The siege at Yorktown proved to be the decisive blow to British hopes of regaining control of the American colonies.
A combination of good luck and well-timed decisions now favored the American cause. In 1780 a French army of 6,000 had landed in Newport, Rhode Island, after the British left the city to focus on the South. The French had stationed one fleet there and were operating another in the West Indies. When news of General Charles Cornwallis’s plans reached him, the Marquis de Lafayette suggested that the American and French armies join forces with the two French fleets and attack the British forces at Yorktown.
Following Lafayette’s plan, the Americans and the French closed in on Cornwallis. A French naval force defeated a British fleet. Then it blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby preventing a British rescue by sea. Meanwhile, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and bombarded them day and night. The siege of Yorktown lasted about three weeks. On October 17, 1781, with his troops outnumbered by more than two to one and exhausted from constant shelling, Cornwallis finally raised the white flag of surrender.
General Cornwallis brought his troops to Yorktown thinking the British navy could protect him there, but he was wrong. Instead, the combined American and French forces surrounded the British, attacking them and cutting off their support. On October 19, a triumphant Washington, the French generals, and their troops assembled to accept the British surrender. After General Charles O’Hara, representing Cornwallis, handed over his sword, the British troops laid down their arms. |