The Revolutionary War in Virginia

French cannon at Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, Sidney King Painting

The Virginia elite decided over time, starting with the Proclamation of 1763 and the Stamp Act, that continued royal government was too great a threat. As Great Britain sought to extract revenue from the colonies to pay for the French and Indian War, leaders in 13 colonies recognized that British tax policies could expand without limits.

"Taxation without representation." barriers to continued western land speculation, limits on manufacturing raw products into saleable items, and barriers to trade with other nations would constrain the potential to grow or retain wealth in America. British policy had been designed to transfer wealth from Virginia to England since 1607. Seemingly without recognizing the hypocrisy, Tidewater planters started to complain in the 1760's that they were being converted into slaves of Great Britain.

In response to the Stamp Act, a young and new member of the House of Burgesses introduced five resolutions on May 29, 1765. The most radical of the Virginia Resolves, the fifth resolution, triggered calls of "treason" when Patrick Henry championed it. That resolution said:¹

Resolved, Therefore that the General Assembly of this Colony have the only and sole exclusive Right & Power to lay Taxes & Impositions upon the Inhabitants of this Colony and that every Attempt to vest such Power in any Person or Persons whatsoever other than the General Assembly aforesaid has a manifest Tendency to destroy British as well as American Freedom.

Thr resolution was approved initially by a 20-19 vote, and the House of Burgesses rescinded it the next day. The burgesses who had remained in town overnight after hearing Henry's stimulating oratory were more conservative. However, newspapers across the colonies published all five resolutions. The word spread that Virginia claimed Parliament lacked the power to impose a tax unilaterally.

The combined colonial response to the Stamp Act set a new precedent of close inter-colonial cooperation. Back in 1754, northern colonies had been forced by English officials to discuss a common response to war with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederation). The Albany Congress considered a plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin for all colonies except for Georgia and Delaware.

The seven colonies meeting in Albany, New York in July 1754 agreed to send representatives to a Grand Council, to be led by a president General appointed from London. After the commissioners returned to their seven colonies, none of them chose to take action on the proposed plan of union. The British military took the lead in dealing with the threats from the French and Native Americans, coordinating actions as needed. The colonies continued to operate as rivals with each other; they did not bond together at Albany and establish an alliance opposing the power of the King or Parliament.

In 1765, royal officials opposed the gathering in Philadelphia for the Stamp Act Congress. Nine colonies with a common opposition to royal authority sent representatives. No one attended for Virginia, because Governor Francis Fauquier dissolved the General Assembly before it could select representatives.

The Stamp Act Congress passed a Declaration of Rights and Grievances that included "no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures." Enough colonial merchants agreed to stop importing items from Great Britain to impress manufacturers across the Atlantic Ocean. Under the pressure from the business community worried about the loss of trade, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

The next major event was triggered by Parliament's effort to subsidize the East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the sale of tea to North America. Taxes on tea were reduced as part of the decision, but enforcement of tax collection was strengthened. Smugglers in Massachusetts, including the merchant John Hancock, recognized that tighter and tighter restrictions on trade would put them out of business.

An organized mob thinly disguised as Native Americans seized a ship in Boston's harbor in 1773 and dumped the cargo of tea into the water. In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament chose to punish the rebellious colony. Parliament closed the port of Boston, reduced dramatically the powers of the locally-elected government in Massachusetts, allowed British officials to transport Americans to England for trials far from a jury of peers, and forced the colony's residents to host British soldiers in their homes without pay.

Together, the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice, and the Quartering Act became known as the Coercive Acts. A fifth bill extended the boundaries of the Canadian province of Quebec down to the Ohio River. That blocked the claims of various speculators in Virginia to land grants in the Northwest Territory across the Ohio River, and empowered Catholics to hold public offices.

Leaders in all 13 colonies were alarmed by the "intolerable" behavior of Parliament. Destruction of the economy and freedoms of Massachusetts residents was clearly a threat to the other 12 colonies. Instead of intimidating the Americans, Parliament's reprisals united them and created a new perspective that all the colonies had overlapping common interests which bonded them to each other more tightly than to Great Britain.

To show solidarity with Massachusetts, on May 14, 1774 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a resolution calling for a day of "Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer" on June 1, which is when the closure of the port of Boston went into effect. Only the Royal Governor had the authority to declare days of fasting and prayer; the House of Burgesses was blatantly asserting local power to which it was not entitled.

On May 26, Lord Dunmore dissolved the Virginia legislature.

The burgesses remembered how Governor Fauquier had been successful in dissolving the House of Burgesses in 1765 and blocking them from taking action. They also remembered their response to Governor Botetourt in 1769. He too had dissolved the legislature, after it had passed an in-your-face resolution stating "That the sole Right of imposing Taxes on the Inhabitants of this his Majesty's Colony and Dominion of Virginia, is now, and ever hath been, legally and constitutionally vested in the House of Burgesses."

In 1769 the burgesses did not go home. Instead, they gathered at the Raleigh Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street, just a few yards away from their official chamber in the Capitol building. The now-former burgesses, in a legally-unsanctioned meeting, established a non-importation plan that was effective enough with similar efforts in other colonies to pressure the Parliament.

Back in England, Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts that had created the taxes on imported goods - with one exception. The tax on tea was left in place. Avoiding the tax was one reason John Hancock and others were smuggling tea before the East India Company was granted a monopoly which was going to be enforced by the Royal Navy.

In 1774, the Virginia burgesses decided again that dissolution did not mean the legislators had to go home. Instead, they met on May 27. Once again they chose to meet in the largest private space that was readily available, the Raleigh Tavern.

In another extra-legal meeting comparable to 1769, the remaining burgesses passed resolutions to denounce the closing of the port, called for a continental congress of all colonies, and agreed to establish another non-importation association to impose economic pain on British merchants.

By a curious quirk of timing, that same evening there was a ball given in the name of the House of Burgesses at the Governor's Palace to honor Lady Dunmore. Some of the burgesses who had been at Raleigh Tavern in the morning of May 27, 1774 also attended the entertainment. They socialized with Governor Dunmore despite their political differences.

After the party, 25 burgesses remained in Williamsburg. They shared among themselves letters which arrived from other colonies calling for a boycott on trade with Britain. To implement a non-importation association, those burgesses issued a call for elections to an independent convention, not a meeting of the House of Burgesses. County sheriffs who oversaw those elections ignored the fact that they were not authorized by Governor Dunmore.

