Quick answer: What is the November 7 Heroes' Path webinar about?
On Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET, Colonel Gerry Tertychny leads a free live Zoom webinar for Heroes' Path on how the American Revolution was actually won at Yorktown, beginning with the French naval battle off the Virginia Capes that decided the siege. Registrants get the recording afterward.
Most Americans can name how the Revolution began and know the word Yorktown at its end, John writes, but the six years in between have gone fuzzy, and with them the story of how a ragged, unpaid, often beaten army cornered the most powerful empire on earth and forced it to quit. Colonel Gerry Tertychny, who served 28 years in the Army, including Special Forces, and is a former Director of Special Operations Forces at the U.S. Army War College, will walk through that story step by step in the next Heroes' Path webinar on Saturday, November 7, at 7:00 PM ET. John previews a few of the threads. The battle that truly decided Yorktown was fought at sea off the Virginia Capes, and it was fought by the French. An American win in upstate New York four years earlier is the reason any of it was possible. Officers still study a daring maneuver in a South Carolina cow pasture, and one general won a campaign by losing a battle. A young lieutenant colonel named Alexander Hamilton led a night bayonet charge with unloaded muskets so that a single nervous shot could not give the attack away. At the very end, Cornwallis said he was too ill to surrender in person, and his sword passed from hand to hand in a sequence John calls anything but accidental. In John's telling, Washington won independence through a southern campaign held together by stubbornness, a secret march, a timely storm, and ordinary soldiers in muddy trenches who had every reason to go home and stayed. The webinar is free and live on Zoom with audience questions.
Why it matters for leaders: John's preview treats the surrender at Yorktown as the last link in a long chain, with key pieces settled years earlier or by a French fleet Washington did not command. A leader who studies only the final victory misses how it was assembled. Walking through the campaign in order shows how much depended on allies, timing, and soldiers who chose to stay in the trenches.
Q: When is the webinar and how do I register?
A: The webinar is Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET, live on Zoom with audience Q&A. Registration is free at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Wec_VFwxSlaiqZwS649ffQ and everyone who registers receives the recording afterward.
Q: Who is Colonel Gerry Tertychny?
A: Colonel Gerry Tertychny served 28 years in the Army, including in Special Forces, and is a former Director of Special Operations Forces at the U.S. Army War College. He has spent his career studying how military campaigns come together, which is the lens he brings to Yorktown.
Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/the-battle-that-actually-won-it
By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation