Mhm . What battles took place in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War that finally allowed the american soldier to win ? What role did France play in the final victory ? And how did General Washington stop a conspiracy of officers at Newburgh new york for answers to these questions . Stay tuned . Welcome to the U . S . Army history and Heritage podcast , the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The Center of Military history , writes and publishes the army's official history , manages the US Army Museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U . S . Army . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army history and Heritage podcast . I'm lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the Center of Military History . In this episode , we are covering the final stages of the Revolutionary War or what's best described as the war in the south which led to the final victory . Joining me is Revolutionary War historian john Moss , welcome john , thank you glad to be here . It's great to have you here . So , a little bit about john dr john Armas is an education staff member of the new National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir Virginia . He received his B . A . From Washington and lee University and his PhD in early american history at the Ohio State University . He served in the 80th division of the Us Army Reserve Dr Moss is also the author of several books and numerous articles on early US military history , including The road to Yorktown Jefferson Lafayette and the British Invasion of Virginia in 2015 ? George Washington's Virginia in 2017 and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse , a most desperate engagement in 2020 . That's pretty cool . A lot of uh a lot of history there . What am I missing ? Anything else that you've done ? I was the author of two publications done by the Army Center of Military History . One was in the War of 18 12 series . I did the first volume , which was called defending The new nation , which went from immediately after the Revolutionary War , 1784 through 1811 , right before the war of 1812 , really through the Battle of Tippy Canoe . And then I wrote the volume of the Civil War series on the Petersburg and appomattox campaigns . So I had a lot of fun doing those um particularly the one on Petersburg and appomattox enjoyed it a lot . Now , are you from Virginia ? Is that why you have a connection to that ? Um I have lived in Virginia since I was 11 over in the Lexington , Rockbridge County area . Alright , well , good . Well , um but today we're going to pick your brain about the Revolutionary War and specifically as we mentioned um the , the war in the south . So let's shift to that , You know , previously we we've spoken about the war in the Middle States in the , in the northern colonies . But in late 1778 , early 1779 , the British shifted their main effort to the South . Why was that ? Well the background is that the emphasis became on securing the territory of the south of this period . The british were under the impression that there was a huge number of loyalists in the south , mostly in the Carolinas and Georgia . And they were being told in London that a significant force , uh , if it arrived in the south , the loyalists would , would flock to it and they would form their own military units and that , that would be easy to do and basically conquer the Carolinas and Georgia . Um They were also interested in shifting the war to the south because by this time France had come into the war on the side of the americans and the big emphasis became capturing or retaining the various sugar islands in the west Indies . So they wanted an area in the south to use as a base for those operations . Right then , let's talk about what the american army looked like in the south . What was the size type of forces that they had ? And I mean , I know that we had official continental army , I'm guessing we had militia , but also what role did the american indians or freed black men and french forces play ? Well , other than two campaigns , Yorktown and 1781 and then Charlestown , which is now charleston south Carolina in 1780 , which had very large forces on both sides Yorktown and in particular . But most of the battles and engagements in the south , Even the most famous ones we know of , We're very small affairs most of the time the British had less than 3000 troops . And uh , the Americans , uh Less than less than 5000 , even at Guilford Courthouse . So they weren't big , big large scale engagements such as the battle of Monmouth Courthouse or the Saratoga campaign or Brandywine near philadelphia . They were quite small . And in addition to those types of units you just mentioned , um , it's important to note that the militia were in existence for both the patriot side and the loyalist side . There were many , many regiments uh and companies raised um even even put in uniform uh to fight alongside the british . In fact , one of the more famous ones that folks might have heard of is Charlton's legion . Charlton was a cavalry commander in the south , notorious for brutality deserved or not deserved , but his , his unit , the british legion was , was a loyalist unit Um in the south . The Indians um mostly were important during the beginning of the war . There was a 1776 campaign that was launched from Virginia