- 19.000 meters
(37.2308333,-76.5022222)
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The Siege of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisivevictory by a combined assault of French forces led by GeneralComte de Rochambeau and American forces led by General George Washington, over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. The surrender of Cornwallis's army caused the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the American Revolutionary War. Battle of YorktownAdmiral de Grasse sailed his French battlefleet of twenty-eight ships north toward Virginia. Simultaneously,on 21 August 1781, Washington began moving his army south. As theymarched south, Admiral de Grasse's fleet arrived at the ChesapeakeBay. De Grasse defeated AdmiralThomas Graves' fleet in theBattle of the Chesapeake, also known as the"Battle of the Capes", and won control of the bay thereby sealingits entrance and stranding Cornwallis from supply by sea. Thedefeat in Chesapeake Bay was the only major naval defeat sufferedby the Royal Navy of Great Britain in two hundred years of empirebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries. On September 28, 1781, Washington and Rochambeau, along withLafayette's troops and 3,000 of de Grasse's men, arrived at Yorktown. With them was the 2nd Canadian Regiment lead by Brigadier General Moses Hazen. In all, there were approximately 17,000 men converging on the camp established by Cornwallis. With the arrival of these troops, the stranded British forces in Yorktown were outnumbered by a two to one margin and they were then subjected to heavy fire as work began on a siege line. Offshore, the French fleet effectively blocked aid from Cornwallis while Washington made life unbearable for the British troops with three weeks of shelling. Cornwallis, realizing the scope of his predicament, managed tosend a message to Clinton in New York. Clinton promised that arelief expedition carrying 5,000 men would leave by the 5th ofOctober. Meanwhile, the British and Franco-American forces weredigging in and improving their respective earthworks. On October11, the allies started a second siege line only 400 yards away fromthe British forces. Three days later, the French and Americanscaptured two major Britishredoubts, the French taking redoubt 9 and theAmericans taking redoubt 10, completing the second siege line andthe close investment of the British garrison. While the allies were enveloping his position, Cornwallis hadfound out that the relief force from New York was going to be late.On October 16, a British attack, intended to silence a Frenchbattery, failed. The allied batteries, from their closer secondsiege line, were now firing directly into the British defensiveworks. That night, an attempted breakout across the York River toGloucester Point failed due to a severe storm. Cornwallis, whosearmy was running low on food and ammunition and still awaiting helpfrom Clinton, offered to surrender on October 17. On 19 October,the papers were signed and he officially surrendered. About 7,000British troops became prisoners of the American forces. The British signed theTreaty of Paris in September 1783 recognizingthe United States and promising to remove all British troops fromthe country. Operating Hours & SeasonsAll park grounds are closed at sunset. Yorktown Visitor Center:Opened daily 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed December 25 and NewYears Day.
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