Victory at Yorktown

From “the finest historian of the American Revolution” comes the definitive account of the unlikely victory that led to US independence (Douglas Brinkley).

In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s army lay idle for want of supplies, food, and money. All hope seemed lost until a powerful French force landed at Newport. Under Washington’s directives, Nathanael Greene began a series of hit-and-run operations against the British. The damage the guerrilla fighters inflicted would help drive the enemy to Yorktown, where Greene and Lafayette would trap them before Washington and Rochambeau, supported by the French fleet, arrived to deliver the coup de grace.

In Victory at Yorktown, Richard M. Ketchum illuminates the strategies and heroic personalities—American and French—that led to this military triumph. Relying on good fortune, daring, and sheer determination, a coalition of fighters brought about that rarest of military operations: a race against time and distance, on land and at sea. Ketchum brings to life the gripping story of how the rebels defeated the world’s finest army against all odds.