October 19, 1781: The World Turned Upside Down

Upon the 240th anniversary of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown....

At the start of 1781, the British held Philadelphia and New York and controlled most of the South. The American Congress had no money to pay soldiers or supply the army.

Now in mid-October, Lord Cornwallis was trapped by George Washington inside Yorktown. He called for a surrender, after Alexander Hamilton and French commander Deux-Ponts captured 2 British redoubts on the 17th. It turned out, 1781 would soon end as no one could have predicted months earlier.

On October 19, with Americans on one side of the road and the French on the other, 8,000 British and Hessian troops marched out of Yorktown and surrendered in an open meadow. As the British soldiers laid down their weapons, their band played a tune: "The World Turned Upside Down".

French General Lafayette noticed that the British soldiers faced the French but turned their backs to the Americans. He gave an order to his division's band who were gathered behind the Americans. They exploded with a loud rendition of "Yankee Doodle". The British soldiers instinctively turned, suddenly facing their former subjects. This tune, originally embraced by Redcoats to mock their American counterparts, now was a victory song.

British General O'Hara, continuing to ignore the Americans, offered his sword to French General Rochambeau, who refused it. Instead, he pointed across the road to Washington - who in turn gestured to his second in command, Benjamin Lincoln (who had been forced into a disgraceful surrender by the British a year earlier in Charleston). So many dramatic turns and loose ends tied together in one meeting in that open meadow.

After the surrender, Lafayette hurried to his tent to send word to France. In a letter to a friend he wrote, "The play sir, is over."

Just as the American Civil War did not end at Appamattox with Lee's surrender, the War of Independence did not end at Yorktown with Cornwallis's surrender. But in both cases, it was just a matter of time.

Nothing short of Independence, it appears to me, can possibly do … To see men without Cloat?hes? to cover their nakedness—without Blankets to lay on—without Shoes, by which their Marches might be traced by the Blood from their feet—and almost as often without Provisions as with; Marching through frost & Snow, and at Christmas taking up their Winter Quarters within a days March of the enemy, without a House or Hutt to cover them till they could be built & submitting to it without a murmur, is a Mark of patience & obedience which in my opinion can scarce be parallel’d.

- General George Washington

I will never understand the internal character of those citizen soldiers who marched through snow in their bare feet (leaving a bloody trail); who continued to fight with no financial help and all odds against them; who left hearth and home for a long period of time (Washington himself was away from his home for six years); and on and on the list of sacrifices goes.

I am not sure how much longer this will be taught but, somehow, may we always remember.