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The American Revolution

casualties exceeded 500, or about a quarter of Cornwallis’s force. The army would never fully recover.

Victory at Yorktown Cornwallis gave up on controlling the Carolinas. He moved his army into Virginia and took command of other British forces operating there. Cornwallis eventually established a base of operations at Yorktown. Its location, on the York River near the Chesapeake Bay, would enable the army to be resupplied or evacuated by ship. In August 1781, George Washington received word that a French fleet was headed for Virginia. Washington and the French general Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau saw a chance to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown. On August 19, some 4,000 French and 3,000 Continental soldiers set off fromDobbs Ferry, New York. They arrived in the vicinity of Yorktown in late September. Joining thousands of American and French troops already there, they surrounded Yorktown. On September 5, a French fleet had defeated a British fleet near the mouth of the Chesapeake. With the bay under the control of the French navy, Cornwallis’s army couldn’t be reinforced or evacuated. In early October, French and American soldiers dug a trench around the perimeter of the redcoats’ lines. They built emplacements for the artillery. On October 9, siege guns roared to life. The big guns pounded the British positions relentlessly. On the night of October 14, American and French troops stormed two redoubts that formed the last significant part of the British outer defenses. Cornwallis surrendered five days later. More than 7,000 redcoats and Hessians were taken prisoner. Yorktown would be the last major battle of the war. Independence Secured When news of Cornwallis’s surrender reached London, support for the