In early 1781, things were not going well for the Patriots.
Congress had no money to pay soldiers or supply the army.
The British controlled most of the South, and they also held Philadelphia and New York
City.
How did the Patriots turn things around?
Hoping to stay in contact with the British naval fleet, Lord Cornwallis, now the chief
British commander, set up a base at Yorktown, Virginia.
From there he could be supplied by land or sea and could dispatch troops anywhere quickly.
Washington, sensing an opportunity to trap the British army, ordered Lafayette to keep
Cornwallis occupied at Yorktown.
He then combined his army with 4,000 French troops under the command of Comte de Rochambeau
and marched south as the French navy rushed to seize control of the Chesapeake Bay.
The British fleet sent to rescue Cornwallis was beaten back, and when the British attempted
to escape by land, they were sent reeling back into their fortifications.
Cornwallis found himself trapped by 16,000 American and French soldiers.
Around the clock, the Patriots poured shells into the British fortifications at Yorktown.
In a daring night attack, Alexander Hamilton and Rochambeau captured two key British forts
called nine and ten, cutting off Cornwallis' final route of escape.
On the morning of October 17, 1781, Cornwallis penned the following words to Washington.
"Sir, I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty four hours, and that two officers
be appointed by each side to settle terms for the surrender of the posts at York and
Gloucester."
A lone British drummer boy and a red-coated officer with a white handkerchief began walking
toward the Americans.
After a week of constant cannon fire, it fell eerily silent.
The only sound was the cadence of the drum.
On the 19th, Washington signed the final surrender terms just as a British fleet set sail from
New York with thousands of reinforcements for what they were calling the all-or-nothing
battle.
But the battle had already been fought.
Later that day, 8,000 British troops surrendered in an open meadow.
At their head was a general named Charles O'Hara (Cornwallis couldn't bring himself
to surrender to the Americans).
The British band played an appropriate tune as they laid their weapons down; The World
Turned Upside Down.
The Americans stood on one side of the road with the French on the other.
Lafayette noticed that every British soldier faced the French in an attempt to block out
the Americans.
Lafayette, disgusted that the British would dishonor the Americans, snapped an order to
his division's band.
With a roll of the drums and a squeal of fifes the band exploded into a bold rendition of
Yankee Doodle.
The British instinctively swung their heads and stared into the eyes of their ex-subjects,
but their general continued trying to ignore the Americans, offering his sword to Rochambeau.
The French general pointed across the road to Washington who in turn gestured to his
second in command, Benjamin Lincoln.
Lincoln pointed to the open field where the Recoats were piling their muskets.
Afterwards, Lafayette quickly rushed to his tent to send word to France.
In a letter to a friend he wrote, "The play sir, is over."