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The Yorktown campaign, also known as the Virginia campaign, was a series of military maneuvers and battles during the American Revolutionary War that culminated in the siege of Yorktown in October 1781.
The Yorktown Campaign and the surrender of Cornwallis, 1781. New York, Harper & Brothers. Patton, Jacob Harris (1882). Yorktown: a compendious account of the campaign of the allied French and American forces, resulting in the surrender of Cornwallis and the close of the American revolution;. New York, Fords, Howard, & Hulbert.
The American forces that opposed Cornwallis at Yorktown also arrived in Virginia at different times, since most of the detachments were made in reaction to the British movements. After Arnold was sent to Virginia, General George Washington , the American commander-in-chief, in January 1781 sent the Marquis de Lafayette to Virginia with 900 men.
Cornwallis was given command of the army's light infantry in the campaign, which got underway when the army disembarked at Head of Elk (now Elkton, Maryland) on 25 August 1777. [29] Advance units of Cornwallis's division were involved in the Battle of Cooch's Bridge on 3 September, as the army began its march northward. [ 30 ]
Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown in October 1781 after an extended campaign through the Southern colonies, marked by disagreements between him and his superior, Sir Henry Clinton. Despite this defeat, Cornwallis retained the confidence of successive British governments and continued to enjoy an active career.
[40] Cornwallis's lack of provisions as a consequence played a role in his later difficulties. Portrait of General Nathanael Greene by John Trumbull. Greene first engaged Cornwallis in the Battle of Cowan's Ford, where Greene had sent General William Lee Davidson with 900 men. When Davidson was killed in the river, the Americans retreated.
The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis is an oil painting by John Trumbull. The painting, which was completed in 1820, now hangs in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The painting depicts the surrender of British Lieutenant General Charles, Earl Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia , on October 19, 1781, ending the siege of ...
The French success left them firmly in control of the Chesapeake Bay, completing the encirclement of Cornwallis. [47] In addition to capturing a number of smaller British vessels, de Grasse and Barras assigned their smaller vessels to assist in the transport of Washington's and Rochambeau's forces from Head of Elk to Yorktown. [48]