The elections were also a time for some counties to approve resolutions that articulated grievances and called for action against British authority. The Fairfax Resolves, written primarily by George Mason and George Washington, ended up being widely circulated to other colonies and used as a guide to defining American rights.

The First Virginia Convention met in Williamsburg in August, 1774. That happened to be at a time when Governor Dunmore had left town, so there was no direct confrontation.

Governor Dunmore was the leader of the colonial militia forces in Virginia at the start of the American Revolution. In 1774, he sought to build public support for the British government and divert dissatisfied Virginians from revolutionary thought by launching what became known as "Lord Dunmore's War" against the Shawnee.

He spent five months on the western edge of the colony before returning in December, 1774. On January 18, 1775, he hosted a party with members of the still-dissolved House of Burgesses to celebrate the christening of his ninth child (a daughter he named Virginia) at the Governor's Palace. The Royal Governor intended to stay in the colony, convince the unhappy settlers to accept the policies issued by officials in London, and continue to increase his personal wealth.

The British governor's efforts were not successful. While he was away from Williamsburg dealing with the Shawnee, many in Virginia's House of Burgesses had been radicalized. Suspicion of British intentions was commonplace, and the perception grew that Parliament was not going to revise its approach and adopt policies that were acceptable in North America.

A Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September-October, 1774 to coordinate an intercolonial approach to the Intolerable Acts. All colonies except Georgia participated. Virginia sent a well-respected delegation. Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, was elected president of the Congress. The Massachusetts delegation consciously promoted the visibility of the Virginians, in recognition that more colonies would join in an effective response to the Intolerable Acts.

The First Continental Congress in 1774 adopted the Articles of Association, which required local enforcement of economic sanctions against Great Britain. The many Committees of Safety began creating the political and administrative infrastructure for government, independent of royal control, almost two years before the Declaration of Independence would be adopted.

British officials in the colonies and their loyalist supporters were well aware of the activities of the American activists who were organizing resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The most overt opposition was in Massachusetts, which was impacted after the port of Boston was closed and the colonial charter was revoked. By 1774 militia in various towns near Boston had stockpiled gunpowder and weapons, including cannon, in preparation for an armed insurrection.

General Thomas Gage was aware that the local militia were removing gunpowder stored at the Provincial Powder House in Somerville. The militia claimed that only the locally-purchased gunpowder was removed for safekeeping, and the supply purchased by the colonial officials was left undisturbed. On September 1, 1774, the general sent a detachment of 250 soldiers from Boston to seize that royal gunpowder. It was floated down the Mystic River to Boston, along with two cannon picked up in Cambridge.

Rumors spread that the soldiers had stolen locally-owned gunpowder and fired on local residents. The "Powder Alarm" triggered 4,000 mem to converge at Cambridge, prepared to fight the British regulars if necessary.

General Thomas Gage made another attempt on April 19, 1775 to seize cannons and military supplies. Gage may have been trying to retrieve four brass cannon that had been stolen from the Old Gun House and the New Gun House on Boston Common. He was embarrassed that the cannon had been removed despite his orders to have the buildings guarded, and did not notify London officials of the theft. Gage chose to send troops to Concord after learning from spies that the four brass cannon were there, apparently hoping to retrieve them before having to admit that his military preparations had been inadequate.

The attempt to take control over military supplies at Concord required marching through the town of Lexington. The local militia company there blocked the way. A "shot heard 'round the world" on the village green in Lexington started the open military conflict that became the American Revolution.

Also in April 1775, residents in Williamsburg had appointed guards to watch the brick "magazine" where the colony's muskets and gunpowder were stored. On the very windy night of April 20, 1775, however, the volunteer watchers abandoned their posts. Dunmore took advantage of the opportunity. He had 20 sailors and marines from the schooner Magdalen land at Burwell's Ferry, near the modern Kingsmill Resort. They walked four miles to Williamsburg, opened the locked gates of the magazine using keys provided by Lord Dunmore, and started to remove the half-barrels of gunpowder weighing 65 pounds each.

Like General Gage further north, Governor Dunmore was aware of the activities of resistance leaders in Virginia. He knew that illegal, illegitimate militias known as Independent Companies were being formed. Dunmore justified his seizure of the colony's gunpowder by referencing the rebellious activities of the Virginians, particularly because:²

...dangerous measures... against the Government, which they have now entirely overturned, and particularly their having come to a resolution of raising a body of armed Men in all the counties, made me think it prudent to remove some Gunpowder which was in a Magazine in this place, where it lay exposed to any attempt that might be made to seize it, and I have reason to believe the people intended to take that step.

the Magazine in Williamsburg stored gunpowder, which Lord Dunmore removed in April 1775

The governor also claimed he was ensuring a slave insurrection could not use the gunpowder, but the colonists recognized he was disarming them. Local residents quickly discovered what was happening, but the sailors and marines had time to load 15 of the 18 half-barrels into a wagon and return safely to the Magdalen. Patrick Henry led militia on an unauthorized march to the capital city. Violence at Williamsburg was avoided by a face-saving compromise when the royal Receiver General paid for the value of the gunpowder.

Dunmore's attempt to seize the gunpowder was in response to orders sent from London to all the colonial governors to control the military supplies that might be used if the political debate in the colonies into a shooting war. The Virginians responding to the removal of the gunpowder at the magazine in Williamsburg were completely unaware of the fighting at Lexington and Concord which had occurred a day earlier, but rebellious activists in both Massachusetts and Virginia anticipated efforts to seize military supplies.

Back in England, the Prime Minister Lord North had Parliament pass a "conciliatory proposal" to restore the relationship with the colonies and end the unhappy disputes between the colonies and the Mother Country. To respond to the proposals, Governor Dunmore had to call the House of Burgesses into session again. Peyton Randolph returned from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to preside again as Speaker of the House of Burgesses.

While the burgesses were discussing Lord North's proposal, Lord Dunmore fled the Governor's Palace. He reached safety on the H.M.S. Fowey on June 8, 1775.

The House of Burgesses adopted its reply on June 10, repeating that only the colonial legislatures had the right of taxation. Rather than reject Lord North's proposal outright, the House of Burgesses said an official response must come from all the colonies together through the Continental Congress. The reply had to be delivered to Lord Dunmore on the British warship, since he was no longer in residence at the Governor's Palace.

the House of Burgesses kept meeting until almost a month after Lord Dunmore fled Williamnsburg
Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, May 6, 1776

Dunmore then sought to spark civil war among the colonists, with the hope that the Loyalists would fight the rebels and allow him to reoccupy the Governor's Palace.

