Cornwallis, the British general, was fighting the American and French forces. The French had joined the American Revolution to help the Americans. Cornwallis was trapped by the French fleet and also trapped by an American army in Yorktown. After the siege, Cornwallis surrendered. This happened in 1781.
When we went to Yorktown Battlefield, they were reenacting the firing of British and American cannons. The British cannons were small, but the American/French cannons were very large. On average, the French and American crews fired 1,929 cannon balls per day. The firing lasted over 8 days.
We saw redoubts on the battlefield. Redoubts are a type of earthwork. Earthworks are kind of like a trench. There were redoubts 9 and 10, which were British, but were captured by American\French forces. We learned about redoubts in a movie about the battle of Yorktown. While 400 French men attacked one of the redoubts, 400 Americans attacked the other.
My favorite thing I learned about the siege of Yorktown was when Cornwallis surrendered, and the Americans got guns, cannons, troops and flags. The Americans did not kill the troops, they only sent them to prisons. Cornwallis probably felt very ashamed because he had been defeated. This was the last major battle of the American Revolution.
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