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Posted @withrepost • @mount_vernon DYK? The Battle of Yorktown was won on October 19, 1781 only after a long campaign that actually began in April of 1781! .
By 1781, Washington's already substantial worries over the health, pay, and morale of his Continental Army stationed outside of New York City were worsened by the success of Cornwallis' southern campaign. Washington could only watch and wait for an opportunity to attack New York, or wait for a British mistake.
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The opportunity presented itself when Cornwallis entrenched his army at Yorktown and Gloucester Point on the peninsula of Virginia's York and James Rivers, with the expectation of reinforcement or evacuation. Washington abandoned his preference for action against New York City upon the advice of French Lieutenant General Rochambeau, and proceeded south against Cornwallis.
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Washington and Rochambeau swiftly moved southwards while coordinating with elements of the Continental Army located in Virginia under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette, and the French Navy under Admiral Grasse.
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Lafayette fixed Cornwallis in place while de Grasse kept control of the Chesapeake Bay, preventing British naval assistance through his victory at the Battle of the Capes (September 5, 1781). In the process, Washington's combined Franco-American army transported from Head of Elk to the lines outside Yorktown.
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With the opening of forty-one Allied guns on October 9, 1781, Cornwallis' position, already tenuous, was made so indefensible that surrender negotiations started less than a week later on October 17.
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(Painting of Washington at Yorktown by Don Troiani, Historical Art Prints)
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#yorktown #battleofyorktown #americanrevolution #georgewashington #revolutionarywar #otd #americanhistory
Friday
Posted @withrepost • @mount_vernon #OnThisDay in 1785, Sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon and his assistants leave Mount Vernon, headed back to France, where he will make this full-length marble statue of George Washington.
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When the Marquis de Lafayette saw this statue he said, "That is the man himself."
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Today is still stands on the spot it was originally placed in 1796: The rotunda of the Capitol in Richmond, Virginia. Have you ever seen the statue in the rotunda, or reproductions of it elsewhere?
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#gwmountvernon #geogewashington #statue #art #houdon #mountvernon
Eating Skyline Chili with Pop.
#nationalpastaday #cincinnatistylechili
