Surrender at Yorktown & The Treaty of Paris (1783): Fifth Grade Social Studies
Trapped by George Washington's allied army on land and the French navy at sea, British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, leading to the Treaty of Paris that established American independence.
The War Moves to the South
By 1778, after three years of bloody warfare in New England and the Middle Colonies, the Revolutionary War had reached a strategic stalemate in the North. Following the Battle of Monmouth, British forces withdrew into the heavily fortified island fortress of New York City, watched closely by George Washington's Continental Army from the hills of the Hudson Highlands. Frustrated by their inability to destroy Washington's army, the British military ministry devised a bold new strategy: The Southern Strategy.
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| THE BRITISH "SOUTHERN STRATEGY" (1778-1781) |
| |
| 1. THE ASSUMPTION: The British believed the South was home to vast, |
| dormant majorities of passionate Loyalists ready to rally to King. |
| 2. EARLY VICTORIES: British captured Savannah, GA (1778) and crushed |
| the American southern army at Charleston, SC (May 1780), capturing |
| 5,000 Continental soldiers—the worst American defeat of the war! |
| 3. BATTLE OF CAMDEN (Aug 1780): British General Charles Cornwallis |
| routed American General Horatio Gates, leaving the South defenseless|
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Nathanael Greene and the Southern War of Attrition
To rescue the South, George Washington appointed his most brilliant, trusted strategist: thirty-eight-year-old Rhode Island Quaker General Nathanael Greene. Greene devised a masterful, unorthodox guerrilla campaign across the Carolinas.
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| GREENE'S BRILLIANT GUERRILLA STRATEGY |
| |
| - THE "SWAMP FOX": Greene coordinated with partisan guerrilla leaders |
| like Francis Marion ("The Swamp Fox") and Thomas Sumter ("The Game- |
| cock"), who struck British supply lines from coastal swamps. |
| - BATTLE OF KINGS MOUNTAIN (Oct 1780): Frontier Patriot "Overmountain |
| Men" surrounded and annihilated Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist army. |
| - BATTLE OF COWPENS (Jan 1781): General Daniel Morgan executed a |
| tactical masterpiece, crushing Banastre Tarleton's British legion! |
| - GUILFORD COURTHOUSE (March 1781): Greene lured Cornwallis deep into |
| North Carolina, fighting a brutal battle; Cornwallis held the field |
| but lost one-fourth of his entire army! Greene famously wrote: |
| *"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again!"* |
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Exhausted, low on food, and with his army battered by Greene's relentless maneuvers, General Cornwallis marched his army to the Virginia coast, establishing a fortified deepwater naval base at Yorktown on the Chesapeake Bay, waiting for Royal Navy ships to deliver fresh supplies and reinforcements.
The Master Trap: Convergence on Yorktown (1781)
In August 1781, while stationed outside New York City, General George Washington received an astonishing, once-in-a-lifetime message from French Admiral Comte de Grasse: his powerful battle fleet of twenty-eight French warships and 3,000 troops was sailing from the Caribbean directly to the Chesapeake Bay—and would be available only until October 15! Washington recognized a fleeting, brilliant opportunity to trap Cornwallis's entire army.
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| THE PERFECT TRAP AT YORKTOWN (SEPT-OCT 1781) |
| |
| FRENCH FLEET (De Grasse) ALLIED ARMY (Washington) |
| - 28 French warships seal - 19,000 American & French |
| Chesapeake Bay entrance. soldiers march 450 miles |
| - Defeats British fleet at south from NY in secret! |
| Battle of the Capes! Surrounds Yorktown on LAND!|
| \ / |
| \ / |
| v v |
| =============================================== |
| [ GENERAL CORNWALLIS & 8,000 REDCOATS TRAPPED ] |
| Pinned against the sea; NO ESCAPE BY LAND OR WATER! |
| =============================================== |
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The Battle of the Capes (September 5, 1781)
Before Washington arrived on land, the decisive naval battle occurred at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A British naval fleet commanded by Admiral Thomas Graves sailed from New York to rescue Cornwallis. In a two-hour naval engagement known as the Battle of the Capes, Admiral de Grasse's French fleet battered the British ships, forcing the surviving British fleet to retreat to New York. The maritime door was slammed shut: Cornwallis was completely cut off from all naval escape and resupply!
