Yorktown: The Battle that Won the Revolution

Today, Oct. 19, in the year 1781, the British troops surrendered after the Battle of Yorktown. That day, the Americans and their French allies not only rejoiced at winning a victory in that one battle, but the victory ensured they would win the Revolution; afterwards, though there would be almost two more years before the Treaty of Paris, Yorktown ensured the British would eventually accept the inevitable and recognize the United States as an independent nation. A rag-tag group of colonials who believed in liberty had taken on the world’s most powerful empire, and won.

Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army and the French land and naval troops had Gen. Charles, Earl of Cornwallis and his British troops surrounded. Washington had been worried about supplies, morale, and a British victory, and seized upon Cornwallis’s ill-judged entrenchment in Yorktown, Virginia. On Oct. 9, 41 French and American artillery pieces fired on Cornwallis, marking the beginning of the end for the British commander. His position became indefensible and, on Oct. 17, Cornwallis swallowed his pride enough to start surrender negotiations.

On Oct. 19, the British surrendered, marking a defeat that would lead to the British recognition of U.S. independence, though Cornwallis could not bring himself to be present, instead sending Gen. O’Hara for the symbolic surrender gesture of handing over his sword. Washington, understanding the insult, sent one of his own lieutenants (Benjamin Lincoln) to accept the surrender, which is depicted in the John Trumbull painting below (you can see Washington in the right background):

During the surrender, the British played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.” An army of volunteer citizen soldiers had beaten the proud British army, with the help of the Brits’ mortal enemy the French; the world had indeed turned upside down. A description of the surrender from Dr. James Thatcher:

“At about twelve o'clock, the combined army was arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and the French occupied the left. At the head of the former, the great American commander [George Washington], mounted on his noble courser, took his station, attended by his aides. At the head of the latter was posted the excellent Count Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete uniform, displayed a martial and noble appearance; their bands of music, of which the timbrel formed a part, is a delightful novelty, and produced while marching to the ground a most enchanting effect.

The Americans, though not all in uniform, nor their dress so neat, yet exhibited an erect, soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country was prodigious, in point of numbers was probably equal to the military, but universal silence and order prevailed.

It was about two o'clock when the captive army advanced through the line formed for their reception. Every eye was prepared to gaze on Lord Cornwallis, the object of peculiar interest and solicitude; but he disappointed our anxious expectations; pretending indisposition, he made General O'Hara his substitute as the leader of his army. This officer was followed by the conquered troops in a slow and solemn step, with shouldered arms, colors cased and drums beating a British march. Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara, elegantly mounted, advanced to his excellency the commander-in-chief, taking off his hat, and apologized for the non-appearance of Earl Cornwallis. With his usual dignity and politeness, his excellency pointed to Major-General Lincoln for directions, by whom the British army was conducted into a spacious field, where it was intended they should ground their arms.

The royal troops, while marching through the line formed by the allied army, exhibited a decent and neat appearance, as respects arms and clothing, for their commander opened his store and directed every soldier to be furnished with a new suit complete, prior to the capitulation. But in their line of march we remarked a disorderly and unsoldierly conduct, their step was irregular, and their ranks frequently broken.

But it was in the field, when they came to the last act of the drama, that the spirit and pride of the British soldier was put to the severest test: here their mortification could not be concealed. Some of the platoon officers appeared to be exceedingly chagrined when giving the word ‘ground arms,’ and I am a witness that they performed this duty in a very unofficer-like manner; and that many of the soldiers manifested a sullen temper, throwing their arms on the pile with violence, as if determined to render them useless. This irregularity, however, was checked by the authority of General Lincoln.”

O’Hara had originally attempted to surrender to the French commander the Comte de Rochambeau, who directed him to Washington, who directed O’Hara to Gen. Lincoln. Washington and Lincoln were probably remembering when Lincoln had been forced to surrender to the British after the serious American loss at Charlestown; it made the current victory at Yorktown especially sweet.

The battle was a success due to the heroism and genius of many individuals, including Washington, Alexander Hamilton (commanding an integrated unit of black and white soldiers to storm Redoubt 10), the Marquis de Lafayette, the Comte de Rochambeau, and James Armistead Lafayette. Mount Vernon explains that the Battle of Yorktown did not mark the end of the American Revolution, but the British treaty with the Americans was a result of the Yorktown victory:

The surrender of over 7,000 British troops on October 19, 1781 did not end the war. The end came in 1783 after Washington moved back to New York City, with the Peace of Paris signed by a British government installed largely as a result of Washington's victory. Victory at Yorktown, however, brought Washington the increased political clout needed to avert a potential officers' rebellion at Newburgh, conduct the remainder of the war, and after a short retirement to Mount Vernon was the logical choice to oversee the Constitutional Convention and become the first President of the United States.

To all those who fought and died in the American Revolution, we owe immense gratitude, which we should express by taking up the task of fighting a modern tyranny every bit as evil—if not more so—than the tyranny that made the American Revolutionaries take up arms against Great Britain.