Most Happily Effected

By the summer of 1781 the war was six years old, and the Continental Army was short of money, food and men. Then Washington got the chance he had waited for. Lord Cornwallis had dug in at Yorktown, Virginia, with his back to the water, and a French fleet was sailing to close the sea behind him. Washington had to get there first.

1. 19 August 1781 · Hudson River

   The march south

   On 14 August Washington learns that the Comte de Grasse is sailing for the Chesapeake with 28 ships of the line and 3,200 troops, and can stay only a short time. Washington drops his plan to attack New York. Leaving fewer than 4,000 men to hold the Hudson, he starts south with Rochambeau’s French on 19 August. To fool the British in New York, he builds big camps and bread ovens and lets false orders fall into their hands.

2. 5 September · Chester, Pennsylvania

   Hat in hand

   The army parades through Philadelphia and keeps marching. Few men in either army know where it is going. At Chester a courier rides up with the news Washington has waited all summer for: de Grasse is in the Chesapeake, and his troops are already landing to join Lafayette. When Rochambeau’s boat comes down the Delaware, the French officers see Washington on the riverbank waving his hat and handkerchief. He greets Rochambeau with an embrace.

3. 5 September · Off the Virginia Capes

   The Battle of the Capes

   That afternoon, 19 British ships of the line under Admiral Thomas Graves find de Grasse’s 24 at the mouth of the bay. They open fire at about 16:00 and fight until dark. The British lose 90 killed and 246 wounded, and the battered Terrible has to be scuttled. Graves cannot get past. A French squadron from Newport slips into the bay with the siege guns, and on 14 September Graves turns for New York. Cornwallis is sealed in.

4. 14–28 September · Williamsburg

   Within a mile

   On the way south Washington stops at Mount Vernon, his first time home in six years. On 14 September he rides into Williamsburg and takes command. His troops come down the bay by ship. By the 27th he has about 5,200 Continentals, 7,500 French and more than 3,000 Virginia militia. At 05:00 on 28 September the army marches on Yorktown. By nightfall it is within a mile of the British works, and the men sleep on their arms.

5. 6–11 October · The siege lines

   The first gun

   After dark on 6 October, in a gentle rain, 1,500 men dig along a line of pine strips laid out by the engineers. By morning they have a trench about 600 yards from the British works. On 9 October the guns are ready. The French open at 15:00. At 17:00 Henry Knox’s American battery opens, and Washington fires the first American gun. Within two days the British guns barely answer. On the 11th the allies dig a second trench, 300 yards out.

6. 14 October · About 20:00

   With the bayonet only

   Two British forts, Redoubts 9 and 10, block the new trench from the river. Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton claims the command against No. 10. At a signal of six shells, 400 light infantry move out with unloaded muskets while John Laurens takes 80 men around the rear. They do not wait for the axemen. They climb over the abatis and into the fort without firing a shot. In under ten minutes Redoubt 10 is American. The French take No. 9 alongside them.

7. 16–17 October · Yorktown

   The breakout fails

   Before dawn on the 16th, 350 British troops raid the new trench and spike six guns with snapped-off bayonet points. They are driven out, and the guns fire again within hours. That night Cornwallis starts ferrying his army across the river to Gloucester Point to break out north. At midnight a violent storm scatters the boats. On the morning of the 17th, four years to the day after Saratoga, a drummer in red climbs the British parapet and beats a parley.

   Cornwallis to Washington, 17 OctoberI propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty four hours, and that two officers may be appointed by each side, to meet at Mr. Moore’s house, to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.
8. 19 October · 14:00

   Colors cased

   The surrender is signed that morning. At 14:00 the garrison marches out between allied lines more than a mile long, Americans on one side and French on the other, colors cased and drums beating a British march. These are the terms the British gave the Americans at Charleston. Cornwallis stays in his quarters, pleading illness. General O’Hara tries to surrender to Rochambeau, who sends him to Washington. Washington points him to Benjamin Lincoln, who takes the sword and hands it back.

   

9. 24 October · Philadelphia

   The news reaches Congress

   Washington picks his longest-serving aide, Lt. Col. Tench Tilghman, to carry his report. Tilghman leaves on 20 October, sick with fever. He crosses the Chesapeake by boat, lands in Maryland and rides north through the night. Before dawn on 24 October he reaches Philadelphia and wakes Thomas McKean, the President of Congress. At 14:00 that day the members of Congress walk in procession to the Dutch Lutheran church to give thanks.

   Washington to Congress, 19 OctoberI have the Honor to inform Congress, that a Reduction of the British Army under the Command of Lord Cornwallis, is most happily effected.