when did the battle of yorktown begin?

Question

please tell me when, why, where and what happend?

please describe it!!!

Answer 1

(Sept. 28-Oct. 19, 1781), joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Va., and forced its surrender. The siege virtually ended military operations in the U.S. War of Independence.

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, N.C., eastward to Petersburg, Va., 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 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' 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 Count 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 Count de Grasse. This fleet had arrived from the West Indies and was maintaining a sea blockade of Cornwallis' army. Cornwallis' army waited in vain for rescue or reinforcements from the British navy while de Grasse's fleet transported Washington's troops southward to Williamsburg, Va., 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 (see Virginia Capes, Battle of) 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. 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 War of Independence and virtually assured success to the American cause.

Answer 2

October 17,1781
Yorktown, Virginia

General Cornwallis came to Yorktown to try to make a decisive blow to the continental army under Washington . He was trying to make the colonials sue for peace. But Cornwallis trapped himself along the shoreline and with the French fleet battling the British in the harbor gave Cornwallis no means of escape. He surrendered to Washington and when the Treaty of Paris in 1783 made the surrender complete.

Answer 3

battle yorktown

Answer 4

It was fought April 5th-May 4th,1862 in York County and Newport News. It's really too much to write. See reference below.

Answer 5

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RE:
when did the battle of yorktown begin?
please tell me when, why, where and what happend?

please describe it!!!