Siege of Yorktown

Siege of Yorktown
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull. Oil on canvas, 1820.
Date September 28 – October 17, 1781 Location Yorktown, Virginia Result Decisive British defeat
Belligerents
United States France	Great Britain German mercenaries
Commanders and leaders
George Washington Comte de Rochambeau	Lord Cornwallis Charles O’Hara Banastre Tarleton {Stationed at Gloucester, Virginia}
Strength
10,800 French 8,845 Americans	7,500
Casualties and losses
62 dead 190 wounded	156 killed 326 wounded 7,018 captured

The Siege of Yorktown was a victory by a combined American and French force led by General George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, and French General Comte de Rochambeau, over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. The surrender of Cornwallis's army caused the British government to negotiate an end to the American Revolutionary War.

Background

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 states. He had cut a wide swath, but his army of 7,000 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 French Admiral de Grasse, stationed in the West Indies, was sailing with his fleet to the Chesapeake Bay.

Siege of 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. HEY YALLL

Conclusion

The morning following the battle a formal surrender ceremony took place. Cornwallis refused to attend out of pure embarrassment, claiming illness. Although absent at the surrender ceremony, he observed to George Washington, “This is a great victory for you, but your brightest laurels will be writ upon the banks of the Delaware.” 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, but a Rochambeau's aide-de-camp, Dumas, is reputed to have said, "Vous vous trompez le général en chef de notre armée est à la droite" ("you mislead yourself, the general-in-chief of our army is to the right"), then took him to Washington. The lieutenant then attempted to surrender to Washington, who refused because it was not Cornwallis himself, and indicated that the subordinate should surrender to General Benjamin Lincoln, field commander of the American forces. Cornwallis' lieutenant ceremonially offered his sword to Lincoln, which was accepted. All other British troops were required to surrender and trample their firearms in the custom of the time.

The British prisoners amounted to about a quarter of all British soldiers in the U.S. It was not clear at the time that Yorktown was the climax of the war, since the British still occupied key ports such as New York City and Charleston, South Carolina. Sporadic fighting continued after the Yorktown surrender, and Washington believed the war might drag on for another year.

However, British Prime Minister Lord North resigned after receiving news of the surrender at Yorktown. His successors decided that it was no longer in Britain's best interest to continue the war, and negotiations were undertaken. The British signed the Treaty of Paris, recognizing the United States and promising to remove all British troops from the country.

See also

• Yorktown order of battle
• Alexander Scammel

References

• Adams, Randolph G. "A View of Cornwallis's Surrender at Yorktown." American Historical Review 1931 37(1): 25-49. Issn: 0002-8762 Fulltext: online at Jstor
• Jerome Greene. Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 (2005)
• Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763-1789. (1983). ISBN 10930350448. Online in ACLS History E-book Project.
• Richard M. Ketchum. Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution (2004)
• Brendan Morrissey and Adam Hook. Yorktown 1781: The World Turned Upside Down (1994) British perspective
• Tuchman, Barbara W. The First Salute 1988, chapter on battle
• Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. 1952, vol 2.
• Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775–1781. ISBN 0-306-81329-7 (2003 ).

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External links

• The Role of the Spanish and Latin Americans in the Battle of Yorktown