The Siege of Yorktown

By 1781 the war is old and weary. Then Lord Cornwallis marches his army onto a spit of Virginia land — Yorktown — and digs in with his back to the sea, sure the King's navy will come for him. Far to the north, Washington and the French see it, and slip south in secret: four hundred miles, to spring a trap.

In 1781 Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, Virginia, expecting naval support. Washington and Rochambeau secretly marched the Franco-American army ~400 miles south. 245 years ago.

Everything hangs on the water. Out beyond the capes, the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse meets the British navy and beats it back to New York. The sea gate slams shut. Cornwallis looks for his rescuers and sees only French sails. There will be no ships. No escape. He is ours to take.

At the Battle of the Chesapeake (5 Sept 1781), the French fleet under de Grasse defeated the Royal Navy, cutting off Cornwallis's escape and resupply by sea.

We come up around the town, near eighteen thousand strong — American and French together — and we begin to dig. Night by night the trenches zigzag closer to their walls. Washington himself strikes a pick into the ground, then puts the match to the first gun. The siege has begun.

The combined Franco-American army (~18,000) besieged Yorktown, digging parallel siege trenches. Washington ceremonially opened the first siege line and fired an early gun.

Then the batteries open, and they do not stop. French and American guns hammer Yorktown day and night — the town splinters, ships burn in the river, and Cornwallis's men burrow into the bluffs like moles. From our lines we watch the shells arc over in the dark, red trails falling into the ruin.

Allied siege batteries bombarded Yorktown around the clock, devastating the town and British defenses and forcing the garrison into shelters along the riverbank.

Two strongpoints still bar the way — Redoubts nine and ten. They must be taken by the blade. At night, muskets unloaded and bayonets fixed, the French rush nine and we rush ten — young Colonel Hamilton at the front. In a few furious minutes, both fall. The last doors of Yorktown stand open.

On the night of 14 October 1781, French troops stormed Redoubt 9 and American light infantry under Alexander Hamilton took Redoubt 10 with unloaded muskets and bayonets, letting the siege lines close in.

There is nothing left to hold. His works are rubble, his escape across the river broken up by a storm. On October nineteenth, Cornwallis surrenders near seven thousand men. Too 'ill' to come himself, he sends a deputy. Their army marches out between our lines and lays down its arms — and their band, they say, plays 'The World Turned Upside Down.'

On 19 October 1781 Cornwallis surrendered ~7,000 troops. Pleading illness, he sent Gen. O'Hara in his place. Tradition holds a British band played 'The World Turned Upside Down.'

The news takes weeks to cross the ocean. When it reaches London, the King's minister staggers as if shot and cries, 'Oh God, it is all over.' And it is. Two years yet to a treaty, but the fighting is done. From the first shot on Lexington Green to this Virginia field, the impossible thing is won.

When word reached London, Prime Minister Lord North reportedly exclaimed 'Oh God, it is all over.' The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally recognized U.S. independence.

We were a rabble the greatest empire on earth meant to whip back into line. Six years, and a world war, later — on a river in Virginia — we watched them stack their muskets and go home. Two hundred and fifty years on, the nation that began in a hot Philadelphia room still stands. We built it. And it held.

Yorktown secured the independence declared in 1776. The United States it created marks its 250th anniversary in 2026.