The Yorktown Campaign

Yorktown - Night Before Battle

The 1781 Yorktown Campaign, in Virginia, was the final major military episode of the American Revolution. The campaign involved a remarkable degree of cooperation and coordination between French and American forces over a vast region of North America and the West Indies: a French army in Rhode Island under the comte de Rochambeau, an American army outside New York City under Gen. George Washington, an assortment of American regulars and militia in Virginia under the Marquis de Lafayette, a small French naval squadron at Newport under the comte de Barras, and a formidable French fleet in the West Indies under the comte de Grasse.

In a furious onslaught against British defenders, patriot troops storm a redoubt (left and below) protecting the British garrison at Yorktown on October 14th, 1781. By bayonet alone, the Americans took the stronghold; their commander, the young Colonel Alexander Hamilton, had ordered his men to charge with their guns unloaded. With a simultaneous French attack, the assault weakened the British lines and hastened Yorktown's surrender five days later.

The objective of the French-American allies was to trap Charles Cornwallis, the British commander in the south, who had established himself at Yorktown on the Virginia peninsula after having failed to destroy the American army of Gen. Nathanael Greene in the Carolinas. The various contingents all converged on Chesapeake Bay at virtually the same time. Siege operations against Yorktown opened on Oct. 6, 1781, as French and American artillery began a nearly incessant bombardment of Cornwallis's positions. Sir Henry Clinton in New York City hastened a naval expedition to the relief of the Yorktown garrison, but it was beaten back by de Grasse.

On October 17, Cornwallis asked for an armistice and proposed terms unacceptable to General Washington. With no hope remaining, Cornwallis surrendered his nearly 8,000-man force to the 17,000-man Franco-American army on Oct. 19.

For all practical purposes, the American War of Independence was over.

Once Cornwallis decided to surrender he had no alternative but to accept Washington's terms. These were, on the whole, both just and generous. The British army was to surrender to the Americans; the navy to the French. Officers were to retain their side arms and private property; soldiers to be kept in Virginia, Maryland or Pennsylvania; Cornwallis and some other officers permitted to return home on parole.

The ceremony itself was to take place on October 19th. As Cornwallis was not equal to making his surrender in person, his second in command, General Charles O'Hara, officiated; Washington's second in command, General Lincoln, received O'Hara's sword (left).

A New Jersey officer reported that " . . . the British officers in general behaved like boys who had been whipped at school. Some bit their lips; some pouted; others cried. Their round, broad-rimmed hats were well-adapted to the occasion, hiding those faces they were ashamed to show." "The Spirit of 'Seventy Six"

Despite posted appeals for calm (left), wild American celebrations broke out.

MAP of The Siege of Yorktown (540K)

(See Bibliography Below)

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Authors: Don Higginbotham - Permission given by the author; Bart McDowell (contributing).
Picture Credits: Fraunces Tavern, New York City (top); State Capitol, Commonwealth of Virginia (second) Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, Delaware Art Center (third); The Granger Collection (4th).
Bibliography: Davis, Burke, The Campaign that Won America: The Story of Yorktown (1970); Fleming, Thomas J., Beat the Last Drum: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 (1963); Selby, John, The Road to Yorktown (1976); Thayer, Theodore G., Yorktown, Campaign of Strategic Options (1975); Commager, Henry S., and Morris, Richard B., editors, The Spirit of 'Seventy Six (1967); McDowell, Bart, The Revolutionary War (1967).