During the summer of 1781, the armies of Generals
Washington and Rochambeau were encamped in lower Westchester County at Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont and White Plains. It was a time of military deadlock and grim prospects for the allied Americans and French. Washington recognized that a decisive victory was needed or America would never achieve independence. In August, he marched these soldiers to
Virginia to face General
Cornwallis and his redcoats. Washington risked all on this march. Its success required secrecy, and he prepared an elaborate deception to convince the British that Manhattan, not Virginia, was the target of the allied armies. Local historian Richard Borkow presents this exciting story of the Westchester encampment and Washington’s great gamble that saved the United States.
Background Information
George Washington fought in both the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars, and was his country's first President. Charles Cornwallis was a British officer and colonial administrator who achieved some success during the Revolution but is best remembred for surrendering to Washington at Yorktown. Virginia was the site of the first permament English settlement in the American colonies and was the largest state at the founding of the country.