The Siege
In February 1781, Vose’s battalion was placed in Lafayette’s Division for operations in Virginia. The combined American and French forces — approximately 17,000 troops — besieged British General Cornwallis’s army of 8,000 at Yorktown, Virginia.
After weeks of bombardment and the storming of key redoubts, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, effectively ending the war. Vose’s men helped guard the approximately 7,000 British and German prisoners.
Capt. Francis Green at Yorktown
Captain Green served in Vose’s regiment through the Yorktown campaign as part of Lafayette’s Division. His presence at the decisive battle of the war is confirmed in the National Park Service Yorktown Battlefield biography of Colonel Joseph Vose.
Evacuation Day
After Yorktown, Vose led his regiment into New York City on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783 — the day the last British soldiers left American soil. Captain Green’s service spans the entire arc of the war: from Saratoga to Yorktown to the final departure of the British from the new nation.