The War Ends

The American Revolution war endend basically because the British wanted to retreat, they lost many of their army and they decide to end the war. The Americans and French marched out of Williamsburg and arrived before Yorktown on 28th September 1781, forming a semi-circle around the entrenchments and putting the British under siege.  Cornwallis expecting Major General Clinton to sail from New York with a relieving force had decided to remain in Yorktown rather than march south to the Carolinas or attempt to reach New York. His first move was the inexplicable one of abandoning a line of four redoubts that dominated the British positions. The Americans immediately occupied the empty redoubts.

The Americans began formal siege operations on the eastern side of Yorktown on 30th September and on 9th October were sufficiently close to began an artillery bombardment. On 14th October the Americans and French stormed two redoubts in front of their trenches and the position of the British in Yorktown became untenable. The British carried out a sortie on the 16th in which several guns in the two redoubts were spiked. On the same day Cornwallis attempted to pass the Guards, the 23rd and the Light Infantry across the York River to Gloucester but was thwarted by a storm.




6,000 British surrendered to the Americans and French with 10 stands of German and British colours, 240 pieces of artillery, small arms, ammunition and equipment.The casualties during the siege had been 500 British, 80 Americans and 200 French.The capitulation of the British to the Americans and French ended the fighting in the war and led to the Peace Treaty that acknowledged the independence of the American states.  Clinton’s relieving force arrived in the Chesapeake on 24th October.

The Importance of the women in the Revolutionary War

In the years during the Declaration of Independence, the resistance to the British was expressed in boycotts of imported products. The boycotts worked because the women would step into the breach and would provide all the clothe and food that couldn't be brought from overseas. The housewives were the family shoppers. the women's cooperation was the critical challenge without it they knew it was impossible to succeed... Tea was the most important drink in the battleground, of the Colonial America. Almost all of the homes had tea sets.

Women patriots joined enthusiastically in the boycott. When men were going to fight women had to take over their farms and businesses, and in some parts of the country endure life under an army of occupation. They had to work hard so they could provide food and shelter to their families. Abigail Adams once said "We possess a Spirit that will not be conquered. If our Men are all drawn off and we shoud be attacked, you would find a Race of Amazons in America."

In 1774, 51 women in, North Carolina, issued a public statement endorsing the boycott, when many men journalist said they we bad mothers, harlots, and heavy drinkers. But back home they we patriots and admired by most. Southern ladies would wear dresses made of homespun cloth to their fancy balls, and always joined their husbands and fathers while making political toasts and singing patriotic songs.