- The British made tactical mistakes
- The British misunderstood the political nature of the conflict
- The Patriots were highly motivated by George Washington's leadership
- The Patriots received crucial assistance from the French
During the late summer, on September 15, 1781, Washington marched his troops south to Yorktown. Cornwallis plans plans to get to Yorktown and receive support ships from New York. Washington's plan was to block the entrance for the ships and preventing Cornwallis to escape or get ammunitions. Now they had to rely on the French to block the entrance and trap Cornwallis and he had to surrender. The coordination they had in order to trap him was luck for the patriots.
General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Cornwallis and 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War. The french fleet departed for the Chesapeake Bay. Washington realized that it was time to act. He ordered Marquis de Lafayette and an American army of 5,000 troops to block Cornwallis' escape from Yorktown by land while the French naval fleet blocked the British escape by sea.
By September 28, Washington had completely trapped Cornwallis and Yorktown with the combined forces of Continental and French troops. After three weeks, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in the field at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, ending the War for Independence. Cornwallis did not attend the formal surrender ceremony, held on October 19. Instead, General Charles O'Hara carried Cornwallis' sword to the American and French commanders. Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation.
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