Yorktown

The clash at Yorktown, sometimes called the Battle of Yorktown or remembered simply as the surrender there, unfolded in 1781 as the last significant ground combat of the American Revolutionary War. Victory belonged decisively to the Continental Army under George Washington, bolstered by the Marquis de Lafayette, French ground forces under Comte de Rochambeau, and a French fleet directed by Comte de Grasse. Together they overcame British forces commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.

During the summer of 1781, French and American forces joined together above New York City. Once messages arrived from France raising the prospect of naval assistance from de Grasse's fleet stationed in the West Indies, Washington and Rochambeau found themselves divided over whether to request his help for an assault on New York or for operations targeting a British army positioned in Virginia. Rochambeau's counsel led de Grasse to announce his plan to sail instead toward the Chesapeake Bay, the location where Cornwallis had assumed command of British troops. Cornwallis initially received muddled instructions from his commanding officer, Henry Clinton, but was ultimately told to establish a defensible port with deep water access, a task he undertook at Yorktown. Throughout his time in Virginia, Cornwallis found his movements tracked by Continental forces under Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette.

Once news reached New York that de Grasse intended to confront British naval power at the Chesapeake, the combined American and French forces began their march southward into Virginia, employing tactics meant to convince the British that New York remained the intended target. De Grasse's fleet left the West Indies and reached the Chesapeake by late August, bringing reinforcements and establishing a naval blockade around Yorktown. In early September, his forces overcame a British fleet under Sir Thomas Graves that had been sent to rescue Cornwallis, in what became known as the Battle of the Chesapeake. This triumph allowed de Grasse to cut off any possibility of British reinforcement or retreat by sea, while also allowing him to unload the heavy artillery the allied ground troops would need for the siege. Washington and Rochambeau reached Yorktown on September 28, 1781, and the following day Washington advanced his troops nearer to the British fortifications. By this point, the combined land and naval forces of the Americans and French had fully encircled Cornwallis's position.

Following preliminary preparations, allied forces constructed their first parallel trench and commenced their bombardment. As British defenses grew weaker, Washington dispatched two assault columns on October 14, 1781, targeting the final major outer defensive positions still held by the British. Vicomte de Deux-Ponts led a French column that captured Redoubt No. 9, while an American column under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton seized Redoubt No. 10. These captures enabled the allies to complete a second parallel trench. As Franco-American artillery moved closer and intensified its assault, British defenses collapsed with increasing speed. On October 17, Cornwallis requested terms for surrender. Following two days of discussion, the formal surrender took place on October 19, though Cornwallis himself did not attend. The capture of over 7,000 British troops set the stage for negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, which eventually produced the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Prelude

Benedict Arnold left New York on December 20, 1780, bringing 1,500 British troops toward Portsmouth, Virginia. Before settling there, he struck Richmond, scattering the local militia in fighting that ran from January 5 to January 7, then pulled his men back to Portsmouth. Meanwhile Admiral Destouches, who had brought a fleet carrying 5,500 soldiers into Newport, Rhode Island, back in July 1780, faced pressure from Washington and the French Lieutenant General Rochambeau to sail south and combine naval and land forces against Arnold. The Marquis de Lafayette headed south as well, leading 1,200 men to support the effort. Destouches hesitated to commit his ships in force, sending just three vessels that February. Once those proved insufficient, he committed eight ships that March, clashing with Marriot Arbuthnot's British fleet near the entrance to the Chesapeake in a fight that settled nothing tactically. His fleet damaged, Destouches pulled out, leaving Arbuthnot in control of the bay's entrance.

Major General William Phillips reinforced Arnold on March 26 with 2,300 troops and took charge of the combined force. Phillips pressed the campaign of raiding, routing militia forces at Blandford before setting fire to Petersburg's tobacco warehouses on April 25. Richmond seemed destined for similar destruction until Lafayette's arrival changed the calculation. Unwilling to risk a large engagement, the British pulled back to Petersburg on May 10.

Charles Cornwallis reached Petersburg on May 20 with 1,500 men, having taken severe losses at Guilford Courthouse. Since Phillips had just died of fever, Cornwallis stepped into command immediately. He acted without clearance from his superior Henry Clinton to leave the Carolinas behind, convinced that Virginia offered easier conquest and would welcome a British force.

