American patriots and their French allies defeat British forces to end the Revolutionary War.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The surrender of Yorktown played an integral role in the eventual formation of the United States. One of the most significant battles during American Revolution, the Siege of Yorktown led to the defeat of British forces, led by General Charles Cornwallis, by a combination of American and French troops.
TACTICAL IMPORTANCE
The Battle of Yorktown is a classic example of 18th Century Siege Warfare. The British 9000-man force established fortified defensive positions around Yorktown with their back to the York River. With the French Fleet in the Caribbean sailing north, George Washington and his French ally, the Comte de Rochambeau, moved their force of almost 8,000 men south to Virginia to link up with about 12,000 other Continental Army, militia, and French troops. While the Allied army was on the march, the French fleet drove off the British fleet at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the Battle of the Capes leaving Cornwallis isolated at Yorktown. Besieging Yorktown, the Franco-American Army dug trenches parallel to the series of British redoubts (mutually supporting earthwork and wood forts) in order to bring their artillery to bear on the British forces. For the trenches to reach the river, however, British redoubts #9 and #10 would need to be taken by force. The attack on Redoubt #10 was undertaken by a detachment of 400 light infantrymen commanded by Alexander Hamilton. After vicious hand-to-hand fighting, the British were overwhelmed. At the same time, the French successfully wrested control of Redoubt #9. Surrounded on three sides by enemy artillery, Cornwallis’s position had become untenable. After negotiating surrender, roughly 8,000 British soldiers laid down their arms.
STRATEGIC IMPACT
Yorktown was the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War paving the way for the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the war and created the United States of America.
Related Articles
The Marine Corps Gazette and Leatherneck Magazine archives have more than 100 years of articles. Click the images below to read articles about the Battle of Yorktown and its implications on the Corps, yesterday and today.
Operational Design
LtCol Andrew Straley
Gazette
June 2011
Of Landpowers and Seapowers
Martin Blumenson
Gazette
March 1983
Maps
Yorktown – October 1781
Bauman’s Plan of the Investment of York and Gloucester
Yorktown – October 14, 1781
Notes Sur Les Environs De York
Carte de la partie de la Virginie ou l’armée combinée de France & des États-Unis de l’Amérique a fait prisonnière l’Armée anglaise commandée par Lord Cornwallis le 19 octobre. 1781, avec le plan de l’attaque d’York-town & de Glocester
Campagne en Virginie du Major Général M’is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant Général Lord Cornwallis en 1781
Plan de l’armée de Cornwallis attaquée et faitte prisonière dans York Town, le 19 8bre par l’armée combinée francaise et americaine
[Côte de York-town à Boston: Marches de l’armée
A Plan of the entrance of Chesapeak [sic] Bay, with James and York Rivers
A Representation, of the sea fight, on the 5th of Sepr. 1781, between Rear Admiral Graves and the Count de Grasse
Plan of York Town in Virginia and adjacent country, exhibiting the operations of the American, French & English armies during the siege of that place in Oct. 1781
York en Virginie, 1781. Carte des environs d’York avec les attaques à la position des Armées francaise et americaine devant cette place
Carte generale des colonies angloises dans l’Amerique Septentrionale pour l’intelligence de la guerre presente, d’apres des manuscrit anglais par J. B. Nolin geographe. Corrigé, augmenté des indications des principaux évenemens de la guerre avec le tracee des limites pour constituer le traité de paix proposé entre la Couronne de la Grande Bretagne et les Etats Unis
Siege d’York, 1781. Plan d’York en Virginie avec les attaques et les campemens de l’Armée combinée de France et d’Amérique
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Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route
National Historic Trail
National Park Service
Yorktown Battlefield
Colonial National Historical Park
National Park Service
The Winning of Independence, 1777-1783
Richard W. Stewart
American Military History Volume 1
Marines in the American Revolution
Carolyn A. Tyson
Rowland P. Gill
Historical Division
Headquarters, USMC