British Troops Leave NY: Revolution Ends

The last British soldier stepped off a wharf in lower Manhattan, and the American Revolution was truly over. On November 25, 1783, General George Washington led his Continental Army into New York City as British forces evacuated after seven years of occupation. The city they entered was barely recognizable: two massive fires during the war had reduced a quarter of it to charred ruins, and thousands of Loyalists were fleeing alongside the departing redcoats. New York had been the centerpiece of British military strategy since 1776, when General William Howe's forces drove Washington's army from the city in a humiliating rout. The British held it for the remainder of the war, using it as their primary base of operations in North America. The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, formally ended hostilities, but the British garrison remained in New York for months afterward while Loyalists arranged their departure. An estimated 29,000 Loyalists evacuated through New York, many relocating to Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, or England. Washington's entry was choreographed to project dignity and order. His troops marched down the Bowery and Broadway in disciplined formation, a pointed contrast to the ragged army that had fled the same streets seven years earlier. At Fort George on the southern tip of Manhattan, the departing British had greased the flagpole and removed the cleats, a final act of spite. An American sailor used nails as footholds to climb the pole and raise the Stars and Stripes. That evening, Washington hosted a dinner at Fraunces Tavern for his officers. On December 4, he returned to the same tavern for an emotional farewell, embracing each officer individually before departing for Annapolis to resign his commission. The peaceful transfer of power in New York, achieved without reprisals or violence against Loyalists, established an early precedent for the restrained exercise of authority that would define the new republic.