Lord Dunmore fled Williamsburg on June 8, 1775 and took refuge on a British warship
Source: Library of Congress, Flight of Lord Dunmore

He also sought to weaken the patriots by recruiting their enslaved men to flee to the British lines. Their absence from Virginia plantations would reduce the ability of the rebellious Americans to labor needed to construct fortifications, or to produce food and supplies needed by the Virginia militia. Governor Dunmore issued a proclamation in 1775 offering freedom to black men who would fight for the British, and formed the Ethiopian Regiment with 800-2,000 formerly enslaved Virginians.

Dunmore's strategy failed in part because the Loyalists were threatened seriously by rebels who lived nearby. Dunmore created a base of operations at Norfolk after he fled Williamsburg, but the British lost control of the city after being defeated in battle at the Great Bridge crossing over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. Dunmore had his warships shell Norfolk on January 1, 1776. His attempt to destroy the city succeeded only because the Virginians chose to complete the burning of Norfolk, preventing the British from returning and re-establishing a military base there.

The American rebels destroyed Norfolk rather than fortify it for the same reason as the British - they could not defend the city; they lacked the troops to repel an assault. Norfolk was exposed to easy cannonading and ground attack by troops unloaded from a British fleet, and the small boats in the Virginia Navy were no match for the British Navy.

a civilian wounded in the January 1, 1776 bombardment of Norfolk petitioned the General Assembly for aid in October, 1776
Source: Library of Virginia, The UnCommonwealth blog, Two Revolutionary War Petitions (March 9, 2022)

After abandoning Norfolk, Governor Dunmore established a base at Gwynn's Island. The Virginians brought artillery to the Mathews County shoreline and bombarded the island on July 9, 1776. The British, with most of the men in the Ethiopian Regiment debilitated by disease, sailed away.

Dunmore moved to St. George's Island in Maryland, at the mouth of the Potomac River. Maryland militia slipped onto the island and destroyed the well, along with some of his water casks. The HMS Fowey and the rest of the British fleet sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay in August, 1776.

As George Washington noted much later in the war, the ships of the Royal Navy moved British troops faster than the Virginia militia could respond by marching on the poor roads and via slow ferry crossings. Throughout the Revolutionary War and again in the War of 1812, British ships enabled the army and marines to conduct swift raids along the Virginia shoreline without significant local resistance almost anywhere in Tidewater Virginia:³

Should the enemy continue in the lower parts of Virginia, they will have every advantage by being able to move up and down the Rivers in small parties, while it will be out of our power to molest them for want of the means of suddenly transporting ourselves across those Rivers to come at them.

For the first four years of the American Revolution until 1779, there were no British forces in Virginia. During that time, the rebellious patriots consolidated thir political control and on June, 29, 1776 became the first colony to declare independence.

A significant percentage of Virginia colonists were loyalists, people who opposed independence and sought to perpetuate political control by King George III and Parliament. However, there were not enough loyalists concentrated in one place to create their own army, seize control of a part of Virginia, or create a parallel government to Virginia's revolutionary conventions and ultimately an independent state government.

The battle at Great Bridge in December, 1775 was the one pitched battle between patriots and loyalists in Virginia, the closest battle equivalent to the February 27, 1776 fight in North Carolina at Moores Creek bridge. At Great Bridge, white loyalists in the Queen's Own Loyal Regiment and formerly enslaved black men in the Ethiopian Regiment supported British regulars.

British raids along the Chesapeake Bay used hit-and-run tactics. Plantations were robbed and buildings destroyed, but raiding parties quickly returned to the British warships - sometimes with enslaved people seeking freedom for their families.

Two seizures of Portsmouth by naval forces included military expeditions along the James River to destroy supplies and punish plantation owners who supported the revolution, but after Lord Dunmore fled in 1776 the British never tried to seize and hold Virginia in order to restore a royal government. Virginia was a military backwater while the British sought to defeat the Continental Army in various places between Rhode Island and Pennsylvania in 1776-1781, and to regain control of the southern colonies starting in 1780.

There was no organized British counter-insurgency effort in Virginia. It was not until March 1781 that a British army arrived in Virginia, commanded by Major General William Phillips, with enough resources to stimulate a potential counter-revolution. By then, the suppression of the loyalists in Virginia had been too effective. The only group of people willing to risk their lives to join the British were enslaved families who saw an opportunity to escape their captivity.

Lord Cornwallis brought his army from Wilmington, North Carolina and reached Petersburg in May 1781, right after General Phillips died. He then moved across Virginia from the Fall Line to the Blue Ridge and collected enslaved families seeking to escape, but after his forces marched away from each place they camped the patriots remained in control. The loyalists who fought in Virginia with Lord Cornwallis had been recruited from other states.

The British Navy treated the Chesapeake Bay as a marginal military target. Virginia and Maryland had minimal naval forces to defeat. Starting in 1778 the French fleets supporting the American forces were based in Newport, Rhode Island or sailing along the Atlantic coastline. French ships did not sail into the Chesapeake Bay until August 1781.

Between 1775-1779 the British navy chose to patrol the Chesapeake Bay, raid shoreline plantations, and intercept ships taking tobacco and wheat to Caribbean islands and importing supplies from there. The British did not seek occupy Portsmouth, in part because the shipping channel at Portsmouth was shallow. In 1781, after Lord Cornwallis led a British army through Virginia, he chose to make his base at Yorktown. Norfolk had been destroyed, and the channel of the mouth of the Rappahannock River at Yorktown was better for the Royal Navy ships than the Elizabeth River channel at Portsmouth.

Virginia managed to keep exporting and importing by ship when the British navy was on patrol at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay between 1776-1781. Small ships were loaded with cargo at Franklin's South Quay on the Blackwater River. They could travel down to the Albemarle Sound and through inlets in the Outer Banks to reach the Atlantic Ocean, avoiding capture in most cases.

The British and American military commanders thought the war would be won by decisive battles on land, leading one side or the other to recognize that peace was a better alternative to continued warfare. The British lost an army at Saratoga in 1777 and the Americans lost an army at Charles Town in 1780, but those defeats were followed by continued fighting rather than diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful settlement.

