F86.5B

Yorktown, Virginia, October 20, 1781
===After six long years of fighting the British, the Patriots succeeded in winning the Revolutionary War. Using his French allies, General Washington trapped General Cornwallis and his army in Yorktown. A brutal battle ensued, but America was victorious.===

====The Battle of Yorktown took place in the central location of Yorktown. But, at first Charles Cornwallis sent loyalists to attack Charlottesville, Virginia. American troops fought back, but did not have the army they needed to defeat the British. Then Cornwallis misunderstood a command and headed to Yorktown instead of New York. This was where the main battle started and ended in October of 1781.====

====Many people were involved in the Battle of Yorktown. Charles Cornwallis was the commander of British troops at Yorktown. He felt it was his duty to help win the war for Great Britian. He and his troops were in Charlottesville, Virginia protecting the Loyalist way of life. General Cornwallis then misunderstood a command from Sir Henry Clinton. Instead of going to New York, Cornwallis went to Yorktown. George Washington was the commander for the Patriots. When he forced General Cornwallis and his army to surrender in Yorktown, he had more than just the Patriots helping him. French soldiers under the Comte de Rochambeau and a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse were his allies in battle; this brought the end of the war. George Washington had won the American Revolution for the Patriots.====

====General Cornwallis started out with a plan. He wanted to conquer Virginia and cut off the American's supply route to the South. Coming from the Carolina's, he gathered the British soldiers of General Clinton and marched them to Yorktown, Virginia. He then sent the troops to attack Charlottesville, also the place of the Virginia legislature meeting. The Americans fought back by staging raids against the British troops. Cornwallis then retreated to the Yorktown peninsula thinking British ships could supply his army from the sea. The American troops and their French allies marched with their leader, George Washington, towards Yorktown to trap Cornwallis. A French fleet under Admiral de Grasse headed towards Virginia to close the trap and to cut off General Cornwallis and his army. Both the American and French troops landed siege to Cornwallis' army, forcing them to surrender. Once the battle was over, the French and American soldiers had won the Battle of Yorktown, the last battle of the Revolutionary War.====

====From September 28, 1781, the start of the Battle of Yorktown, to October 19, 1781, the day British surrendered, the British and American troops fought over Yorktown, Virginia. In August of 1781, General Washington had learned that General Cornwallis was stationed near Yorktown, Virginia. On August 17, the American army, containing French allies, began to march south. On September 5, after arriving in Chesapeake Bay, a British fleet arrived. On September 28, Generals Washington and Rochambeau started heading towards Yorktown. Their first siege line was constructed on the nights of October 5 and 6. By dawn, a trench of 2,000 yards opposed the southeast side of the British works. Two days after that, Washington personally fired the first shot. For three days straight, the Franco-American troops fired at the British soldiers. On October 10, General Cornwallis called General Clinton for an aid, feeling that his position was collapsing. As the battle got worse and worse, Cornwallis was pressured into launching an attack against the allied lines. When Cornwallis ran out of ammunition, he decided to negotiate with Washington. At 9:00 AM on the morning of October 17, a British drummer beat a long roll as a lieutenant waved a white flag. On October 19, Cornwallis had no other choice but to sign the surrender documents.====

====General Cornwallis first brought troops to disrupt a meeting of Patriot leaders being held in Charlottesville, Virginia. After this he had been instructed to bring his troops to New York where Sir Henry Clinton was awaiting reinforcements. Cornwallis disobeyed the general and instead camped out in Yorktown, Virginia. This, coupled with several other factors, brought victory to the Colonists. Our earlier alliance with France proved useful as François de Grasse led his naval fleet into Chesapeake Bay and drove out the British fleet there. This left Cornwallis with no supplies and enemies at his back. At about that time, General George Washington and Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau marched on land to Yorktown and, with the help of General Lafayette, closed a trap around the British. After several days of difficult conditions, Cornwallis was forced to surrender.====

====General Lafayette was already in the area after a previous encounter with British general Charles Cornwallis. He pressed Cornwallis and his army back using phony raids. Though Lafayette didn't have enough men for an actual battle, he managed to keep the British soldiers at bay. Soon, General George Washington and General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau led their troops to Yorktown to assist General Lafayette there. In an effort to close the trap his allies had set, General François de Grasse brought his French naval fleet from the West Indies, where they were stationed, to Chesapeake Bay. The British knew the French were comiong but never dreamed they would surpass the British fleet already stationed in Chesapeake Bay. To Britain's dismay, however, George Rodney, leaderof the British fleet, became ill and had to abandon his men to return to Britain. Without a sense of leadership, the British naval fleet was easily driven out of Chesapeake Bay by de Grasse's ships. And so, the Patriot troops put the final wall up between Cornwallis' troops and their only chance at winning the Revolutionary War.====

Reported by: Allison Crasi, Amanda Sandstrom, and Michelle Scarazzo