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28 September in military history: the siege of Yorktown begins, 1781

Military history · 28 September · American Revolutionary WarFull calendar

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Oil painting of French and American officers before a striped tent flying white French flags: a French general in a blue coat and red sash points toward the siege works, George Washington stands beside him, an engineer spreads a map, and a young aide kneels with surveying instruments, with troops and smoke in the distance.
Siège de Yorktown, 17 octobre 1781, painted by Auguste Couder and commissioned by Louis-Philippe for the historical museum at Versailles in 1836. It shows Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette with their staff before a tent. Public domain. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, via Wikimedia Commons.
Quick answer

On 28 September 1781 the American and French armies under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau marched out of Williamsburg, Virginia, against Lord Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown. With the French fleet holding Chesapeake Bay, Cornwallis waited for a relief from New York that came too late. The allies dug two siege lines and stormed two redoubts on 14 October, and on 17 October the British beat a parley. On 19 October the garrison surrendered, a defeat that, according to the National Park Service, gave up one third of all British forces in North America. One version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also brings William of Normandy to Pevensey on the eve of St Michael's mass, 1066.

The Siege of Yorktown

28 September to 19 October 1781 · 245 years ago

A Franco-American army won a decisive victory at Yorktown in autumn 1781, trapping a British army on a Virginia peninsula by land and sea and forcing its surrender. It was the last great battle of the American Revolution and the one that effectively won the war and secured American independence.

Read the full story of The Siege of Yorktown ›

Siege of Antwerp, 1914: the fall of Belgium's National Redoubt

28 September 1914 · 112 years ago

Early in World War I, German forces besieged Antwerp, held by Belgian troops and the British Royal Naval Division behind a ring of forts. Heavy siege guns broke the forts, the Belgian field army slipped away west, and the remaining garrison surrendered.

Read the full story of Siege of Antwerp, 1914: the fall of Belgium's National Redoubt ›

Also on this day

1066: the version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that Freeman calls the Worcester Chronicle says, in Benjamin Thorpe's translation, "Then came William count of Normandy to Pevensey, on St. Michael's mass-eve", which Thorpe glosses as 28 September, and that the Normans then built a castle at Hastings. Freeman reads it as a landing on the morning of 28 September, and English Heritage has the fleet sail into the Bay of Pevensey before dawn that day. The version Freeman calls the Peterborough Chronicle has William land "at Hastings, on St. Michael's mass-day", and Orderic Vitalis has the fleet cross on the night of St Michael's feast, glossed by his translator as 29 September. Freeman calls Orderic wrong. Our article on the Battle of Hastings tells what followed.1

Frequently asked questions

When did the siege of Yorktown begin and end?

The allied army marched from Williamsburg and began to invest Yorktown on 28 September 1781. The British beat a parley on 17 October, and the garrison laid down its arms on 19 October.

Why could Cornwallis not escape by sea?

The French fleet of the Comte de Grasse held Chesapeake Bay. After an action off the Virginia Capes on 5 September, which the US Army's official history calls indecisive, the British fleet went back to New York to refit.

How far from the British lines were the siege trenches?

Cornwallis and the US Army's official history put the first parallel six hundred yards away. Cornwallis says the second was about three hundred yards nearer, and Washington's diary has it within about 300 yards.

How many British soldiers surrendered at Yorktown?

The sources count differently. The American Battlefield Trust gives 7,416 British missing and captured, and Johnston cites an American return of 7,247 prisoners. The National Park Service says the surrender gave up one third of all British forces in North America.

When did William of Normandy land at Pevensey?

One version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts it on the eve of St Michael's mass, glossed by its editor as 28 September 1066. Another version and Orderic Vitalis give St Michael's day.

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

  1. Benjamin Thorpe, “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, vol. II”; Edward A. Freeman, “The History of the Norman Conquest of England, vol. III”; English Heritage, “History of Pevensey Castle”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. I”. ↩

Sources

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