The Secret Weapon in America's Revolution – HUMAN EVENTS
On Sept. 28, 1781, Gen. George Washington led a combined force of 17,000 French and Continental troops upon Yorktown, Va., and encircled British Gen. Charles Cornwallis and his regiment of 9,000 British troops. Washington bombarded Cornwallis and crew day and night for three weeks with artillery and cannon fire, until Cornwallis surrendered Oct. 17, 1781. Negotiations for peace began in 1782, and the Treaty of Paris eventually was signed Sept. 3, 1783, formally ending the seven years of war and securing America’s independence.
The key to victory at Yorktown came when, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the French navy helped to corner Cornwallis and his crew so they could not flee by sea, while Marquis de Lafayette, who, under Washington, led 5,000 American soldiers, blocked Cornwallis’ escape by land. Lafayette was only 23 years old at the time.
Lafayette was only 16 when he joined the Black Musketeers back in France, an elite unit of royal troops that rode black horses. He started fighting in the American Revolution in 1777 at only 19, at which time Congress gave him the rank of major general. Two months after the British surrender at Yorktown, Lafayette returned home as a “hero of two worlds.”
The Secret Weapon in America’s Revolution – HUMAN EVENTS.
