This is about what the Allied forces saw when they arrived in Yorktown. This is taken from the position Cornwallis' troupes were fighting from.This is lookout #10 taken by Andrew Jackson (left side of picture).
This is the type of gun Washington brought from outside New York City on his 450 mile march to Yorktown. It fires a 3# ball 1000 yards with accuracy.
6/20 Wednesday Today found us visiting Yorktown although the heat and humidity was rather oppressive. Our living history lesson continued with so many recollections that now are falling in place, while others were either not part of our formal education or lacked emphasis and became lost over time.
Yorktown was the breaking point for Britain in the new America struggling to be independent of the rule of an English king with appointed governors here in the colonies to see over the day-to-day operations and compliance to the kings orders. These governors were living well because the colonists had to get licenses for everything and strangely, these licenses were all issued by the governor at a cost he kept in addition to what he was paid by the king and the supplies from England that were part of his compensation.
At one point, General Washington was sitting in New Jersey looking across the Hudson River at British troupes who controlled New York City. Washington wanted to attack these troupes but that would require the support of the French navy. When Washington was advised the French navy would not bring ships north of Virginia due to shallow waters. Washington snookered the commanders there into thinking that the colonists had more troupes arriving to attack New York City based on the British seeing and hearing about the addition of hundreds of new tents. The British leaders assumed each tent had the normal count of six men sleeping inside.
The French were now involved in the war supporting the colonists. They had the naval fleet that was so critical to any chance of the colonial forces being successful in this fight. England had the undisputed superior navy, but the old adage, “location, location, location” is apropos. Washington and the commander of the French navy, Captain Francois deGrasse, communicated and the commander advised he would not bring his ships north of Virginia due to the shallow areas around NYC. On the other hand, the depth in the Norfolk area of the Chesapeake and up into the James and York rivers was 90 plus feet as well as several miles wide. This would allow the French navy to fight English ships without fear of running aground or being trapped in a narrow area with no escape. Most of the British ships were in New York undergoing repairs from a battle with the French in which the French had damaged almost all of the British ships while only sustaining significant damage to one of theirs. The earlier naval battle in the Cape Henry area of Virginia was to keep the British ships from reaching Yorktown to supply the forces there.
Washington marched about 8,000 troupes from New Jersey to Yorktown to attack Cornwallis’ forces there. The French, mixed with fighters from other nations that joined them added another 8,000 to the number that would go up against Cornwallis. The commander of the British navy was to sail and bring 5000 troupes and supplies to Cornwallis, but the British commander in NYC failed to react when Washington marched his troupes south by land and the naval commander failed to sail his fleet out because a British dignitary visited NYC and time was lost conducting the appropriate pomp and circumstance associated with the visit of this high official. The commander did send a message to Cornwallis that they were coming, however he failed to say the fleet had not actually left. Cornwallis decided to hold Yorktown believing the navy would arrive at any moment, though he was fighting forces double the size of his and the colonists were adequately fed and had the supplies they need to fight. Local farmers were driving herds of cattle in to provide fresh meat for the 16,000 troupes.
It took Washington about five weeks to march his troupes 450 miles along with all his guns (field artillery) and supplies. When he arrived, he was greeted by almost ½ mile of cleared, flat land and Cornwallis behind high earth bunkers with his guns trained on this open area. The British were well prepared to fight having been in this area for quite awhile. In addition, Cornwallis’ selection of a battleground was great because he had water barriers on three sides. Washington moved his troupes beyond the range of Cornwallis’ guns and began to dig in. The first night Washington’s army made little progress digging their trenches, but on the second night it rained hard all night and by morning the British looked out and found Washington’s men within gun (cannon) range. Cornwallis did not have the same type of guns with the range as the guns Washington brought, so his firing on Washington’s troupes was more an annoyance than a major threat.
When the combined forces of Washington and the French began firing on Cornwallis, it continued around the clock for days. The pounding of guns tore down the earthen walls that had been created and disabled all but one of the British guns. Cornwallis did have two lookouts, raised and fortified bunkers that kept the colonial forces from moving up, so about 100 hand selected colonial soldiers attacked lookout #10 while a similar number of French soldiers attacked lookout #9. Ironically the leader of the colonial troupes against lookout #10 was Andrew Jackson who took the lookout in 10 minutes of fighting and became our 10th president and now has his likeness on our $10 bill.
Cornwallis received a message that the troupes and ships he was depending on had not left New York, so fighting against overwhelming troupe forces of the opposing armies was fruitless and surrender was his only option to save the men under his command. Of the 7,000 men he had, it is likely 25% were too ill to fight. Even at the time of the formal surrender ceremony, Cornwallis had to send his second in command to carry Cornwallis’ sword to the surrender ceremony because he was now to ill to leave his room. In those days the commander would surrender his sword to show the fight was over.
Fighting was full of rules, honor and a respect for the opponent that we can hardly imagine today. One thing Cornwallis demanded was recognition in the surrender ceremony stating his army fought bravely to the end. He did not get his demand and it turns out this affront was in retaliation for an earlier battle where the colonists were denied the same recognition. During the ceremony at Surrender Field, close to where the battle had taken place, the British brought their flag bound in a case and dropped it on the ground. Each soldier then had to walk past a point and drop his musket on the growing pile before being marched off to prison camps. In contrast to the plight of common soldier, the officers were not jailed, instead they promised not to leave the area until given approval to travel to a specific location. It is even reported that Washington and Cornwallis dined together a few nights after the surrender ceremony.
It is after the British soldiers were released from prison about two years later when all the surrender papers were finally signed in Paris, many of the soldiers remained in the new land and worked to become worthy members of their communities. Of course, others did return to England.
