Yorktown Naval Campaign

The 1781 naval operations that decided the American War of Independence by trapping a British army at Yorktown, Virginia. A French fleet under Admiral de Grasse, about 28 ships of the line, sailed from the West Indies to the Chesapeake and held off a British relief fleet under Admiral Graves at the Battle of the Chesapeake (the Battle of the Virginia Capes) on 5 September 1781. Cut off from resupply or escape by sea, General Cornwallis surrendered his army on 19 October 1781, ending major land fighting in the war.