Being George Washington by Beck Glenn

Author:Beck, Glenn [Beck, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

October 20, 1781

Yorktown

General Cornwallis knew that this would be one of the most painful days of his esteemed life. Surrendering to the enemy was simply unimaginable. He would not lower himself, his pride, the dignity of his great nation, to lift his own sword and give it to the leader of this scrawny bunch of ill-reputable and illiterate men who called themselves an army!

He would die of shame if he were forced to do it.

So he sent one of his men instead.

The brigadier general selected by Cornwallis attempted to surrender to General Rochambeau, who refused, pointing to General Washington, the supreme commander of the allied forces. General Washington also refused to accept the sword of surrender from the deputy, realizing it was an attempt by Cornwallis to belittle what he and his army had accomplished. He tartly directed the British brigadier general to one of his deputies instead.

Soon after, eight thousand defeated troops marched between parallel lines of allied soldiers to surrender their arms. Many of the British soldiers were openly weeping. Instead of handing over their weapons, some smashed them against the ground and sullied off.

Many of the American soldiers were weeping, too. But they weren’t crying in defeat or fury—it was with joy. They fell into each other’s arms, too overcome to even talk as an uncontrollable rush of laughing, singing and dancing swept through the ranks.

Everything had just changed. While the rebels knew that the war was not over, a victory was far more important for their morale than for anything else. After all, that morale, that innate thirst for freedom that had propelled them into this war in the first place, was the patriot’s greatest weapon—and it would ultimately prove to be the one thing that their enemy could not match.

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