10/19/2026
On This Date--The British Surrender at Yorktown
French and American soldiers laid siege to Yorktown in late September, building trenches and redoubts to surround the British army. As the Americans drew closer and closer to Lord Cornwallis’s men, the British attempted to disrupt them, but were unable to stop the advancing forces. On October 9, George Washington lit the first cannon, starting a constant barrage of artillery fire on Yorktown that lasted five days.
October 14 was a moonless night, and Lt. Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Lt. Colonel John Laurens led their forces silently towards the British. A diversionary attack was happening simultaneously in town to occupy the British. Hamilton and Laurens ordered their men to leave their guns unloaded, in case a stray gunshot went off and gave away their operation. To identify each other in the dark, the men were to use the code word ‘Rochambeau,’ the name of one of the French military leaders. The plan worked. The Americans surprised the British, climbing over the fortifications to begin hand to hand combat. The next day, in a last ditch effort, Cornwallis ordered a counterattack, but with forces severely weakened from the day before, Yorktown fell.
In the early morning of October 17, a drummer boy and a British officer climbed to a parapet and waved a white flag in surrender. The British officer was blindfolded and brought behind American lines, where he negotiated the terms of surrender. Two days later, the British marched sullenly through the American and French armies after having not been given an honorable surrender. Washington’s treated them exactly as they had treated the American forces after the loss at Charleston. Finally, the Revolutionary War is officially over.
