Contents
Page [THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN] 1 [Battle of Green Spring] 6 [The British Move to Yorktown] 7 [SIEGE OF YORKTOWN] 9 [Strategy of the Siege] 9 [Battle of the Virginia Capes] 11 [Assembly of the Allied Armies] 15 [Investment of Yorktown] 18 [British Position] 18 [Opening of the Siege] 21 [Gloucester Side] 22 [First Allied Siege Line] 23 [Second Allied Siege Line] 25 [Capture of Redoubts No. 9 and No. 10] 25 [Last Days of the Siege] 27 [Negotiation and Surrender] 30 [The Sequel] 31 [THE “TOWN OF YORK”] 32 [GUIDE TO THE AREA] 39 [Battlefield Tour] 40 [“Town of York”] 47 [HOW TO REACH YORKTOWN] 50 [COLONIAL PARKWAY] 51 [ABOUT YOUR VISIT] 51 [ADMINISTRATION] 52 [CLOSELY RELATED AREAS] 52 [SUGGESTED READINGS] 53 [Appendix 1—CORNWALLIS’ PAROLE] 55 [Appendix 2—ARTICLES OF CAPITULATION] 56
The reconstructed Grand French Battery—a strong link in the First Allied Siege Line.
On the level fields outside the small colonial village of Yorktown occurred one of the great decisive battles of world history and one of the most momentous events in American history. Here, on October 19, 1781, after a prolonged siege, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his British Army to an allied French and American Army force under George Washington, virtually ending the American Revolution and assuring American independence. While hostilities did not formally end until 2 years later—on September 3, 1783, when the treaty was signed—in reality the dramatic victory at Yorktown had ended forever the subservience of the American colonies to England. Because of this victory the United States became truly a free and independent nation.
The Virginia Campaign
At Yorktown, in the early autumn of 1781, Gen. George Washington, ably assisted by the Count de Rochambeau of the French Army and supported by the Count de Grasse of the French Navy, forced the capitulation of Lieutenant General Earl Cornwallis. On October 19, the allied French and American forces accepted the surrender of the British troops in what was the climax of the last major British field operation of the American Revolution—the Virginia Campaign.
The early campaigns, except the decisive repulse of British arms in the Carolinas in 1776, were fought mostly in the New England and Middle Atlantic colonies. After 1778, most activity was to the south. In 1780 and early 1781, Lord Cornwallis led his victorious British Army out of Charleston and through the Carolinas; not, however, without feeling the effective use of American arms at Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780) and at Cowpens (January 17, 1781). On March 15, 1781, he was at Guilford Courthouse in north-central North Carolina and there Gen. Nathanael Greene accepted his challenge to battle.