The battle of Yorktown was one of

The battle of Yorktown was one of the most important battles of the revolutionary war. This battle was what gained us our independence. The siege was on the peninsula of yorktown virginia and was from september 28 to october 19, 1781. Both the Americans and British had fatalities but the british in the end had way more including many taken as prisoners.The americans had won the battle of yorktown taking with them their independence, but they had a little help from someone.

The french helped out the americans in many ways, not during this battle, in the winter the french gave the americans training and supplies for the upcoming battles. During and leading up to the battle of yorktown the french were coming in with 9000 troops and were led by baron von steuben and marshal Rochambeau, marshal Grasse. Baron was a prussian who then became a military officer for the continental army. He is known as the father of the continental army as he gave them the essentials to a begood army, including training drills uniforms and supplies. In the Chesapeake Bay 28 ships that the french had sent over were there to stop any supplies that were coming into the harbor and cut the British off from escaping. On the around 9,000 Americans led by George Washington and 11,000 French soldiers were deployed against around 7,500 British soldiers. This was only a quarter of the forces the british had sent over to the continent.

These two allies had one other factor that helped them. Where they were in virginia that region was swarming with mosquitos that were passing around the disease malaria. Many americans were immune to this disease and many french soldiers benefited from the incubation period of 6 months so they didn’t see symptoms until long after the battle. As for the british they were not immune and many of them were dying form this problem.

The main reason the Americans needed to win this battle and make the british surrender was because it gained them their independence stopping the revolution once and for all. The americans had been fighting for their independence and under british rule for around 156 years. Fighting for this did kill some american men. In the Battle of Yorktown only around 72 americans men were wounded and 180 dead, on the contrast though a some 309 british troops were injured and 350 had died with another 8007 who were captured by the americans as prisoners.  On October 17, 1781 Lord Cornwallis and his British troops were forced to surrender. After two days talking about the win the official ceremony saying the british surrendered it happened without Cornwallis, who claimed he was sick.