SIEGE LINES OPEN AT YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA

Siege lines open at Yorktown, Virginia

As autumn settled over Virginia in 1781, combined American and French armies under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau began the methodical work of besieging Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. On October 6th, allied troops dug the first formal siege parallels, a line of trenches and artillery positions that crept closer to British defenses each night. This kind of siege warfare demanded patient labor under fire, with soldiers and engineers reshaping the landscape by hand. The new lines allowed batteries to be emplaced that would soon dominate the town and its harbor. Once these positions were completed and reinforced, Cornwallis’s options narrowed from bad to worse. Within weeks, the relentless pressure forced his surrender, effectively ending major combat in the Revolutionary War and securing American independence.