Yorktown: Victory at Last | 5-Minute Videos

After six long, bloody years, the American fight for freedom was at a crossroads. To end the Revolutionary War and bring King George to the negotiating table, the rebels needed a knockout punch. They got it at the Battle of Yorktown. Author Robert Orrison tells the story.

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Transcript:
Yorktown: Victory At Last
Presented by Robert Orrison

The Battle of Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary War, securing the independence Americans had sacrificed so much to win.

This time it was the rebels who had all the advantages: in soldiers, in cannon, and in naval power. Getting those pieces in place, was a combination of brilliant generalship, the deep pockets of a Philadelphia businessman, and mind-bending luck.

The brilliant generalship was displayed by two men: George Washington and his most trusted subordinate, Nathanael Greene. It was Greene’s daring strategy at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina in March of 1781 that set the stage for the decisive showdown at Yorktown seven months later.

Greene knew he would likely lose the North Carolina battle, but that was okay because he could sustain losses, whereas his opponent, British General Charles Cornwallis, isolated from his supply lines, could not.

Indeed, Cornwallis held the field, but at a price he couldn’t afford. Badly depleted, he moved his army to the port city of Yorktown, Virginia. There, he could rest his men and wait to be resupplied or evacuated by the British fleet.

This made perfect sense if the British controlled the waters in Chesapeake Bay. It made no sense if they didn’t.

Although the Americans had no navy to speak of, their ally, the French, did. Unfortunately, the French fleet was in the Caribbean. Washington sent desperate letters to the Admiral of that fleet, the Comte de Grasse. The American general had a single request: sail your ships to the Chesapeake Bay. If you do, we can trap Cornwallis, and maybe — just maybe — end this war.

Given the time it took for his letters to get to de Grasse and the time it took for de Grasse’s letters to get back to him, Washington waited for weeks in anxious agony for the admiral’s response. The wait was worth it: the Admiral would do as Washington requested.

Now Washington had a new problem. To preserve the element of surprise he had to make General Henry Clinton, the commander of British forces in New York City, believe that it was New York, not Yorktown, that he (Washington) was planning to attack.

To do this, Washington spread false rumors through his spy network and set up a dummy encampment across the Hudson River to suggest an action was imminent. Then, when his troops, and those belonging to his French counterpart, the Comte de Rochambeau, were ready, he marched them swiftly south, hoping Clinton wouldn’t notice. The ruse worked.

Washington’s first major stop was Philadelphia in August 1781. More problems — the greatest of which was that he had no money to pay his men. In fact, they hadn’t been paid in months, and they weren’t happy about it. Patriotism only goes so far. Giving them worthless paper “continentals” wasn’t an option. They demanded hard currency. That was a major reason Washington went to Philadelphia: to get money.

His pleas to the notoriously stingy Continental Congress, however, fell on deaf ears. The general despaired. To be this close to victory and throw it away because of a lack of funds? This might have been his own personal low point of the entire war.

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