[patriotic fife and drum music] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ [musket fire popping] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ Dr.

Lumpkin> The war now moves to its climactic phase, here at Yorktown, Virginia... where Cornwallis, trapped- hopelessly trapped- with a remnant of his very gallant little army, was to stand the siege of a superior force of French and Americans, Continentals, and militia from the Virginia Counties.

The war now moves to a climactic phase.

The war is about to be finished in North America.

Now let us go to Yorktown.

♪ ♪ The American and French armies held a clear advantage over the British in numbers.

Besides the big French fleet, there were 7,800 French troops engaged and 8,845 Americans, including 3,200 Virginia militia, the largest contribution to the war ever made by that state.

This meant, of course, that there were more French regulars at Yorktown than there were American regulars.

A fact people are inclined to forget.

Lord Cornwallis' total effective force was over 7,000.

He also could mount 65 guns.

But most of these were light fieldpieces, essential to a marching army in open-field fighting but not very useful for counterbattery fire in a siege.

The only heavy artillery were the 18-pounder naval guns taken off the frigate "Charon," which had taken refuge up the river with the sloop of war "Guadeloupe" and other, lighter naval units when Admiral de Grasse occupied the bay.

Across the river at Gloucester, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton commanded the British defenses with cavalry and mounted infantry, plus some supporting infantry troops.

Gloucester, would be the escape route to the north if escape were necessary or became possible.

The siege began on September 29th when the Americans moved into camp on the British left and the French on the British right, with the lines extending from Wormeley Creek to the York River above Gloucester Point.

To the astonishment of both armies, an early-morning reconnaissance on September the 30th discovered that Lord Cornwallis had evacuated his outer line of defenses except for the two advanced redoubts on his left.

This move has been strongly criticized by both British and American officers on tactical grounds, but Lord Cornwallis felt that he had excellent reasons for the decision.

A message had come through the allied blockade, bringing assurances that Sir Henry Clinton would send a powerful relief force from New York on or about October the 5th.

With the comparatively limited forces under his command, Lord Cornwallis believed that he could prolong the siege by contracting his lines until help arrived.

He certainly could prevent an allied turning movement around his left... at Wormeley Creek.

The Americans and French now pushed the siege forward vigorously.

The abandoned British works were occupied and ground broken for the allied works on the evening of September 30th.

Across the river at Gloucester, the Duc de Lauzun was given the task of watching and containing Banastre Tarleton.

And there the first battle action took place.

On the 3rd of October, a strong British foraging party, led out by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas at daybreak, was returning to Gloucester with wagons and packhorses loaded with Indian corn.

About 10 in the morning, the rear guard, composed of dragoons, set an ambush for some American militia horse who were following the column closely.

The Americans fell back, and the British wagons, with an infantry escort, almost had reached the river and safety when a Lieutenant Cameron, who'd been sent with the patrol to the rear, reported that the enemy were advancing in force.

A column of dust and some French hussars soon afterwards could be seen.

Part of Banastre Tarleton's legion, a detachment of the 17th Dragoons, and some of John Simcoe's dragoons were ordered to face about in the woods.

Tarleton, meanwhile, had ridden back with Cameron's party to reconnoiter the approaching French.

At this point, Brigadier General de Choisy moved down the road with supporting cavalry and infantry where Tarleton and his dragoons were skirmishing with the French hussars and lancers, the latter called hu-lons, or uhlans.

A British cavalry soldier's horse was penetrated by a French lance.

It reared and careened against Tarleton's horse, and Tarleton's horse was thrown to the ground with the rider.

The British cavalry rear guard, which had formed in the woods, now charged to save their leader's life.

They met a cavalry just as tough as they were and could not force back the hussars.

Banastre Tarleton, who'd found another horse in the melee, remounted and ordered a retreat.

This is the last engagement in the American war for Banastre Tarleton, a somewhat ironic end to a bloody and dashing battle record.

Work began on six redoubts and batteries in the first parallel, over here... and continued without interference by any sally from the British lines, any attack.

The French completed their battery on the afternoon of the 6th, and by the morning of the 9th, the Americans began moving the artillery into the batteries.

And by noon of the same day, the mortars on the allied extreme right were in readiness, very elegant, on carriages which General Henry Knox, the American artillery expert, had invented.

[mortar fire whistling] The French were given the honor of beginning the bombardment, and at 3:00 p.m.

of October the 9th, fire commenced on the British positions, right behind us here and all the way around, and the advance redoubt over here to our right, my right.

Brigadier General de Choisy, watching Tarleton in Gloucester, discovered a British force on six flatboats, which were trying to get across his right, or get around, his right flank.

With Marquis de Saint Simon's gunners from across the river aiding his field guns, the British were forced to return to Gloucester Point.

British morale was beginning to falter.

Lord Cornwallis still felt, however, that he could hold the town until help came from General Sir Henry Clinton in New York.

