One battle lost America for the British
It was a scene that many, including those who had participated
in the events leading to it, thought would never happen. A line of
men more than a mile long marched slowly along a road flanked by
American soldiers on one side and French soldiers on the other.
British forces and their German auxiliaries marched to Surrender
Field where they lay down their arms. Many were stoic but some wept
openly at the humiliation before an enemy they despised.
Once the disarming was completed, they marched back to Yorktown,
VA. with fifers playing a popular tune of the day,
”
The World Turned Upside Down.
”
It was appropriate. The war had not been going well for the
Americans a year earlier. George Washington had begged Congress for
ammunition, food and clothing to keep an army in the field but was
often overruled by self-appointed experts.
One battle lost America for the British
It was a scene that many, including those who had participated in the events leading to it, thought would never happen. A line of men more than a mile long marched slowly along a road flanked by American soldiers on one side and French soldiers on the other.
British forces and their German auxiliaries marched to Surrender Field where they lay down their arms. Many were stoic but some wept openly at the humiliation before an enemy they despised.
Once the disarming was completed, they marched back to Yorktown, VA. with fifers playing a popular tune of the day, “The World Turned Upside Down.” It was appropriate. The war had not been going well for the Americans a year earlier. George Washington had begged Congress for ammunition, food and clothing to keep an army in the field but was often overruled by self-appointed experts.
France had joined the American cause but many Americans were suspicious of the nation they had fought in the Seven Years War.
Washington and French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau were considering a campaign against New York City, a British stronghold for five years and headquarters of General Henry Clinton. They received word from General Lafayette in Virginia that the British forces in the South had suffered tremendous defeats and were gathering in Yorktown.
Rochambeau persuaded Washington that a campaign there would be more practical than one on New York.
Washington left enough forces at West Point and other American posts to fool the British and the Americans and French moved rapidly toward Yorktown. In the meantime, a French armada sailed there from the West Indies with 3,000 soldiers. At the Battle of Chesapeake Bay it beat a British fleet, thereby denying General Charles Cornwallis’ army escape by sea.
By late summer the American/French force had arrived to seal off escape by land. Cornwallis got a message through to Clinton and Clinton promised ships to rescue them. The allies dug entrenchments near the British lines and bombarded them, with French ships adding to the barrage. The British ran low on food and suffered an infestation of smallpox. They tried an escape by ferries at night but a violent storm suddenly arose to prevent it.
Attacks were pressed and one in mid-October tightened the noose further. Finally, Cornwallis called for a meeting with the American and French leaders to discuss surrender terms. Washington and Rochambeau made no compromises in their demands. Thus, the following day, Oct. 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his army of 8,000 men. Many British troops were still in America and a few scattered battles followed but the Yorktown defeat broke the spirit of Great Britain, and negotiations for the end of the war ensued.
Washington said later that the aid of the French in America’s struggle for freedom was incalculable and that the new nation’s debt to France would never be forgotten. Back in England, Cornwallis and Clinton each bitterly blamed the other for the loss of the colonies.
The world had, indeed, turned upside down.
