Independence assured at Battle of Yorktown
It was a village on a southern river. Settled in 1630, its waterfront area would become lined with shops and warehouses. It would prosper for a short time, then become a sleepy area with only a few buildings and houses. It seemed an inauspicious place in which the world’s history would be changed.
The status of the war with the British wasn’t good for Gen. George Washington and the American cause. There was the mutiny of part of the Pennsylvania Continental Army on New Year’s Day, and Congress seemed unable to effect more men or supplies or to breathe new life into the French alliance.
And the British armies were doing well. Gen. Charles Cornwallis had taken Charleston and much of South Carolina, was moving into North Carolina and seemed unstoppable. In the north, British Gen. Henry Clinton had 17,000 troops fortifying his position in New York City. Gen. Washington in the Hudson Valley had only 4,500 men. He summarized the bleak situation: “We are at the end of our tether . ... Instead of having everything in readiness to take the field, we have nothing; and instead of having the prospect of a glorious offensive campaign before us, we have a bewildered and gloomy defensive one.”
But patience was the better part of wisdom for GW, and within a few weeks the sun began to shine for him. For he realized that foreign aid was critical and that France’s alliance with America had to bear fruit. And it did. The French fleet was en route to assist his forces, and their troops would enter the Hudson Valley, with more on the way. But with good news came the dilemma of deciding on a strategy. There were two choices: to attack Clinton in New York City or to move south to strike a blow at Cornwallis.
Because of Clinton’s superior number of troops, the second alternative was attractive, provided that (1) Cornwallis decided to take a position along the coast, thereby exposing his troops to a blockade by the French fleet; (2) Clinton would be led to believe that the attack would be against his forces, preventing his assistance to Cornwallis; and (3) the AmericanFrench forces could rush to the southeast, join with French forces and surprise Cornwallis before he could retreat.
The decision to move south was adopted. For Cornwallis had indeed set up a base along a peninsula. What is more, Washington learned from his mistakes as a military commander and came up with an ingenious plan. He would make Clinton think that an attack on New York City was imminent by having fake hardtack bakeries built in New Jersey (in full view of British spies) where presumably American troops would be digging in, eating and preparing to fight. Washington crossed the Hudson and was south of Philadelphia before Clinton realized he had been had.
By September, American and French forces along the southeast coast totaled nearly 17,000. Cornwallis had only 7,000 men, and the French fleet controlled the surrounding waters. The siege began on Sept. 28. And it was only a matter of time before the British, short on supplies, would surrender. Cornwallis, who kept hoping that Clinton’s forces would aid him, asked for capitulation on Oct. 17 (Clinton’s army eventually arrived, but much too late on Oct. 24).
After two days of negotiation, the British formally surrendered on Oct. 19. It was a moving event, with American troops precisely at noon lining up on one side, the French on the other. The French were spiffy in their “complete uniforms,” while the less fashionably dressed Americans were still conspicuous with their “erect, soldierly air,” and “every countenance beamed with satisfaction and joy.” There were crowds of spectators, yet silence and order were the hallmarks of the ceremony.
At 2 o’clock, British soldiers began to lay down their arms. Some of them cried, many swore as they threw down their weaponry. Cornwallis did not show, feigning indisposition, with his second-incommand offering his sword. Washington, wishing not to be demeaned, sent his No. 2 officer. The British troops, the only side to sport a band, played songs, but they were strictly forbidden to play “Yankee Doodle,” a melody that they played at every battle with the Americans that they had won. For the lyrics made fun of the ragtag nature of the American troops.
With this defeat, the British lost their will to fight. Parliament did likewise, reckoning that the cost of fighting from October 1777 had been enormous in terms of lives and money. Although British commanders realized they could win battles in cities, America was rural and small-town, with its troops surviving and regrouping in the hinterlands. American Gen. Nathaniel Greene put it this way: “We fight, get beat, rise and fight again.” Even though a final peace treaty wouldn’t come for two more years, both parties knew it was inevitable.
The world would not be the same. A new nation, born in 1776, was destined to live. The American Revolution had been won. In Yorktown, in Virginia, in the year 1781.