Siege of Yorktown

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John Trumbull: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

Siege of Yorktown, oil on canvas by Louis-Charles-Auguste Couder, c. 1836. The painting depicts George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau giving orders during the siege.

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Siege of Yorktown

United States history

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John Trumbull: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

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Category: History & Society

Date:: September 28, 1781 - October 19, 1781

Location:: United States; Virginia; Yorktown

Participants:: France; United Kingdom; United States

Context:: American Revolution

Key People:: Sir Henry Clinton; Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis; Henry Knox; Marquis de Lafayette; Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau

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Siege of Yorktown, (September 28–October 19, 1781), joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender. The siege virtually ended military operations in the American Revolution. 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 ...(100 of 473 words)

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