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Battle of Yorktown Part of the American Revolutionary War Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull. Oil on canvas, 1820. Date 28 September-19 October, 1781 Location Yorktown, Virginia Result Decisive Franco-American victory Belligerents Kingdom of France  United States Great Britain German mercenaries Commanders and leaders Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau François de Grasse Gilbert de La Fayette George Washington Nathanael Greene Charles Cornwallis (POW) Charles O’Hara (POW) Banastre Tarleton (POW) (stationed at Gloucester, Virginia) Strength 10,800 French 8,500 Americans 24 French warships 7,500 20 warships Casualties and losses 62 killed 190 wounded 156 killed, 326 wounded, 7,018 captured

v t e Southern theater 1780–1783 1780 1st Mobile Charleston Moncks Corner Lenud's Ferry Waxhaws Mobley's Meeting House Ramsour's Mill Huck's Defeat Colson's Mill Rocky Mount Hanging Rock Camden Fishing Creek Musgrove Mill Wahab's Plantation Black Mingo Charlotte McIntyre Farm Kings Mountain Shallow Ford Tearcoat Swamp Fishdam Ford Blackstock's Farm 1781 Yorktown Campaign Richmond Waters Creek Cape Henry Blandford Spencer's Ordinary Green Spring Francisco Chesapeake Yorktown The Village Cowpens Cowan's Ford Torrence's Tavern Summerfield Pyle's Massacre Wetzell's Mill Pensacola Guilford Court House Fort Watson Hobkirk's Hill Fort Motte Portevent’s Mill Augusta Ninety-Six House in the Horseshoe Elizabethtown Eutaw Springs Lindley's Mill Raft Swamp 1782 Videau's Bridge Wambaw Combahee River James Island 1783 Chesapeake Bay

The Siege (Battle) of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau and American forces led by General George Washington, over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. The surrender of Cornwallis’s army caused the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the American Revolutionary War.

Background

When General Rochambeau met General Washington in Wethersfield, Connecticut on 22 May 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 commander-in-chief in North America.

Meanwhile, word had come through to Washington that the British under command of John Campbell had been totally defeated in West Florida at the Battle of Pensacola on May 10, 1781. General La Fayette in Virginia also informed Washington 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 be extracted by the Royal Navy.

On 19 July 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 West 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.”

On August 14, Washington received confirmation that French Admiral François de Grasse, stationed in the West Indies, was sailing with his fleet to the Chesapeake Bay.

British intelligence was poor, but there is some evidence that the British realized the Americans and the French were marching south to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown. A letter, known as the “Wethersfield Intercept,” was captured by the British on its way to the Comte de Rochambeau from the French ambassador to Congress. However, this letter was in a French military cipher, and by the time the British were able to understand its meaning, Washington and Rochambeau had already marched, and so its value was limited. Despite this, Sir Henry Clinton was to claim after the war that he had deciphered the letter earlier than had previously been claimed, and had been acting on the basis of its content.

it happened

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, General O’Hara, at first attempted to surrender to the French General Rochambeau, but Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp, Mathieu Dumas, is reputed to have said, “Vous vous trompez, le général en chef de notre armée est à la droite.” (“You are mistaken, the commander-in-chief of our army is to the right.”) and then took him to Washington. O’Hara 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. O’Hara ceremonially offered his sword to Lincoln, who finally 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 three quarters 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 Charlestown, 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 in September 1783 recognizing the United States and promising to remove all British troops from the country.

Notes

1. French: 52 killed, 134 wounded. Americans: 20 killed, 56 wounded.
2. Tarleton’s Campaigns gives casualties as: 159 killed, 328 wounded, 70 missing and 7,247 captured. A note on a General Return by Adjutant estimated that 309 were killed during siege and 44 deserters killed as well but does not break these estimates down by units.
3. Willcox, W: “The British Road to Yorktown: A Study in Divided Command”, The American Historical Review, Vol. 52, No. 1. (Oct., 1946), pp. 1-35
4. Balch, Thomas. "XXII". Les Français en Amérique pendant la guerre de l'indépendance des États-Unis 1777-1783 (in French). Paris: A. Sauton. EText-No:11590. Retrieved 2006-06-01.

See also

• Yorktown order of battle
• Battle of Yorktown (1862), the American Civil War battle
• USS Yorktown, for a list of U.S. Navy ships named after the battle

External links

• National Park Service history of the siege
• Order of battle at Yorktown
• The Role of the Spanish and Latin Americans in the Battle of Yorktown
• 1931 Army War College history of the siege
• Siege of Yorktown website
• Articles of Capitulation at Yorktown.

• Battles of the American Revolutionary War
• Sieges involving the United Kingdom
• Sieges involving the United States
• Sieges involving France
• Virginia in the American Revolution
• York County, Virginia
• 1781 in the United States
• Conflicts in 1781