The Siege of Yorktown: October 1781
On September 28, 1781, Washington's allied army of 11,000 American soldiers and 8,000 French troops commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded Yorktown.
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| THE SYSTEMATIC SIEGE OF YORKTOWN |
| |
| 1. PARALLEL TRENCHES: Guided by French engineers, allied troops dug a |
| network of zig-zagging trenches inching closer to British walls. |
| 2. THE ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT: On October 9, Washington personally lit |
| the match to fire the first American siege gun; for six days and |
| nights, over 100 allied cannons rained continuous explosive shells |
| into Yorktown, smashing fortifications and sinking ships in river. |
| 3. THE ASSAULT ON REDOUBTS 9 AND 10 (Oct 14): In a daring night charge |
| with unloaded muskets using ONLY BAYONETS, French troops stormed |
| Redoubt 9, while young Alexander Hamilton led American light troops |
| over the palisades of Redoubt 10, capturing both outposts in minutes!|
| 4. THE FAILED ESCAPE: A desperate midnight escape attempt across the |
| York River by boat was scattered by a sudden, ferocious squall storm.|
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The Surrender: October 19, 1781
On the morning of October 17, 1781—the fourth anniversary of the British surrender at Saratoga—a solitary British drummer boy in a red coat stood atop the Yorktown parapet, beating the frantic rhythm of "the parley" (a call for a ceasefire), accompanied by an officer waving a white handkerchief. The artillery guns fell silent.
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| THE SURRENDER CEREMONY (OCTOBER 19, 1781) |
| |
| - SURRENDER FIELD: Allied troops lined up along a mile-long road: the |
| French in brilliant white uniforms with silk banners on one side; |
| the Americans in ragged blue coats on the other side. |
| - CORNWALLIS FEIGNS ILLNESS: Mortified by defeat, General Cornwallis |
| refused to appear, claiming illness, and sent his second-in-command, |
| General Charles O'Hara, to surrender his sword. |
| - WASHINGTON'S DIGNITY: When O'Hara tried to hand the sword to French |
| General Rochambeau, Rochambeau pointed to Washington; Washington, |
| noting that a subordinate had brought the sword, directed O'Hara to |
| surrender it to American second-in-command, General Benjamin Lincoln.|
| - 8,000 REDCOATS MARCH OUT: British soldiers marched out with drums |
| muffled, their band bitterly playing an old English nursery tune: |
| **"THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN!"** |
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When British Prime Minister Lord North received news of the surrender in London, he paced frantically across his office, throwing his arms in the air and groaning: "Oh God! It is all over! It is all over!"
The Treaty of Paris (1783): Birth of a New Nation
Although minor skirmishes continued for two years, the British Parliament voted to end offensive operations in America. In Paris, a brilliant American peace commission consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated the final peace treaty with British diplomats. On September 3, 1783, the formal Treaty of Paris was signed.
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| THE TERMS OF THE TREATY OF PARIS (1783) |
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| Treaty Term | Historic Significance for the United States |
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| 1. Recognition of | King George III formally recognized the United |
| Independence | States of America as a FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND |
| | INDEPENDENT NATION—the ultimate victory! |
| 2. Enormous New | The U.S. gained all territory between the Atlantic |
| Boundaries | Ocean and the MISSISSIPPI RIVER, and from the Great|
| | Lakes south to the 31st parallel (Florida border)!|
| 3. Fishing Rights | Americans secured perpetual rights to fish the rich|
| | Grand Banks off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. |
| 4. Debts and | Congress recommended that states restore seized |
| Loyalist Claims | property to Loyalists and honor pre-war debts. |
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Washington's Farewell
On December 4, 1783, after the last British redcoats evacuated New York City, General George Washington gathered his officers at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan to say an emotional farewell. With tears streaming down his face, Washington embraced each officer. He then rode to Annapolis, Maryland, where the Continental Congress was meeting, and performed a truly revolutionary act: he resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief, voluntarily surrendering supreme military power to elected civilian leaders and returning to his peaceful farm at Mount Vernon. When King George III in London was told that Washington had voluntarily given up military dictatorship to retire to his private farm, the King marveled in astonishment: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world!"
