1781: A sudden storm hastens British defeat at Yorktown

This Date in Weather History

Early on the morning of October 17, 1781, Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, found himself hunkered down in a cave near the southern shoreline of the York River. Above him was the disintegrating town of Yorktown, Virginia, now being systematically bombarded into rubble by American and French cannon fire. Cornwallis understood that imminent surrender was the certain fate of his entrapped military force, an army that consisted of about 8,000 British, Hessian, and loyalist soldiers, in addition to their wives and even children. An attempted breakout had failed just hours before. A sudden storm disrupted an effort to move his army northward across the York River to Gloucester Point—and possible escape. Now with the ground continually shaking all around him, Cornwallis prepared to order a white flag hoisted above his battered entrenchments. The weather most certainly did not determine the entire outcome of the battle, but it hastened the British defeat. This was not the first time that the weather impacted the Revolution and almost each time in favor of the rebels. From the sudden fog that provided cover and allowed Washington and his troops to evade capture after the battle of Long Island, to the victories in the snow at Trenton and the mud of Saratoga. By the afternoon of October 19, the British officers and soldiers laid down their arms. Their drummers and fifers, with black ribbons attached to their instruments, played various tunes. Legend has persisted that one was the mournful melody “The World Turned Upside Down.” Whether true or not, Yorktown turned the world upside down for the colonists’ former masters and, as such, represented a defining moment of triumph in the American experience. The war continued in the West Indies and other parts of the globe into 1783, but Yorktown set in motion a train of diplomatic events that resulted in Britain’s official recognition of American independence.

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