in 1781 Cornwallis marched from Wilmington to Petersburg, then to Portsmouth and finally to Yorktown
Source: Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection, Campaigns of the American Revolution, 1775-1781 (in Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923) and Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette: ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781
The French and American victory at Yorktown came after many defeats. The British army and navy captured New York in 1776, Philadelphia in 1777, Cavannah in 1779, and Charles Town (South Carolina) in 1780. The Continental Army led by George Washington managed to survive, but could not force the British to end the war without assistance from France.
In 1775-78, the Revolutionary War was fought primarily in the north between Quebec and Pennsylvania. The Americans failed to capture Quebec at the end of 1775, but did force the British to evacuate Boston in 1776. General William Howe organized his army at Halifax, and then with his brother Admiral Richard Howe captured New York City. They made it the primary British base for the rest of the war.
George Washington led the defeated Continental Army through New Jersey and across the Delaware River. At the end of 1776 he crossed the river and won victories at Trenton and Princeton that built morale, spurred recruitment for his army, and forced the British to evacuate New Jersey.
Washington spent the rest of the early 1777 winter at Morristown. Both sides waited until spring before choosing to engage in large battles, when there would be enough forage for horses to be able to pull wagons and artillery to a fight.
In October 1777, General Horatio Gates won a stunning victory at Saratoga, capturing the British Army led by General John Burgoyne that was marching south from Canada via the Hudson River in hopes of isolating Massachusetts from the other newly-independent states. The success at Saratoga led to France becoming an open ally of the United States of America.
Also in 1777, General Howe sailed an army from New York into the Chesapeake Bay, landing at the mouth of the Elk River. After he defeated George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia. Washington led his army to Valley Forge for the 1777-78 winter camp.
Some Continental Army officers compared the success of Horatio Gates at Saratoga to the failure of George Washington at Brandywine. Led by Brigadier General Thomas Conway, they hinted that the Continental Congress should replace the losing general with the winning one as commander-in-chief. Washington mobilized his support in the Continental Army and Congress, and the "Conway Cabal" collapsed.
The entry of France into the war forced a change in British strategy. The Continental Army had managed to survive, and public support for the rebellion continued despite British capture of the two largest cities in North America. Continuing the cat-and-mouse game with Washington and trying to win more military victories in the northern states would risk exposure to a French fleet capturing New York.
In 1778, Sir Henry Clinton replaced Lord Howe as British commander of land forces, and the British shifted their focus to the southern states. They abandoned Philadelphia and concentrated at New York. Offensive operations targeted Savannah first, capturing that Georgia city in December 1778. Georgia became the first state to be stripped away and returned to colonial status.
The first major combination of American and French forces was a siege to recapture Savannah in 1779. That effort failed.
The next year the British captured Charles Town. When General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered in May, 1780, the potential was clear for the British to energize Loyalists and retake all the southern states. The "southern strategy" was succeeding.
Sir Henry Clinton returned to New York, and left General Charles Cornwallis in Charleston to recapture the south. Col. Banastre Tarleton defeated the Virginians fleeing north at Waxhaws on on May 29, 1780. Lord Cornwallis overwhelmed newly-arrived Continental Army forces and local militia led by General Horatio Gates at Camden on August 16, 1780.
The British strategy brought several thousand "Redcoats" and Hessian soldiers to South Carolina. They could seize fortified locations and win fixed battles with Continental Army troops, but loyalists had to take control of the countryside and defeat isolated bands of partisans and militia.
That scenario failed after a loyalist army led by Patrick Ferguson was annihilated by American forces at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. Major Ferguson was the only non-American in that battle, reflecting how the American Revolution was a civil war.
After the victory at Kings Mountain by volunteers from west of the Blue Ridge, the Overmountain Men, Cornwallis retained the ability to take his army anywhere he wished to go in the Carolinas - but he was unable to control the territory after he left. Loyalists would welcome the arrival of the British troops, but would not join the fight in sufficient numbers. When the British army marched away, loyalists regained control of the Carolina territory. Recruitment of loyalists was not helped after Americans under General Daniel Morgan defeated Col. Banastre Tarleton's dragoons at the Cowpens on January 17, 1781.
