Battle of Yorktown

In 1781, tensions on war between the Continental and the British have now met a point. First British troops moved in and used New York as their main base. Later through battles with the Continental, British troops captured Savannah, Georgia and then moved into South Carolina and took over the city of Charleston. On May 10, 1781 British’s troops lead by Cornwallis entered Virginia and within 10 days he gained an overall control of the state.

Continental forces and its commander George Washington were losing battles and ground left and right against the world’s strongest naval and military force and needed a plan. The French came into the picture when Benjamin Franklin and 3 other spy’s traveled to France to conduct the Treaty of Alliance was signed. The French were already mad on Europe and was looking for a chance to take revenge after their defeat in the seven years’ war, which made the French give up Canada and surrender it to Great Britain. Frances main enemy was Europe, but they knew that the colonist couldn’t defeat Britain all by themselves, so the French agreed to fight alongside with the United States until they got full independence from Great Britain.

Every move in the Battle of Yorktown:

During September 26 and 27 the French transported artillery, tools, and infantry to be led by George Washington. On the 28th Washington led his army of roughly 18,000 soldiers to Yorktown. The French took position on the left side of the town, while George Washington’s took position on the right. During the night the Americans and French worked during the night building bridges and preparing for tomorrow. The following day came and Washington’s troops moved closer to Yorktown. His troops were spotted and British troops fired upon them. Cornwallis retreated his troops from their out most layer of defense which consisted of redoubts, to the earth works surrounding the town when he received a letter stating that he would be reinforced with 5,000 troops in a week. As land was gained by the Americans and French, they continued to upgrade their trenches and earthworks, while the British also worked on defending their town. When the American and French gained a new layer of the town, engineers calculated distances for artillery rounds to hit the town. After little battles from both sides, they changed their game plan up. American began cutting trees around the town to get wood ready digging and fortifying trenches and parallels used to aid the attack process on the city, but the British started killing their horses and throwing them onto the beach to preserve food. As days went by America and its allies were trying to place more artillery into place, but during the process British troops fired upon them to disrupt the process and killing soldiers as well. On October the 3rd the British took an offensive side and gathered up a British cavalry led by Banastre Tarleton but were stopped in their tracks when they ran into Lauzun’s Legion and John Mercers militia group led by Marquis de Choisy. The British quickly retreated after losing 50 men. On the 5th and 6th George Washington was almost ready to launch an all-out attack on the British, but they worked on trenches putting markings to led troops. The next day the British found a new trench that was just out of range of a musket, but in the next few days the Americans were placing artillery guns to weaken the British. Over the next few days America charged the British and forcing them to retreat. On the night of October the 14, George Washington took advantage of the moonless night to sneak up on the British and surprise attack them. Digging trenches on land and blocking the shore off with the French fleet. With George Washington and his 18,000 soldiers and its aile France, the fight against the world’s greatest empire began. With 3 weeks of continuous artillery day and night on Yorktown, Virginia Cornwallis threw up the white flag and surrendered to the Continental troops. Cornwallis and his 8,000 troops were trapped and surrounded with no source of back up or supplies but what they already had. On October 17, 1781, Cornwallis and his troops surrendered and ended the war. Although Cornwallis didn’t attend the surrender ceremony from him saying that he was ill, his troops and his second in command General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders.

Nutrition and Disease:

Even with the lack of nutrition on Cornwallis’ troops, an epidemic of malaria that on estimate that half of his men were unable to fight due to be being sick. The Continental Army wasn’t affected on the disease because most of the member of the army had grown up with the disease and became resistant it. The French troops didn’t start to get symptoms of malaria till after the war since the disease takes a month for the disease to start affecting a human.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-yorktown-begins

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/revolut/jb_revolut_yorktown_2.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown

http://www.historyisfun.org/learn/learning-center/colonial-america-american-revolution-learning-resources/american-revolution-essays-timelines-images/the-french-alliance/