Independence - Naval Superiority

American Political History · Jul 4, 2025 · 27m

The most important battle of the American Revolution was fought without a single American in it. In September 1781, everything came down to one fact George Washington had preached for six years: whoever owned the sea would win the war. Lord Cornwallis had dug his army into a tobacco port called Yorktown, safe as long as the Royal Navy ruled the Chesapeake — and Washington, in the gamble of his life, marched an army 400 miles south and bet everything on a French fleet arriving in time to take that sea away. This is the story of the Battle of the Capes: two fleets of wooden ships off the…