The allies, 16,000 strong, took possession of the abandoned posts and closed in on the town in a semicircle extending from Wormley Creek below it to about a mile above it, the Americans holding the right and the French the left. On the night of Oct. 5-6 the allies opened the first parallel about 600yd. from the British works, and extending from a deep ravine on the north-west to the river bank on the south-east, a distance of nearly two miles. Six days later the second parallel was begun within 3ooyds. of the British lines, and it was practically completed on the night of the 14th and 15th, when two British redoubts were carried by assault, one by the Americans led by Alexander Hamilton and one by the French led by Lieut.-colonel G. de Deux-Ponts. On the morning of the 16th Cornwallis ordered Lieut.-colonel Aber crombie to make an assault on two French batteries. He carried them and spiked i i guns, but they were recovered and the guns were ready for service again 12 hours later. On the night of the 16th and 17th Cornwallis attempted to escape with his army to Gloucester on the opposite side of the river, but a storm ruined what little chance of success there was in this venture. In grave danger of an assault from the allies, Cornwallis offered to surrender on the 17th; two days later his whole army, consisting of 7,073 officers and men, was surrendered, and American Independence was practically assured. The British loss during the siege was
about 156 killed and 326 wounded; the American and French losses were 85 killed and 199 wounded.
In 1862 the Confederate defences about Yorktown were be sieged for a month (April 4–May 3) by the Army of the Potomac under Gen. McClellan. There was no intention on the part of the Confederate commander-in-chief, Joseph Johnston, to do more than gain time by holding Yorktown and the line of the Warwick river as long as possible without serious fighting, and without imperilling the line of retreat on Richmond; and when after many delays McClellan was in a position to assault with full assistance from his heavy siege guns, the Confederates fell back on Williamsburg.
See T. N. Page, "Old Yorktown," in Scribner's Magazine (Oct. 1881) ; H. P. Johnston, The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis (New York, 1880 ; A. S. Webb, The Peninsular Cam paign (New York, 1882) ; J. C. Ropes, Story of the Civil War, vol. ii. (1898) ; and Jean Henri Clos, The Glory of Yorktown (Yorktown, 1924).