and north Carolina against the Cherokees , uh in what is now western north Carolina and eastern Tennessee . Then there were some units of african americans , the two most famous ones being a regiment from Rhode island that was made up of numerous freed Freeman and they fought during the Yorktown campaign . But early in the war , um in 1775 , the governor of Virginia , uh put out a call for slaves to run away to the british that were in the Tidewater area and that they would be freed and there would be clothed and armed and it was called the loyal Ethiopian regiment . And of course the , that enraged slave owners and actually probably tilted many loyalists or neutral slave owners toward the patriot cause because uh , they were , they were losing what they considered to be their property . So the british thinking that we had um um , that loyalists would join up . There's , there's truth to that to some degree then , right , there were quite a number of loyalist regiments that were raised in the south . And then for various campaigns , uh loyalist units that were raised in the north were shipped to the south in order to be in some of the campaigns . And then let's talk about the american leaders at , at this point here in the south , they see the british coming down um who were the key leaders here And what was their strategy to defend against the british ? Well , the key , uh , the two key commanders for the americans during the southern campaign from 1780 through 1783 . The first one was Horatio Gates and he was the hero of Saratoga . He was the american commander during the Saratoga campaign that was successful against the british , but when he got to the south to paraphrase a general that was not his friend , his , his uh , northern laurels turned into southern willows , which meant that he faced a disastrous brief campaign at the battle of Camden on august 16th 17 80 in south Carolina where the american force was routed . And once that happened , Washington at Congress's request , uh , chose the next commander himself , which was Nathaniel Greene , which , who was a Rhode islander and Green arrived in the south in early December of 1780 . And it was , it was after that , that you had some of the more well known southern battles such as Cowpens , Guilford Courthouse , Hobb Kirk Hill and Utah Springs . Those were four of the battles that , that , that Green was the commander of and he was a very talented man . He had been the army , the George Washington's quartermaster for a year or so and he knew logistics and he knew just like Washington knew that his job was not to try to defeat the british and battle , but to avoid getting his own army defeated . He had to stay on . He had , he had an army on the ground to represent the cause of independence and there were some uh , subordinates below him . Daniel morgen was another , the american commander at the battle of Cowpens , a brilliant victory . Uh , there were several , what we would we call today guerilla leaders , meaning um , small units of hit and run type tactics , the most famous one probably being Francis Marion , the swamp fox from south Carolina , but also thomas sumter uh , and uh , Andrew pickens who were both also from south Carolina . So you , you've already talked about Camden . So it was a big loss for the american forces . So what happened after Camden ? So um , Washington replaces Gates with with green and then where did , where did the battles go after that ? So green arrived in Charlotte North Carolina on December 2 , 1780 . And that's where he took over command from Gates . It's important to note that the stylized imagery , either in film tv or what's depicted in paintings in paintings of the american uniforms and equipment and what have you is , is just false . Um , you can read greens reports , morgan's reports , letters , correspondence of a lot of officers from the army , Half the men were so ill clad that they couldn't report for drill on the parade ground . Uh , there are a lot of them had no shoes just in tatters , only had blankets to wear . And you're talking about the militia . Are you talking about this is the Continental ? There's the Continentals , It was very difficult to resupply them and green figured that out pretty fast when he was on his way from west point to take up his command in the south as he , as he went south . He stopped in philadelphia Annapolis and Richmond to try to get those states to provide more money and supplies and equipment . And he figured out pretty early on his trip down that , um , it was going to be very , very difficult . So um , he faced a lot of challenges logistically and with equipment , weapons , um , just even even having people to repair wagons for his use or muskets that were broken . Um , but he , he triumphed in the end . Right . And um , let's talk really quick . We've talked about the american leaders who are the british leaders , who are we facing here ? Well , uh , the big attack was on charleston south Carolina as I mentioned in the early part of 17 80 that was a large expedition that came from new york city by boat and thousands of troops and artillery , even even cavalry came on the , on the ships and that was led by Sir Henry Clinton who was the commander in chief of all british forces in north America . His second in command was probably a name most folks would know which was Charles Lord