page_title: Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War
section_title: Yorktown
hierarchical_section_title: Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War / British campaign in the South / Yorktown
caption_attribution_description: English: Rough translation: "Surrender of the British army of Lord Cornwallis to the combined armies of the United States of America and France commanded by Generals George Washington and Rochambeau at Yorktown and Gloucester, October 19, 1781. F: United States Army. G: Army Navy of France under the command of Count De Grasse. H: Chesapeake Bay. I: River of York. Hand-colored copper-engraving (crude in style); imaginary perspective view of Yorktown surrender, with many massed troops and mounted officers on plain at left, warships close to shore at right; uniform coloring incorrect. This is one of the few documents featuring the French naval blockade and land victory. Français&#160;: Représentation de la capitulation de Yorktown, le 19 octobre 1781. Gravure colorée d'époque, publiée peu après la victoire franco-américaine. Il s'agit de l'un des rares documents mettant en scène le blocus naval français et la victoire terrestre.
context_page_description: The Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War was the central theater of military operations in the second half of the American Revolutionary War, 1778–1781. It encompassed engagements primarily in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina. Tactics consisted of both strategic battles and guerrilla warfare.
  During the first three years of the conflict, 1775–78, the largest military encounters between Continental Army and the British Army had been in the New England and Middle colonies, around the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. After the failure of the Saratoga campaign, the British Army largely abandoned operations in the north and pursued peace through subjugation in the Southern Colonies. Before 1778, these colonies were largely dominated by Patriot-controlled governments and militias, although there was also a Continental Army presence that played a role in the 1776 defense of Charleston, the suppression of loyalist militias, and attempts to drive the British from strongly loyalist East Florida.
  The British began to implement their "Southern Strategy" in late 1778, in Georgia.
context_section_description: Upon arrival in Virginia, Cornwallis took command of the existing British forces in the region, which had been commanded first by turncoat Benedict Arnold, and then by Major General William Phillips. Phillips, a good friend of Cornwallis, died two days before Cornwallis reached his position at Petersburg. Having marched without informing Clinton of his movements (communications between the two British commanders was by sea and extremely slow, sometimes up to three weeks),  Cornwallis sent word of his northward march and set about destroying American supplies in the Chesapeake region.
  In March 1781, in response to the threat of Arnold and Phillips, General Washington had dispatched the Marquis de Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops in the state totaled 7,200. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. It was during this period that Cornwallis received orders from Clinton to choose a position on the Virginia Peninsula—referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck"—and construct a fortified naval post to shelter ships of the line. In complying with this order, Cornwallis put himself at risk to become trapped. With the arrival of the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse and General Washington's combined French-American army, Cornwallis found himself cut off. When the Royal Navy fleet, under Admiral Thomas Graves, was defeated by the French at the Battle of the Chesapeake, and a French siege train arrived from Newport, Rhode Island, his position became untenable. Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and the French commander the Comte de Rochambeau on October 19, 1781.
  Cornwallis reported this disaster to Clinton in a letter that opened:
  I have the mortification to inform Your Excellency that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester and to surrender the troops under my command by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as prisoners of war to the combined forces of America.
caption: The surrender of British troops at Yorktown; French engraving; 1781
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