Siege of Yorktown
The
Siege of Yorktown (1781) was a victory by a combined
American and
French force led by
General George Washington, the
Marquis de Lafayette, and the French General
Comte de Rochambeau over a
British army commanded by General
Lord Charles Cornwallis. The surrender of Cornwallis's army caused the British government to negotiate an end to the
American Revolutionary War.
When General Rochambeau met General Washington in
Wethersfield, Connecticut on
May 22,
1781 to determine their strategy against the British, they made plans to move against
New York City, which was occupied by about 10,000 men under General
Sir Henry Clinton, the overall British commander.
Meanwhile, word had come from General Lafayette in
Virginia that Cornwallis had taken up a defensive position at
Yorktown, Virginia, next to the
York River. Cornwallis had been campaigning in the southern colonies and had cut a wide swath, but his 7,000 troops were forced to give up their dominion of the South and retreat to Yorktown for supplies and reinforcement after an intense two-year campaign led by General Nathanael Greene, who winnowed down their numbers through application of the Fabian strategy. Under instructions from Clinton, Cornwallis moved the army to Yorktown in order to link up with the
Royal Navy.
On
July 19,
1781, while encamped at
Dobbs Ferry,
New York, Washington learned of the
Virginia campaign of Cornwallis and wrote that "I am of Opinion, that under these Circumstances, we ought to throw a sufficient Garrison into W Point; leave some Continental Troops and Militia to cover the Country contiguous to New York, and transport the Remainder (both French and American) to Virginia, should the Enemy still keep a Force there."[
1]
On
August 14,
1781, Washington received confirmation that the French
Admiral de Grasse, stationed in the
West Indies, was sailing with his fleet to the
Chesapeake Bay. Abandoning the New York campaign, Washington now knew that the Americans and French might be able to trap Cornwallis' army at Yorktown.
Admiral de Grasse sailed his French battle fleet of twenty-eight ships north toward Virginia. Simultaneously, on
August 21,
1781, Washington began moving his army south. As they marched south, Admiral de Grasse's fleet arrived at the Chesapeake Bay. De Grasse defeated Admiral
Thomas Graves' fleet in the
Battle of the Chesapeake and won control of the bay. Cornwallis was now stranded.
On
September 28, Washington and Rochambeau, along with Lafayette's troops and 3,000 of de Grasse's men, arrived at Yorktown. In all, there were approximately 17,000 men converging on Cornwallis' camp. The city was soon surrounded and under heavy fire.
On
October 14, the Franco-American forces captured two major British
redoubts. After a useless counterattack, Cornwallis offered to
surrender on
October 17. On
October 19, the papers were signed and he officially surrendered. About 7,000 British troops became prisoners to the American forces.
A formal surrender ceremony took place on the morning following the battle. Cornwallis refused to attend out of pure embarrassment, claiming illness. According to legend, the British forces marched to the fife tune of "
The World Turned Upside Down," though no real evidence of this exists. Cornwallis' deputy at first attempted to surrender to the French General Rochambeau, who is reputed to have said, "Vous vous trompez le général en chef de notre armée est à la droite; puis il le conduisit"
