Yorktown, surrender at

Yorktown, surrender at, 1781. After his costly victory at Guilford courthouse in March 1781, Cornwallis moved north into Virginia. Early in August he dug in on the coast at Yorktown, where supplies could be brought in. But the ships which arrived were French. Cornwallis, with 6, 000 men, was blockaded by 9, 000 Americans under Washington and 6, 000 French under Rochambeau. A rescue operation from New York arrived too late. On 19 October, the British surrendered with full honours of war, marching out to the tune ‘The World Turned Upside Down’, when ‘cats should be chased into holes by the mouse’. Back in England, North received the news like a man taking a ball in the chest: ‘oh God, it is all over’, he exclaimed.