In the Hurricane’s Eye

By 1780, the American Revolution has reached a stalemate. George Washington understands that the Continental Army cannot force a decisive British surrender without French troops and, above all, control of the sea. Philbrick follows the difficult coordination between Washington, the Comte de Rochambeau and Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse as their forces converge on Virginia, while Nathanael Greene’s southern campaign and Cornwallis’s movements create the opportunity for a final concentration at Yorktown.

The decisive moment occurs at the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, when de Grasse’s fleet prevents British naval relief from reaching Cornwallis. Washington and Rochambeau then complete the overland movement and conduct the Siege of Yorktown with French and American troops. Philbrick restores naval strategy, weather, communication and French power to the centre of the victory, showing that Yorktown depended on international cooperation and a narrow sequence of choices rather than on American arms alone.