In April 1781, British General Conrwallis decided to move nearer the coast and establish a fortified base at Yorktown near the Chesapeake Bay. Mean while in New York, four regiments of French soldiers under Rochambeau had joined with Washington’s Continental Army.
In August, Rochambeau learned that a powerful French flee, under Admiral De Grass, was planning to sail to the Chesapeake Bay and be available for joint operations. In New York General Washinton and Rochambeau plotted to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown and began the 400 mile journey south.
In early September, the French fleet met and drove off a British naval force at the Battle of the Capes. By October, Conrwallis was under siege, surrounded, outnumbered, and cut off from reinforcements.
For two weeks, heavy artillery fire battered British defensive works. With no sign of relief, Conrwallis surrendered his entire army of 8,000 men on October 19, 1781.
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