Though it is common to think that the surrender of the British under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown was the key to the American Revolution, George Washington won the war by not having his army captured in battles fought elsewhere prior to Yorktown. From a military perspective, Washington's greatest success was his ability to keep the Continental Army in the field. He lacked the resources to defeat the British until October 1781, but his ultimate success was based primarily on his ability to keep his army intact despite the lack of supplies and pay for the soldiers (especially during the winter encampment at Valley Forge) and to keep the British from capturing his army.

Washington was not by nature a defense-oriented general. He was forced to leave New York City in 1776, and he sought to recapture the city for the next five years. He wisely preserved his military capacity by resisting his desire to attack the strong fortifications. That cautious approach, against Washington's preference, was assisted in part by the unwillingness of the French army commanders to assault the city.

As described by historian Woody Holton:⁴

George Washington was initially bent on going on offense, and his classic elite-British-empire-masculine aggressiveness several times nearly ended in disaster. But he learned from his mistakes, and while he devised nearly a dozen plans to drive the British from their headquarters in Manhattan, he never actually executed even one of them. Ultimately Washington's greatest contribution to the war effort was restraining his own aggressive instincts.

Richard Henry Le and other Virginians were leaders in the Continental Congress calling for independence, but the state experienced little damage from British troops until 1779
Source: National Archives, Lee Resolution (1776)

Except for naval raids, there were no British troops in Virginia for nearly three years after Lord Dunmore sailed away from Gwynn's Island in July 1776. The army returned during a raid in May, 1779 led by Commodore George Collier and Major General Edward Mathew. They destroyed the Gosport Shipyard at Portsmouth, but that attack was followed by another British abandonment after just two weeks.

the British captured the Gosport Shipyard at Portsmouth and burned it in 1779
Source: Library of Congress, Part of the Province of Virginia (1791)

On September 23, 1780, volunteers and members of the militia mustered together in Abingdon. They marched south the next day, joining others in the Overmountain Men to cross the Blue Ridge and fight the British Army moving north from Charleston. On October 7, the Americans defeated British Major Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist militia at Kings Mountain. That battle was the first to disrupt the British "southern strategy."

Following the defeat, American militia expanded their control of the Carolinas. Loyalist militia were unable to resist outside of areas where British troops were stationed. To protect the Ninety Six region and the backcountry of South Carolina, Cornwallis moved from Charlotte to Winnsboro, South Carolina for the winter of 1780-81.⁵

the Overmountain Men started marching towards Kings Mountain after mustering in Abingdon, so the modern Overmountain Trail starts there
Source: National Park Service, Southern Campaign of the American Revolution Parks in South Carolina

Southwest Virginians mustered at Abingdon in September, 1780 and marched across the Blue Ridge as part of the Overmountain Men
Source: National Park Service, Abingdon Muster Grounds

Major General Alexander Leslie arrived in Hampon Roads with over 2,000 troops in October, 1780. He was to support Lord Cornwallis's campaign in the Carolinas, and to disrupt the delivery of supplies that were leaving Virginia to support the Continental Army. Leslie left after only a month in the area, since after King's Mountain it was clear that Cornwallis was not headed towards Virginia. Thomas Jefferson anticipated the withdrawal when he wrote to George Washington on November 3, 1780:⁶

...they give out themselves that after drawing the force of the State to Suffolk they mean to go to Baltimore. Their movements here had induced me to think they came in expectation of meeting with Lord Cornwallis in this country, that his precipitate retreat has left them without a concerted object, and that they were waiting further orders.

General Benedict Arnold returned to Hampton Roads at the end of December, 1780. Arnold established his base at Portsmouth, and it remained the only place under continued British control until August 1781. As British troops marched across the state in 1781, they stayed in one place only briefly. As in the Carolinas, loyalists in Virginia who showed support for the invading army were exposed to retaliation as soon as King George III's troops moved away.

Between January 1-3, British troops sailed up the James River and raided plantations. General Arnold reached Richmond and occupied the city on January 4, 1781. The 200 militia defending the city withdrew after filing one ineffective volley. The British sacked the Virginia capital, then marched overland on te northern side of he James River back to Portsmouth. More plantations were raided on that march, despite efforts of Virginia militia to harass the British in multiple skirmishes until they reached Portsmouth again on January 19.

British forces under Benedict Arnold reached Richmond in January, 1781
Source: Leventhal Map Collection, Boston Public Library, Skirmish at Richmond Jan. 5th. 1781

On February 22, 1781, General Arnold held a public assembly in Princess Anne County to get 400 local residents to swear a new oath of allegiance to the British government. They were willing to drink and eat what Arnold supplied for the event, and willing to mouth the words in the required oath, but they were just going through the motions.

Captain Johann Ewald, commanding Hessian forces, challenged one uncommitted Loyalist to raise troops locally in order to maintain control over the county. Ewald promised that the British would provide uniforms and weapons as needed. The Princess Anne resident replied to Ewald:⁷

I must first see if it is true that your people really intend to remain with us. You have already been in this area twice. General Leslie gave me the same assurances in the past autumn, and where is he now? In Carolina! Who knows where you will be this autumn? And should the French unite with the Americans, everything would certainly be lost to you here. What would we loyally disposed subjects have then? Nothing but misfortune from the Opposition Party, if you leave us again.

Ewald replied initially, frustrated that his Hessians were risking their lives to assist the Loyalists unwilling to risk anything:⁸

But you loyalists won't do anything! You only want to be protected, to live in peace in your houses. We are supposed to break our bones for you, in place of yours, to accomplish your purpose. We attempt everything, and sacrifice our own blood for your assumed cause.

Cornwallis entered Virginia after crossing South Carolina and North Carolina, before choosing Yorktown as the deepwater port where he would be resupplied by ships of the Royal Navy sailing from New York
Source: Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, Campaigns of 1781 (Plate 160h, digitized by University of Richmond)

Later, Ewald recognized that Loyalists were wise to keep a low profile. He was surprised to discover that the responses he heard from loyalists were convincing and provided a clear rationale for not overtly supporting the British cause. The Marquis de Lafayette articulated the same perspective in a letter to the Continental Congress, which was alarmed that Cornwallis was marching through North Carolina into Virginia without meeting formal resistance:⁹

You can be entirely calm with regard to the rapid marches of Lord Cornwallis. Let him march from St. Augustine to Boston. What he wins in his front, he loses in his rear. His army will bury itself without requiring us to fight with him.