cornwallis . The two of them did not get along at all . They were , they were enemies . Uh , they did not work well together during the campaign , but charleston fell in May of 17 80 and soon after that Clinton sailed back with part of the troops to New York and for the rest of the period it was really cornwallis who was the commander in , in cow pens . Um , He wasn't physically there , but a detachment of under Charlton was there cam Din Guilford courthouse and then eventually Yorktown , I want to talk a little bit about the battle of cow pens and , and kind of what led up to that because I just find that the tactics that were used there was really very interesting . Um , the militia , I guess they hadn't , you know , talk to me about that , but my understanding is they had not been performing as well as the Continental Army and that the commander , who was it , was it green or morgen at morrigan that used that to his advantage . Can you , can you explain that ? Um , yes , they had very poor performance evaluations throughout the southern campaigns . Um , so at Cowpens , which is um , in what's called the upcountry of south Carolina , it's west of charlotte . If you , if you're , if you're driving in that area today , it's near Gaffney , about an hour west drive from , from charlotte . It's a very pretty national battlefield park . The park service sounds it . Uh More organ had been detached from the army with a small force of about 800 continentals or so . And um , he uh , was detached by General Greene who took the rest of the army farther to the east in an area , what's , it's called Sharon . That's in south Carolina . Also on the Pee dee river and morgan was tasked with uh kind of causing trouble for the british among their western outposts , most most notably was a place oddly named 96 south Carolina . Um So the british had a base there and cornwallis as he was moving north from um , yeah , from Winnsboro , south Carolina to move into north Carolina . He detached uh , Charlton Banister Tarleton , who's a hard driving , aggressive cavalry commander to meet up with and destroy Morgan's force . So Morgen was retreating north . Uh , this was to the west . These actions between Charlton and morgen went to the west of cornwallis , axis of advance toward north Carolina . Eventually morgen gathered militia from north Carolina , Virginia , south Carolina and Georgia to supplement his . His force . He realized that Charlton , whose troops were mostly mounted was going to catch up with him and he did not want to be In the middle of crossing a river . What when Tarleton and his men approached , it would be very dangerous . So we stopped four or 5 miles before his for the last river , he had to cross the broad river and he set up his line , he set up his , his defensive position in what today we would call a defense in depth . Uh , He , he set up three lines . The first line was rifleman and they were supposed to delay Charlton's initial advance to try to knock the plans that the british had off the rails a little bit , uh , maybe uh , produced some casualties And they only really had to fire two or 3 volleys and then they could fall back to the second line and beyond . And the second line was made up of militia and morgen also instructed them , you know , give two or three valleys again to disrupt the advance of Charlton's troops . And then the 3rd line on the on on a rise . It's not even really a ridge , it's it's kind of a low hill though that's where he put his Maryland , Virginia and Delaware Continentals was was on that third line . And so he was hoping that by the time the british attacked the third line they would have been disrupted . Um He also had a small cavalry contingent that was hidden Behind that hill under William Washington , who was a distant cousin of George Washington . Um and he was a continental cavalry officer . So Charlton with his own loyalists and cavalry . And he also had one battalion of the 71st Regiment And the 7th regiment of foot attacked what what I would , what I would call impetuously . He did not wait for all of the troops to come up . He was , he was , you know , full steam ahead . There's this rebel militia , we know they're going to run . But Morgan's plan worked and the militia knew that if they would just fire two or three volleys , they could fall back regroup behind the Continentals . And in the end , what happened was what was called a double envelopment , which is where the americans were able to stand fast in the center and then hit Charlton's flanks at the same time with their um cavalry and infantry . And so Charlton out of a force of about 1000 lost about 875 most of them captured , most captured . It was a tremendous victory . They , the americans got two field pieces which were very hard to come by for them . And um so that was really morgan's main main achievement in the south . That was , that was , that was january 17th , 17 81 . Yes . Significant victory for the american army and then moving north . Right , so after this battle , you know , we want to get up to Guilford Courthouse . I think that's something , you know , a lot about . Um you wrote a book about that . So um what happened there ? Um and what was the significance of that ? So after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse , uh morgen sent a detachment of his men to guard all those prisoners