Five years into their revolutionary war, the American colonies were still struggling against the British. It was with great relief that their commander-in-chief George Washington received word that the French fleet would soon arrive.
French help was desperately needed since, despite all Washington's efforts, the former colonists were barely hanging on. New York and Charleston remained in British hands, and the most likely outcome was a stalemate.
The deadlock was broken a few miles south-east of Williamsburg, Virginia, where Lord Cornwallis, the British commander, had set up his headquarters. Yorktown lies on a narrow peninsula between the estuaries of the York and James rivers as they debouch into Chesapeake Bay.
As long as the British navy controlled the sea, Cornwallis was impregnable. But the French had been throwing money – all borrowed and at outrageous rates of interest – at their fleet, while the British navy was overstretched and divided. The result was that Cornwallis found himself caught between a strong French fleet that blockaded the James River and, as of 28 September, Washington's army. The French had also buoyed up the latter with loans, gifts and men – alongside the 8,845 Americans were 10,800 French soldiers under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau.
Trapped and outnumbered by more than two to one, on 19 October Cornwallis sent his deputy with his entire army to surrender to Washington. The casualties were minimal on both sides, but the Americans captured 7,018 of the British.
'Oh God, it is all over!' Lord North, the prime minister, wailed when the news arrived. It was, though it took George III some time to realise it.
In 1783, the Americans, in their first betrayal of their French allies, signed a separate preliminary peace with Britain that recognised American independence. George drafted and redrafted his abdication address, and the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II predicted that, with the loss of America, Britain would swiftly become a second-class power, like Sweden or Denmark.
But then the emperor usually got things wrong.
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 Battle of Yorktown
www.britishbattles.com/battle-yorktown.h
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Good coverage of the battle with some great maps and prints.
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The War for Independence and the Transformation of American Society by Harry M Ward (Routledge, 1999)
Focuses on the climate of war itself and its effects on the lives of those who lived through it. Covers the battles fought in detail.
Get this book
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 Yorktown Battlefield
Colonial National Historical Park
PO Box 210
Yorktown, VA 23690
USA
Tel: 001 757 898 6346
Website: www.nps.gov/yonb
Ranger-guided tours of the battlefield and town. Other tours and programs are available on a seasonal basis.
Channel 4 Television takes no responsibility for the content of third-party sites. |
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