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Siege of Yorktown
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The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army (the second of the war) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict.
PreludeAdmiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse sailed his fleet of twenty-eight warships north toward Virginia. Simultaneously, on 21 August 1781, Washington began moving his army south. As they marched south, Admiral De Grasses’s fleet arrived at Chesapeake Bay. De Grasse defeated Admiral Thomas Graves’s fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the “Battle of the Capes,” and won control of the bay, thereby sealing its entrance and stranding Cornwallis from supply by sea.
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The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army (the second of the war) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict.
PreludeAdmiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse sailed his fleet of twenty-eight warships north toward Virginia. Simultaneously, on 21 August 1781, Washington began moving his army south. As they marched south, Admiral De Grasses’s fleet arrived at Chesapeake Bay. De Grasse defeated Admiral Thomas Graves’s fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the “Battle of the Capes,” and won control of the bay, thereby sealing its entrance and stranding Cornwallis from supply by sea. The defeat in Chesapeake Bay was the only major naval defeat suffered by the Royal Navy of Great Britain in the two hundred years of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the late summer of 1781, when George Washington and Rochambeau heard of Cornwallis’s encampment in Yorktown, they marched southward from New York to link up with the French fleet under de Grasse in Chesapeake Bay. By the time General Clinton noticed Washington and Rochambeau left, the allies were marching south. Washington arrived just in time to bottle-up the British, who were anticipating reinforcements that never came from either General Clinton or the British fleet.
British DefensesCornwallis had Yorktown surrounded with a line of earthworks. The line consisted of 10 redoubts, three of which defended the rear of the town. In the fourteen batteries constructed along the line, there were 65 guns mounted, some of which had been taken from the British Frigate Charon.
Behind the first, line the geography favored the defender. There was a creek and a ravine which protected the two flanks. Between these two natural barriers, three redoubts were constructed. The British had also dug entrenchmets along some nearby hills.
The BattleOn September 28, 1781, Washington and Rochambeau, along with La Fayette’s troops and 3,000 of de Grasse’s men, arrived at Yorktown. With them was the 2nd Canadian Regiment lead by Brigadier General Moses Hazen. In all, nearly 20,000 men converged on the camp established by Cornwallis. With the arrival of these troops, the stranded British forces in Yorktown were outnumbered by a two-to-one margin and were then subjected to heavy fire as work began on a siege line.
When Cornwallis pulled his troops back, the allies began to dig their trenches. The trenches were built parrell to the British fortifications so that artillery could be moved in to fire at the defenders. By October 6th, the trenchs were finished. Over the next couple of days redoubts and secondary trenches were built for extra protection. During this time, the British fired artillery shells onto the allies, but no major losses were suffered. On October 9th, George Washington took the honor of firing the first gun. The allies continued to bombard the British, at first working on artillery. The fire proved so heavy, the British were only able to shoot back during the night.
Offshore, the French fleet effectively blocked aid for Cornwallis, while Washington made life unbearable for the British troops with three weeks of shelling. The Allies placed up to 375 guns, mortars and siege weaponry along their lines to bombard Yorktown. The siege guns fired an average 1.2 shells or bombs every minute, or 1,728 per day. By the time the Siege ended, some 36,288 shots were fired into Yorktown. Although the British had 240 pieces of artillery - consisting mainly of light guns and mortars - they had no horses to drag their guns into position, so they were of very little use.
Cornwallis, realizing the scope of his predicament, managed to send a message to Major-General Henry Clinton in New York. Clinton promised that a relief expedition carrying 5,000 men would leave by October 5. Meanwhile, the British and Franco-American forces continued to dig in and improve their respective earthworks.
During the bombardment, the allies also attacked the town. The main attacks were on the better houses, believing that British officers were staying there. Twice, Cornwallis was forced to move his headquarters due to the shelling. The remaining civilians began to flee to the riverbank.
On October 11, the allies started a second siege line only away from the British forces. Three days later, the French and Americans captured two major British redoubts: the French, under the command of Wilhelm de Forbach, took redoubt 9, while the Americans, under the command of Alexander Hamilton, took redoubt 10. This completed the second siege line and the close investment of the British garrison.
While the allies surrounded his position, Cornwallis learned that Clinton's relief force from New York was going to be late. On October 16, a British attack, intended to silence a French battery, failed. The allied batteries, from their closer second siege line, were now firing directly into the British defensive works. That night, Cornwallis attempted to pass part of his force north across the York River, to Banastre Tarleton's position on Gloucester Point. The maneuver was thwarted by a thunderstorm.
Faced with a dwindling supply of food and ammunition, and still awaiting relief from Clinton, Cornwallis offered to surrender unconditionally on October 17. Cornwallis declined to appear at the surrender ceremony or to surrender his sword (a custom at the time) to General Washington, claiming illness and sending his second in command Brigadier Charles O'Hara instead. Washington refused to accept the surrender from O'Hara, and so the deputy surrendered to Washington's subordinate, General Benjamin Lincoln. When the British forces came out, their drummers played the march, "The Day the World Turned Upside Down."
AftermathOn 19 October, the papers were signed by Cornwallis and Thomas Symonds (the most senior naval officer present), and the pair officially surrendered. Over 7,000 British troops became prisoners of the American forces. Five days after the surrender, Clinton's relief arrived.
See also
External links- at Yorktown
- 1931 Army War College of the siege
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