Yorktown

=__The Battle of Yorktown__= toc The Battle of Yorktown was fought in the Revolutionary War. Yorktown was in Virginia. The French and the American colonists fought against the British. The leader on the American side was General George Washington, and Lieutenant General de Rochambeau was the leader for the French. The British were lead by General Lord Cornwallis. The Americans were trying to break free from England because of Taxation Without Representation, meaning that the British were taxing the Americans.The British were also taking all the money that the Americans made, and using it for themselves, so that the Americans were getting no benefit. The way one could tell each side apart was the uniforms.The French wore white jackets, the Americans had blue jackets, and the British wore red jackets, making red, white,and blue. The day the battle started was September 28th, 1781 and was fought until October 19th, 22 days later. Yorktown was the last official Revolutionary War battle AND THE AMERICANS WON!

__Before the Battle__
Before the battle there was plenty of other battles. The British had won some and the Americans had won some. There was a couple of famous battles such as the Battle at Valley Forge,and the Battle of Saratoga were all famous battles.There were a couple leading up to the great defeat of the British at Yorktown.

__The British__
The British were led by the Major General Lord Cornwallis. Their nickname was the "red coats." They started out with 400 soldiers on the British side. There were ten companies and 38 privates.The British also had the help of the Hessians in the earlier battles.There was 226 British dead at the end of the battle. Companies are groups of soldiers and privates are the lowest rank in the army.The attire of the British was red coats, white pants, boots, and hats depending on what type of solider you were. Grenadiers were the strongest, most valiant, and fit of the soldiers and were recognized by their bearskin caps. There was another type of soldier called the Light Infantry. They were the people who would go around taunting the other soldiers from the opposing side. When going into battle, the British would line up in a perfect line which was a good target for the Americans and the French.Some of the British were criminals,or had been in jail before they came to America to fight.

__The Americans__
The Americans were led by General George Washington. The Americans started out with 3,000 Americans. In the Battle of Yorktown 21 Americans died, and 52 French died, which totals to 73 solider dead on the American side.The attire of the Americans was white pants, blue jackets,and knee high boots. The Americans had these group of soldiers called the minute men where they were dressed in whatever they owned, and had their own gun. They were used whenever the Americans needed help right away and they didn't already have a solider in whatever town,or city the battle was going to be in.The Americans won the Revolutionary War and got freedom from Britain.

__The French__
The French were led by the Lieutenant General de Rochambeau. The French started out with 3,300 soldiers. Out of the French soldiers only 52 died. The clothing of the French wore white pants,white jacket,and knee high boats. The French joined the Americans because the Americans needed help ,and they didn't like the British because they were very powerful in Europe and France wanted to be more powerful.The French helped out a ton with the winning of the Revolutionary War. ==

__Washington's plan to win the Revolutionary War__
The British lost because of a smart idea by General George Washington. What he did was trick the British into thinking that the Americans were going to try and take over New York. General Clinton, of the British army, sent some troops up there. But General Washington and General Rochambeau had sent some of their troops to make an attack in the town of Yorktown so that The British would be surrounded and wouldn't be able to escape by the sea. At the battle of Yorktown, the Americans had 16,000 troops and the British had half of that. There was no way anyone thought they could win. The British played the song of "The World Turned Upside Down" on the day that had to surrender to the Americans.

=__References__:= http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-yorktown.htm © britishbattles.com 2007. [|http://www.battleofyorktown.com] Written by Stanley L. Klos in 2000 [|http://www.myrevloutionarywar.com/battles/810928.htm] Genealogy Inc.,on October 26,2008 http://www.kidsport.com/ReflLib/USAHistory/AmericanRevoultion/AmericanRevolution.htm Written 1998-2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_ofYorktown This page was last modified on 27 October 2008, at 00:15 http://wiki.answer.com/Q/Whodiedat_thebattle_ofyorktown Written 2008

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