After his victory at Camden, General Cornwallis chose to go north. He tried engage the next set of Continental troops led by General Nathaniel Greene. Greene engaged in a war of attrition against the British, avoiding major engagements but steadily reducing the size of Crnwallis' army. It was marching through the Piedmont, far from any port on the Atlantic Ocean where new supplies and men could be delivered.
In 1771 the two armies raced to the Dan River, which provided Morgan with an effective defense barrier. Cornwallis withdrew south to Guilford Courthouse, and Greene chose to re-cross the Dan River to fight a major battle. The British won a technical victory at Guilford Courthouse because they controlled the battlefield afterwards, but once again the size of the army was reduced. General Cornwallis was forced to march to the port at Wilmington in order to get more supplies. From Wilmington, Cornwallis led the British army north into Virginia. He joined another force, brought by General William Phillps and Benedict Arnold, at Petersburg.
Nathaniel Greene's army depended upon troops and supplies brought from Virginia, and Cornwallis moved into Virginia in order to interrupt the supply chain. He might not be able to catch Greene's mobile force, but he might seize his food and ammunition.
Benedict Arnold had arrived in the Chesapeake Bay at the end of 1780. He sailed up the James River and unloaded at Westover on January 4, 1781. He marched his British troops, loyalists in the Royal American Regiment (Robinson's Corps), and Hessians led by Captain Johann Ewald to Richmond. After the capture of Virginia's capital on January 5, Arnold's force went upstream to Westham where they destroyed cannons and gunpowder. There were no major civic buildings in the new capital, no capitol or governor's mansion to destroy. There were no significant officials to capture either; Governor Thomas Jefferson and the General Assembly fled west to Charlottesville.
Arnold did not follow; instead, he returned to Portsmouth on January 19, 1781. Two months later, General William Phillips arrived and took command. George Washington had hoped to partner with the French Navy, marching south from New York and trapping Arnold. The inability to coordinate a land attack with an adequate number of French ships, then the arrival of General Phillip's force, ended that plan.
Near the end of April, 1781, Phillips and Arnold moved upstream. They occupied Petersburg and then Manchester, just south of Richmond. Phillips was planning to return to Portsmouth when he received word that Cornwallis would march from Wilmington to Petersburg. Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg in May, getting there a week after Phillips died from disease. Benedict Arnold turned over the command and Cornwallis quickly sent him back to New York.
After the battle at Guilford Courthouse, General Nathaniel Greene did not follow the British army to Wilmington. He let Cornwallis march largely uninterrupted. Greene chose to return to South Carolina and capture isolated British outposts west of Charles Town, ensuring loyalists would not be able to retain control of the colony.
To block Greene from receiving supplies, Cornwallis marched north into Virginia to the North Anna River.
Wherever the British army camped, the nearby countryside was stripped of livestock and supplies. Enslaved workers joined Cornwallis's force, and they knew which barns and fields were the most valuable. The British cavalry could raid unimpeded and apppear without warning because Lafayette had very few men on horses.
Feeding the army and its many followers created a trail of devastation, but there were no significant fights. The Virginia militia avoided battle. The Marquis de Lafayette, with units of the Continental Army, avoided any major engagement even after being reinforced by troops led by General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Lafayette harassed marching units and captured isolated stragglers, but lacked the ability to defeat the larger and better-equipped British army.
Cornwallis's raid into the Piedmont was the first major British invasion west of the Fall Line, but his activities did not provide the British any substantial military benefits. In the Carolinas, Greene had enough men and supplies. With support from irregular groups such as Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," Greene marched through the Carolinas in 1781 with as much freedom as Cornwallis marched through Virginia.
At the North Anna River, Cornwallis stopped moving north. He passed on the opportunity to seize Fredericksburg and instead dispatched two forces to the west. He sent one detachment to Charlottesville to capture political leaders and one to Point of Fork to capture supplies.
