Southern Campaign
After a string of British victories in the South culminating in the fall of Charleston in May 1780, Nathanael Greene was appointed to command the Southern Department in December 1780. Greene employed a strategy of dividing his smaller force to stretch Cornwallis's supply lines and avoid decisive engagement, repeatedly retreating to draw the British deeper into hostile territory. Though Greene rarely won pitched battles outright, his campaign exhausted Cornwallis's army and stripped Britain of its strategic position in the Carolinas, compelling the British northward into Virginia and ultimately to Yorktown.
- Year: 1780 CE
- Category: Military