[mortar fire booming] By the 11th of October, allied guns continued their increasingly aggressive cannonade on the British lines, while British fire noticeably slackened.

Also, the embrasures on Cornwallis' line clearly had received serious damage, as had the parapets.

And during that night, the Marquis de Saint Simon's battery on the allied left... turned its guns on the two frigates that seemed to be maneuvering in a suspicious manner, maneuver over here on the river, by the British lines.

The "Guadeloupe," the frigate "Guadeloupe" got safely behind the point of land.

But "Charon" was set on fire and soon was aflame from waterline to truck.

[mortar fire booming] The other, smaller British naval units tried to warp their way to safety.

Several caught fire from the French red-hot shot.

And by morning, four or five more vessels had been lost to the British.

You must not forget that the French artillerists were highly professionals.

Two more French batteries of three 24-pounders each went into action on the 11th.

An allied command council determined a second, closer parallel must be begun at once.

Now, this is standard 18th-century practice.

You move from your first parallel to your second, driving zigzag saps up to it, from your second, if possible, to your third.

From the third, you put riflemen in- jaegers in the British case, American rifles in our case- and maintain a heavy, accurate fire, close-range fire, on the lines before the final assault, assault with the bayonet.

There were, however, the two strongly entrenched, advanced British redoubts on the British extreme left... and, thus, the allied extreme right, our extreme right, over here.

If a second parallel were to be completed, these redoubts, this redoubt right here, had to be taken by direct assault.

The French and American engineers' answer was to extend a second parallel out from the first parallel, on an angle toward the redoubts, and build a strong point, or epaulement, at its end, in line with the advance British redoubts.

This would reduce the assault distance to the first redoubt by about 300 yards.

Remember, moving fire as part of an assault, you had single-shot weapons.

You fire your musket or rifle once and go in with the bayonet.

You don't have an automatic weapon to cover you as you advance.

A slight rise of ground also gave some protection to the diggers.

And the diggers had promptly begun work on the evening of the 11th October.

The French, on the left of the first parallel, from which the new line was driven, came under heavy fire, which was answered by a furious French countercannonade on the British lines.

An American soldier wrote after the battle, "Our shot and shell went over our heads in a continual blaze the whole night.

The sight was beautifully tremendous."

A young soldier writing home.

By the morning of the 12th, the French works were finished and the soldiers under cover.

By dawn of the 14th, the epaulement, the strong point, was well under way, and the British advanced redoubts so damaged by artillery fire that planning for the assault went forward.

Major General de Vioménil was assigned the honor of attacking, with a picked French force, the near redoubt.

At his own request, Alexander Hamilton was given command of the American assault group, with orders to take the redoubt by the river.

The batteries ceased fire.

The two forces moved forward about 7:00 p.m.

on the evening of 15th October, covered by the growing dark.

Suddenly, small-arms fire began on the allied left.

The French had been discovered.

Then it came on the right.

Hamilton, also, had been discovered.

He'd not achieved complete surprise.

In both cases, however, the French and Americans took the assigned redoubts with the bayonet.

[musket fire popping] The French captured or killed some 120 defenders.

John Laurens, a South Carolinian, swung around the rear of this redoubt, of this strong point, which Hamilton was attacking frontally.

The garrison of 45 was overwhelmed.

In the morning of October the 16th, the New York brigade marched into the works captured by Hamilton... drums beating and flags flying, where we're standing right now.

The British answered this display with a dangerous artillery fire, but no matter.

The allies now were in rifle range- accurate rifle range- of the British lines, and marksmen on both sides maintained a constant, galling fire.

The artillerists soon emplaced two howitzers in each of the captured works, which placed the British garrison under a close range, dropping shellfire.

Also, the working parties, digging in the light, sandy soil, pushed the American line to the river, incorporating the two captured redoubts in a second parallel only 300 yards from the British lines... over here.

[musket fire popping] Lord Cornwallis and his army now were walled in on three sides.

Only the river offered an avenue of escape.

At 4:00 a.m.

on the 16th- the morning of the 16th, a picked force of 350 British assault troops broke into the trench where the workers had been withdrawn from two uncompleted batteries to dig somewhere else along the line.

The raiders surprised a small detachment of the French Agenois Regiment, which they found asleep.

And pushed to the French sap through the detachment, the sap that led to the first parallel, where they found an American battery which challenged them.

"Push on, my brave boys," a British leader shouted, "and skin the bastards!"

But Comte de Noailles happened to be near at hand with a covering party of French.

He attacked with the bayonet, and the British retreated, leaving 17 allied casualties behind and 6 artillery pieces spiked with bayonet points.

The raiders lost five men captured and had seven casualties.

But the guns were only partially damaged and back in service within a few hours.

