The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-10-26
,shinqton Resiqninq His Commission. Dec 23, 1888

celency General Washington, having brought
official accounts of the SURRENDER of
Lord CORVALLIS and the Garrisons of York
and Gloucester those Citizens who chuse to
ILLUMINATE on the Glorious Occasion, will
do 1t this evening at Six and extinguish
their lights at Nine o'clock. Decorum and
harmony are earnestly recommended to ev-
cry Citizen, and general dscountenance to
the least appearance of riot.
Although the school book histories give us
the impression that the Revolution ended alb
ruptly with the surrender of CORVALLIS, it was
far from being as simple as all that. Charleston
and Savannah were still held by the British So
was New York where Sir Henry Clinton, al
though outwtted by Washington in his quick
dash to trap Corvallis still had a strong army
that was perpetual threat against the Ameri-
can line of defense along the Hudson
The surrender at Yorktown was stunning
blow to British prestige, but it did not mean that
the stubborn Briton was ready to give up yet.
True as our school book histories tell us, Lord
North, upon receiving news of the disaster,
threw up his arms as though struck by
cannon ball and cried out: My God, it is all
over 1t is all overr" But when parliament
convened, King George III made speech which
indicated his determination to continue the war,
and, hearing of this, Washington knew that his
task was far from being ended So he sent urgent
appeals to the states not to relax their efforts,
made plans for a stronger army than ever be-
fore and, after brief stop at Mount Vernon and
a short stay in P. ladelphia where he conferred
with committee from congress on the measures
necessary for the next campaign, marched his
Continentals back to Newburgh on the Hudson,
where for the next few months he lay watching
Clinton in New York
But Clinton showed no desire to make a move
and for the next year the two armies adopted
policy of ''watchful waiting" During this time
there was some raiding by marauding bands Of
Tories and Patriots, but there were no major
military movements in the northern theater of
war. The conflict there had become stalemate.
Down in the South bitter partisan warfare
was still being waged. After Yorktown Mad
Anthony" Wayne had been sent to help Gen.
Nathaneal Greene regain South Carolina and
Georgia from the enemy and in series of minor
skrmishes he defeated the Creek Indian allies
of the British, scattered parties of Tory raiders
and ousted several small British garrisons from
the towns they were holding. Then he marched
against Savannah, forced the British to eyacu-
ate it in July. 1882, and joined Greene in the
siege of Charleston which the British gave up in
December.
So in both the North and South hostilities had
virtually ceased by the middle of the year. But
out in the West the war was still raging in a
fearful form unknown on the Atlantic seaboard
except in the blood-drenched Mohawk valley of
New York. Indian scalping parties, led by Brit
ish and Canadian officers, were assailing the
Pennsylvania and Virginia borders and the Ken
lucky settlements.
In August, 1882, the men and women Of Bry-
ants Station successfully withstood such an at
tack only to have their victory followed by the
disaster at Blue Ncks on August 10 when the
flower of Kentucky's man power was destroyed
in this LAST Battle of the Revolution" so called
because it was the last pitched battle between
forces of any considerable size. On September
II wave of savage fury once more beat against
the palisaded walls of Fort Henry wheeling,
w. Va) where Betty Zane won Immortality with
her dash through hail of bullets to carry
powder to the defenders of the fort. This attack
was also repulsed as were others against other
outposts of the frontier but for many months
afterwards there hung over the West the shadow
Of fear of the redskins. kind of fear which the
Redcoats had never been able to inspire in the
East.
In the meantime the march Of events across
the Atlantic was rapidly bringing the war nearer
and nearer to an end Even before Yorktown the
English nation was tired of a war which gave it
more debts than victories and which had been
denounced more than once by members Of the
Wing party. After Yorktown King George was
about the only one who wanted to keep on with