Why did the Americans win the Battle of Yorktown?

Answer 1

When the American minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, was able to secure an alliance with France, the chances of American independence from Great Britain increased greatly. France helped with troops and its navy. As George Washington was preparing to lay siege to the British in New York City in 1781, he received word that the French Admiral, Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse was proceeding with a fleet of 28 warships to the Chesapeake Bay. Washington saw an opportunity. He had partnered with French commander Rochambeau and French troops on setting up the siege. Washington left enough troops near New York, thereby deceiving British General Clinton, that the siege was in place. He and Rochambeau then marched the bulk of American and French forces south.

The French fleet had beaten a small group of British ships, and controlled the army of General Cornwallis, preventing the re-supply of his army and any chance of evacuation by sea. Cornwallis had taken refuge there after American General Greene forced the British into an exhausting retreat from the Carolinas and Virginia.

On September 26, 1781, Washington, with the combined French and American armies totaled about 17,000 troops. The American forces commanded by Washington, Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Wayne

had the British army of 7,000 trapped on the Yorktown peninsula. With the help of French engineering, Cornwallis was forced by the ensuing siege into near starvation.

The British forces suffered from American artillery fire, and a lack of supplies. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis agreed to an unconditional surrender.

What followed was peace talks and finally American independence.

Answer 2

In referring to the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Yorktown became the battle whereby Great Britain gave up on retaining her American colonies. French and American forces trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula. The French fleet blocked any escape via the sea and the British navy. This eventually led to the Treaty of Paris. The colonies had won their battle.