Yorktown (2024)

FAQs

What happened in Yorktown 1776? ›

Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Lacking the financial resources to raise a new army, the British government appealed to the Americans for peace. Almost two years later, on September 3, 1783, the signing of the Treaty of Paris brought the war to an end.

According to historic records that survive from the war, some 230-397 soldiers were killed over the course of the Battle of Yorktown. The Franco-American forces suffered only 88 deaths; the British, however, lost anywhere from 142 to 309 soldiers during the fighting.

Yorktown Battlefield - Winning America's Independence

Here at Yorktown, in the fall of 1781, General George Washington, with allied American and French forces, besieged General Charles Lord Cornwallis's British army. On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the war and ensuring independence.

The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, began September 28, 1781, and ended on October 19, 1781, at exactly 10:30 am in Yorktown, Virginia.

The port of Yorktown, which remains the seat of government, was the site of the final battle of the American Revolution where on October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his British Army to the combined American-French forces under Washington and Rochambeau.

Supported by the French army and navy, Washington's forces defeated Lord Charles Cornwallis' veteran army dug in at Yorktown, Virginia. Victory at Yorktown led directly to the peace negotiations that ended the war in 1783 and gave America its independence.

Their destination and future treatment had been provided for in the Articles of Capitulation. The soldiers to be kept in Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania, and as much by regiments as possible, and supplied with the same rations or provisions as allowed to the soldiers in the service of America.

Outnumbered and outfought during a three-week siege in which they sustained great losses, British troops surrendered to the Continental Army and their French allies. This last major land battle of the American Revolution led to negotiations for peace with the British and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

After three weeks of non-stop bombardment, both day and night, from artillery, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in the field at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, effectively ending the War for Independence.

Though Yorktown no longer appears as it did when it was an important 18th century port city or when the British were trapped within its boundaries during the Siege of 1781, it is still a place of national importance - a place where independence for the United States of America was won.

Can you visit the Battle of Yorktown? ›

Ranger-led tours of the battlefield and historic town leave from the visitor center daily, and Junior Ranger Programs are available for younger visitors. Administered by the National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park. There is an admission fee to enter the Yorktown Battlefield.

There are various accounts of what became of the surrender sword after the battle: some claim General Washington kept it for a few years and then had it returned to Lord Cornwallis, while some believe the sword remains in America's possession, perhaps in the White House.

A prisoner of war, Cornwallis was later exchanged for Patriot Henry Laurens, former President of the Continental Congress. Defeat failed to stymie the Earl's career and he went on to serve as Governor General of India and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He died in India in 1805.

British forces were cut off from their supply lines, and—running out of ammunition, suffering high casualties—Cornwallis attempted to evacuate his troops. The evacuation was thwarted by stormy weather, however. On October 17, Cornwallis was forced to seek a truce and cease-fire to negotiate his army's surrender.

Siege of Yorktown, (September 28–October 19, 1781), joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender. The siege virtually ended military operations in the American Revolution.

The year 1781 found a large squadron of British troops led by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis hoped to keep his men in the Chesapeake town until fresh supplies and reinforcements could arrive from Britain. The French and the Americans conspired to capture the British before that could happen.

What was the fate of the British prisoners captured at Yorktown after Cornwallis surrendered to Washington? They were exchanged for American prisoners that the British still had on ships in New York harbor. The British realized after Yorktown that the war was over.

June-July 1778 - British evacuate forces from Philadelphia and occupy New York City as their new main base of operations. December 29, 1778 - British forces capture Savannah, Georgia.