The Battle of Yorktown started on September 28th, 1781, an attempt to win the War that had been going on for six years. George Washington had troops send out fake newspapers that made the British troops assume that they were going to attack New York; instead, they went to Yorktown, Virginia (Battle of Yorktown - Definition). When this happened, Henry Clinton, a General during the Revolutionary War, went up north to protect the British’s base, leaving General Cornwallis in Virginia by himself protecting the Yorktown base (“Letter from Cornwallis to Lord Clinton…”). Soon after, the Continental Army snuck over to the British’s base in Yorktown and fought for three weeks straight.