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.
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