Lord Cornwallis chased General Nathaniel Green to the Dan River, before marching back into North Carolina and then fighting at Guilford Courthouse
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)

On February 20, 1781 the Continental Congress directed the Pennsylvania Line to join the "Southern Army." Detachments needed to defend against Native America attacks were left in the western part of the state; George Washington sent orders for the rest to march to Virginia. The Pennsylvania Line had been disorderly, so he told General "Mad Athony" Wayne to arrive with the first units so a top commander could maintain discipline as different units reached Virginia.. ¹⁰

General William Phillips brought 2,000 more soldiers to Portsmouth from New York in March 1781, with directions by Sir Henry Clinton to take command from Benedict Arnold. Expanding the war effort in Virginia would reduce the number of troops who could be sent south from that state into the Carolinas, and interdict supplies which could support George Washington's army around New York.

British fleets seized Portsmouth in May 1779, October 1780, and January 1781
Source: Henry Beebee Carrington, Battles of the American Revolution, 1775-1781 (opposite p.595)

Phillips sailed out of Portsmouth on April 18, 1781. He seized Williamsburg, then destroyed the Virginia State Navy base on the Chickahominy River. He crossed the James River and landed at City Point, then captured Petersburg a day later in the Battle of Blandford on April 25. In that battle, 1,000 Virginia militia under General Baron von Steuben delayed the 2,500 British troops by a day. The militia retreated north across the Appomattox River to a ridge that became known as Colonial Heights. The delay gave Lafayette time to develop defenses around Richmond.

General Phillips moved from Portsmouth to the north side of the James River, then back across the river to capture Petersburg
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major Général M'is de LaFayette

The British then destroyed the barracks at Chesterfield Court House and captured ships and supplies at Osborne's Landing. General Phillips raided Richmond again. He chose to avoid Lafayette's defenses, but destroyed the cannon foundry at Westham upstream of the city.¹⁰

American cannon and other supplies at Westham Iron Works were destroyed by General William Phillips in 1781
Source: National Archives, Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay: Sheet No. 13 Richmond (Civil War era map)

In April, Lieutenant General Charles Earl Cornwallis was in Wilmington, North Carolina, south of General Phillips. Cornwallis had marched north from Charleston, which the British had captured in May 1780. He had arrived at Wilmington after a series of battles across the Carolinas in which the English won most engagements other than Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780 and Cowpens on January 17, 1781. However, the British army always lost soldiers and no reinforcements arrived from Charleston or New York.

The battles drained Cornwallis' army without destroying the capacity of the Americans to maneuver in the Carolinas. General Nathanael Greene skillfully escaped being trapped as he retreated north from Cowpens. He raced for the Dan River.

In early February 1781, Cornwallis thought he was in position to block Greene from crossing the Dan River. The British and their Hessian allies were at what is now Winston-Salem; Greene was at what is now Greensboro about 20 miles to the east. To reach fords of the upper Dan River that were shallow enough for an army to cross, Greene needed to march north - where Cornwallis could intercept him and force a major battle.

However, his dragoons led by Col. Otho Williams, including cavalry commanded by "Lighthorse Henry" Lee, screened his movements and left the British unclear about the best opportunity to intercept him. The American army actually marched northeast, away from Cornwallis. Greene had his men collect all the boats along the Dan River and successfully ferried his army across the river at Irvin's Ferry and Boyd's Ferry. The Americans won the three week, 250-mile "Race to the Dan," but by just 12 hours after heavy marching by both sides:¹¹

Camps were not really camps, only stops for a few hours sleep before continuing to march. The van of Cornwallis's forces was often in sight of Williams' rear guard, occasionally exchanging fire. By midnight on February 14 the race had been won by Greene, but by only a few hours.

Nathaniel Greene's army moved northeast, away from Cornwallis, and won the "Race to the Dan"
Source: National Park Service, An accurate map of North and South Carolina

He camped at what is now South Boston, keeping all the boats on the north bank of the river so Cornwallis could not reach him. After resupply, he then headed south to challenge Cornwallis. The battle fought at Guilford Courthouse on March 14, 1781, was technically a British victory because the American army had retreat from the battlefield, but it was a Pyrrhic victory; British losses were significant.

Cornwallis chose to march to Wilmington to resupply. Wilmington was under British control in 1781, along with three other ports at Savannah, Charleston, Portsmouth and New York.

In Wilmington, Cornwallis considered returning to Charles Town to defend South Carolina and Georgia, particularly to protect the outpost at Camden that was threatened by General Greene. Cornwallis concluded that his army was too small to conquer and hold North Carolina, especially since so few loyalists were willing to fight. A British Army in the interior of the colony was at risk of being trapped between major rivers without hope of supply by the Royal Navy, since the rivers were not navigable except near the Atlantic Ocean.

He preferred to wage offensive rather than defensive warfare, and was did not desire to return to the brutality of the Loyalists and American Rebels fighting a civil war in the Carolinas. There was no potential for glory or satisfaction in a war of attrition.

The potential for Cornwallis' small army to conquer Virginia and establish a Loyalist government there was thin, but at least he could stay on the offensive there and be supplied near the rivers. By marching into Virginia, Cornwallis might fight Continental Army units and Virginia militia in standard battles. He could capture territory and transfer it to loyalist control, if enough loyalists could be found. The British forces remaining at Camden, Ninety-Six and Augusta would be in a stronger position to hold their territory if Cornwallis cut off the rebel troops and supplies flowing south.

Cornwallis marched north from Wilmington, leaving on April 25, 1781. His superior, Sir Henry Clinton in New York, had directed Cornwallis to suppress the rebellion in South Carolina while General William Phillips would assist in Virginia by interrupting supplies from there. Clinton planned to withdraw troops from their disruption efforts in Virginia to reinforce his army in New York, where he expected the French to strike.

Cornwallis did not seek permission from Clinton to ignore his orders; he simply notified the Commander-in-Chief that he was moving into Virginia. Cornwallis did notify General William Phillips of his planned move, and shared his pessimism regarding the likelihood of either military or political success in Virginia:¹²

...whether after we have joined we shall have sufficient for a war of conquest I should think very doubtfull. By a war of conquest I mean to possess the country sufficiently to overturn the rebel government and to establish a militia and some kind of mixed authority of our own.

Source: American Battlefield Trust, The Revolutionary War in the North: Animated Battle Map

Source: American Battlefield Trust, The Revolutionary War in the South: Animated Battle Map

Phillips went to Petersburg in expectation of meeting Cornwallis there, but Phillips died from malaria or typhus before Cornwallis arrived. The general's body was buried secretly in the cemetery at Blandford Church; the exact location is still unknown.

