Battle of YorkTown – Wikipedia

The Battle of YorkTown (in Virginia) of 1781 was the final military episode of the American revolution.

The campaign was characterized by the complex maneuvers of the American army of General George Washington and the general’s French shipping body
Rochambeau who, with the decisive collaboration of the French fleet of the Admiral de Grasse, managed to block the British troops of General Cornwallis in the city of York that had risen to Virginia after marching through the Carolina of the South and the North Carolina.

Without help and blocked on land and sea, the British general decided, after a short siege and heavy bombings by the Franco-American artillery, to surrender with all his troops on October 19, 1781. The battle of Yorktown had a ‘decisive importance for the outcome of the American war of independence and led the British government to undertake peace negotiations with the rebellious American colonies; France, whose earthly and naval armed forces played a predominant role in the countryside, obtained a brilliant revenge on Great Britain ^[4] .

The campaign ended with the overwhelming Franco-American victory thanks to a remarkable degree of cooperation and coordination between the forces of the two allies: a French army in the Rhode Island, under the command of the Count of Rochambeau, an American army in New York City , commanded by General George Washington, an assortment of regular and American militia in Virginia under the Marquis Lafayette, a small French naval squadron in Newport under the Count de Barras and a French fleet under the Count De Grasse.

The British General Cornwallis, moving his army to the coast of the North Carolina, therefore, disobeying the orders from General Clinton to protect the British position in Carolina, marched north in Virginia. General Cornwallis had been ordered to bring all his men to New York, but these once again did not obey orders.

At the same time, General Washington was planning to attack New York with the help of the French and the British, who learned of the patriots’ plan to attack New York, did not send reinforcements to General Cornwallis already in YorkTown. These, keeping all his troops that amounted to about 7,500 units, began to fortify YorkTown and Gloucester Point, on the other side of the York River. Meanwhile, Washington had sent the French help, in the person of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia in the spring of 1781 with some continental troops.

Lafayette had observed all the movements of Cornwallis’ troops on the Carolina coast and their arrangement in Yorktown. After hearing these news, Washington abandoned his plan to attack New York and with the French general Rochambeau, 2,500 continental soldiers and 4,000 French, began to proceed towards Philadelphia. The various contingents arrived in Chesapeake Bay virtually all at the same time.

General Clinton, understanding that the Americans were no longer heading for New York, ordered the British fleet to move towards the bay of Chesapeake. On August 30, Count De Grasse, with the French fleet, arrived in the Bay of Chesapeake while the British fleet from New York only arrived on September 5. A naval battle followed with the French navy rejected the British fleet outside the bay. The 3 000 French soldiers from the naval fleet joined the army of General Washington.

The goal of the Franco-American allies was to trap Charles Cornwallis, who had settled in Yorktown in the Virginia peninsula after he had not been able to destroy the American army of General Nathanael Greene in Carolina. The siege operations against Yorktown opened on 6 October 1781, the French and American artillery began an almost incessant bombing of Cornwallis’ positions. After leaving a few days that the British admirals Graves and Hood navigated again to New York, the Americans attacked.

On October 14, 1781, in a furious offensive against the British defenses, the troops of the patriots forcefully took the red jackets that protected the British garrison of Yorktown. Armed only by bayonet the Americans took the cornerstone. A simultaneous attack of the French further weakened the British lines. Only on October 17 Sir Henry Clinton in New York accelerated a naval expedition to Yorktown, but it was rejected by Count De Grasse. The British launched a counterattack but failed. Cornwallis’ troops, numerically lower and under constant bombing, were moreover, exhausting the food.

On October 17, the armistice was asked, Cornwallis proposed the terms that however they were unacceptable for Washington. Without hopes, Cornwallis accepted the surrender of his 8,000 men to the 17,000 of the Franco-American army. General Clinton, who, when he learned the surrender, was marching to Yorktown with 7,000 reinforcement troops, decided to fold back to New York. Only on October 19 Cornwallis welcomed the unconditional surrender, accepting the terms of Washington. These were, overall, very generous: the British army had to surrender to the Americans; The Navy to the French. The officers could maintain their properties, the soldiers were sent to Virginia, Maryland or Pennsylvania, while in Cornwallis and some other officers were allowed to return home to the word.