A Vital British Outpost at Gloucester Point

In 1781, Gloucester Point and Yorktown across the river became the scene of major military operations when General Charles Lord Cornwallis brought an 8,300 man British army to the Virginia coast to establish a naval base. After the September 5th Battle of the Capes, the French fleet, allied with the Americans, badly damaged British ships trying to secure control of the Chesapeake Bay, leaving Cornwallis’s army nearly trapped at Yorktown. In late September, General George Washington arrived at Yorktown with a 17,600 man American and French army, and Gloucester Point became the besieged British army’s only communication with the country, serving as both a base for gathering local supplies and a possible escape route. To hold this vital position, British forces constructed a strong defensive line across the Point, with four artillery-supported earthen redoubts linked by a stockade stretching from shore to shore and guarded by about 900 soldiers.

Gloucester Point, Virginia · United States