Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Yorktown (PA)
On the morning of October 17, 1781, an officer emerged from the British lines holding a white handkerchief.
As October began, General Charles Cornwallis and his army of 8000 redcoats and Hessians knew they were in deep trouble. In late August, after a summer filled with conflicting instructions, they had been ordered to establish a naval base on the Chesapeake.
The bell is old and it is badly cracked and it has not been rung for years, nor will it ever be rung again. But although it is quite useless from a practical standpoint, it is perhaps the most prized possession we have.
Courageous and resourceful, the Marquis was bred for better things than defeat at the hands of rebellious provincials.
In war the final defeat is the one that counts. Yet there are wars and wars, and only rarely do historians conclude that a particular surrender was not only a cessation of fighting but a watershed marking the end of one epoch and the start of another.
Yorktown was not the end of the Revolutionary War. The Americans were to gain one victory more.
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