Prelude to Glory, Vol. 6

by Ron Carter

  Terms accepted. The formalities of surrender would occur the morning of October 19, 1781.

  The morning broke clear and peaceful. The French in their immaculate white uniforms with the gold trim lined the road from the town to the field selected for the site of the surrender, directly in front of the headquarters of General von Steuben. Behind the French, dressed in their homespun and their buckskin breeches and hunting shirts, stood the Americans, waiting.

  A quarter-mile from the town, Caleb was among those relieved of duty from Gloucester to watch the surrender. Six hundred yards away stood Billy, with Turlock beside him, head and eyes wrapped in bandages. He could not see and could hear only faintly, but he was there, clutching Billy’s arm, waiting. The doctors had told him he would recover most of his hearing, and full sight in his left eye, partial in his right. His face would heal, but show burn and powder scarring. Wounds notwithstanding, the tough little sergeant would not miss the surrender.

  Eli remained with Lafayette’s command as ordered, peering up and down the road to catch a glimpse of Billy. Then he relaxed. He’s here, and I’ll find him. I’ll find him.

  Near the field where the surrender was to take place, Matthew stood beside Admiral de Grasse, erect, searching for Billy or Caleb. Dead or alive? A peace settled over him. They’re alive, and I’ll find them. There’ll be time after this is over.

  From the north came the faint sounds of a British marching band, and the French and Americans became silent, heads turned, straining to see the redcoats marching. They came with eyes straight ahead, faces set, some in tears, refusing to look at the hated French. The sounds of the band grew louder, with the noise of eleven thousand marching boots matching the cadence.

  They came to the field for the surrender, and General Washington rode in on a magnificent bay horse. He dismounted and waited for the British commander to deliver his sword, the symbolic surrendering of his command.

  General Cornwallis was not to be found. A General O’Hara stepped forward with Cornwallis’s sword and marched to General Rochambeau, mistakenly thinking him to be Washington.

  Rochambeau bowed slightly and gestured to Washington, a magnanimous gesture of a great French officer.

  O’Hara nodded his embarrassment and approached Washington, sword held forward in both his hands.

  “Sir, I act under orders of General Cornwallis, who is too ill to attend. I herewith surrender his sword and his command.”

  Protocol would not allow Washington to accept the sword from other than the British commander, General Cornwallis. He turned and gestured to General Benjamin Lincoln, standing to his right. The surprised Lincoln strode forth to accept the sword. O’Hara stepped back, turned on his heel, and returned to his place.

  Then the time-honored laying down of the arms began. The band struck up their tune once again, and the first ranks of the British regulars advanced onto the field, to the far end, and each laid down his musket and bayonet and cartridges. Some burst into tears, and smashed the hammers before leaving their arms. The other ranks followed, one at a time, and the stacks of weapons grew. Drummers set their drums in the grass, and some stomped out the drumheads, determined that no American nor Frenchman would ever play the British drums.

  The band continued their mournful tune as the laying down of the arms proceeded. The piles of weapons grew ever larger, with the band setting the cadence.

  The surrender was nearly finished before the Americans realized the British were not playing their traditional “God Save the King.” Heads turned in question as they listened to the haunting air of an old English ballad, and suddenly it came to both the French and the Americans. They were playing “The World Turned Upside Down!”

  If ponies rode men, and if grass ate the cows,

  And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,

  If summer were spring, and the other way ’round,

  Then all the world would be turned upside down.

  Their crimson tunics bright in the late afternoon sun of 19 October 1781, the last of the British regulars laid down their arms and marched away to the designated quarters where they were to be held prisoners of war.

  For a time, the Americans and the French stood quietly at the side of the road, awed, humbled by an unexpected spirit that settled upon them like a great, unseen presence. They sensed that somehow what had been done at Yorktown would change the history of the world. The British would not rise from this defeat. Nor did they question in their souls the source of the impossible conclusion. When they had done all they could, when victory hung in the balance, they knew what power had brought the midnight tempest that stopped the British from crossing the York River to Gloucester, to escape. Their six long years of suffering, of sacrifice, of fighting for their liberty when there was only blackness, were over.

  They were free.

  Notes

  The defeat of the British, including their naval forces, at Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary War in favor of the Americans. Oddly, the pivotal battle was fought on and near the Chesapeake Bay, between the French and the British fleets. The Americans had no navy. The British were driven off, leaving General Cornwallis without means of an escape, setting him up for his ultimate defeat by the joint efforts of the French under General Rochambeau and the Americans under General Washington. Washington did whip off his hat and dance a jig at the arrival of Rochambeau, which nearly frightened his officers. Later, Admiral de Grasse did casually call him “Mon petit general,” which Washington accepted.

  Regarding the battle on the Chesapeake, all ships named herein are real ships, save for the Swallow. The fatal error of Admiral Graves in allowing the French to sail out of the York River without trapping them is as herein described, as is the ensuing battle on the open sea. The battle formations, the errors by the British in their signal system, and the ships identified as damaged, are accurate, including the fact that Admiral Graves blew up the Terrible because of damage too severe to keep her afloat. The abandoning of General Cornwallis by Admiral Graves occurred as herein described, including the messages between Cornwallis and Clinton, quoted almost verbatim.

  The descriptions of Yorktown and Gloucester and the positioning of the British forces and their defenses, and the American and French forces and their breastworks as they proceeded with their siege are accurate. General Washington did send General de Choisy across the river to attack the British under Banastre Tarleton at Gloucester, and de Choisy succeeded in driving Tarleton away for the balance of the siege. Siege warfare, with its trenches and unending cannonade is accurately portrayed, with the circle of guns constantly being moved into new trenches, ever closer to the enemy. General Cornwallis did withdraw his second line of defense back to the first line, in the belief that General Clinton had sent adequate relief, which was a fatal mistake.

  The surrender of the British is accurately described, including the mistake made by the British General O’Hara in thinking Rochambeau was Washington. The symbolic laying down of the arms in the field was the accepted process of surrender, as described herein, and as the British did so, their band was playing the British ballad, “The World Turned Upside Down,” suitable to their view that it was beyond comprehension that they had lost the last, crucial battle. For them, the world was upside down.

  For the reader’s interest, following the surrender, the Americans and French quickly loaded their forces onto the ships and evacuated. The British ships sent by Clinton arrived about one week later to find an abandoned Yorktown (Leckie, George Washington’s War, pp. 632–58; Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown, pp. 222–45; Higginbotham, The War of American Independence, pp. 376–83; Freeman, Washington, pp. 462–92, see especially the excellent illustrations facing pages 471 and 481).

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  Acknowledgments

  * * *

  Dr. Richard B. Bernstein, internationally recognized authority on the Revolutionary War, continues to make his tremendous contribution to the series, for which the author is most grateful. Jana Erickson has again spent much time and effort on the cover and the artwork. Richard Peterson has exercised his usual great patience and careful work of editing. Harriette Abels, consultant and editor, has guided the author with her wisdom and insight.

  However, again, the men and women of the Revolution, whose spirit reaches across more than two centuries, are truly responsible for all that is good in this series.

  The work proceeds only because of the contributions of many.