Grand American Battery
Yorktown, United States
<br><i><b>“The Works which we carried are of vast importance to us. From them we shall enfilade the enemy’s whole line … ”</i><br> General George Washington to the President of Congress, October 16, 1781.</b><br><br>The capture of British Redoubts 9 and 10 enabled the Americans to quickly finish the Allied Second Siege Line, constructing the Grand American Battery within point blank artillery range of the British Inner Defensive Line. On October 17, Continental artillery crews began bombarding the British from their new battery. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dearborn of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment, the allied barrage that day <i>“made the Enemies situation so very disagreeable. – that about the middle of the day his Lordship was induced to send out a flag, with some proposels for a Capitulation.”</i><br><br>The following day officers from both sides met at the home of Augustine Moore to negotiate the British surrender terms.<br><br><b>Grand American Battery Artillery:</b><br>7 – 18 pounder siege guns<br>3 – 24 pounder siege guns<br>8 – mortars<br>4 – howitzers