Yorktown Yelper: Brandon's Screaming Siege Finale
The autumn of 1781 heralded the Revolution's crescendo on Virginia's York Peninsula, where General George Washington's allied forces—13,000 Americans and French under Comte de Rochambeau, supported by Admiral de Grasse's fleet—besieged Lord Cornwallis's 8,000 entrenched British troops at Yorktown. After Guilford's costly toll, Cornwallis had retreated to the coast for resupply, only to find himself trapped by land and sea. Washington, sensing the endgame, orchestrated a meticulous siege with trenches zigzagging toward British redoubts. The bombardment promised to shatter the enemy, but close-quarters assaults would decide the day. Sergeant Brandon Herrera, the “Jersey Jester,” now laden with a belt of hard-won relics, arrived with Greene's Southern veterans, his mind abuzz with one final gadget to tip the scales.
In the muddy siege lines outside Yorktown, Brandon pilfered French powder horns and iron casings to craft the “Yorktown Yelper,” a practical bandolier of fused iron grenades—hollow spheres packed with gunpowder, lead balls, and a simple reed whistle inserted in the fuse hole to emit a piercing shriek during flight, adding terror to the blast without complex mechanics. “It’s a screamer that bites,” he told Elias, his weathered Virginian ally, as they assembled the devices in a tent lit by lantern glow. The Yelper's fuses, reliable slow-match cords lit by a striker, allowed safe, accurate throws from cover, drawing from grenadier tactics Brandon had observed in prior sieges. “No bells and whistles—just the whistle,” Brandon quipped, testing one that wailed across the field before detonating in a harmless puff.
On October 9, 1781, the siege intensified as allied artillery—over 100 cannons—pounded British lines, earth shuddering under the barrage. Washington planned assaults on Redoubts 9 and 10, key outposts guarding Cornwallis's flank. Brandon, assigned to Colonel Alexander Hamilton's assault on Redoubt 10, slung his Yelper bandolier and gripped his musket. “Axes and bayonets first, boys—no firing till we’re in,” Hamilton ordered under the starry night. Elias nodded, his face grim. “Ready to yelp ‘em out, Sarge?”
At 8 p.m., under cover of a moonless sky, French troops stormed Redoubt 9 while Hamilton's 400 men charged Redoubt 10, axes hacking through abatis of sharpened branches. British muskets cracked from the parapets, felling assailants in the ditch. Brandon, scrambling up the slope with Elias, lit a Yelper fuse and lobbed it over the wall. The grenade arced, its reed whistling a eerie keen that pierced the din, before exploding in a spray of lead and fire amid the defenders. Redcoats recoiled, clutching ears and wounds. “Yelp for mercy!” Brandon shouted, hurling another that shattered a gun emplacement. The blasts cleared paths for the attackers, axes biting into the earthworks.
Hamilton's men surged over the ramparts, bayonets clashing in furious hand-to-hand. Brandon drew his Hessian saber, parrying a redcoat thrust while Elias covered with musket fire. A third Yelper sailed into a cluster of Hessians, its shriek sowing panic as it burst, scattering them like leaves. “That’s for all the North!” he bellowed, his voice raw. The redoubt fell in 10 minutes, with French success at Redoubt 9 sealing the breach. Cornwallis, his lines crumbling under relentless shelling, attempted a desperate evacuation but was thwarted by storms.
By October 19, the British surrendered, 8,000 troops marching out to stack arms as bands played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In the triumphant assembly, Washington praised the allies. Spotting Brandon amid the ranks, bandolier empty but victorious, he said, “Herrera, your yelping grenades echoed freedom’s call. Accept this British officer’s sash as your honor.” The red silk gleamed, a final trophy.
Brandon saluted, grinning wide. “Thank you, sir. Just makin’ sure the redcoats heard the end comin’!” The men erupted in cheers. As peace dawned, Brandon and Elias gazed at the horizon, the Revolution won, their jests now legends.