Cornwallis marched through Virginia's Piedmont before planning to camp at Portsmouth, and then going to Yorktown
Source: Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library , MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at Petersburg on the 20.th of May, til their arrival at Portsmouth on the 12.th of July 1781
Jack Jouette completed a dramatic ride at night to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the General Assembly members who had fled from Richmond to Charlottesville. Nearly all legislators crossed the Blue Ridge to Staunton; Jefferson fled south to his Bedford Forest plantation near Lynchburg. Cornwallis caught a few rebel officials, but no major leaders.
The detachment led by Colonel John Simcoe to Point of Fork was successful in capturing supplies at the abandoned Point of Fork Arsenal. General Friedrich von Steuben fled with about 500 recruits for the Continental Army. They retreated south of the James River. (Upstream of the confluence with the Rivanna River at Point of Fork, the James River was called the Fluvanna River then.) Though most of the military supplies were destroyed, the more-important soldiers were able to join up with General Nathaniel Green later.
Simcoe's British force captured supplies at Point of Fork, but von Steuben's Continental Army recruits ended up traveling south to reinforce General Nathaniel Greene
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major Général M'is de LaFayette (by Capitaine Michel du Chesnoy, 1781)
Marching through Virginia in 1781, Cornwallis succeeded in wreaking havoc and seizing what both the British and Virginians considered to be private property - enslaved workers. His march was similar to that of General Sherman marching through Georgia in 1865 near the end of the American Civil War.
However, Cornwallis' military objective in Virginia in 1781 was to disrupt the supply chain to the southern units of the Continental Army. He failed to achieve that.
The British army reassembled at Governor Jefferson's Elkhill plantation in Goohland County. By then, there was no reason to stay west of Richmond. Cornwallis turned east and continued gather up enslaved men and women and plunder plantations, as he marched to Portsmouth where the British Navy could bring reinforcements.
When the British crossed the James River on the way to Portsmouth, Lafayette attacked what he thought was an isolated British rear guard at Green Springs near Williamsburg. Lafayette fell into a trap, and the Continental Army barely avoided a significant defeat. In mid-July, the British reached the fortifications at Portsmouth which Benedict Arnold had completed.
Cornwallis plundered Jefferson's plantation at Elkhill, but that damage had no military benefit
Source: Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library , MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at Petersburg on the 20.th of May, til their arrival at Portsmouth on the 12.th of July 1781
Cornwallis received orders from Gen. Henry Clinton to establish a defensive base in Virginia. Clinton suggested Old Point Comfort, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown. Old Port Comfort lacked fresh water and Williamsburg was inland of both the James and York rivers.
Cornwallis chose to create a fortified camp at Yorktown, where the shipping channel was deep and easier to defend than the narrow Elizabeth River at Portsmouth. The first British occupied Yorktown and Tyndalls Point/Gloucester Point on August 1-2, 1781. To prevent Virginia or French ships from sailing past Yorktown into the York River and to protect his northern flank, Cornwallis stationed Banastre Tarleton's Legion at Gloucester.
The last British forces left Portsmouth on August 18. The British assembled 6,000 British and German soldiers, plus sailors and Loyalists, at Yorktown and Gloucester.
Lord Cornwallis prepared trenches and redoubts around Yorktown for temporary defense, in anticipation of reinforcements from New York City
Source: University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Position of the troops under Earl Cornwallis on the 28 and 29th September 1781; when the enemy first appeared
On August 14, the French forces in New York received word that the French fleet in the Caribbean would sail north and would provide naval support until the middle of October. George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau quickly decided to abandon their unrealistic plans to attack the British in New York and chose to march to Virginia in an attempt to capture Cornwallis's army.
That option was feasible only if the French ships could prevent Cornwallis from being supplied or evacuated. A large French fleet was the essential component that had been missing in the earlier plan to capture Benedict Arnold at Portsmouth. The British fleet in the Caribbean, under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, sent some of its ships to chase after the Comte de Grasse. Those British ships were unaware of the French-American plans.
The American and French armies had marched to Philadelphia before Clinton realized that the combined forces would attack Yorktown. The powerful French fleet from the Caribbean led by Rear Admiral the Comte de Grasse arrived at the Chesapeake Bay at the end of August, almost a month after Cornwallis had established his new base in anticipation of receiving supplies and men.
Cornwallis had only a few ships at Yorktown, and the French fleet was able to ferry troops onshore south of Williamsburg without disturbance. That reinforced the Continental Army force led by the Marquis de Lafayette before the arrival of troops marching with Washington and Rochambeau.
Other French ships commanded by Admiral the Comte de Barras sailed from Newport, Rhode Island. They brought the heavy artillery required for a long siege, assuming Cornwallis could be trapped at Yorktown. The artillery had been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from France.
Admiral Hood saw none of the the Comte de Grasse's warships when he reached the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The British fleet was in the Atlantic Ocean, while the French ships were inside Chesapeake Bay and obscured by land.
With no French warships to fight, Hood sailed north to New York to join the British fleet there. Admiral Thomas Graves there added five ships to the fourteen brought by Hood, and the expanded British fleet sailed south. Graves planned to take firm control of the Chesapeake Bay and ensure supplies could flow to Cornwallis.
the presence of French fleets in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean were key to the British defeat in the land battle at Yorktown
Source: Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, A plan of the entrance of Chesapeak Bay, with James and York rivers... (1781)
the victory at Yorktown 40 miles inland was determined by the French fleet at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay
Source: Library of Congress, Carte de la partie de la Virginie ou l'armée combinée de France & des États-Unis de l'Amérique... (Esnauts Et Rapilly, 1781)
filling half of an image with the French fleet highlighted their role
Source: Brown University Library, Reddition de l'Armée Angloises commandé par Mylord Comte de Cornwallis aux Armées combinées des Etats Unis de l'Amerique et de France
The British and French fleets finally discovered each other and fought the Battle of the Chesapeake Capes on September 5, 1781. The smaller British fleet was unable to break through the French line, while had sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean. At the end of the day, unable to gain control of the bay, Admiral Graves chose to return to New York. When the British fleet left, Cornwallis had not received his expected reinforcements. He was greatly outnumbered when Washington and Rochambeau arrived.
British ships were trapped at Yorktown and Gloucester Point
Source: Royal Collection Trust, This Plan of the investment / of York and Gloucester (by Sebastian Bauman, 1782)
Washington and Rochambeau assembled their 16,000 men and initiated a classic European siege on September 28. North of the York River, Banastre Tarleton's cavalry was defeated in the October 3 Battle of the Hook and forced back inside his fortifications at Gloucester Point. That battle revealed that Tarleton was trapped, unable to escape to the north. The defeat also cut off access to forage needed to feed the horses, and the British cavalry began to kill them.
Col. Banastre Tarleton's cavalry could not break through the siege lines at Gloucester Point on October 3, 1781
Source: British Library, French Plan of York Town Virginia (1781)
the British were protected by their fortifications at Gloucester, but could not break through the American/French lines
Source: Library of Congress, Plan d'York en Virginie avec les attaques faites par les Armées françoise et américaine en 8bre. (Querenet de La Combe, 1781)
The siege against Cornwallis involved constructing two series of trenches to place cannon placed closer and closer to blast away at the British fortifications. The heavy artiller fire destroyed the British cannon, gradually eliminating the ability to withstand a frontal attack on the British lines. French and American troops captured the last two British outposts in front of their trenches, Redoubts No. 9 and 10, on October 14.
Cornwallis tried to escape the siege on the night of October 16-17. He started to have his ships ferry the British forces across the York River to Gloucester, planning to march north up the Middle Peninsula. A brief storm with the power of a hurricane or derecho interrupted the transport of troops across the river. Cornwallis cancelled the escape attempt, knowing that he had only one remaining option.
