Every Fourth of July I remember a battlefield I’ve walked across numerous times. My assignment after the 2003 Iraq invasion was instructing at the Joint Combined Warfighter School in Norfolk Virginia, teaching 350 U.S. and allied officers planning and execution. The 10-week course gave us an opportunity to learn from the best US military minds. The school’s location in Norfolk allowed opportunities to visit important military installations. Every class visited the US Coast Guard’s Training Center 30 minutes north of campus.
The last major land battle during the Revolutionary War
Turning right onto Ballard Street for the Coast Guard Training Center gate, we drove through a wide open field. Small earthwork hills passed off our right. At the field’s eastern edge, two long earthen berms rose above the grass. These two fortifications are a critical part of American history, this battlefield the last place British and American troops fought during the Revolutionary War. American and French allies fought side-by-side in the trenches. British and German troops occupied the small port of Yorktown Virginia. British General Charles Cornwallis’ army marched for Yorktown on July 4th, 1781. By October 17th, American and French forces defeated the British at Yorktown. Cornwallis’ surrender to General George Washington and French Generals Comte de Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette turned the world upside down.
Listen to me, and you shall hear, news hath not been this thousand-year:
Since Herod, Caesar, and many more, you never heard the like before.
Holy days are despised, new fashions are devised.
Old Christmas is kick’d out of town.
Yet let’s be content, and the times lament, you see the world turned upside down.
The siege of Yorktown
The world was at war in 1781, and the siege of Yorktown was an international venture. No one thought George Washington’s Continental Army could beat a military superpower. General Washington’s fortune changed when the French became our allies. General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau had forty years of battlefield experience, advising and never countermanding General Washington throughout the Yorktown battle. Cornwallis marched north from his Carolina’s campaign with orders from General Henry Clinton to defend the port at Yorktown. Cornwallis brought with him German Hessian troops, the mercenaries of the British army fighting against the Americans. Across York River Major Banastre Tarleton led a group of British cavalry at Gloucester Point, blocking American and French troops marching from the north. Cornwallis forces could be reinforced and provisioned from New York in Admiral Thomas Graves fleet of ships. If British and Hessian soldiers could hold Yorktown’s port, Cornwallis controlled the Chesapeake Bay all the way to Baltimore.
One if by land, two if by sea
Two events I feel changed the course at Yorktown, one by land, two by sea.
Cornwallis’ interior defensive line ended to his southeast at two massive earthen fortifications called Redoubts. Redoubt 9 and 10 held 200 British and Hessian troops. Conferring with Generals Rochambeau and Lafayette, Washington devised a plan to capture Redoubt 9 and 10. At 6:00 pm October 14th Washington ordered the Redoubts captured. Four hundred French soldiers attacked and captured Redoubt 9, led by General Wilhelm von Zweibrücken. Four hundred American troops led by Alexander Hamilton charged and captured Redoubt 10. Holding Redoubts 9 and 10 ended the land campaign. American artillery guns moved into the Redoubts on October 16th, firing directly on British forces spread throughout Yorktown. Desperately trying to save his forces, Cornwallis evacuated soldiers across the York River. One wave of boats made it before a squall cut off the escape route.
General Rochambeau had requested French Admiral de Grasse leave the Caribbean to sail north for Chesapeake with additional French troops, provisions, and 500,000 silver pesos to pay Washington’s Continental Army. British Admiral Thomas Graves Fleet arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on September 5th, only to find Admiral de Grasse 24 ships of the line anchored in the mouth of the Bay. Seeing Graves ships closing on the bay, Admiral de Grasse ordered all ship anchor lines cut and begin moving out towards Graves fleet. The two fleets engaged each other around 4:00 in the afternoon, the battle lasting two hours. Admiral Graves enjoyed a wind advantage for the first hour. By 5:00 wind direction changed and Admiral de Grasse maneuvered into better firing positions. With the sunset, Graves badly damaged fleet headed for New York. The battle was strategically decisive, preventing the Royal Navy from reinforcing or evacuating Cornwallis’ forces from Yorktown. The French achieved control of the sea lanes and provided the American army with artillery and reinforcement troops. Washington later acknowledged the importance of Admiral de Grasse role at Yorktown. He said, “You will have observed that, whatever efforts are made by the land army, the Navy must have the casting vote in the present contest.”
The British surrender
Articles of Capitulation were signed on October 19th, and Washington’s army walked into Yorktown at 2:00 pm. American forces captured 8000 British troops, 214 artillery pieces, thousands of muskets, and 24 transport ships. Cornwallis did not attend the surrender ceremony, citing an illness. General Washington moved his army north to New York where they remained until signing the Treaty of Paris on September 3rd, 1783 ending the war.
About the author: A member of the Valorous TV Advisory board, Mark Hasara is a military veteran and author. For twenty-four years he operated one of the Air Force’s oldest airplanes, the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. His career started during the Reagan Administration, carrying out Strategic Air Command’s nuclear deterrent mission. Moving to Okinawa Japan in August 1990, he flew missions throughout the Pacific Rim and Southeast Asia. His first combat missions were in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As a Duty Officer in the Tanker Airlift Control Center, he planned and ran five hundred airlift and air refueling missions a month. Upon retirement from the Air Force, Mark spent seven years at Rockwell Collins in engineering, designing and developing military fixed and rotary wing aircraft cockpits. Mark became a full-time author and defense industry consultant in 2014. Mark Hasara’s book, “Tanker Pilot” is available on Amazon other in other fine bookstores.