"You might have tracked the army ... by the blood of their feet."
- George Washington at Valley Forge

By the Spring of 1779, hopes were high that the war would end soon! In London, British ministers talked of reconciliation. In Paris, Benjamin Franklin netted the crucial alliance with the French. In America, the Continental troops were becoming a real fighting force despite threats to the army from exposure, starvation and disease.

The common soldier miraculously persevered, even though Turncoats (Loyalist Americans) who had joined the British outnumbered the entire Continental Army! The war dragged on. The Southern Campaign slowly forced British forces from the Carolinas into Virginia. Finally in 1781 as the Redcoats waited for reinforcements at Yorktown, Washington's army converged with the French Navy to surround the coastal city, forcing the British to surrender. The war was basically over, but it would be two more years before peace was negotiated.