A New National Holiday?
The Overlook
By Tom Clavin
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We probably don’t need another national holiday, but if we were to consider one, I nominate October 19. Why? Because the Battle of Yorktown proved to be the decisive engagement of the American Revolution. Outnumbered and outfought during a three-week siege in which they sustained great losses, British troops surrendered to the Continental Army and its French allies. This last major land battle of the American Revolution, in 1781, led to negotiations for peace with the British and the signing of the Treaty of Paris two years later.
After six years of war, both the British and Continental armies were exhausted. The British held only a few coastal areas in America. On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain was also waging a global war with France and Spain. The American conflict was unpopular and divisive and there was no end in sight. For the colonies, the long struggle for independence had led to enormous debt, food shortages, and a lack of morale among the soldiers. Both sides were desperately seeking a definitive victory.
General George Washington and his Continental Army had a decision to make in 1781. They could strike a decisive blow to the British in New York City or aim for the south, in Yorktown, Virginia, where Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis’s troops were garrisoned. Washington and his French ally, Lt. Gen. Comte de Rochambeau, bet on the south, where they were assured critical naval support from a French fleet commanded by Admiral Comte de Grasse.
By late summer, the British had occupied Yorktown, where Cornwallis intended to refit and resupply his 9,000-man army. While he awaited supplies and much-needed reinforcements from the Royal Navy, the Continental Army seized an opportunity. On receiving word that the French fleet would be available for a siege south of New Jersey, Washington and Rochambeau moved their force of almost 8,000 men south to Virginia, planning to join and lead about 12,000 other militia, French troops, and Continental troops in a siege of Yorktown.
On September 5, while the Allied army was still on route, the French fleet guarded the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. The Royal Navy, attempting to sail up the bay to Cornwallis, was met by French warships. In this encounter, called the Battle of the Capes, the British fleet was soundly defeated and forced to abandon Cornwallis’s army.
On September 28, after a grueling march, the American and French forces arrived near Yorktown and immediately began the hard work of laying siege to Cornwallis and his men. The British threw up a series of redoubts on the outskirts of Yorktown while the majority of the troops hunkered down in the town.
With the help of French engineers, American and French troops began to dig a series of parallel trenches to bring troops and artillery close enough to inflict damage on the British. Feverishly working night and day, soldiers of the combined forces employed spades and axes to create a perimeter line of trenches that would trap the British. As the work on the parallels continued, the British attempted to disrupt Allied operations by using what little artillery they had left. Their attempts proved futile.
By October 9, the Allied lines were within musket range of the British and American and French artillery were in place. In the afternoon, the Allied barrage began, with the French opening the salvo. On the American side, George Washington touched off the first cannon to commence the American assault. His artillery consisted of three 24-pounders, three 18-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, and 6 mortars, totaling 14 guns. For nearly a week the artillery barrage was ceaseless, shattering whatever nerve the British had remaining and punching holes in their defenses.
Two days later, Washington ordered troops to dig a second parallel trench 400 yards closer to the British lines. British redoubts #9 and #10 prevented the second parallel from extending to the river and the British were still able to reinforce the garrisons inside the redoubts. They would have to be taken by force.
On a moonless night, after firing incessant artillery to weaken British defenses, American and French forces prepared a surprise assault on redoubts #9 and #10. To maintain stealth, soldiers did not load or prime their weapons. The password for the operation was “Rochambeau,” which the Americans translate as “Rush on boys!” The assault commenced with a diversionary attack on a redoubt further to the north of Yorktown at 6:30 p.m., giving the appearance that the town itself was to be stormed. Then, Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton’s force, consisting of a detachment of 400 light infantry, was ready to assault redoubt #10 with bayonets fixed and muskets unloaded. To prevent the British defenders from escaping the coming onslaught, Lt. Col. John Laurens’s troops covered the rear of the redoubt.
When a British sentry fired at the Americans, they proceeded to assault the fortification, climbing over the parapet and descending into the redoubt. Serious fighting ensued in close quarters, but the British were overwhelmed. It was a stunning victory with the Americans sustaining only 34 casualties.
The French simultaneously assaulted redoubt #9 and, after an equally fierce firefight, took control from the British. Cornwallis’s position was untenable as the Franco-American alliance had artillery on three of his sides, with additional new pieces positioned in redoubts #9 and #10 after their fall. In a last-ditch effort, Cornwallis ordered a counterattack on October 15, which failed miserably.
Two days after that, a lone British drummer boy, beating “parley,” and a British officer waving a white handkerchief tied to the end of a sword were seen on a parapet at the forward position of the British lines. Blindfolded and brought inside American lines, the British officer secured terms of surrender for the British Army.
And so on October 19, 1781, in a field outside of Yorktown, the capitulation took place as British troops and their Hessian allies, with flags furled and cased, marched sullenly between contingents of American and French forces. The British had sought honorable terms of surrender, but Washington refused because American forces had been denied the that honor in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier in the war.
The Battle of Yorktown marked the collapse of the British war efforts. Later, it was said that the British band played the tune “The World’s Turned Upside Down” during the surrender at Yorktown—an apocryphal story that has become part of American folklore. But the world truly changed that day as most of the military operations of the War for Independence ceased.
When news of Cornwallis’s surrender reached London on November 25, the Prime Minister, Lord North, declared, “Oh God. It is all over. It is all over.” On March 5, 1782, Parliament passed a bill authorizing the government to make peace with America. Lord North resigned 15 days later. Although it took the Americans two more years of skillful diplomacy to formally secure their independence through the Treaty of Paris, the war was won with the British defeat at Yorktown.
Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books including, with Bob Drury, Valley Forge. His next book, Bandit Heaven, will be published next Tuesday. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to order a copy.