directly after Cowpens directly north to to secure them . But he moved northeast to cross the main river in western north Carolina , which is the catawba and it was flooded . He was able to get across cornwallis . Every cornwallis was not able to cross because the americans had removed almost all the boats . Uh they faced him on the on the Catawba river at the end of january . Meanwhile , Green brought the rest of the army to Guilford Courthouse . Um and that's where morgen was , was heading , there was a , the british managed to cross the catawba at cowan's ford and Green realized that when , once he was , he was his main army joined with morgan's contingent , He was still too weak , his troops still poorly equipped to face cornwallis in battle . So he decided to move into Virginia . And after that there was a , there was a period of about two weeks called the race to the dan actually was about a week and they were trying to get Green was trying to get across the dan river into Virginia where he would be more easily supplied and cornwallis gave chase . Uh they americans , we were able to cross the dan at a place in Virginia that's now called south boston , It's near the Virginia . North Carolina line in Halifax County and the british showed up on the other side of the bank about eight hours later , having not been able to catch up . Um there was another that followed another kind of two week period where they sparred with each other a little bit . Green changed his campsites almost every evening just to keep the british off their balance . Um , cornwallis needed to move to a little bit more of an easier way to get supplied . So he moved his , his position by March 14th to central north Carolina , very close to to modern high point north Carolina and Green decided on the 14th that he was , he had been reinforced by uh extra continental units from Virginia and Maryland and um thousands of north Carolina Virginia militia . So he figured this , this is my chance , I may not ever have that many troops under my command again , He was correct and he was moving to attack cornwallis . Now one of the things that I've pointed out in my book is that almost every printed source modern either book website , article encyclopedia entry says the Green took up a defensive position at Guilford Courthouse , which he had seen two weeks earlier and waited for the british to attack incorrect . All the contemporary evidence , including greens reports , Light horse harry lee's reports , William Washington's reports that all state the green was moving toward cornwallis position to attack . Um However , AM on 15 March , Light Horse Harry lee scouts reported that cornwallis was coming after Green . So Green said , okay , well let's just stay in our position . The battle was several hours long . He used a similar defense in depth that he had , that he had gotten from daniel morrigan . Unfortunately , he put all the north Carolina , north Carolinians in the militia in the first line bolstered by regular troops on the flanks . Uh , many of them ran without firing a shot , cornwallis um cornwallis used ahead head on approach , which is , there was no real finesse to his battle plan . He saw militia , an attack . That's what he did at Camden . It was very successful . Um , The Virginians in the 2nd line , we're much better at staying in their lines , many of them had been continental soldiers before and their terms had expired and they were doing militia duty . Um they , they stood for many volleys . Finally the british were so disrupted that they arrived at the third american line near the courthouse which consisted of artillery and four continental regiments to Virginia to Maryland . Um the left flank of Greene's position gave way everyone else was standing fast and Green decided again with this prudence of needing to have an army in the field , that discretion was the better part of valor as they say , and he led an orderly retreat to a predetermined location . Um and and so uh cornwallis technically won the battle in 18th century terms by holding the field , but his army suffered 25% casualties and even higher among the officers . And remember this is an army that had had been on the move since july of 17 80 had marched uh cam din , cow pens and Guilford by by march . They were , they were in just as bad a condition in some ways as the americans were . So after this , um , what did cornwallis do ? Well , cornwallis decided to abandon his attempt to conquer north Carolina and he moved to Wilmington's to get resupplied . And because of that , I argue that the key battle in the south during the Revolutionary War in in this final 17 80 17 81 time period was Guilford courthouse , not cow pens because if you look at it , cornwallis advanced after cam din And when the Americans won a victory , militia victory at Kings Mountain Cornwallis retreated but then advanced again , he lost a huge part of his army at Cow Pens in January of 1781 , but did not retreat . He kept going and it was , it was only Guilford Courthouse where , where he won the battle but had to retreat and abandon his campaign . That's a turning point . That is a strategic turning point that was decisive . Whereas the other battles did , he kept advancing . It was only Guilford Courthouse . That battle that caused him to stop advancing to give up that attempt . And what did Green in the american