Exercises and Solutions
Exercise 1: Analyzing the Strategic Triad Behind the Allied Victory at Yorktown. The Siege of Yorktown succeeded because of the perfect coordination of three distinct military components: George Washington's Continental Army, Rochambeau's French ground forces, and De Grasse's French naval fleet. Explain how each leg of this "strategic triad" contributed to trapping and defeating General Cornwallis.
Solution 1: The allied victory at Yorktown was an operational masterpiece of joint international land and naval warfare, succeeding because all three legs of the strategic triad functioned with flawless synchronization. The first component was Admiral François-Joseph de Grasse's French naval fleet: sailing from the West Indies with twenty-eight ships-of-the-line, De Grasse executed the naval blockade of the Chesapeake Bay and defeated the British relief fleet at the Battle of the Capes. This naval victory sealed Cornwallis's fate by denying the British army any possibility of evacuation or resupply by sea. The second component was General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau's elite French expeditionary army: comprising 8,000 highly trained professional regular soldiers, the French brought specialized siege engineering corps, heavy iron battering artillery, and substantial financial gold loans that paid Washington's discontented soldiers. French military engineers designed the zigzagging siege trenches and directed the sappers who excavated earthworks under enemy fire. The third component was General George Washington's Continental Army: Washington conceived the grand strategic deception, masking the southern march of the allied armies by constructing dummy bakeries and campfires outside New York to convince British General Clinton that Manhattan was the target. Washington executed the rapid 450-mile overland march to Virginia, commanded the overall allied coalition with supreme diplomatic tact, and led the American light infantry assault that captured Redoubt 10. Without De Grasse's naval wall at sea, Rochambeau's siege artillery, and Washington's land forces, Cornwallis could have easily evacuated his army by water or broken out into the interior.
Exercise 2: Evaluating the Geopolitical Terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. In the Treaty of Paris (1783), American peace commissioners Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay secured boundaries that extended all the way to the Mississippi River, doubling the size of the original thirteen colonies. Explain how the American commissioners negotiated this extraordinary diplomatic triumph, and analyze why Great Britain agreed to grant such vast western territory to its former rebellious colonies.
Solution 2: The American commissioners secured an extraordinary diplomatic triumph in the 1783 Treaty of Paris by skillfully playing rival European empires against one another through independent diplomacy. Under their formal congressional instructions, Franklin, Adams, and Jay were ordered to negotiate in close concert with their French allies and make no separate peace without French approval. However, John Jay discovered that French foreign minister Vergennes was secretly plotting with Spain to restrict the United States to the land east of the Appalachian Mountains, intending to award the fertile Ohio and Mississippi river valleys to Spain. Realizing that France and Spain sought to keep the newborn United States weak, hemmed in, and dependent on European powers, Jay and Adams boldly violated their instructions from Congress and opened secret, direct bilateral negotiations with British peace envoy Richard Oswald. The American commissioners presented the British government with a compelling geopolitical argument: if Great Britain granted generous western borders to the United States extending all the way to the Mississippi River, the new American republic would become an independent, Protestant trading partner that would resist French and Spanish imperial ambitions in North America. Staggering under massive global war debt and desperate to detach the United States from its military alliance with France, Great Britain agreed to the stunning terms. Britain formally recognized complete American independence, ceded all the vast territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River (doubling the physical size of the nation overnight), and granted rich North Atlantic fishing rights, providing the newborn United States with the continental room required to grow into a global power.