The battle of Yorktown took place in 1781. It was a joint assault of American and French forces. Lead by General George Washington and General Comte de Rochambeau over the British Army who was lead by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis. This battle was the last battle of the American Revolutionary War. Cornwallis surrendered which prompt the British government to negotiate the end of the conflict.
In 1780, approximately 5,500 French troops landed in Rhode Island to help their American allies in assaulting the British army in New York City. The French commander convinced George Washington that an attack on New York City would be hard pressing and it would be easier for the French to assist from the south because he was going to bring the French fleet from the Caribbean in October. When they agreed Comte de Grasse took his army of 9,000 to Yorktown, Virginia where they attacked Lord Cornwallis in there until the American Army and Naval Forces surrounded Cornwallis by land and sea.
Admiral Destouches, a French Commander, who arrived in Newport, Rhode Island in July of 1780 with a French fleet of 5,500 soldiers, was encouraged by Washington and Rochambeau to bring his fleet south and launch a joint land-naval attack.
Marquis de Lafayette was sent south with 1,200 men to help with the assault. Destouches took a larger force of 11 ships in March of 1781, and fought a tactically inconclusive battle with the British fleet of Marrriot Arbuthnot at Chesapeake Bay. Destouches withdrew due to the damage sustained to his fleet. Leaving Arbuthnot and the British fleet in control of the bay. On March 26, 2,300 troops under the command of Major General William Phillips, who took command of the army resumed raiding and then burning warehouses of tobacco at Petersburg on April 25. Richmond, Virginia was about to suffer the same fate. But Lafayette and the British arrived, not wanting to engage in a major battle, fell back to Petersburg on May 10th....