Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette helped lead a coordinated night assault on two key British fortifications outside Yorktown, Virginia. American light infantry took Redoubt 10 while French troops seized Redoubt 9, allowing allied artillery to close within decisive range of Lord Cornwallis's lines. The action proved pivotal in the siege that ended with British surrender on October 19, effectively securing American independence.
By mid-October 1781, General George Washington's combined American and French force had Cornwallis's army pinned against the York River, with French warships blocking any escape by sea. The two redoubts, numbered 9 and 10, stood between the besiegers and the town, and taking them meant advancing the second siege line close enough to bombard the British directly.
Alexander Hamilton, then a young colonel, led American light infantry against Redoubt 10 with bayonets fixed and muskets unloaded, relying on stealth and speed rather than gunfire to avoid alerting defenders. The assault succeeded in under thirty minutes, with light casualties. French troops under Baron de Viomenil took the more heavily defended Redoubt 9 in fiercer fighting.
With both redoubts captured, allied gunners rolled cannon into the new line and began pounding Yorktown at close range. Cornwallis, his position untenable and hope of British naval relief gone, opened surrender negotiations days later. The fall of Yorktown effectively ended major fighting in the Revolutionary War and paved the way to the Treaty of Paris.