Battle of Yorktown


     British General Cornwallis had chose Yorktown as refuge for his army just as a french fleet headed for the Chesapeake Bay. Yorktown was just at the mouth of Chesapeake. George Washington knew this was the key moment, and ordered Marquis de Lafayette and his army of 5000 troops of soldiers to block Cornwallis escape from Yorktown by land. The french blocked his escape by sea. By September 28 1781 Cornwallis was completely surrounded with the forces of the Continental and French army. Cornwallis was once a confident man, who thought he could take on the American army if he took the southern colonies and win the war. His situation was tight, his only choice was to fight back. The question is, did he?
     After three weeks of constant bombarding, both day and night, Cornwallis couldn't take it anymore. On October 17 1781 Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, ending the War for Independence. This is clearly the most important battle of the Revolutionary War. Contrary to what his character showed earlier in the war, Cornwallis cowardly pleaded sick to the formal surrender ceremony held on October 19, and did not attend it. Instead, General Charles O'Hara carried Cornwallis' sword to the French and American commanders. 

     War kept going on other states and in the high seas, but the fight for revolution was effectively over. The Patriot Victory at Yorktown had effectively decided it all. The patriots couldn't have done it without the french's aid. The Continental Army had done it, the underdogs, proved mind is better that brute force. Their passionate drive and keen minds had led them to independence. Peace negotiations began in 1782 and concluded on September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially recognizing the United States as an independent and free nation after some harsh 8 hears of war.