1. In 1780, 5,500 French soldiers landed on Rhode Island to try to help the Americans in attacking British-occupied New York City.

2. The Americans had a really big victory that time.

3. Washington had dispatched the French general Marquis de Lafayette to contain Cornwallis in Yorktown until he arrived.

4. On September 26, transports with artillery, siege tools, and some French infantry and shock troops from the Head of Elk, the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay, arrived, giving Washington command of an army of 7,800 Frenchmen, 3,100 Militia, and 8,000 Continentals.

5. This was the final battle of the American Revolution and Cornwallis surrendered to Washington causing the Patriots to win the war.