Cornwallis asks Washington for terms; his guns have been silenced for days
By mid-October 1781, Cornwallis's army at Yorktown had been pinned against the York River for nearly three weeks, pounded by French and American guns, with de Grasse's fleet blocking any rescue by sea in the Chesapeake. On October 17, with his last major redoubts overrun two days earlier and his camp disintegrating under bombardment, Cornwallis sent a letter to Washington asking for a twenty-four-hour truce and terms of capitulation. Washington answered the same day, allowing two hours for the British to submit their proposal in writing. The surrender was signed two days later.
Yorktown pushed London to open peace talks, which eventually produced the Treaty of Paris recognizing American independence. Hamilton, who had led the bayonet charge on Redoubt No. 10 three days earlier, used that fame to help build the Constitution and the Treasury. A field officer's October note became the hinge of a founding resume.
QWhy did Alexander Hamilton end up leading the charge on Redoubt No. 10 instead of Lafayette's chosen officer?
Lafayette initially tapped his own aide, Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat, to lead the American assault on Redoubt No. 10. Hamilton objected, arguing that as the senior officer present he held the right to command the attack. Washington sided with Hamilton, handing him the mission. Hamilton then sent Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens around to the redoubt's rear to cut off any British retreat. The assault went in with unloaded muskets, bayonets only, to preserve surprise in the dark. Hamilton's men broke through in minutes, capturing the redoubt's commander, Major Campbell, along with most of the garrison, at a cost of nine dead and twenty-five wounded. A dispute over seniority put him on the path to the battlefield fame he later leveraged in politics.
QWhat happened to the slaughtered horses during the siege, and why did the British kill them?
On October 1, allied troops learned from British deserters that Cornwallis's men had slaughtered hundreds of horses inside Yorktown and dumped the carcasses on the beach. The killings were a grim supply decision: with the town cut off by land and sea, every animal still eating army rations was a mouth the garrison could no longer afford to feed as food stores dwindled under the tightening blockade. The dead horses piling up on the shoreline were one more sign to the besiegers that Cornwallis's position was unraveling. Deserters crossing into allied lines kept Washington's command informed of conditions inside the British perimeter throughout the siege.
QWhat happened when British cavalry under Banastre Tarleton collided with Lauzun's Legion during a foraging raid?
On October 3, Tarleton led a British foraging party out of Gloucester Point toward the countryside, only to run into Lauzun's Legion and Virginia militia under the Marquis de Choisy. The clash sent the British cavalry retreating back behind their own defensive lines, having lost fifty men in the skirmish. The raid itself had been cover: British cannon had opened a heavy barrage the night before specifically to mask the movement of cavalry across to Gloucester for the foraging mission. It was one of the last offensive actions Cornwallis's forces managed before the siege artillery began its sustained bombardment on October 9, and it cost him cavalry he could not replace.
