Yorktown,
14 October 1781
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Resolution)
In the summer of 1781, ending a campaign in
Virginia, Cornwallis took post at Yorktown with a
force of about 8,000 men. Washington, meanwhile,
guarding Clinton's main British force in New York, was
joined in April by 4,000 French troops under the Comte
de Rochambeau. On 14 August he learned that French
Admiral De Grasse, with a powerful fleet, was sailing
from the West Indies to the Chesapeake Bay. In the
hope of surrounding Cornwallis by land and sea,
Washington hurried southward with the main portion of
the Franco-American Army, leaving only a small force
to guard Clinton in New York.
The plan worked remarkably well. De Grasse
arrived in the Chesapeake on 30 August, landed
additional French troops, and fought an indecisive
battle with the British fleet, but at its end remained
in firm control of the bay as the Allied armies
arrived. On 28 September these armies began siege
operations, using the traditional European system of
approaches by parallel trenches. In order to complete
the second parallel, Washington ordered the seizure of
two British redoubts near the York River. The French
were assigned the first, Redoubt No. 9, and the
American Light Infantry under Lt. Col. Alexander
Hamilton the second, Redoubt No. 10. On the evening of
14 October, as covering fire of shot and shell arched
overhead, the Americans and French moved forward. The
Americans, with unloaded muskets and fixed bayonets,
did not wait for sappers to clear away the abatis, as
the French did, but climbed over and through the
obstructions. Within ten minutes the garrison of
Redoubt No. 10! was overwhelmed. The French also met
with success but suffered heavier losses.
After a vain attempt to escape across the York,
Cornwallis surrendered his entire force on 19 October
1781, an event that virtually assured American
independence, although the final treaty of peace was
not signed until 3 September 1783.