After devising a plan, all they had to do was execute it. They started the 14th by pounding the redoubts with artillery fire all day, weakening them for the attacks. After several hours, at eight o'clock, with a thin layer of fog, 400 French soldiers (commanded by Baron Viominel) advanced on Redoubt 9, and 400 American soldiers (commanded by Alexander Hamilton) approached Redoubt 10.

“Our batteries had kept a constant fire upon the redoubts through the day.”

-Journal of Ebenezer Denny (American History from Revolution)

Reconstructions of Redoubt 9's abatis at Yorktown National Battlefield. 

(Credit above and below: Angela Owen)

Painting of Americans storming Redoubt 10.

(Credit: H. Charles McBarron) (Army Historical Foundation)

Both groups approached unnoticed. The first soldiers to enter used axes to chop the abatis and let more combat-ready soldiers in. Once soldiers started cutting the abatis they were quickly noticed, but the British were surrounded and vastly outnumbered. Meanwhile, French soldiers were tossing grenades into Redoubt 10 and soldiers were flowing into both redoubts. Few shots were fired, as everyone was so close together that bayonets were much more convenient.

Major Campbell, commanding Redoubt 10, and the soldiers under his command were caught off guard when Americans began entering. With very few British soldiers having bayonets or close-combat weapons, they were quickly driven out, killed, or captured.

The situation was not much different at Redoubt 9, though it was twice the size and had more than double the men. Storming the redoubts took less than 15 minutes total.

“...we advanced in two columns with unloaded arms...”

-Letter from Alexander Hamilton to Lafayette (National Archives)

Painting of the French storming Redoubt 9.

(Credit: Onfroy de Breville) (American Revolution Museum)

“...not a gun was fired by the assailants; the bayonet only was used..."

-Journal of Ebenezer Denny (American History from Revolution)