Lord Cornwallis marched from Wilmington, North Carolina to Petersburg to combine forces with General William Phillips
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)

Col. Banastre Tarleton seized the ships and supplies at Osborne's Landing on April 27, 1781
Source: Huntington Library, Journal of the operations of the Queen's Rangers (Colonel John Simcoe, 1782)

After arriving in Petersburg, Cornwallis sidelined Benedict Arnold by sending him back to New York. Col. Banastre Tarleton, in his 1787 memoirs, diplomatically described Cornwallis' removal of a person he did not want in his army:¹³

Brigadier-general Arnold obtained leave to return to New York, where business of consequence demanded his attendance.

The British forces moved from Petersburg towards Richmond, seeking to defeat the Marquis de Lafayette before he could unite with reinforcements coming from Pennsylvania. The British had complete military dominance thanks to their superior numbers (over 7,000 men) and especially their cavalry. Lafayette had only a few men on horses, and struggled to even monitor the movements of Cornwallis' forces.

on May 24, 1781 Cornwallis marched from Petersburg to Maycox plantation in King George County and then crossed James River to Westover plantation
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major Général M'is de LaFayette

The rebellious Virginia leaders in the General Assembly fled Richmond on May 10, headed west to reconvene on May 24 in Charlottesville. A quorum of members was finally available on May 28, when the legislature reconvened in (probably) Scottsville at the former Albemarle County Courthouse. Jefferson's second one-year term expired at the start of June and he had declined to serve any longer, but the legislature did not elect his replacement on May 28.¹⁴

Cornwallis decided that he could not cross the North Anna River and catch Lafayette before General "Mad" Anthony Wayne would arrive with the Pennsylvania reinforcements. Cornwallis also decided that the supplies stored by the Virginians at two locations to his west were more significant that the material at Fredericksburg and Hunter's Iron Works at Falmouth.

Taking advantage of Lafayette being on the other side of the North Anna River, Cornwallis split his army. He sent Colonel John Simcoe and his Queens Rangers to seize an important supply base at the mouth of the Rivanna River, ordered Col. Banastre Tarleton to race west from Hanover Court House to Charlottesville, and marched with the rest to a planned reunion at Thomas Jefferson's Elk Hill plantation in Goochland County.

At Point of Fork (the site of the old Monacan town of Rassawek, near modern-day Columbia), Baron von Steuben moved all the supplies and boats away from Colonel John Simcoe to the south side of the James River. Von Steuben was fooled into thinking all of Cornwallis' army had arrived, and the American rebels fled. The British were able to cross the river unopposed and destroy the stockpile.¹⁵

under Colonel John Simcoe, the Queen's Rangers (American Tories) captured Baron von Steuben's supply base at Point of Fork (modern-day Columbia) on June 5, 1781
Source: Huntington Library, Journal of the operations of the Queen's Rangers (Colonel John Simcoe, 1782)

Col. Banastre Tarleton led a raid to Charlottesville with his British Legion to destroy supplies there and also to capture the General Assembly. As British cavalry were riding up the hill at Monticello on June 4, Thomas Jefferson fled in the other direction. He retired to property he owned in Bedford County where he later constructed Poplar Forest.

Opponents, primarily supporters of Patrick Henry, quickly accused Jefferson of mismanaging the Virginia response to the invasions by Arnold, Phillips, and Cornwallis, and of personal cowardice for his flight. Jefferson responded that the state always lacked the resources to counter the British, particularly a navy to stop them from crossing rivers:¹⁶

I believe we are left with a single armed boat only.

The legislators who escaped Tarleton went further west to Staunton and reassembled in Trinity Church. While meeting in Staunton, the General Assembly elected Thomas Nelson Jr. as the next governor.¹⁷

General Cornwallis dispatched troops under Col. Tarleton to Charlottesville and under Col. Simcoe to the Point of Fork on the James River
Source: British Library, MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at Petersburg on the 20.th of May, til their arrival at Portsmouth on the 12.th of July 1781

After being rejoined by Simcoe and Tarleton, Cornwallis marched his army east from Elk Hill back to Williamsburg. There he receive a message from Gen. Henry Clinton in New York, who feared attack by the combined forces under General George Washington and the French under the Count de Rochambeau. Clinton demanded Cornwallis detach a force from his unchallenged marches through Virginia and send them to New York. To supply the troops and to ensure adequate fortifications to protect his remaining force, Cornwallis started to move to the British base at Portsmouth.

That required crossing the James River again. The British Navy brought up ships, and the army moved to Jamestown Island in order to be ferried across to Cobham.

That is where Lafayette finally sent Wayne's troops to attack Cornwallis. Lafayette thought he was dealing with only the rear guard because Tarleton had arranged for him to capture a false deserter with that "intelligence," but Cornwallis had disguised his movements and outnumbered the Americans. Wayne managed to retreat back to Green Spring Plantation, the former home of Governor Culpeper. The British victory at Green Spring was the largest infantry engagement to occur in Virginia during the American Revolutionary War. ¹⁸

After crossing to the south bank, Tarleton was sent west to Bedford County to interdict and destroy supplies intended for the General Greene's army in the Carolinas. The British Legion left Cobham on July 9, 1781, passing through Petersburg and Prince Edward Courthouse (now Worsham, near Hamden-Sydney college south of Farmville). During the raid, the cavalry rested in the middle of the day to avoid exhausting the horses.

British intelligence was faulty; the American supplies had been shipped to the Carolinas a month earlier. Tarleton chose a different route back to reach Portsmouth, since General Wayne had moved his units to Petersburg. Fortunately for the British, no Americans contested their crossing over the Blackwater River, where a defended position could have blocked the ford.

Over the course of 15 days, the cavalry rode over 400 miles. There were no significant engagements, and few supplies were destroyed. Fine Virginia horses were captured, but Tarleton later judged that the British had been more damaged by the long, hot ride than the Virginians:¹⁹

The stores destroyed, either of a public or private nature, were not in quantity or value equivalent to the damage sustained in the skirmishes on the route, and the loss of men and horses by the excessive heat of the climate.

One of the tall tales of the Revolutionary Way is of the superhuman strength of Peter Francisco. He was an impressively-large man, perhaps 6'6" tall. Supposedly he single-handedly pulled an 1,100 pound cannon off its carriage and brought it safely to a wagon during the battle of Camden.

During Tarleton's Bedford raid, nine of Tarleton's cavalry made Francisco their prisoner. When one demanded that he hand over the silver buckles on his shoes, Francisco reportedly grabbed the soldier's sword, wounded him, and forced the other eight to flee while leaving their horses behind.

Perhaps the most accurate element of the story is the behavior of the tavern keeper. Francisco reported that he helped the British by giving one a gun to shoot Francisco. The tavern keeper was a loyalist, for at least that moment. Not all Virginians were strong supporters of the patriot cause, especially when surrounded by British troops.²⁰

Peter Francisco, an unusually strong and courageous man, became an American hero for his fighting against the British
Source: Library of Congress, Peter Francisco's gallant action with nine of Tarleton's cavalry in sight of a troop of four hundred men

After Tarleton left on the Bedford raid, Cornwallis took the rest of his army along the path of modern Route 10 to Suffolk and on to Portsmouth. He received new orders directing him to stay north of the James River and to secure Old Point Comfort as a base for the British Navy. After determining it was not the best place to establish a base and wait for resupply from New York, he moved the British Army by ship to Yorktown in August, 1781. The British destroyed the fortifications at Portsmouth to prevent them from being used by Lafayette.²¹

the British sailed from Portsmouth to Yorktown in August, 1781 in anticipation of getting resupplied there
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)

The ultimate fate of the British army at Yorktown was determined by a naval battle in the Atlantic Ocean. At the Battle of the Capes, a French fleet blocked the British ships coming from New York from entering the Chesapeake Bay. When Washington and Rochambeau arrived with American and French troops, Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown without the expected reinforcements or supplies.

His surrender to a united force of French and American troops in October, 1781, was a catastrophe for the enslaved men and women who had chosen to abandon their Virginia homes and follow the British. During the four months of marching across the state, Cornwallis encouraged enslaved people to leave their masters and follow him. Cornwallis learned from his Carolina experience, and did not expect Virginia's Tories to re-establish control and govern after his army had moved on. He did not try to win the hearts and minds of white Virginians by returning slaves. Instead, he sought to impose economic pain on the rebels and force the colony into submission, and to the enslaved population "freedom wore a red coat" in 1781.

After Cornwallis surrendered, George Washington ordered that the free blacks within the British lines be separated from the enslaved blacks. Those who were judged to be escaped slaves were returned to their masters.²²

Yorktown brought most, but not all, fighting to an end. On the western frontier, British officers worked with Native Americans to launch two major assaults in 1782.

On August 19, 50 British soldiers and 300 Native Americans clashed with 182 Kentucky militiamen at the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky. The Americans had been pursuing the British/Native American force which had attacked Bryan's Station and, after failing to capture it, headed north to cross the Ohio River.

Daniel Boone warned the Kentucky militia that they were following a too-obvious trail, and an ambush lay ahead. Other leaders chased on anyway, to avoid accusations of cowardice. Boone followed, commenting:²³

We are all slaughtered men.

Boone was correct. About 1/3 of the Kentuckians - including Boone's son Israel - died that day.²⁴

In the other assault by British rangers and Native American warriors, Fort Henry was surrounded in September, 1782. The defenders inside the fort at Wheeling were just the local residents, who raced inside just before the raiders appeared. A few other Virginians, including the family of Ebenezer Zane, fled to the nearby blockhouse where the gunpowder was stored.

The fort's defenders repelled two attacks on the first night, but ran low on gunpowder by morning. Elizabeth Zane ran from the fort to the blockhouse, filled her apron with gunpowder, and raced back to the fort under fire from the attackers. That enabled the defenders to continue their resistance. The attackers had brought only enough supplies for a few days, and soon abandoned the siege.²⁵

The American retaliation came in November, 1782. George Rogers Clark led an army into Ohio and burned five Shawnee villages, in the Northwest Territory to which Virginia had only recently ceded its claims to the Continental Congress. The Shawnee retreated rather than fight, but the expedition is often described as the "last battle" of the American Revolution.²⁶

It took four months for the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown to finally convince Parliament that the war in North American could not end in a British victory, with restoration of the colonies as subservient to London officials. Three times Parliament voted on ending the war.

On December 12, 1781, a motion to end the war was defeated by a 220-179 vote. Another vote on February 22, 1782 ended with a majority still in support of continuing hostilities, but the vote was 194-193. Five days later, with 65 more members of Parliament in attendance, the decision to end the war was adopted by a 234-215 vote.

Negotiating a treaty took 18 more months. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war and acknowledged American independence, was signed on September 3, 1783. Article Seven said:²⁷

There shall be a firm and perpetual Peace between his Britanic Majesty and the said States, and between the Subjects of the one and the Citizens of the other, wherefore all Hostilities both by Sea and Land shall from henceforth cease: All prisoners on both Sides shall be set at Liberty, and his Britanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his Armies, Garrisons & Fleets from the said United States, and from every Post, Place and Harbour within the same; leaving in all Fortifications, the American Artillery that may be therein: And shall also Order & cause all Archives, Records, Deeds & Papers belonging to any of the said States, or their Citizens, which in the Course of the War may have fallen into the hands of his Officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and Persons to whom they belong.

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783
Source: Iowa Historical Society, Treaty of Paris

By the end of the war, the death toll from disease was far greater than from actual fighting. According to historian Woody Holton:²⁸

Fewer than 7,000 Whig men were stabbed or shot in the American Revolution; more Americans died in three days at Gettysburg. The real killer was disease, especially the disease that flew through the British prisons and prison ships. The best estimate I could find was that disease slew about 28,000 men—four times the number who succumbed to literal violence. And that is not even counting, as we rarely do, the women who were killed by the various diseases that the war circulated.

in 1781, Cornwallis marched from North Carolina to meet General William Phillips in Petersburg
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781

in 1781, Lafayette (yellow line) could only shadow the British (red line) as they chose to raid Richmond and destroy supplies throughout Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781

Cornwallis concentrated forces at Petersburg in April 1781, crossed the James River to Westover Plantation and captured Richmond, then embarked at Bermuda Hundred to sail back to the British base at Portsmouth
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781

after an American victory at Cowpens, General Daniel Morgan and General Nathaniel Greene managed a strategic retreat across the Carolinas and crossed the Dan River before General Cornwallis
Source: Internet Archive, A School History of the United States, from the Discovery of America to the Year 1878 (p.196)

highway historical markers highlight Revolutionary War events in eastern Virginia

route of Comte de Rochambeau's army through Northern Virginia, 1781 and 1782
Source: Library of Congress, Cote de York-town - Boston: Marches de l'armee

