After a series of reverses and the depletion of his forces’ strength, the British commander in the southern colonies, General Lord Cornwallis, moved his army from Wilmington, North Carolina, eastward to Petersburg, Virginia, on the Atlantic coast, in May 1781.
Cornwallis had about 7,500 men and was confronted in the region by only about 4,500 American troops under the marquis de Lafayette, General Anthony Wayne, and Frederick William, Freiherr (baron) von Steuben.
In order to maintain his seaborne lines of communication with the main British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City, Cornwallis then retreated through Virginia, first to Richmond, next to Williamsburg, and finally, near the end of July, to Yorktown and the adjacent promontory of Gloucester, both of which he proceeded to fortify.
The American commander in chief, General George Washington, ordered Lafayette to block Cornwallis’s possible escape from Yorktown by land.
In the meantime Washington’s 2,500 Continental troops in New York were joined by 4,000 French troops under the comte de Rochambeau.
This combined allied force left a screen of troops facing Clinton’s forces in New York while the main Franco-American force, beginning on August 21, undertook a rapid march southward to the head of Chesapeake Bay, where it linked up with a French fleet of 24 ships under the comte de Grasse. This fleet had arrived from the West Indies and was maintaining a sea blockade of Cornwallis’s army.
Cornwallis’s army waited in vain for rescue or reinforcements from the British navy while de Grasse’s fleet transported Washington’s troops southward to Williamsburg, Virginia, whence they joined Lafayette’s forces in the siege of Yorktown. Washington was thus vindicated in his hopes of entrapping Cornwallis on the Yorktown Peninsula.
Meanwhile, a smaller British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves was unable to counter French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes and felt forced to return to New York. A British rescue fleet, two-thirds the size of the French, set out for Virginia on October 17 with some 7,000 British troops, but it was too late.
Throughout early October Washington’s 14,000 Franco-American troops steadily overcame the British army’s fortified positions at Yorktown. Surrounded, outgunned, and running low on food, Cornwallis surrendered his entire army on October 19 (though, either ill – as he claimed – or simply humiliated, Cornwallis did not participate in the actual surrender, having delegated that task to Brig. Gen. Charles O’Hara).
The total number of British prisoners taken was about 8,000, along with about 240 guns. Casualties on both sides were relatively light. The victory at Yorktown ended fighting in the Revolution and virtually assured success to the American cause. (Britannica)
On October 19, 1781, the British and Hessian forces under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the French and American forces at Yorktown, Virginia.
The parties then entered into an agreement – Articles of Capitulation – that were the surrender of Cornwallis’s British army. The 14 articles directed the surrender from the disposition of the troops, artillery, and arms, to even the surrender ceremony itself.
The articles directed where the troops, now prisoners of war, were to be sent. The soldiers were marched off to camps in Frederick, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia. One field officer for every 50 men was allowed to reside near their respective regiments to witness their treatment and deliver clothing and other necessaries to the soldiers at the camps.
All other officers were paroled and allowed to go to Europe, New York, or any other American post then in possession of the British forces, on the condition they would no longer fight until properly exchanged.
Another article provided for the care of the sick and wounded prisoners. Proper hospitals would be furnished, with patients attended by their surgeons on parole. Medicine and supplies were to be provided by the American hospitals, the British stores in both York and Gloucester, and passports would be issued to procure further supplies from New York if necessary.
The third article referred to the surrender ceremony and contained the provision that deprived the British of the honors war. Customary honors allowed the surrendering troops to march out of their works with their regimental flags flying and playing an enemy’s tune in honor of the victor.
George Washington was not going to allow these honors, instead he stated, “The same honors will be granted to the surrendering army as granted to the garrison of Charlestown”.
In May, 1780, an American army was captured at Charleston, South Carolina and not given the honors of war, therefore, in retaliation, the British would not be granted them at Yorktown.
The troops, the article read, were to “…march out…with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums beating a British or German march. They are then to ground their arms and return to their encampment, where they will remain until they are dispatched to the places of their destination…”
By the afternoon of October 19th, 1781, both commanders had signed the Articles of Capitulation, and the defeated British army was marching out from Yorktown to lay down their arms, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution. (NPS)
Click the following link to a general summary about Yorktown – Articles of Capitulation:
