Yorktown
YorktownAn American Revolutionary battlefield on the peninsula between the York and James rivers, in Virginia, USA. In August 1781 the British General Cornwallis , his southern army exhausted after the vain pursuit of Nathanael Greene , seized and fortified the area for winter quarters. Thanks to the promise of French naval support from the Caribbean, George Washington was persuaded by the French to march from the Hudson and concentrate all his forces on a siege. With relief by sea cut off by 36 French warships, Cornwallis was forced to surrender on 19 October and American independence was assured.
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