The Siege of Yorktown was the final major battle of the American Revolutionary War, occurring at the port town of Yorktown, Virginia from September to October 1781. The combined American and French armies of George Washington and Comte Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau cornered and besieged Charles Cornwallis' British and Hessian army on the banks of the York River, aided by the French Navy, which cut off the British escape route at the Battle of the Chesapeake. After the Allies captured several British redoubts and began to bombard the British positions in Yorktown, Cornwallis - surrounded, under attack, and cut off from either reinforcements or escape - surrendered on 19 October.
Background[]
Thwarted in his efforts to achieve victory in the South, Charles Cornwallis decided to move the war to Virginia. Failure to defeat General Nathanael Greene decisively at Guilford Court House convinced the British commander that he needed a new strategy for the South.
In January 1781, Patriot traitor Benedict Arnold returned to the field. On General Henry Clinton's orders, he led British forces on a rampage through Virginia, burning both Richmond and Petersburg. The Marquis de Lafayette, originally sent to reinforce Greene in South Carolina, was diverted to Virginia to oppose him.
History[]
With Britain's southern army much depleted from pursuing General Greene's army through the Carolinas, Lord Cornwallis decided to consolidate his remaining troops with those of General William Phillips in Virginia, in an effort to disrupt the flow of men and supplies to Greene. Arriving at Portsmouth on 20 May, the combined British force now totaled more than 7,000 men. Initially angered that Cornwallis had moved to Virginia without his permission, Commander in Chief Sir Henry Clinton then revised his opinion and instructed Cornwallis to establish a naval base in Virginia. Cornwallis chose to fortify Yorktown, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
The allies' plans[]
Having received confirmation of the departure of the Comte de Grasse's French fleet from Cap-Francais on 14 August, George Washington and the Comte Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau began planning a simultaneous land campaign in Virginia. Their proposal required marching some 2,500 Continentals and 5,400 French troops south in the war's largest operational movement to date. They devised multiple marching routes, to spread the demand for forage, while Washington also employed deception measures - collecting boats, building camp bake ovens, and planting false dispatches - to convince the British that their target was really New York.
The first Continental troops reached Williamsburg on 19 September, with the rest arriving over the course of the week. Both armies set off on the final march to Yorktown on 28 September. By this time, a French fleet blockaded Yorktown from the Chesapeake Bay.
Textbook siege[]
American troops in battle at Yorktown
At the approach of the French and American armies on 30 September, Cornwallis abandoned his outermost defensive works, perhaps believing them overextended. Under cover of darkness, the allies began mounting a formal siege, using the Vaubanian method. This process - designed in the 17th century - required them to dig a series of successively closer firing positions for artillery, connected by zigzag approach trenches.
Patriot guns bombarding Yorktown
At 3 PM on 9 October, Washington granted the French the honor of starting the bombardment. Two hours later, the Patriot batteries joined in, and the first Patriot gun, laid by the commander in chief himself, scored a direct hit on Cornwallis' officers' mess. On 10 October, French artillery attacked British ships in the York River, burning HMS Charon to the waterline with red-hot shot.
The attack on Redoubt 10
As the digging progressed, it became clear that the last trench, known as the second parallel, could not be completed without capturing two redoubts on the far left of the British line. On the night of 14 October, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton of the Continental Army led more than 400 light infantry against one redoubt, while 400 French chasseurs and grenadiers attacked the other. Both fell quickly, allowing work on the second parallel to begin.
Fatally trapped[]
If a British counter-sortie were to succeed, standard practice held that it must be before the completion of the second parallel. On 16 October, British Lieutenant Colonel Robert Abercromby led an attack on two French batteries near the American lines, but succeeded in putting them out of action only temporarily.
The British War Council in New York could provide Cornwallis with no assistance. That same day, trapped between the allied armies and the French fleet in the Chesapeake Bay, the British commander ordered his forces to evacuate across the York River by boat. He hoped to attempt a breakout via Gloucester Point, but a sudden storm doomed his desperate move. Outnumbered roughly two to one, Cornwallis had run out of options.
