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PROLOGUE:
Excerpt from Dr Clara Summers lecture on Britannian Historical Revisionism, 5/5/1901
‘I mean the notion that the Celts of Britain somehow united under some kind of super king and then defeated Julius freaking Caesar is laughable. Caesar’s conquest of Britain amounted to him walking around Kent for a few months beating the snot out of the locals before returning to Gaul. This was all written down and recorded by the Romans at the time.

Supposedly the currently rulers trace their lineage back to this mega king and that’s what makes them so damned special. Under the mega king they then defeated the Saxon invasions and all the other invasions throughout time. How are there so many blonds in England if they kept the Saxons out? Britannian culture would be distinctly Celtic, nothing like it was when Napoleon came knocking and certainly nothing like the evil empire it is today.

It gets worse, don’t worry. Elizabeth the first apparently had some super-secret toy boy and a bastard son who kept the Tudors bloodline going and gave a bunch of powers to the aristocrat families that happened to flee with George in 1806. As a cursory glance at the history pages will tell you, she didn’t, she died alone and childless in 1603 and that was the end of the Tudors.

No, like every tyranny before it the Holy Britannian Empire has rewritten its history to convince itself and others that it is something special. To convince themselves that they aren’t just the shattered remnants of a nation that couldn’t keep the Frenchman out. Well they may convince themselves sometimes but they’re a joke to the rest of us…’

Chapter I: Washington’s Rebellion
Excerpt from ‘Washington’s Rebellion, Chapter 15: Yorktown’
Washington’s Rebellion had been raging for six years. American militia and regulars, assisted by the French, had been fighting the British and their allies throughout the thirteen colonies. By 1781 the northern, southern and naval theatres of the war were hurtling towards a final confrontation. Washington had been sending false dispatches north to be captured by the British, convincing them that New York was his intended target. New York was home to a massive British garrison of 30,000 infantry under the command of Henry Clinton, twice the size of Washington's own force.

On September 5th Washington's army was camped in Philadelphia when a flotilla of small French ships arrived with French troops from the West Indies and word that a French fleet now controlled the Virginia Capes. The combined force then boarded the smaller French vessels and made for Williamsburg, just north-west of a British army in Yorktown commanded by Lieutenant General Cornwallis. If the French controlled the Chesapeake, Yorktown was vulnerable to siege.

On the same day a British fleet led by Sir Thomas Graves attacked the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake. The French force numbered 24 ships of the line while the British only had 19, however as the two lines converged it was clear that only the French vanguard and centre were going to have time to engage. Graves then contracted his own line, bringing all of his 19 ships to bear on the front 14 French ships. The French used their trademark practice of targeting the British masts and rigging to cut their mobility while the British were more practical, targeting whatever they could hit. Four French ships were damaged during the 2 hour battle and one, the Marseillais, was later scuttled as the French moved north towards New York, causing the British to pursue them. After five days of manoeuvres the French retreated to the West Indies. Two British ships endured serious damage during the initial engagement and needed repairs while the rest of Grey’s fleet took control of the Chesapeake. Grey was complimented for his tactics during the battle as a defeat at the Chesapeake would have spelt disaster for Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Washington's combined French and American force arrived in Williamsburg on 14 September, having slipped through while the two fleets were manoeuvring in the Virginian Capes. A smaller French force also made it through, commanded by Comt de Barras, transporting artillery and siege equipment. The assembled allied force consisted of 8,000 French regulars, 8,000 American regulars and 3,000 militia. New York was onto Washington’s plan by this point and 5,000 British reinforcements arrived on September 17, boosting Cornwallis' force to 14,000.

Yorktown Order of Battle
BRITISH FORCES
7,200 regulars under Lt General Cornwallis.
1,800 Hessian Jägers
5,000 regulars from the New York garrison
Total Force: 14,000
REBEL FORCES
8,000 French regulars under Comte de Rochambeau
8,000 American regulars under General George Washington
3,000 American militia under various commanders
Total Force: 19,000

Cornwallis had built an outer ring of five redoubts around Yorktown with an inner ring of two more redoubts and a network of earthworks. On September 26, Washington received word from the French assuring him that a second French fleet would soon arrive to cut off Yorktown from resupply by sea. This combined with Washington's advantage in numbers is believed to be what motivated him to continue his siege preparations. Upon observing the British redoubts; two in the east, two in the centre and one fusilier’s redoubt in the west, he decided that the redoubts could be bombarded into submission.

On September 28 the sappers had completed bridges across the marsh between Williamsburg and Yorktown. As Washington moved his army closer to the town the British artillery began to fire at targets of opportunity causing minimal casualties. On the night of the 28th, the screening force protecting Washington's camp skirmished with Hessian Jägers.

On September 30 the French mounted an assault on the isolated Fusiliers redoubt but were repelled after two hours of fighting. The French began planning a parallel of artillery in the west and the Americans made similar preparations in the east. The British maintained a steady rate of fire to disrupt the allies but caused minimal casualties. Washington continued to make visits to the front lines regardless of the British guns and the advice of his fellow officers.

On the night of October 2 the British guns opened a storm of cannon fire to cover their cavalry as they charged south out of Yorktown and then collided with the far west flank of the American parallel. The Americans held the line, driving off the British cavalry with almost a hundred casualties on both sides. That night Washington expressed his first doubts that the British could be broken but admitted that to retreat now would be to invite a British counter attack and possible rout. He wrote to the French requesting immediate naval assistance.

The night of October 6 proved stormy enough to cover the construction of the American parallel. Again Washington was there, striking the first few blows of the trench. He made an impressive sight with his sleeves rolled up, rain bucketing down and lighting flashing in the night sky. The next day when the British saw the new trench just out of musket range they increased their fire rate and began preparations for one final assault to cripple the American force. Washington had ordered the French to launch a feint attack on the west to keep pressure on the British but a French deserter had betrayed them. Three salvos from the fusilier’s redoubt stopped the French feint in its tracks. On October 8th the British launched a counter assault with 10,000 men against the 8,000 strong American line under cover of artillery. Cornwallis was leaving only a skeleton force to defend Yorktown if the assault failed.

The British force left the earthworks in the south east of the town and advanced between the two redoubts in the east and the two in the centre. The redoubts provided a crossfire to clear their path which inflicted heavy casualties on the American defenders. When the British were 200 yards away from the American trenches the artillery stopped and the cavalry broke into a sprint. The far left end of the American force collapsed into disorder swiftly. The French diverted a quarter of their men to reinforce the Americans while Washington assembled a counter attack from the right. It is during the ensuing chaos that George Washington met his end, disoriented by a British hand grenade the rebel leader was stabbed in the heart with a bayonet. The Americans retreated in disorder while the French attempted to screen them.

The French West Indies Fleet was not repaired until October 10 and wouldn’t arrive in the Virginia Capes until October 15. Long after the battle had been lost…
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