Table of Contents
General Clinton, in a confusing series of orders, ordered Cornwallis first to Portsmouth and then Yorktown, where he was instructed to build fortifications for a deep water port. On July 6, the French and American armies met at White Plains, north of New York City.
Where does the British General Cornwallis find himself trapped?
Early on the morning of October 17, 1781, Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, found himself hunkered down in a cave near the southern shoreline of the York River. Above him was the disintegrating hamlet of Yorktown, Virginia, now being systematically bombarded into rubble by American and French cannon fire.
How did Cornwallis and his British army get trapped?
After pursuing the Continental forces across New Jersey throughout November and December, Cornwallis and the British were caught off guard by Washington’s surprise attack on Hessian troops at Trenton on Christmas Eve and another American victory at Princeton in early January 1777.
Cornwallis lost a quarter of his army in the battle, leading him to abandon the backcountry of the Carolinas and move his army to Wilmington on the North Carolina coast to resupply and rest his troops.
Why did Cornwallis get trapped at Yorktown?
Washington changed his strategy to make Clinton think he was planning to attack him, while instead sneaking away to the south to trap Cornwallis. Cornwallis was in Yorktown because he had been ordered by Clinton during the summer to provide a protected harbor for the British fleet in the lower Chesapeake Bay.
How did Washington trap Cornwallis at Yorktown?
Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the American Revolution. General George Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land.
Who took Cornwallis sword?
The Sword of Surrender Greene writes simply that O’Hara extended Cornwallis’s sword and, Washington took the sword, symbolically held it a moment, and then returned it to O’Hara.
Who was the French general who blocked Cornwallis escape?
General George Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men under the Count de Rochambeau.
Where did General Cornwallis surrender to the Americans?
General Cornwallis surrenders his British Army to American forces outside Yorktown. Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.
What did Lord Cornwallis do in the Revolutionary War?
Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the American Revolution. In 1776, he drove General George Washington’s Patriots forces out of New Jersey, and in 1780 he won a stunning victory over General Horatio Gates’ Patriot army at Camden, South Carolina.
How did Washington get rid of General Cornwallis?
However, when they received word that Cornwallis was moving north they changed their strategy. Washington brought a combined French and American army to Virginia, while a French fleet moved off the coast-driving off a British fleet and cutting Cornwallis off from any hope of resupply.