In October 1781, preparation, weather, allies, and a measure of luck came together in Yorktown, Virginia, to seal the American colonies’ bid for independence from England. The Yorktown Colonial National Historic Park is a testament to and reminder of our struggle for independence. Today, only the restored earthworks that mark the siege lines dug by both the Americans and the British suggest that the Yorktown Battlefield is anything but a peaceful, pastoral setting.
The Tour
The challenge when visiting a historic site, especially one that dates back to the American Revolution—is to be able to visualize and understand events as they unfolded, and the conditions under which soldiers had to live and fight.
This is the case when touring the Yorktown Colonial National Historic Park. Today its broad, open green fields suggest a more peaceful, pastoral setting than a fierce battlefield. There are the restored earthworks that mark the British and American siege lines—but even these are covered in lush green grass—not the muddy, battle-scarred and stump-littered cleared woodlands of 1781.
That is why the interpretive material provided by the National Park Service is so important. It provides the information essential to more vividly imagine the final battles of the Revolutionary War and the bravery, valiantry, determination, and suffering experienced on both sides of the trenches.
There are several ways to tour and experience this national landmark and learn about George Washington’s most significant victory. The National Park Service provides maps and guideposts for a variety of self-guided tours. Perhaps the most informative, that can be completed in about an hour, is the driving tour guided by a CD.
The National Park Service offers movies and displays in the Visitor Center, ranger-led siege line walking tours, maps and audio programs on CDs for self-guided walking and auto tours and, during the summer, scheduled demonstrations of the artillery in the Siege of Yorktown. The one-hour CD-guided 7-mile auto tour captures the key events and locations to quickly understand the sequence of events that closed the chapter on the Revolution and opened the first chapter of the history of a new nation.
To understand the progress of the Siege of Yorktown, imagine three concentric semicircles. The British were dug in behind the Inner Defense Line, the smallest arc surrounding the town of Yorktown, backed up against the York River from whence they expected reinforcements. Along this line, the British had constructed ten redoubts, small fort-like structures that held 100 to 120 soldiers and artillery to protect their lines. The other two arcs were the outer First and mid Second Siege lines constructed by the American and their allied French forces in their attack on the British position at Yorktown. These earthworks have been carefully restored, and as you tour the battlefield, you can easily imagine the movements and events as the battle unfolded over a period of eleven days—from the first assault by the allied forces until Cornwallis petitioned for surrender.
The Siege of Yorktown
In the late summer of 1781, General Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia and seized Yorktown and Gloucester—towns on each side of the York River. Yorktown was not only a busy port; it was the seat of the British taxing authority, collecting duties on imports and exports to and from the colonies. Although historical accounts vary, Cornwallis occupied Yorktown with a combined force of approximately 21,000 British and (German) Hessian mercenaries plus about 2000 slaves who had been promised their freedom if they worked with the British forces. The slaves provided most of the labor to build the British Inner Defense Line.
Learning that Cornwallis had occupied Yorktown, George Washington and his allied French commander, Rochambeau “raced” south from New York. At the end of September 1781, Washington and Rochambeau marched out of Williamsburg with 9,000 American soldiers and 25,000 French soldiers. Over the next few days, the American allied forces, out of sight of the British in several small gullies, made critical preparations for the Siege of Yorktown. Engineers laid out the First Siege Line while French built gabions—large basket-like structures woven from saplings and vines. Gabions would be placed along the siege line and filled with dirt dug from the trenches creating a strong formidable defense from which to launch an attack.
The First Siege Line
On the night of October 6, a light rain was falling the American allies put their plan into action. The rain helped. It obscured their activities from the British. The rain also softened the soil, making it easier to dig. Over the next several days, 1,500 men dug and threw up the first siege line. Although another 2,800 soldiers stood guard in case of attack, the British were totally unaware of the American activities. On the afternoon of October 9, the First Siege Line was complete and the Americans immediately began to lay down artillery fire on the British Inner Defense Line. The First Siege Line had been positioned at the limits of American artillery, and the initial bombardment was not as effective as it could have been. Col Timothy Pickering, the Quartermaster General for the Constitutional Army wrote: “At the present distance of our batteries...they might fire ‘till Christmas without materially lessening the enemy’s force.”
The Second Siege Line
During the night and not visible to the British, The allies moved forward and constructed the Second Siege Line within about 360 yards—point-blank artillery range of the British Inner Defense Line. For the next three days, the Americans and French made life nearly unbearable for the British with constant shelling of their positions. Even Thomas Nelson, a true patriot and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was so engaged in the final siege of Yorktown, he urged General Washington to fire on his own home, the Nelson House, where Cornwallis had his headquarters.
The Final Battles--Redoubts 9 and 10
The Second Siege Line was not complete until the Allies were able to take two key British redoubts, Redoubts numbers 9 and 10. These two fortified positions were located east of Yorktown, on or near the bluffs above the York River. The plan was for the Americans to attack and take Number 10 and the French would then attack Number 9.
Surprise was important to the American strategy. On the night of October 14, to avoid accidentally firing a shot and alerting the British, the Americans advanced with their rifles unloaded. The American force of 400, under the command of Col. Alexander Hamilton, attacked redoubt 10 occupied by 70 British defenders. According to the account on the National Park Service sign at Redoubt 10, “The Americans surged through the obstructions surrounding the redoubt, then through holes in the log palisade, breached the top of redoubt, and within ten minutes of mostly fierce hand-to-hand combat, secured their objective.”
A French force of 400 attacked Redoubt 9, occupied by 120 British and German forces. “The French approach was delayed as engineering troops took heavy casualties clearing obstructions protecting the British perimeter. The difficulties of the assault were compounded by darkness, close quarters combat, German forces on both sides wearing similar uniforms, and the confusion of German commands coming from both attackers and defenders. Within 30 minutes, however, the French captured the redoubt.
Now the Allies could complete the eastern end of the Second Siege Line, which became the Grand American Battery. On October 17, the American began a fierce bombardment of the British Inner Defense Line. By the middle of the day, Cornwallis sent out a flag with a proposal for surrender.
The following day, officers from both sides met at the home of Augustine More—the Moore House—to negotiate the terms of surrender. Over the day of October 18, “Articles of Capitulation” were drafted and finally agreed upon around midnight.
The next day, October 19, 1781, at 2:00 sharp in the afternoon, the British soldiers marched out on to the Surrender Field where British and German soldiers, regiment by regiment, laid down their arms.
Many accounts summarize the event of the surrender saying the British army under General Charles Lord Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General Washington’s combined American and French army. In fact it was not quite so simple. Cornwallis sent a message that he was too ill to attend surrender ceremony and sent his second in command, General O’Hara to surrender his sword. O’Hara mistakenly tried to surrender the sword to Rochambeau, who led O’Hara to Washington. Washington refused to accept the sword from the second-in-command and sent him to his second-in-command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who accepted the sword to complete the surrender and firmly establish America’s independence.
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