Cornwallis's arrival, together with fresh troops from New York, brought British strength to 7,200. Eager to press Lafayette, whose army had grown to 3,000 with Virginia militia joining his ranks, Cornwallis marched out after him on May 24. Lafayette pulled back from Richmond and joined up with the forces of Baron von Steuben and Anthony Wayne rather than face battle. Rather than chase him further, Cornwallis dispatched raiding parties into the Virginia interior to strike at depots and supply trains, calling them back on June 20. He then turned toward Williamsburg, with Lafayette's now 4,500-strong army trailing behind. Amid a tangle of contradictory instructions, Clinton directed Cornwallis first toward Portsmouth and then to Yorktown, where he was to construct fortifications suitable for a deep water port.

Separately, a force of 5,500 French troops under Comte de Rochambeau had landed by sea at Newport, Rhode Island on July 10, 1780. Nearly a year later, on July 6, 1781, French and American forces united at White Plains just north of New York City. Despite nearly four decades of military experience, Rochambeau never sought to override Washington, insisting he had come to serve rather than command.

The two generals debated where best to strike. Washington favored New York, reasoning that combined French and American numbers gave them a three-to-one edge over the British garrison there. Rochambeau pushed back, pointing out that Admiral de Grasse's fleet, then in the West Indies, would soon reach American shores and open up better opportunities than an assault on New York.

Early in July, Washington proposed striking the northern end of Manhattan, an idea both his own officers and Rochambeau rejected. He kept probing New York's defenses until August 14, when word arrived from de Grasse that he would sail for Virginia with 28 warships and 3,200 troops, though he could stay only until October 14. De Grasse urged a southward move to combine forces. Washington gave up on New York and turned his attention to marching his army south toward Virginia.

Beginning August 19 along what would later be called the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, the two commanders launched their "celebrated march" toward Yorktown. Some 7,000 troops, 4,000 French and 3,000 American, set out from Newport, while the remainder stayed to guard the Hudson

Siege

Reinforcements reached the army from Head of Elk on September 26, when ships carrying artillery, siege equipment, and additional French infantry and shock troops arrived at the northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay. This gave Washington a combined force of 7,800 French soldiers, 3,100 militiamen, and 8,000 Continentals. Before dawn on September 28, Washington marched his combined force out of Williamsburg to encircle Yorktown. French units took up ground on the left flank, and the Americans occupied the more prestigious right flank. Cornwallis had prepared seven redoubts and gun batteries connected by earthen walls, plus additional batteries covering the narrow stretch of the York River at Gloucester Point. Washington spent that day scouting the British works and concluded that artillery fire alone could force them to yield. Both allied forces camped outdoors that night while labor crews constructed bridges across the marshy ground, and some American soldiers foraged for wild hogs to supplement their rations.

The following day, September 29, the allied army advanced nearer to Yorktown, prompting British artillery to open up on the approaching infantry. Cannon fire continued sporadically through the day but produced few casualties, and separate exchanges of gunfire broke out between American riflemen and Hessian Jäger units.

Cornwallis then withdrew his men from every outer defensive position except the Fusilier's redoubt guarding the west side of town and redoubts numbered 9 and 10 to the east. He pulled his troops back into the works nearest the town itself after receiving word from Clinton promising a relief force of 5,000 men within a week, wanting to consolidate his lines in the meantime. Allied troops promptly occupied the abandoned British positions and set about establishing artillery emplacements there. With the outer defenses now theirs, engineers began plotting locations for the guns while soldiers deepened trenches and reinforced their new positions. Meanwhile the British continued strengthening what defenses remained to them.

On September 30 French troops assaulted the Fusiliers redoubt. The engagement dragged on for two hours before the French were driven back, taking a number of casualties in the process. The next day, deserters from the British lines told the allies that hundreds of horses had been killed and dumped on the beach in order to conserve food supplies. In the American camp, thousands of trees came down to supply timber for fortifications, and planning for what would become the first parallel got underway.

As allied gunners moved their artillery into position, the British maintained steady fire aimed at disrupting the effort. That fire grew heavier on October 2, inflicting moderate losses on the allies. Washington kept visiting the front lines personally despite worry expressed by several officers about the mounting danger from enemy guns. That same night, the British unleashed a barrage intended to mask cavalry movements toward Gloucester, where the horsemen were meant to escort infantry on a foraging expedition. The foraging party set out on October 3 under Banastre Tarleton's command but ran into Lauzun's Legion and John Mercer's Virginia militia, under the Marquis de Choisy. The British cavalry pulled back quickly behind their own lines after losing 50 men.

