Surrender of Cornwallis

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Gen. Charles O’Hara surrendering to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.

The Revolutionary War didn’t officially end until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but the war effectively ended on October 19, 1781 with the surrender of British forces led by their general, The Earl Cornwallis.

Cornwallis signed the surrender document, but didn’t attend the surrender ceremony. General Charles O’Hara tried to surrender to French general Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the Count of Rochambeau, but Rochambeau pointed him to Gen. Washington, who in turn pointed him to his second-in-command, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.

Washington’s troops had over 7,000 prisoners to deal with, partly because the rescue Cornwallis was wishing for eventually arrived, but left after seeing all the French ships there. Everything eventually worked out, though.

This is a great day in U.S. History. The Revolution was won.

2 Comments

  1. Finally, after long hours of waiting, the British troops marched out “with slow and solemn step,” the drums and fifes playing the dirgelike tune of “The World Turned Upside Down,” a tune that had been heard at Saratoga. . . .

    As the British marched out of their fortifications at Yorktown, they looked away from the Americans and fixed their eyes on the French. . . . Lafayette, observing this “affectation,” ordered the band to play “Yankee Doodle,” and noted with satisfaction that the British “turned their heads at the sound of the tune.”

    That evening an eyewitness wrote in his journal:

    “much confusion and riot among the British through the day; many of the soldiers were intoxicated; several attempts made in the course of the night to break open the stores; an American sentinal killed by a British soldier with a bayonet.”

    — Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins

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