The Washington – Rochambeau Route to Victory

On August 14, 1781, Generals Washington and Rochambeau learned that Admiral de Grasse was sailing to the Chesapeake Bay with 3,000 French soldiers while Lord Cornwallis was encamped at Yorktown, Virginia, and they decided to march their allied armies 450 miles south from White Plains, New York, crossing the Hudson at Stony Point and passing through Princeton, Philadelphia, and Chester, Pennsylvania, where Washington learned on September 5 that de Grasse had reached Virginia and landed troops at Jamestown under General Saint-Simon. Some allied infantry went by American watercraft from Head-of-Elk to Annapolis while other troops continued overland there to await further transport, and the field artillery, supply trains, and French cavalry traveled by road into Virginia, with the artillery and wagons going to Williamsburg and the cavalry diverted to Gloucester. Washington and Rochambeau took a separate route from Baltimore across the Potomac at Georgetown, through Alexandria, and to Mount Vernon, where Washington rode ahead to prepare for his guests, having not visited his home for more than six years, and after resting there on September 10 and 11 they continued toward Fredericksburg. Near Dumfries they received dispatches that Admiral Graves's British fleet had been sighted near the Chesapeake and that de Grasse had sailed to fight off the Virginia capes; although the battle was inconclusive, de Grasse returned to guard the entrance to the bay, Graves withdrew to New York for repairs, and Admiral De Barras meanwhile brought the allied siege train and more troops from Newport into the Chesapeake, closing Cornwallis's chance of escape. Washington and Rochambeau then hastened through Fredericksburg, Hanover Court House, and New Kent Court House to Williamsburg, arriving on September 14 to meet Lafayette, and after supplies, wagon trains, and troops assembled, the allied armies advanced on September 28 to begin the siege of Cornwallis's 8300-man army at Yorktown. After three weeks of tightening control and eight days of heavy bombardment, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19 in the war's greatest and most decisive victory, opening the way to American independence.

Yorktown, Virginia · United States