"Storming a Redoubt at Yorktown" by Eugene-Louis Lami depicts an important event that occurred during the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781. The allied French and American forces needed to capture two British redoubts, small earthen forts, enabling them to finish digging a trench to approach the British stronghold. On the night of October 14, 1781, four hundred French soldiers stormed Redoubt No. 9, and four hundred American soldiers under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton stormed Redoubt No. 10. They captured both redoubts within thirty minutes, using only their sabers and bayonets. The decisive action by the American and French forces assured them the victory at the Battle of Yorktown. There was no hope left for the British who on the night of October 16 tried to evacuate Yorktown by sailing across the York River to Gloucester Point.