The surrender of Redoubt 10
At about 10 AM on 17 October 1781, a British officer waving a white handkerchief and a drummer beating a parley appeared on the British works at Yorktown. As the allies' guns fell silent, a Patriot officer greeted the pair, before blindfolding the British officer to take him behind Patriot lines. There, the British officer delivered Cornwallis' proposal to Washington: "a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours...to settle terms for the surrender."
Initial terms proposed by Cornwallis specified "that the Garrisons of York and Gloucester shall be Prisoners of War with the customary Honors," and that the British and German soldiers would be sent home, should they promise not to serve against America or its allies. Cornwallis also proposed that "all Arms & public Stores" would be relinquished.
Difficult negotiations[]
Washington's response to Cornwallis was both harsh and unexpected: "The same Honors will be granted to the Surrendering Army as were granted to the Garrison of Charles Town." He referred to the ignominious terms offered by Sir Henry Clinton to General Benjamin Lincoln when Lincoln surrendered his army at Charleston in May 1780. Cornwallis' men were refused parole and relegated to prisoner-of-war status.
A truce was observed while the negotiations proceeded. Washington chose Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens to represent the Patriots, while Rochambeau sent the Vicomte de Noailles to speak for the French. They met with the British delegation at the Moore House, near the York River, where negotiations dragged on as the British pressed for better terms. One sticking point pertained to the fate of American loyalists within British lines, who rightly feared that they would not be granted true prisoner-of-war status.
Triumph and defeat[]
The British surrender at Yorktown
At 11 AM on 19 October, Cornwallis finally signed the terms of surrender, shortly followed by the British naval commander, Captain Thomas Symonds. Washington, Rochambeau, and French Admiral Jacques-Melchior Saint-Laurent de Barras signed on behalf of the allies. Less than an hour passed before American and French troops took possession of the British fortifications at Yorktown, planting the flags of their respective nations with pride. Meanwhile, Cornwallis broke the news to his troops that they would not be paroled and sent home as hoped.
The British marching to their surrender
At around 3 PM on 19 October, the unhappy British garrison marched out of Yorktown. The allies lined the route along Hampton Road to a field - designated for the surrender ceremony. French troops lined the west side of the road, while the Americans stood on the east. The French were resplendent in their white coats - trimmed with colored facings according to their regiments - marking a stark contrast to their Patriot counterparts, who were ragged and motley, but who stood no less proud.
Breaching etiquette[]
Claiming that he was indisposed, the defeated Cornwallis would not attend the surrender, so the British column was led by his second in command, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara. He was followed by the British Guards, British infantry, British cavalry, and the Hessians. All marched, in accordance with Article III of the terms, with "Colors cased & Drums beating a British or German march." The honors of war generally dictated that the surrendering army play an enemy march - in this case, American or French - while flying their own colors. The British were denied this right, just as Lincoln had been at Charleston. Under these terms, they would thus surrender without the honors of war. Although popular mythology holds that the British played "The World Turned Upside Down," the tune they played, if any, remains lost to history.
British troops marching past their American and French captors
As the British approached, General O'Hara at first endeavored to approach Rochambeau, but was politely conducted, at Rochambeau's bidding, to General Washington. Crossing the road to Washington, General O'Hara apologized for Cornwallis' absence and attempted to present his sword in token surrender. The commander in chief refused it. Instead, Washington directed O'Hara to General Lincoln, his second in command, who had been on the reciprocal end of the ignominious surrender at Charleston in 1780.
The British grounding their arms
The British column bore right into a field ringed by French hussars, where 28 standard bearers presented their regimental colors. The defeated troops grounded their arms and equipment, and finally surrendered themselves. Now prisoners of the allied armies, they were sent to prison camps in Virginia and Maryland to wait for peace.
Aftermath[]
The surrender of Cornwallis shocked the British Parliament, which voted to suspend war operations. On 24 October, a British fleet carrying 5,000 troops that had set sail from New York to relieve Cornwallis' army arrived at Cape Henry, where it learned of the defeat from a passing schooner. When the news reached Britain, Parliament decided to sue for peace. However, until the peace treaties of 1783, battles continued to rage between British and European fleets off India and the West Indies.
Gallery[]
