Question: how long did the battle of yorktown last

title: Siege of Yorktown
text: On December 20 , 1780 , Benedict Arnold sailed from New York with 1,500 troops to Portsmouth , Virginia . He first raided Richmond , defeating the defending militia , from January 5 -- 7 before falling back to Portsmouth . Admiral Destouches , who arrived in Newport , Rhode Island in July 1780 with a fleet transporting 5,500 soldiers , was encouraged by Washington and French Lieutenant General Rochambeau to move his fleet south , and launch a joint land - naval attack on Arnold 's troops . The Marquis de Lafayette was sent south with 1,200 men to help with the assault . However , Destouches was reluctant to dispatch many ships , and in February sent only three . After they proved ineffective , he took a larger force of 8 ships in March 1781 , and fought a tactically inconclusive battle with the British fleet of Marriot Arbuthnot at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay . Destouches withdrew due to the damage sustained to his fleet , leaving Arbuthnot and the British fleet in control of the bay 's mouth .