Revolutionary War Ends: Cornwallis surrenders

Up to this date, we have talked about a long chain of events that led to the revolutionary war. In this entry, we are talking about the last of this events that led to the revolutionary war to end.

Cornwallis was a British general who had previously driven George Washington's forces out of New Jersey in 1776, and led the British in victory over General Horatio Gates at South Carolina in 1780. By 1781, he raided plantations and towns in Virgnia and settled in Yorktown. The British began fortifying the town. Washington found out and instructed French general Marquis se Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an army of about 5,000 men to keep Cornwallis from escaping Yorktown by land. Meanwhile, Washington was in New York with 2,500 troops. He saw a chance and began plotting a plan to attack Cornwallis. He designed this plan with Rochambeau, a French allie that provided him with 4,000 French troops.

The plan Washington and Rochambeau had was to attack Cornwallis, and defeat him. They were expecting a French fleet under the Count de Grasse, which was coming directly from France. Washington was really risky in making this decision. There were no electronic devices at the time that he could use to communicate with Count de Grasse to be 100% sure he would arrive in time. This fleet was a key component of the attack, because they were supposed to prevent Cornwallis from escaping to New York by sea and from receiving British aid by sea. Luckily for Washington, the French fleet arrived on time providing with 7,000 more troops and blocking British fleet under Thomas Graves which was a reinforcement Cornwallis really needed.

Intense fighting occurred during the first 2 weeks of October. There were 14,000 troops of French and Patriots, which gradually overcame the British troops. On October 19, it was all set. Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, abd 30 transport ships. He knew that if they kept on fighting, he would lose anyway and have greater losses. He didn't attend the surrender ceremony because he was ill, but sent his sword to the American and French commanders, through General Charles O'Hara as a sign. With the surrendering of Cornwallis in the Battle of Yorktown, fighting in th colonies ended.

After Cornwallis surrendered though, a formal peace negotiation wasn't official. This happened months later in 1782 and on 1783 it became completely official with the "Treaty of Paris". This document formally recognized the colonies as: United States, a free and independent nation.