army , do ? Did they pursue cornwallis ? They did . Um cornwallis basically marched down the Cape Fear River all the way to Wilmington's by way of what was at that time called Campbelltown but is now known as Fayetteville , home of Fort Bragg . Um So Green pursued cornwallis , but once they approached Wilmington's , he decided that they were going to move , that he was going to move his army into south Carolina and tried to retake that area . He knew cornwallis was , was fairly weak at that point in april of 17 81 and uh cornwallis could either chase him or or get water transportation back to Charlestown . But Green was really risking a lot by leaving cornwallis in the rear , but he was in friendly territory . Green was and as we know cornwallis did not chase green after . All ? Right , so let's talk about Yorktown . How did , how did cornwallis end up getting to Yorktown , What was the american response to that ? So after Guilford Courthouse and both armies moved toward Wilmington's than again , Green moved into south Carolina . Green doesn't have anything more to do at that point really with the Yorktown campaign . So at the end of april cornwallis decided to move to Virginia . He said , unless Virginia is subdued , that the war will not be one because Virginia was really providing the equipment , the food reinforcements uh , in there , in in several areas in central and in Virginia and Richmond chesterfield those areas . So cornwallis decided he was going to take the army uh and meet up with another smaller force that was under General William phillips at Petersburg and the traitor Benedict Arnold . Uh So cornwallis eventually moved into Virginia and took command had a fairly large army . Um the campaign between cornwallis and the americans in Virginia is the subject of my book that wrote to Yorktown . The americans , virginians were able to have some troops , militia troops , but they're very ineffective . So Washington realized that he had to do something to help Virginia stay in the war . So he sent a contingent of about 1000 american continental light infantrymen under the marquis de Lafayette all the way from New Jersey to Richmond and there was a campaign of about a month all in central Virginia between Richmond and Charlottesville . Eventually cornwallis uh decided that he was going to move to the coast to get resupplied and figure out , you know what they needed to do to kind of subdue Virginia . So they eventually moved down to Williamsburg and Washington and the french are allies , planned a campaign that was going to be one of one of an alliance with , and and with the french who would supply troops and more importantly a naval asset to be able to uh get in at the british in , in , in the uh tidewater area . So eventually cornwallis was looking for suitable ports for , for mainline ships and that was defensible against the weather also . And after several choices or explorations of other places , they chose Yorktown on the york river . Right , And then , so then um the american forces with the french , they come in and what happens is the siege , I think so , right at the end of , at the beginning of september through october 17th was the siege of Yorktown . Uh the key battle though , was the battle of the Capes , which was the french navy against the british navy , which is , is very complicated and I'm not a naval historian , but the long story short is that the french were able to prevent the british navy from getting to Yorktown and resupply in cornwallis and protecting him and once they had bottled up the Chesapeake bay That it was , it was only a matter of time at that point . Um , so the French and the Americans , the French under Rochambeau , they marched and sailed and and brought their uh man and equipment basically down what is now I-95 wasn't that ? It was , it was not called that at the time and were able to successfully lay siege to the british defenses at Yorktown and , and there was also a container , there was also a , a section across from Yorktown on the , on Gloucester point that that there was also some positions and eventually across the york river and what's now , what was then to Gloucester county . But finally the british surrendered their entire force of , of red coats and Hessians and loyalists and that that really was the final nail in the coffin , so to speak , that was the second british force to have been surrounded and captured and that that was going to do it because remember while this is going on , there's still that battle for the , for the islands in the west Indies , this was a major army that was lost and they really had to focus on one or the other at that point . Now a lot of people think and I know I , I used to , so I learned more about it here that , oh , here's Yorktown , we went at Yorktown would defeat the british , the revolutionary war is over , but that's not quite accurate , that is not accurate . Um , The British still maintained their position uh in New York City , which they actually held until November of 17 83 And Charleston , which they also held into the fall of 1783 . Um They were also in still held Canada at that point , Clinton cornwallis , the Howe brothers , all those names that we know from the beginning of the war , those those guys were all back in England and the overall commander was Sir Guy Carleton whose headquarters was at Quebec and