Yorktown campaign

Battle context

The Yorktown campaign, also known as the Virginia campaign, was a series of military maneuvers and battles that culminated in the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis's British force. That surrender led directly to the opening of serious peace negotiations and ultimately to the end of the American Revolutionary War, making the campaign's outcome the decisive event of the conflict. The campaign was distinguished on the British side by disagreements, indecision, and miscommunication among senior leaders. On the Franco-American side, it was marked by a notable pattern of cooperative decision-making — at times taken in violation of standing orders — between French and American commanders, coordination that proved essential to forcing the final British capitulation.