Banastre Tarleton fortified Gloucester, and Cornwallis planned to break through the French/American lines so the British could escape north via the Middle Peninsula
Source: University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Plan du siége d'York par l'armée combinée commandée par les generaux Washington et Cte. de Rochambeau
the siege of the French and American armies involved building two line of trenches parallel to the British fortifications, providing protection for the cannon that bombarded Cornwallis' force
Source: University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Position of the troops under Earl Cornwallis on the 28 and 29th September 1781; when the enemy first appeared and Carte des environs de York en Virginie avec les attaques et la position des armées Françoise et Américaine, devant cette place 1781
On October 17, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered after nearly three weeks of resistance. The official surrender ceremony was held on October 19.1
French and American forces seized British redouts in hand-to-hand fighting
Source: Library of Congress, Prise de Yorktown = The taking of Yorktown (by Vve. Turgis, c.1840)
Modern archeologists using scuba gear to dive underwater have explored the British transport Betsy, one of 40 British ships that were sunk by French/American cannon fire or deliberately scuttled by Cornwallis' forces. In 2020, more underwater research on "Wreck 11" retrieved artifacts from what may have been the transport Shipwright. It was one of two transports which collided with HMS Charon before all three ships caught fire and sank.2
Washington had to arrange for the disposition of over 7,000 prisoners, including Loyalists captured with the British and German troops. They were marched to Fairfax Court House, after which one group was sent to Winchester and another group to Fort Frederick in Maryland. The Articles of Capitulation specified:3
One group not protected by the Articles of Capitulation were the enslaved men and women who had fled their homes to seek freedom with Cornwallis's army. The British soldiers had encouraged the enslaved people to run away. The loss of slave "property" punished the rebellious Americans, increased the damage caused by the traveling army, and reduced the capacity of Virginians to engage in war.
By the time he reached Yorktown, Cornwallis had about 4,000 former slaves marching with his army of 7,000 men. So long as the army could "feed off the land" by seizing cattle, pigs, corn and other supplies from Virginia farms, the logistics of supporting the large number of runaways was not a problem. All officers and non-commissioned officers ended up accumulating servants, and:4
As the siege of Yorktown tightened, the British ran low on supplies. Cornwallis ordered that many of the enslaved people had to be expelled from his camp. Those unable to find British officers to protect them were forced to seek shelter in nearby woods, and some ended up in the dangerous no-man's land between the lines.
After the British surrender, freedom was lost. George Washington ordered the runaways to be rounded up and returned to their masters. Many suffered from smallpox; those who survived often carried smallpox back home. A side effect of the American victory was more economic damage to Virginia plantations.5
The French army spent the winter of 1781-82 at Yorktown, then marched to Boston between July-December in 1782.
French troops camped at Colchester in Fairfax County when marching back to Boston in 1782
Source: Library of Congress, Amérique campagne - Camp a Colchester (Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 1782)
French ships and troops were essential to the "American" victory at Yorktown
Source: Library of Congress, A Plan of the entrance of Chesapeak Bay, with James and York rivers (by William Faden, 1781)
French and Virginia troops built trenches, in order to bring firepower close to the British fortifications
Source: National Park Service, Men Digging (painting by Sidney E. King)
to minimize the threat from British guns, most of the trenches were constructed at night
Source: National Park Service, The Siege At Night (painting by Sidney E. King)
the French provided the key to victory with ships, artillery, and troops, but allowed George Washington primacy in command
Source: National Park Service, Washington's Headquarters (painting by Sidney E. King)
without French equipment and ammunition, the British could have outlasted an American siege of Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, French Artillery Park (painting by Sidney E. King)
the Moore House, site of the negotiations for Cornwallis' surrender in 1871, after General McClellan moved up the Peninsula in 1862
Source: Alexander Gardner, Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War
in 1862, Union troops captured a redoubt built by Confederates on the old Yorktown battlefield
Source: Archive.org, Frank Leslie's illustrated history of the Civil War (p.151)
gabions were constructed in the 1930's to rebuild fortifications at Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, NPS History Collection - Colonial National Historical Park
French and American siege lines were constructed on the southern side of Yorktown
Source: British Library, French Plan of York Town Virginia (1781)
George Washington's headquarters was southwest of Yorktown, behind the French and American artillery parks
Source: Library of Congress, Atlas of the battles of the American Revolution, together with maps shewing the routes of the British and American Armies, plans of cities, surveys of harbors, &c., (William Faden, 1845)