19 October 1781–The Surrender at Yorktown

Today marks the anniversary of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

With the French fleet under de Grasse blocking evacuation by sea, Cornwallis was trapped and the Continental Army under George Washington, and French forces under Rochambeau, laid siege on the 14th of October. Within days Cornwallis was forced to surrender. He did not attend the ceremony.

The Revolutionary War had dragged on for over six years already (and wouldn’t technically end until the Treaty of Paris in 1783). The odds had been against us; England owned the Atlantic coast back then, as thoroughly as we do now; we had to dislodge them with (at first) very little help from any established military.

https://youtu.be/OuVTl8HdcDc
Thanks to GA/FL we have a good explanation of the battle itself.

And indeed there were a number of close calls, most famous among them the Battle of Trenton, times when if things had gone a little bit differently, we’d not have succeeded, and we’d have pictures of Queen Elizabeth II on our money, much as Canada, Australia and New Zealand do.

In fact, we’d probably be in a commonwealth country that included what we now know as Canada, some sort of North American Union, though I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what it’d be named. On the other hand…the commonwealth came about because Britain realized after their experience with us that they needed to rule with a lighter hand. If we had capitulated, they might not have learned that lesson.

As for me, I hoisted the Betsy Ross flag this morning, as has been my custom on any day that’s an anniversary of something that happened during the Revolutionary War (that includes Independence Day). I was doing this long before some assclown decided it was un-PC or a trigger or however the heck they phrase their whines this year. I just regret that I missed the anniversary of Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga two days ago.