Chapter 13: The Surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown

This chapter 13 is the final chapter of the American Revolution segment of the story and it also constitutes the final chapter of Part II of "The 400Year War". Part III of the story will begin with chapter 14 and continue until the conclusion in chapter 20.

The meeting of the Continental Army under command of General George Washington and the British Regular Army forces in the area around Yorktown, Virginia was the result of coincidental circumstances rather than long-range strategic planning on either General's part. It was in part due to General Cornwallis's steadfast desire to position his Army close to the shore so that he might bring the might and power of the British Naval Forces down on the upstart Rebels when the action got too hot for his ground troops. He was using sound reasoning in his military thinking but the fact that the French fleet was now a solid player in the conflict was an underlying element that eliminated his military and tactical advantage over the American Militia in open field combat.

The stage was set for this unexpected debacle years prior when the Ambitions of General Howe in New York City precluded his crucial support for General Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne in his spearhead attack down from Lake Champlain and into the Hudson River Valley Basin. The lure of taking the city of Philadelphia seemed the best option to General Howe at that juncture and he was reluctant to release General Clinton to reinforce the dangerously exposed General Burgoyne just north of Albany, New York. Burgoyne's additional loss of his second prong of the double pronged attack from the North was due to General St. Leger being unable to properly supervise the Indian Tribes contingent. The Indians actually comprised the major portion of his assault force involved in an overt diversionary effort that did not fool any of the well-versed American Militia exposed to years of French and now British European style tactics ill-suited to the wilderness.

The Indians from the St. Leger attack force vanished into the wilds and as far as they were concerned their participation on the side of the British Redcoats was finished and better left forgotten.

St. Leger retreated to Canada leaving Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne looking hopefully south for the appearance of his reinforcements from New York City promised by General Howe. He was blissfully unaware that General Howe had bigger fish to fry in his plans to secure the City of Philadelphia for the British Crown.

The resulting surrender of the thousands of British troops at Saratoga was the turning point in the American Revolutionary war and that fact was realized far sooner in London than in either New York City or Philadelphia. The British generals in both cities were already in disfavor back in London for their lack of appreciation for the overall strategy and were more concerned with their own personal advancement than in defeating the upstart Americans.

The turning of Major General Benedict Arnold from Patriot and hero to traitor and deserter was accomplished by the fine hand of Major Andre who paid the ultimate price of death by hanging. His betrayal of West Point on the Hudson was a bitter pill for Washington who had mentored Arnold and considered him his finest General Officer. Now Arnold joined the General staff of the British Regular Army with his single star commission. He was without a doubt the most experienced and capable General officer in the occupying British Army but was reduced to only supporting roles and his valuable advice was totally ignored by the confidant British Generals who were not at all easy with his defection to their side. He had had counseled General Howe about the lack of strategy in his Philadelphia move and that the war would be settled in the southern colonies and not in the big cities to the north. He was disregarded as deluded and lacking in the finesse of proper Military Science.

His assignment to Virginia could have been a saving grace for the staff of General Cornwallis if they had elected to listen to his warnings of not creating a trap for themselves with their back to the sea. General Cornwallis was of the "old school" dependent on the support of the British Navy for his strategic maneuvers and relied on reports that the British fleet would soon be reinforcing him from New York City. Unfortunately for Cornwallis, that support came far too late to help him and he was forced to surrender the entire Army of British Regulars and German Mercenaries to the Continental Army and the French soldiers under General Lafayette. There were a fair number of German troops allied with the American forces who served alongside the French troops making the American force truly a combined army.

Arnold did the best he could by slowing down the American advance and helping the British forces to gain safety inside the barricades of their defensive position. Despite his warnings to the General staff, General Cornwallis elected to pull back from his outer fortifications into the tighter defensive position around the city. Gleefully, the American and French forces flooded the external defensive positions and used them as the base for their artillery bombardment onto the British Regular troops huddled tightly together and easy targets for the cannons of the American and French attackers. One of General Cornwallis's officers was a vicious Cavalryman called Tarleton who probably should have been arrested as a war criminal for his heinous methods of instilling terror in the hearts of the Rebel civilians as he moved through the countryside foraging for horses and supplies to feed the Regular British Army. This officer despite his terroristic tactics was just as adamant as General Arnold in his advice that the Army was creating their own grave by pulling into a tight defensive position from which there was no escape route. The reliance of General Cornwallis on General Howe to eventually reinforce him was falsely founded and it was common knowledge that the superior officer had already submitted his resignation for his errors in judgement at Saratoga.

The chain of command between General Howe, General Clinton and General Cornwallis was seriously damaged by petty jealousies and lack of secure communication. With the Regular British troops concentrating in the large cities, they were like little islands of Redcoats surrounded by a sea of blue jackets of the Continental Army and now the white uniforms of the French allies. Any messengers between these nodules of British rule were dealt with harshly as they were considered "Spies" and immediately hung from the nearest tree. Of course, the key orders originated in London and that meant months of travel at sea for new orders to be promulgated.

The arrival of the French fleet behind him instead of the British Navy was the signal to Cornwallis to seek terms of surrender. The loss of thousands of regular British Army regulars was the true end of the conflict and shortly after this stunning defeat, the Redcoats starting withdrawing on the ships that never made it to any battle in time to be of assistance.

Tens of thousands of British Army troops were still in the new nation and they were pulled out slowly. Large numbers of them deserted and they remained in the United States rather than return home as a defeated Army. Most of the ranking General officers faced financial stress and disfavor because of their lack of success. General Arnold went on to successful financial investments because of his ability to manage business and he continued in military service winning battles and land for the British Empire in other parts of the world. Because of his personal disappointment, General and then President Washington commanded that his name never be mentioned in his presence and his name was struck from all written reports and documents of the time. At West Point, The first plaque of the first commandant of West Point is labeled simply, "Unnamed General". However, the new officers at the Academy still study his tactics in the American Revolution fighting on both sides of the conflict.

The thousands of "Tories" who had remained loyal to the crown were shunned and most were driven out of their homes to Canada, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia because of the bitter feelings that continued for decades after the end of the war.

The American Indian Tribes went into a period of disengagement with the American Settlers in the original American colonies and they continued on a downward trend losing territory and natural resources to the advancing hordes of new settlers moving west infused with a spirit of "Manifest Destiny" that favored expansion at all costs.

The population losses due to disease, intertribal warfare, and migration patterns out of the "lower 48" further reduced the numbers of native American Indian Tribes and made them more suspicious of the encroaching influx of new settlers from Europe and the original 13 colonies. The advent of the "Iron Horse" or railroad systems extending their spider's web of rail ever westward insured that the virgin territories would soon become prizes to be won, fortunes to be made and families to be established on what once was solely the land of the native American Indian Tribes.