Battle of Yorktown
The last major battle of the American Revolution, where British General Cornwallis surrendered.
Where this fits on the timeline. The war that began with the first shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 had dragged on for six long, hard years. By October 1781, Yorktown became the knockout blow: the last major battle of the American Revolution, and the victory that finally convinced Britain the war could not be won.
A trap years in the making
The French alliance changed everything. After the American victory at Saratoga in 1777, France agreed to join the war against Britain, bringing money, soldiers, and, most importantly, a powerful navy. In 1781 British General Charles Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia and settled at Yorktown, a small port on a peninsula, expecting the Royal Navy to supply and rescue him by sea. That decision would prove fatal.
Closing the jaws
Land and sea working together. George Washington and the French general the Comte de Rochambeau made a bold gamble. They secretly marched their combined armies hundreds of miles from New York down to Virginia. At the same time, the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse sailed up from the Caribbean and, at the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781, drove off the British navy, slamming shut Cornwallis's escape route by sea. The young French volunteer the Marquis de Lafayette had been shadowing Cornwallis and helped pin him in place until the main armies arrived.
The siege
Trapped, and pounded day and night. With about 17,000 American and French troops surrounding roughly 8,000 British and Hessian soldiers, Washington's forces dug siege lines and bombarded the town relentlessly. On the night of October 14, 1781, in one of the war's most daring moments, a young officer named Alexander Hamilton led a bayonet charge that captured a key British strongpoint, Redoubt No. 10, tightening the noose.
Surrender at Yorktown
A British army lays down its arms. Out of food, hope, and escape routes, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. As the British troops marched out to give up their weapons, legend says their band played a tune called 'The World Turned Upside Down.' Cornwallis claimed to be ill and sent a deputy to hand over his sword, so Washington had his own second-in-command accept it.
Why it matters
The victory that won independence. Yorktown did not officially end the war, but it broke Britain's will to keep fighting an ocean away. Peace talks led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, in which Britain finally recognized the United States as an independent nation. The new country now faced a different challenge, governing itself, which it would take up at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Further reading
Recommended, age-appropriate books to explore this further. Links open a library catalog search.
Key Takeaways
Yorktown (surrender October 19, 1781) was the last major battle of the Revolution and effectively won American independence
Victory came from a combined American and French operation on land and sea; the French navy under de Grasse sealed off Cornwallis’s escape by water
Washington and Rochambeau marched their armies from New York to Virginia to trap Cornwallis, aided by Lafayette pinning him in place
A young Alexander Hamilton led a daring nighttime bayonet assault that captured a key British redoubt
The victory led to the Treaty of Paris (1783), in which Britain recognized the United States as independent