The Siege of Yorktown in 1781 decided the American Revolution, but it ended with Lord Cornwallis claiming illness and George Washington refusing to accept a sword from a deputy. This episode looks at the logistics, deception, and luck behind the French and American victory, starting with Cornwallis retreating to a Virginia port and General Henry Clinton falling for Washington’s fake dispatches about an attack on New York.

We cover the Comte de Rochambeau’s Spanish gold that ended a pay crisis in Maryland, Admiral de Grasse’s fleet closing the Chesapeake, the siege trenches dug at night, and Alexander Hamilton’s bayonet assault on Redoubt 10. We also face harder truths, including malaria and the surrender terms that returned people who had escaped slavery to their enslavers.

• How confirmation bias helped Washington’s fake letters fool Clinton
• Why siege trenches had to run parallel to enemy lines, and how pine strips guided night digging
• The unloaded-musket attacks on Redoubts 9 and 10
• The squall that ruined Cornwallis’s escape across the York River
• The surrender snubs, Benjamin Lincoln and the Charleston terms, and Lord North’s reaction