Definition
In 1781 Lord Cornwallis moved his British army from the Carolinas into Virginia and dug in at Yorktown. In late August the French admiral de Grasse brought his fleet from the Caribbean, and on September 5 it drove off a British fleet at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, which cut off Cornwallis's escape by sea. George Washington and the French general Rochambeau marched their armies about 450 miles south to join the siege, which began on September 28 and ended after allied troops stormed two British strongpoints on the night of October 14. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, with more than 7,000 men.
Why it matters on the AP exam
Yorktown ended the major fighting of the Revolutionary War. The surrender undermined support for the war in Britain, where Lord North's government fell in March 1782 and peace talks began, which led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783. It also shows that the Patriots won with French help, since the French alliance of 1778, the French army, and de Grasse's fleet made the victory possible. Questions on the causes of the American victory use it as the example of allied cooperation with France, and a common mistake treats Yorktown as the battle that brought France into the war, when Saratoga in 1777 did that.
Connections
- Battle of Saratoga: the 1777 American victory that convinced France the Americans could win
- Treaty of Alliance (1778): France's alliance with the United States, which brought the army and fleet to Yorktown
- Treaty of Paris (1783): the peace that recognized American independence two years after the surrender
- Benjamin Franklin: he negotiated the French alliance in Paris in 1778