The Final Battle -Yorktown
jueves, 7 de abril de 2011
The fight between the British and the colonists grew fiercer as time pass by. Battles were won in both sides. Many English and Americans lost their lives. Eight years of war were hard on both sides. It was particularly hard on the British. They were not on their own home. This was a strange land for them.
Sir William Howe resigned as commander of the British troops in the colonies. He was tired of the criticism he was receiving for his leadership. General Henry Clinton replaced him. Clinton believed he would be able to inflict a final defeat on the colonists by moving his troops to the South. He thought he would find more colonists loyal to the British. If he were to take control of the southern colonies, he would be able to crush an entire war. He appointed Lord Charles Cornwallis to lead his troops in the southern colonies. He remained in New York with a small force and put the rest of the British soldiers aboard ships sailing to Georgia.
Lord Cornwallis and his troops first took over Savannah, Georgia. He declared all of Georgia to be in British hands. Then they headed to Camden, South Carolina. It was an intense battle, but the British won. Believing that the war was finally going in their favor the British marched to Virginia. They made camp in Yorktown. Yorktown was on the York River near the very important Chesapeake Bay. General Clinton promise to send more troops by ship to meet them there.
While Cornwallis was fighting his way back north, General George Washington was making plans with his French allies. General Rochambeau and Washington discuss the possibility of attacking New York. They decide that that would be a wise move at the time. During their discussion they got word of Lord Lafayette that made their decision easier. Lafayette told them that other French officer, Admiral de Grasse, was sailing from the West Indies to the Chesapeake Bay with a fleet of 28 ships. A plan to attack to stop the British in their tracks was soon created.
Admiral de Grasse was told to take his fleet and position them in Chesapeake Bay mouth of the York River. From this point they would be able to keep new British troops from joining Cornwallis. It would also keep Cornwallis from leaving the area by ship. In the meantime, Washington, Rochambeau, and a combined French and American force of over 14,000 men marched toward Yorktown. When they got there, they formed a semi-circle around Yorktown. On October 14, 1781, the British troops awoke to the sight of revolutionary forces surrounding them. Cornwallis tried everything he could think of to get out of the situation. He even sent soldiers infected with small pox from his camp into the lines of colonial soldiers. He tried to escape by taking his soldiers by boat across the York River, but a storm put a stop to his attempt.
On October 17, Cornwallis sent a drummer boy and a soldier with a white flag to Washington to offer to surrender. On October 19, the official papers of surrender were signed.
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