Wartime Context at Newburgh

The order creating the Badge of Military Merit came in the waning months of active campaigning. Yorktown had ended with a British surrender on October 19, 1781, and proved to be the last significant battle of the Revolutionary War, with the British Parliament agreeing to cease hostilities in March 1782. When peace negotiations began in April 1782, British and French forces began gradually evacuating. By August 1782 Washington, who had led the combined Franco-American victory at Yorktown, was headquartered at Newburgh, where in March 1783 he would calm the Newburgh Conspiracy.