Washington's forces stood nearly ready to open their first parallel trench by October 5. That night sappers and miners laid strips of pine atop the damp sand to guide the digging. Most of the fighting up to this point had consisted simply of soldiers marching and riders on horseback maneuvering into position.

Once darkness fell on October 6, troops moved into position under stormy skies to begin excavating the first parallel. Heavy cloud cover blocked out the waning full moon, hiding the enormous digging effort from British sentries. Washington himself struck the ceremonial first blows with a pickaxe to launch the trench work. The completed trench would stretch 2,000 yards, roughly 1,800 meters, from the outskirts of Yorktown to the York River, split evenly between French command on one section and American command on the other. At the northern edge of the French portion, engineers dug an additional trench allowing b

Yorktown Victory Monument

Only five days after the British capitulation, Congress adopted a resolution pledging to build a structure honoring those who had fought in the engagement. Yet the actual work stalled, since the Confederation government faced numerous other financial burdens deemed more pressing at the time. Yorktown residents petitioned Congress to move forward with the memorial in 1834 and again in 1836, though neither appeal produced results. Not until 1876, when Fredericksburg's Common Council brought a memorial before Congress, did lawmakers formally acknowledge the project's merit.

Even then, progress stalled again until the approaching hundredth anniversary of the fight reignited interest in the old resolution, pushing officials to finally break ground in 1881 with widespread backing across the nation. Workers placed the topmost figure on August 12, 1884, and a formal communication declared the monument finished on January 5, 1885. It now stands within the boundaries of Colonial National Historical Park. The Secretary of War selected several artists to carry out the design: R. M. Hunt of New York served as Chairman, J. Q. A. Ward of New York worked as Architect, and Henry Van Brunt of Boston contributed as Sculptor.

Yorktown centennial, sesquicentennial, and bicentennial celebrations

A grand observance marked the battle's hundredth anniversary on October 19, 1881. Warships of the U.S. Navy rode at anchor on Chesapeake Bay, while newly placed markers showed visitors exactly where Washington and Lafayette had positioned their siege artillery. Chester Arthur, who had taken the presidential oath just thirty days earlier after James Garfield's death, delivered his first speech to the public since assuming office. Among the crowd stood descendants of Lafayette, Rochambeau, de Grasse, and Steuben. As the proceedings drew to a close, Arthur directed that a salute be fired in honor of the British flag.

Fifty years later, Yorktown hosted a four-day gathering from October 16 through 19, 1931, marking a century and a half since the siege. Virginia's governor, John Garland Pollard, presided over the festivities, which drew President Herbert Hoover and a delegation from France. The occasion also marked the formal establishment of the Colonial National Historical Park, created to preserve and explain the old battlegrounds to future visitors.

Two centuries after the British surrender, the nation turned its attention back to Yorktown for a large scale bicentennial commemoration running October 16 through 19, 1981. Crowds estimated anywhere from 25,000 to 200,000 gathered at the Yorktown Battlefield over those four days. Ronald Reagan and his French counterpart, François Mitterrand, served as the event's central figures. Reenactors drawn from more than twenty states staged elaborate recreations of the 1781 engagement and the surrender that followed. At the Yorktown Victory Center, an exhibition called "The World Turned Upside Down" displayed rare items borrowed from the Palace of Versailles, among them George Washington's own diary and the very table used during the surrender. Separately, the Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled a bronze and granite plaque paying tribute to the French fleet, and they furnished the Moore House with period antiques appropriate to the colonial era for the occasion.

To mark the two hundred years since the fighting at Yorktown and the naval clash at the Virginia Capes, the U.S. Postal Service released a pair of commemorative stamps.

Aftermath

Once the British capitulated, American and French officers hosted their British counterparts at a shared dinner. A widely circulated version of that evening claims the Americans deliberately left Tarleton off the guest list, blaming him for supposed cruelties his men had inflicted across the Carolinas. Historians Anthony J. Scotti and Edwin Clein doubt this story, noting that no primary source mentions it. Cornwallis stayed away, pleading sickness, so O'Hara stood in as the ranking British officer present. His calm bearing struck the Americans, though unlike their French counterparts, they found little charm in his evident self-regard. The French, by contrast, warmed to O'Hara considerably, voicing sympathy for the defeated British and drawing them into easy conversation, even extending invitations to more intimate meals. Rochambeau himself slipped away from a dinner Washington was hosting in order to call on Cornwallis and offer his respects, later lending him 150,000 pounds in silver to replenish a military treasury that had nearly run dry. This warmth between French and British officers left the Americans uneasy about