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    Siege of Yorktown: The Last Major Land Battle of the American Revolutionary War
    Siege of Yorktown: The Last Major Land Battle of the American Revolutionary War
    Siege of Yorktown: The Last Major Land Battle of the American Revolutionary War
    Ebook52 pages36 minutes

    Siege of Yorktown: The Last Major Land Battle of the American Revolutionary War

    By Henry Freeman

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    About this ebook

    What kind of impact does a battle and siege from more than 200 years ago have on the world today? Yorktown held the key to the end of the American Revolution and allowed America to become not only a sovereign nation, but also set the stage for it to become a world power, worth keeping an eye on. 

    Inside you will read about...
    ✓ The Road to Yorktown
    ✓ Opening Moves
    ✓ The Troops in Motion
    ✓ The Battle at Sea
    ✓ The Calm Before the Storm
    ✓ The Siege Commences
    ✓ The Fall

    When Washington moved against Cornwallis, the entire world held its breath. And when surrender was offered – first to the French – things could have ended very differently. One city. One long siege in the fall of the year – would change everything.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHenry Freeman
    Release dateJul 24, 2017
    ISBN9781386670445
    Siege of Yorktown: The Last Major Land Battle of the American Revolutionary War

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      Book preview

      Siege of Yorktown - Henry Freeman

      Introduction

      The war had gone on longer than anyone expected.

      Everyone was ready for this conflict to find some kind of resolution. However, no one wanted to give an inch to make that happen.

      The whole thing had taken on the appearance of a very elaborate game of chess. In the early days of 1781, the city of New York was held by Lord Henry Clinton of the British forces. General George Washington had set his sights on reclaiming that city and expected an entire fleet of French warships to help make that happen.

      But things were shifting down south. Lord Cornwallis had come up against some pretty severe opposition in South Carolina and instead headed north. New orders led him to the area of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, where he was to stabilize the port there for British use. He immediately took over two towns, Yorktown and Gloucester Point, with the bulk of his force concentrating on Yorktown.

      Now Washington had a dilemma, made more complicated by the arrangement of the French fleet, which we’ll get to in a minute. The question becomes one of whether to hold to the initial plan or change everything and march on Yorktown.

      Battles are won and lost on strategy. The players were skilled, each in their own way, but the troops were worn out and stretched thin.

      One decision would change everything.

      New York or Yorktown?

      In the spring of 1781, the game commenced…

      Chapter One

      The Road to Yorktown

      We must take Cornwallis or be all dishonored.

      —General Washington

      By the spring of 1781, public support for the American Revolution was waning. The battle that General George Washington, Commander of the American forces, had predicted would be decided in a single skirmish had lasted six years and was taking a heavy toll on troops and civilians alike.

      So who were the key players and just how did they all come to end up in Yorktown at what would be the true final battle of the war?

      Washington’s army, just two years prior, boasted 17,000 men. In the spring of 1781, that number had dwindled to barely 8,000, and they were ragged and gaunt. Many of the militia were barefoot with threadbare uniforms or no uniforms at all, fighting in the clothes they brought with them, though by this point the regular army had a standard uniform. The difficult years had thinned them and left lean, emaciated fighting men. Yet through the lack of accommodation and supplies, the French allies who arrived that year remarked how clean and serviceable the Americans kept their weapons.

      Negotiations with the French king had been going on almost since the war began, largely through the offices of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. In June of 1780, they bore even greater fruit than the weapons and ammunition and supplies they had previously received. General Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Compte de Rochambeau, landed with 7,000 troops in Rhode Island. Although he actually commanded more men than Washington had, he placed himself

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