uh he kind of oversaw the , the british logistics and these positions . But for the most part charleston , new york and some other isolated small garrisons . The there were , there were minor skirmishes , um Greens other two battles that he fought , Hob Kirk's Hill and Utah Springs . They actually were over before Yorktown . So it kind of petered out into negotiations and eventually the Treaty of Paris in 1783 . Alright , so what happened to the american army then between the american victory in Yorktown and the treaty of paris , The american army then like surround the areas where the british were , did they end up going home ? What happened ? So in the south , General Greene was still the commander until the surrender . And he kept a very small army , usually less than 1000 men on foot with just enough power and malicious support to be able to keep the british in charleston and prevent them from from uh making excursions . But there , there are really no major battles during that point in the north , after Yorktown Washington moved his army immediately back to New york to keep an eye on the british . The the main british , The main american camps were in the area of West Point , um Newberg and on what's called the Hudson highlands near near West Point and some other places to Virginia's few in Virginia . Um but really it was , they were just kind of waiting it out at that point , but I understand that there were some morale issues , there was some pay issues , a little um uh disappointment within within the force um and especially with the leadership , can you address those issues ? Because that led up to , you know what we'll talk about in a minute at Newburgh . Right , so the americans had not been paid the soldiers , the rank and file had not been paid oftentimes for years at a time . In fact , when the french sent their reinforcing fleet right before Yorktown , uh they , they stopped in cuba in order to get cash , basically a specie currency , um hard money so that the americans could get paid and uh rochambeau and Lafayette and others have told them if we don't get some money in these soldiers hands , they may not stay around for the whole show and the same thing kind of happened up in the new york area . The issue with the officers was that they , a lot of them had given up years with no pay or low pay , others at the missed opportunities home , their farms or plantations or or or businesses um or shipping concerns uh were in horrible condition , including Mount vernon , George Washington , worried about Mount vernon in the same way . And initially they had , they had been promised pensions after the war , land grants , bounties things along those lines . And as the war went on , as most folks know of the , the credit worthiness of the country deteriorated rapidly . Uh There were so many loans that the individual states had taken out , and there were more loans that the continental Congress had taken out . That's what , that's what Ben Franklin was doing over in europe was to try to get french and dutch loans . Um So they were worried that the war was just gonna kinda kinda trickle out over over time and that once the , once the treaty was signed that Congress was gonna figuratively throw up its hands and say thanks for helping out guys , but we don't have any money whatsoever to pay you . And so there were some rumblings about about petitioning Congress uh and sending a contingent to Congress to explain it . But others had a more dangerous kind of approach saying , no , we need we need to march the army or part of the army and show Congress that we mean business . And there was a secret meeting called at Newburgh , which was one of the , one of the army's cantonments on the Hudson River . And um it was , it was chaired by angry officers at a , at a meeting in a large meeting room at Newburgh and Washington . Got wind of this . He was not invited . If you're gonna have a meeting , you always should invite your commander . Whether he comes or not or she comes or not , that's different . But so Washington came and it was totally unexpected . Uh , the other officers were shocked and looking around saying , what's he doing here ? He's not supposed to be here . And what do we do now is probably the bigger question . Right ? So Washington took out a letter that he was going to read by , um , forget who the letter was from . But it was explaining what Congress was trying to do . And um , as , as he had a brilliant theatrical move , which was to take out his eyeglasses before he read the letter and none of the other officers had seen him in glasses before . And he said something along the lines of , uh , if you'll excuse me , gentlemen , um , I'm slowly going blind in the service to my country . So then they're all sitting around like a bunch of chumps thinking Gee , you know , yeah , he has kind of sacrificed a lot since 1775 . And here I am worried about my money . Maybe , maybe we'll give Congress another chance . So he , he defused that . Uh , and I would add for those for those who visit the new National Museum of the U . S . Army , we have a separate film just on the Newburgh incident that , that's very , very well done . I think folks are really , I enjoy seeing that explanation and and part of the importance of that and why we're really discussing it is that moment really reaffirmed the civilian control of the