The Siege of Yorktown

This battle was the largest battle of the southern theatre of the 1774-1794 War. It was a battle for control of the English colony of Virginia, and it can be compared to the large battles that occurred up in the northern English colonies. A huge English military force of 30,900 soldiers, including their French, German and other white allies, under the command of General Charles Cornwallis, converged in the Yorktown, Virginia region by land and by sea, to attempt to strenghten their military presence in their Virginia colony. If they managed to strengthen their control of their Virginia colony it meant the war would end. As usual the whites confined themselves behind their fortifications walls. With the weapons and ammunition the brave soldiers from the Southern Anishinabe Confederation captured at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, they commenced to fire upon the English fortified settlement on September 28, 1781. Reading about how the huge English military force responded to the fierce assault of the brave Indian and black soldiers, can give you an impression of what those brave Indian and black soldiers endured. It was historically recorded that the huge white military force continuously bombarded the military force from the Southern Anishinabe Confederation who had dug trenches along the outskirts of the white fortified settlement in order to defend themselves, firing on average 1.2 bombs every minute from 375 cannons.

They recorded 36,288 bombs being shot off by the huge English military force during the long siege. With what weapons the brave soldiers from the Southern Anishinabe Confederation had, they used wisely against their better armed white enemies. Any English Soldiers who dared to leave the safety of their fortified settlement met with certain death. By October 19, 1781, the military commanders of the Southern Anishinabe Confederation lifted the siege of the unwanted white fortified settlement then left the region. White casualties were significant. Of the 7,752 total white casualties, some 7,246 may have been killed. It was recorded that 7,018 had been captured. Those white soldiers captured were killed or enslaved. It was recorded that 506 whites were wounded in the siege.