Today in History—September 28: Washington’s Ruse and the Siege of Yorktown

Where to attack: the main British force under Henry Clinton in New York City? Or Lord Cornwallis’s troops in the south, trapped by the marquis de Lafayette in Yorktown, Virginia?

George Washington, camped in the New York area, faced this dilemma in the summer of 1781. His force? About 2,500 Continental troops plus some 4,000 French soldiers under the comte de Rochambeau.

Clinton’s proximity made him the obvious choice, but Rochambeau didn’t like the odds. News that French reinforcements under the comte de Grasse would land in Chesapeake Bay—where Rochambeau months earlier had told de Grasse he’d “be able to render the greatest service”—made the decision to head south clear.

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But to make the Brits think Clinton was the target, Washington devised a ruse. He ordered a buildup of their camps, including boats for an ostensible river crossing and massive ovens to feed a large force—all visible to Clinton’s troops. Washington also drew up false attack plans bearing his signature that he “accidentally” let fall under British eyes.

Leaving behind a screen of troops, Washington and Rochambeau hightailed it southward in mid-August.

Still 200 miles away from Yorktown, the two leaders learned of de Grasse’s arrival in the Chesapeake in early September, by which time their intentions were clear to the enemy. Washington and Rochambeau rushed to cover the distance, and on September 28, 1781, they laid siege to Yorktown. This was the beginning of the end for the British.

Cornwallis requested aid from Clinton, but the departure was delayed. On October 16 two desperate moves by the British failed, the second thwarted by a violent windstorm, dashing their hopes of escape. Seeking a ceasefire on October 17, Cornwallis reached out to Washington, who expressed “an ardent desire to spare the further effusion of blood.” Two days later Washington wrote to the president of the Continental Congress that victory arrived at “an earlier period than my most sanguine hopes had induced me to expect.”

It didn’t matter that thousands of British troops were on their way from New York. The Americans had secured victory in what was the last major battle of the American Revolution.