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Victory at Yorktown
"The foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.”
~ George Washington, October 1781
Several historical paintings have inspired tartan designs, and this one draws upon John Trumbull’s Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Trumbull was not simply an artist looking back upon the Revolution: as a young man, he had served in the Continental Army and briefly as George Washington’s aide-de-camp, giving him a personal connection with the people and events he later painted.
The painting commemorates October 19, 1781, when British forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered after being trapped at Yorktown by combined American and French forces. Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau had closed in by land, while the French fleet prevented British relief from reaching Cornwallis by sea. That afternoon, the British garrison marched out between long lines of American and French troops and laid down its arms. The defeat effectively ended major fighting in the Revolution, although American independence would not be formally recognized until the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
There is an interesting twist in Trumbull’s painting: Cornwallis himself did not appear at the surrender ceremony. Pleading illness, he sent Brigadier General Charles O’Hara in his place. O’Hara first approached the French commander Rochambeau and then Washington, but Washington directed him to Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who had himself been forced to surrender Charleston to the British the previous year. In Trumbull’s painting, Lincoln, mounted on the prominent white horse, receives the British surrender while Washington remains farther back on his brown horse.
Trumbull arranged the victorious allies on either side of the scene: the French beneath the white Bourbon banner on the left and the Americans beneath the Stars and Stripes on the right. Dark clouds, discarded weapons and a broken cannon recall the siege that has just ended, while the orderly ranks and clearing sky turn the scene from one of battle toward victory and peace.
The painting became one of the great visual records of the American Revolution. Trumbull’s monumental version, commissioned by Congress, measures an impressive 12 by 18 feet and today hangs in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. ❤️ 🤍 💙 🇺🇸
The surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, was the great military climax of the American Revolution, although it did not technically end the war. By the autumn of 1781, British commander Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis had established his army at Yorktown, Virginia, on the York River, expecting that the position would allow him to receive supplies and reinforcements—or, if necessary, evacuation—by sea. Instead, it became a trap. General George Washington and the French commander the Comte de Rochambeau secretly moved their combined American and French armies hundreds of miles south from the New York area, while a French fleet under Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse sailed into the Chesapeake. In the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, de Grasse prevented a British fleet from gaining control of the bay. With the Royal Navy temporarily shut out, Cornwallis found himself surrounded by land and sea.
By late September, approximately 17,000 American and French troops had gathered around Yorktown, facing roughly 8,000 British and German troops under Cornwallis. The allied forces began a formal eighteenth-century siege, digging a series of trenches, or “parallels,” ever closer to the British defenses. Heavy American and French artillery opened fire on October 9, pounding Yorktown day and night and progressively destroying British guns, fortifications and buildings. To complete the second siege line, the allies needed to capture two important British positions known as Redoubts 9 and 10. On the night of October 14, French troops stormed Redoubt 9 while American light infantry under Alexander Hamilton attacked Redoubt 10. Both were taken in fierce close combat, allowing the allied artillery to move still closer to Cornwallis's lines.
Cornwallis attempted one last escape. On the night of October 16–17, he began ferrying troops across the York River to Gloucester Point, hoping to break through the allied forces there and retreat northward. A violent storm disrupted the crossing and forced the plan to be abandoned. With his defenses collapsing, ammunition running short and no British relief fleet arriving in time, Cornwallis requested negotiations. On October 19, 1781, the Articles of Capitulation were signed. More than 7,000 British and German soldiers became prisoners of war. Cornwallis himself did not appear at the formal surrender ceremony, pleading illness; Brigadier General Charles O’Hara represented him. O’Hara first attempted to surrender his sword to Rochambeau, who directed him toward Washington. Washington, in turn, indicated his own second-in-command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who formally received the surrender.
The familiar image of Yorktown as the moment when the entire British army surrendered and the Revolution instantly ended is slightly misleading. Fighting continued elsewhere. Britain still occupied important American cities, particularly New York, Charleston and Savannah, and British, Loyalist and American forces continued to clash in the South and on the frontier. Savannah remained under British control until July 1782, and Charleston was not evacuated until December 1782. There was also continued warfare far beyond the thirteen colonies. Because the American Revolution had become part of a much larger international conflict involving Britain, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic, battles continued in the Caribbean, around Gibraltar, in European waters and even in India after Yorktown.
Nevertheless, Yorktown effectively destroyed Britain's political willingness to continue a major offensive war against the United States. News of Cornwallis's surrender reached London in November 1781 and intensified opposition to the war. Lord North's government fell in March 1782, and serious peace negotiations followed. Preliminary peace articles between Britain and the United States were signed on November 30, 1782. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, in which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and acknowledged boundaries extending westward to the Mississippi River.
Yorktown therefore stands not quite as the final battle of the American Revolution, but as its decisive military conclusion. It was also an extraordinary example of international cooperation: American soldiers, French infantry, French artillery and French naval power had combined to make Cornwallis's position untenable. Washington's ability to conceal the movement of his army southward, Rochambeau's experienced French troops, and de Grasse's control of the Chesapeake all proved essential. Without the French naval victory at the Chesapeake, the British might have reinforced or evacuated Cornwallis; without the allied siege army, the French fleet alone could not have forced his surrender. Yorktown was the point at which those separate pieces came together—and transformed a long colonial rebellion into a victory that Britain could no longer realistically reverse.
For more on historical paintings of this era, click the Surrender of Cornwallis, by John Trumbull.