Yorktown, Battle of. The Franco‐American victory at Yorktown, Virginia, over 8,000 British and Hessian troops on 19 October 1781 ended the
Revolutionary War and secured American independence. The victory arose from France's crucial 1781 decision to send a strong force to aid the Americans.
General George
Washington had planned to attack the British stronghold at
New York City, but finding its defenses too strong, he shifted the campaign to Virginia. A nucleus of 2,500 of Washington's best troops, supplemented by French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau, moved south on 20 August. After overcoming transport problems on Chesapeake Bay, the force reached the Yorktown area on 26 September. Here the British field commander, Charles Earl, Cornwallis, having received conflicting orders from his superior, Sir Henry Clinton, had led his army into a cul‐de‐sac to await a British fleet that would transport it back to New York. At full strength, the allied force consisted of over 11,000 Americans (roughly 8,000 Continental Army troops and 3,000 militiamen) and nearly 9,000 French soldiers. Another 15,000 French sailors manned the fleet that was crucial to victory.
Washington gambled on a two‐part plan that required luck and perfect timing. First, the French naval force under the Comte de Grasse had to prevent the British fleet from reaching Yorktown and evacuating Cornwallis's troops. Second, French siege artillery, too heavy for land transport, had to arrive safely by sea from Newport, Rhode Island. Both parts of the plan succeeded.
The siege at Yorktown, the last major operation of the war, was the only one in which Washington directly commanded the American army. At dusk on 14 October, two 400‐man columns, one French grenadiers and chasseurs, the other American light infantry under Alexander
Hamilton, attacked two redoubts in advance of the main British line. Cornwallis, after failing in a half‐hearted attempt to dislodge the allies from their advanced positions, opened negotiations on 17 October. Stalling for two days in hopes that the British fleet might appear, he formally surrendered on 19 October. The Battle of Yorktown destroyed Britain's political will to continue the war. Having failed to achieve a military solution to a political crisis, British leaders opened negotiations to end the fighting, a decision that implied recognition of American independence.
See also
Revolution and Constitution, Era of.
Bibliography
Henry P. Johnston , The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781, 1881; repr. 1979.
Douglas S. Freeman , George Washington: Victory with the Help of France, 1955.
William B. Wilcox , Portrait of a General: Sir Henry Clinton in the War of Independence, 1964.
Theodore Thayer , Yorktown: A Campaign of Strategic Options, 1975.
Edward Countryman , The American Revolution, 1985.
Harold E. Selesky
