Are All Slaughtered Men:' The Battle of Blue Licks," Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 2, Number 2 (Winter 2006), p.59, https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/ancestorsbluelicks.pdf; Eric Sterner, "Betty Zane and the Siege of Fort Henry, September 1782," Journal of the American Revolution, January 14, 2020, https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/01/betty-zane-and-the-siege-of-fort-henry-september-1782/ (last checked May 5, 2020)
11. John M. Trowbridge, "'We Are All Slaughtered Men:' The Battle of Blue Licks," Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 2, Number 2 (Winter 2006), p.60, https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/ancestorsbluelicks.pdf (last checked May 5, 2020)
12. "Treaty of Paris, 1783," US Department of State Archive, https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/ar/14313.htm; "Treaty of Paris (1783)," National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris (last checked July 7, 2026)
13. "Rupert's Land," The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 7, 2006, https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ruperts-land; "The history they didn't teach comes back to haunt us. Why events 250 or more years ago are raising gas and food prices today," Cardinal News, August 28, 2026, https://cardinalnews.org/2026/08/28/the-history-they-didnt-teach-comes-back-to-haunt-us-why-events-250-or-more-years-ago-are-raising-gas-and-food-prices-today/ (last checked August 28, 2026)
14. "Treaty of Paris (1783)," National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris; Richard J. Werther, "The 'Western Forts' of the 1783 Treaty of Paris," Journal of the American Revolution, January 5, 2023, https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/01/the-western-forts-of-the-1783-treaty-of-paris/ (last checked July 8, 2026)
15. "John Jay’s Treaty, 1794–95," Department of State, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/jay-treaty; "A Brief History of the Special Relationship," The Ripon Forum, https://riponsociety.org/article/a-brief-history-of-the-special-relationship/; "7 Times the U.S.-Canada Border Wasn't So Peaceful," History.com, June 30, 2015, https://www.history.com/articles/7-times-the-u-s-canada-border-wasnt-so-peaceful (last checked July 8, 2026)
Military in Virginia
Virginia Places