As Lord Cornwallis was to report to Sir Henry Clinton after this redoubtable but unavailing adventure, the allied forces were in position where the defenders in the whole front, under attack, could not show a single gun... while the British shells were nearly expended.

[musket fire popping] His only choice was to surrender on the next day or try to get across the York River with most of his troops, if possible.

Lord Cornwallis hoped to pass his infantry across to Gloucester during the night, abandon his baggage at Yorktown, and leave a detachment to surrender the town.

These arrangements having been made in complete secrecy, the light infantry, most of the guards, and part of the 23rd Regiment landed successfully at Gloucester.

At this very critical time for the British, a violent storm of wind and rain came up and drove some of the loaded boats down the river.

It was unhappily clear... that the passage on that crucial night, for the British, was impossible.

At daybreak, the allied batteries had opened, with more than 100 guns in position, for a ceaseless bombardment, tearing this enemy earthworks apart.

The British replied with a few small mortar shells, which did very little damage.

As Lord Cornwallis later reported to Sir Henry Clinton... his artillery could not fire a single gun, and only one 8-inch and about 102 Coehorn small mortar shells remained.

He, therefore, finally determined that he must capitulate.

Between 9:00 and 10:00 on the morning of 17th... [mortar fire booming] [mortar fire booming] a drummer- a British drummer, mounted the parapet over there... the most southerly part of the British in a line, and beat to parley.

The cannon fire was so intense... the drum could not be heard.

[mortar fire booming] But American officers saw the drummer's red coat, and firing ceased.

A British officer came out before the defenses, waving a white handkerchief.

American officers advanced.

The British officer's eyes were bandaged, and he was led through the American lines and brought to George Washington.

The American general broke the seal of the letter.

The moment he had waited and fought for so long finally had come.

It was a message from Cornwallis, asking for a cessation of hostilities for 24 hours while terms of surrender for Yorktown and Gloucester could be discussed and settled.

[windflaw noise] The terms were signed at the Moore House... right here.

It's still standing, about a half mile behind the American first parallel.

They were honorable but severe.

Military and naval personnel were to be surrendered as prisoners of war.

The navy would become French prisoners.

The army, American prisoners.

Officers could keep their side arms and personal possessions.

They also would be permitted to go on parole to Europe or any American area in British possession.

A fast sloop of war even was provided to carry Lord Cornwallis' dispatches to New York.

The capitulation itself took place on October the 19th, 1781.

Thirteen days after the first parallel was opened.

Cornwallis surrendered 7,157 soldiers, 840 seamen, and 80 camp followers.

The last an interesting note on 18th-century warfare.

There were 2,000 sick in his hospitals.

The people of the neighborhood had been invited to watch the ceremony.

De Rochambeau's French troops, smart in their white uniforms, lined one side of the road on which the British were to march.

The Americans, battered and often ragged, lined the other side in two ranks... Continentals, regulars, in front, militia behind.

Down the York-Hampton road came the British in their red uniforms, marching slowly to "The World Turned Upside Down."

A beautifully uniformed British general, Brigadier Charles O'Hara of the Guards, with his mounted staff, rode at their head.

When the British leaders reached the two groups of commanding officers, Brigadier O'Hara turned to the left and began to address the Comte de Rochambeau.

The French count, with perfect courtesy, pointed to Washington.

Charles O'Hara turned and apologized for his mistake.

He also explained that he represented Lord Cornwallis, who was not well.

George Washington gravely requested that he consult his deputy, General Benjamin Lincoln, who had surrendered an army to the British at Charleston in 1780... the world turned upside down.

Benjamin Lincoln explained to O'Hara that the French hussars had formed a circle around a nearby open field, and there, the British would enter one regiment at a time, lay down their arms, and march back between the French and American lines.

The British and German flags were cased and carried sadly by the proudly floating American and French battle standards.

The music was what Washington had demanded, English or German, in return for the British demand at the surrender of Charleston... that the drums of the rebels should beat a British march.

The bitter task soon was over, and the allies could rejoice together over a victory.

Losses had been comparatively light for the French and Americans.

72 killed and 190 wounded and correspondingly heavy for the British: 156 killed and 326 wounded.

It also was to be the deciding battle of the war.

In spite of the amenities of a graceful period in history, Yorktown was lost and the British cause in America lost with it.

♪ ♪ Yorktown, thus, was the climactic battle of the war.

Now, this did not mean that the war was over.

Fighting still continued throughout the next year.

Not serious fighting... small operations in South Carolina, in North Carolina, up in the North along the Indian frontiers against the Cherokees.

But the war actually ended at Yorktown since the British, after Yorktown, never mount a major offensive or even a minor offensive, again, here in the 13 states.

This is the end of the war to all intents and purposes.

This is the end of the fighting.

This is the establishment of American independence.

The victory at Yorktown, thus, is the key victory of the war, where we and our French allies besiege the little town, capture the town, and Cornwallis surrenders the British army to George Washington.

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