U . S . Army or the U . S . Military Washington . And every other officer received their commissions either through the Continental Congress or their state governments . And that was that was an important thing . Um It was it was kind of reemphasized when Washington eventually returned home after the british left new york and he returned to Mount vernon . One of his stops was Annapolis where Congress was meeting to literally give them back his commission . Um And it was very it was a very impressive moment and King George the third said that if that story were true , he then Washington would be the greatest man in the world or something along those lines , but he was very impressed that he had given up power . Um That's where , you know , one of , one of Washington's heroes was cincinnatus of the roman roman republic who was a farmer and left his farm to serve as the commander of the roman army at the time . And then when the war was over , he went back to his farm and that's that's why that's why Washington identified with with him quite a bit . Yeah , it's a it's a great story and and to be recognized by King George for for doing that , you know , and and and understanding that it's pretty amazing . So now we have the treaty of paris . The war is officially over what happens to the to the U . S . Army now , but it was still the Continental Army at the time and the , you know , a lot of a lot of the men in the ranks had dissolved . It was a very small force . Uh there were still positions at West Point . Um the focused in that area around new york , the army was dissolved . The Continental Army was dissolved in 1780 for uh in uh June or July 84 , I'm not sure June or July of 84 . And then the very next day the U . S . Army was created in Congress . Small force mostly just to um guard the weapons at West Point and what's now the Springfield armory in massachusetts . That's that's what the force was for . It's only about 100 100 men . And so did we rely was the plant then to just to rely if something came up back onto militias . So they stayed active in the states again . Yes , but not on foot . They would they would only be raised if needed . Um And 11.1 interesting point is that the U . S . Army's old guard that does the ceremonies and the twilight tattoos . Uh their uniforms are replica of the 17 84 uniform , not from the revolution , they look like they're revolution were soldiers but Um you know , people who are experts in uniforms can tell right away . Oh no that's the 1780 for regulations and uniforms . Well that's good and that's , that's a great transition . I mean , thank you so much . This has been really enlightening a lot of details here um about , you know how the Revolutionary war ended and what happened to the U . S . Army . But before we finish , I do like to get a bit of a hula trivia from , from our guests here about the time frame we're talking about . So do you have something to share allowed piece of trivia ? Sure . It's about my favorite . Second favorite general . Everyone's favorite general has to be Washington . My second favorite general is Nathaniel Greene . And uh in a little little ironic twist , the trivia would be who or what religious upbringing did Nathaniel Greene have as a , as a child and into his young adulthood . Oh , I have no idea he was a Quaker , which is ironic because the Quakers were and are a pacifist religious sect that was very common in pennsylvania . We normally associate the Quakers with the penn family of pennsylvania . However , there was a very strong and large contingent of Quaker families in Rhode island and that was , that was greens home colony slash state . Um He fell away from them in his , his early adulthood . Um He had joined a militia unit , which was not acceptable to Quaker doctrine . Um , and eventually once he became a commissioned officer in the Continental Army , he was eventually what was called red out of or basically thrown out of the Quaker faith in by 17 77 . That is a fascinating um but everything you've , you've shared with us today , it's great information and thank you so much for being here and for your discussions about the southern war and the end of the Revolutionary War and your insights about the Newburgh conspiracy , A very important point , significant moment in american uh U . S . Army history . So if anyone wants to learn more about the Revolutionary War or army history in general , I encourage you to explore our website at history dot army dot mil And you can also find the publications that Dr Moss has written . Fourth center of Military history there as well , just on our publications tab . And if you want to experience army history every day , then visit our social media sites on facebook twitter and instagram . Please join us every week on this podcast for more in depth discussions about army history . As we cover topics from all eras of U . S . Army history examining battles , soldier experiences , equipment , weapons , tactics and lots of trivia . Thanks for joining us today on the United States Army history and heritage podcast for the center of military history , I'm lee Reynolds and until next time the views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of policies or opinions of the U . S . Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the Army's proud history and heritage , go to history dot army dot mil mhm .