Lord Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, with the expectation that reinforcements would arrive from New York before his base could be captured through a siege by French and America armies
Source: Library of Congress, Plan of Yorktown and Glucester [sic], Virginia, October 1781

re-enactors at the Yorktown Victory Monument
Source: Joint Base Langley-Eustis

most military activity in Virginia occurred in 1780-81, after Cornwallis moved north from Charleston
Source: Library of Congress, The comprehensive series, historical-geographical maps of the United States (1919)

the Continental Congress was responsible for uniforms and other supplies needed by soldiers in the Continental Army
Source: Library of Congress, Infantry: Continental Army, 1779-1783 (by Henry Alexander Ogden, 1897)

units not in the Continental Army chose their own form of dress
Source: Library of Congress, Independent company organizations (by Henry Alexander Ogden, c.1891)

Albemarle Barracks

Battle of Great Bridge

Battle of Gwynn's Island

Battle of Yorktown

Benedict Arnold and William Phillips in Virginia, 1780-1781

The Chesapeake Bay: Avenue for Attack

Collier-Mathew Raid of 1779

Colonial Militia in Virginia

Loyalists in Virginia During and After the American Revolution

A Monument In Petersburg Honoring a British General Who Invaded Virginia in the Revolutionary War

Leslie's Raid in 1780

Lord Dunmore's War

Prelude to the Revolutionary War in Virginia

Race to Charlottesville: Jack Jouett and Banastre Tarleton

Virginia Military District

Virginia and Prisoners of War in the American Revolution

Virginians in the Continental Army

Did Enslaved Virginians Choose to Be Loyalists or Revolutionaries in the Revolutionary War?

Why the Conservative, Rich Gentry Rebelled Against the "System" in the American Revolution

Why Was Virginia a Military Target in 1781?

Winning the Illinois Country in the American Revolution

Blandford Church in Petersburg - burial site of Major General William Phillips, who captured the city in 1781

in 1781, Col. Banastre Tarleton raided as far west as Bedford and Charlottesville and Lord Cornwallis marched up to the North Anna River
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)

Bedford was not safe from the British in 1781
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)

Links

• American Battlefield Trust
• Peter Francisco: The Incredible Hulk of the American Revolution
• American Revolution Round Table - Richmond
• "Revolutionary Richmond" Brochure Now Available
• Campaign 1776
• The campaign in Virginia, 1781: an exact reprint of six rare pamphlets on the Clinton-Cornwallis controversy
• Colonial National Historical Park
• Colonial Williamsburg
• The Revolution in Virginia
• Virginia's Very Own Navy
• Digital Public Library of America
• Road to Revolution, 1763-1776
• Encyclopedia Virginia
• Virginia Women during the American Revolution
• Fairfax County Resolves
• From Revolution to Reconstruction
• George Mason
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• Inside the Vault: A Summary View of the Rights of British America
• Inside the Vault: The Treaty of Paris
• Jack Jouett: Louisa County's Revolutionary Hero
• Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
• The People Between: Dunmore's War and the Indigenous Struggle for Independence
• Journal of the American Revolution
• Recognizing The Skirmish At Kemp's Landing (December 17, 2018)
• LIBERTY! The American Revolution (a PBS broadcast)
• The American Revolution: National Discussions of Our Revolutionary Origins
• Lafayette's Virginia Campaign of 1781
• Library of Congress
• Articles of Confederation
• Documents from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789
• The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789
• Jefferson's Flight from Monticello
• London Gazette - report of Lord Cornwallis' surrender (December 15, 1781)
• Maryland Loyalism Project
• National Archives
• The American Revolution
• Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, ca. 1800–ca. 1912
• National Park Service
• George Washington Birthplace National Monument
• Lafayette and the Virginia Campaign 1781
• Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
• Peter Francisco Society
• Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail
• Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial
• Revolutionary War
• Revolutionary War Timeline
• Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail
• Yorktown National Battlefield in Colonial National Historical Park
• Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture
• Doing History
• Revolutionary Virginia
• Siege of Yorktown (commemorating the 225th anniversary of the surrender on October 19-22, 2006)
• Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution
• The Revolution in Virginia by H. J. Eckenrode (NOTE: a 1916 publication)
• Road to Revolution Heritage Trail
• The Story of the Campaign And Siege of Yorktown- The American Revolution by H. J. Eckenrode (NOTE: a 1931 publication)
• University of Virginia - The Papers of George Washington
• Revolutionary War Series Documents
• US Army Center for Military History
• American Military History: The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917 - The American Revolution, First Phase
• Supplying Washington's Army
• The Virginia Campaign and the Blockade and Seizure of Yorktown, 1781
• The War of the American Revolution
• US State Department
• U.S. Debt and Foreign Loans, 1775–1795
• Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission
• Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War, by J.T. McAllister (1913)
• Virginia Museum of Historry and Culture
• Revolution Revisited podcast
• Yale Law School - The Avalon Project
• May 15, 1776: Preamble and Resolution of the Virginia Convention
• June 7, 1776: Resolution introduced in the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee (Virginia) proposing a Declaration of Independence
• June 29, 1776: Constitution of Virginia and earlier draft)

Cornwallis's surrender in 1781 was negotiated in the Moore House outside the town of Yorktown by subordinates - Cornwallis and Washington did not meet there in person to sign terms of capitulation
Source: Historical collections of Virginia, The Moore House, Yorktown (p.530)

the Moore House in Yorktown was damaged during the Civil War
Source: The Photographic History of the Civil War, The Scene of Yorktown's Only Surrender (p.268)

the French army marched through Fairfax County in 1781 towards Yorktown, and camped there again in 1782 when headed back north
Source: Library of Congress, Amérique campagne. - Camp a Colchester (Rochambeau Map Collection, 1782)

References

Yorktown Victory Monument

Yorktown Grace Church

Yorktown fascine (1781 sand bag)

Yorktown "Fox" cannon

NPS visitor center (Yorktown Battlefield)

Thomas Nelson house (Yorktown)

Nelson House 1781 cannonball (fake...)

Yorktown mural (Read Street)

(click on images for larger versions)

Cornwallis (red line) marched up from Charleston and across much of Virginia in 1781 before reaching Yorktown
Source: Library of Congress, Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 (Hart-Bolton American history maps, 1917)

the road south of Wolf's Ford, where French artillery crossed the Occoquan River in 1781, was known as Telephone Road in 1901
Source: Library of Congress, Map of northern Virginia (1894); Map of Prince William County, Virginia