In Britain, Sir Henry Clinton had begun a long and fruitless attempt to explain his failures as a commander. He wrote a massive reconstruction of the war that blamed Britain’s loss on the king’s ministers and his fellow generals, especially Lord Cornwallis. By that time, however, the public had moved beyond excuses. Sir Guy Carleton agreed to assume command in North America, but only to oversee the British evacuation of New York. John Burgoyne and William Howe had both joined the opposition faction in Parliament, and in 1782 Burgoyne was named commander in chief in Ireland. William Howe lost his seat in Parliament, but with the king’s personal support was named Britain’s lieutenant general of ordnance. Charles, Earl Cornwallis, did better still. Sent to India, he ran up a list of accomplishments for the Empire that reduced Yorktown to a mere stumble in his long career.
Benedict Arnold had not convinced Britain to pursue the war, but when peace came, the king rewarded Arnold and his family with liberal pensions. Arnold’s three sons by his first marriage were given commissions in the British Army and lifetime pensions. And the king eventually gave the Arnold family more than 13,000 acres of crown land in Canada.