Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The siege of Yorktown was the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War in North America, and led to the surrender of General Cornwallis and the capture of both him and his army. The Continental Army's victory at Yorktown prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict. [b]
The Battle of Yorktown or siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.Marching from Fort Monroe, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac encountered Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's small Confederate force at Yorktown behind the Warwick Line.
The battlefield was the site of the British defeat. Both the house and the historic siege earthworks were restored in 1976. [4] The Moore House is where surrender negotiations took place in 1781, located in the eastern part of the park. Nearby are the state-operated American Revolution Museum at Yorktown and the Yorktown Riverwalk Landing area.
Yorktown and the nearby area are significant to the early history of the United States. Colonial National Historical Park, which contains and preserves Yorktown National Battlefield and Yorktown National Cemetery, is located on the outskirts of town. The battlefield has many of the earthworks dug by the besieging American and French forces.
Cornwallis was eventually ordered by Clinton to establish a fortified deep-water port at either Yorktown or Portsmouth. Cornwallis chose Yorktown, and began constructing fortifications there and Gloucester Point, just across the York River from Yorktown, in August 1781.
Battle of Trois-Rivières: June 8, 1776: Quebec: British victory: Americans forced to evacuate Quebec [26] Battle of Sullivan's Island: June 28, 1776: South Carolina: American victory: British attack on Charleston is repulsed [27] Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet: June 29, 1776: New Jersey: American victory [28] Battle of Gwynn's Island: July 8–10 ...
By December 1780, the American Revolutionary War's North American theatres had reached a critical point. The Continental Army had suffered major defeats earlier in the year, with its southern armies either captured or dispersed in the loss of Charleston and the Battle of Camden in the south, while the armies of George Washington and the British commander-in-chief for North America, Sir Henry ...
By May 5, Johnston's army was making slow progress on muddy roads and Stoneman's cavalry was skirmishing with Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, Johnston's rearguard. To give time for the bulk of his army to get free, Johnston detached part of his force to make a stand at a large earthen fortification, Fort Magruder, straddling the Williamsburg Road (from Yorktown), constructed earlier by ...