The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-01-16
"C0RNWALLIS is TAKEN"
A New Description of the Surrender al
Yorktown.

Cyrus Townsend Brady in his
American Fights and Fighters" has
written in his chapter on Yorktown q
dramatic description:
"The drums were beating q parley.
An alert officer in an American bat
terry heard a faint tap.tap-tapping
above the roar Of the canonnade; at
his word the battery he commanded
ceased it's discharge; the drum taps
~ero heard more plainly, rolling, rat
tling with increasing volume.
Presently other ears caught the well
come sound and gun after gun became
curiously silent. The tremendous
roar which for the past week had fill
ed the air gradually diminished in vol
ume until stiffness like death super
vencd. AS the smoke blew away
from the muzzles Of the silent guns
the soldiers came running from their
tents on the mills back of the batter
les; tho long roll Of the drums was
plainly audible now; rap-a-tap- -tap-tap,
rap-a tap tap -tap-what was it?
with hopes nigh they listened.
There were trained cars there and
they recognized the cadence; yes,
they were beating parley, and there,
above tho battered embrasurcs, rose a
white flag in the clear morning. It
was surrender, then! The great fleet
of Dc Grasse down in Lynn Haven
Bay actually heard the wild cheering
which rose from the threats Of the e0-
cited men. The war was over! They
were frec!" x 4
"And this was the end Of all the
hard marching, the mad chasing, the
desperate fighting, in which he had
inoulged since lie landed at Charles
ton two years before. Nay, more, this
was the end Of greater thing than
CORVALLIS and his army; though they
knew it not, it was the and of the
British Empire in America with all it's
stamp acts, and misrepresentation
and expressions; its scorn and con-
tempt of things colonial. 1t is over,
it is over seemed the message of the
drums on that pretty October morn
ing.
"The rest was soon arranged. In
order to protect his loyalists from the
rancor of their oountrymen, CORVALLIS
was allowed to send q ship back to
New York in which they escaped.
The terms insisted upon were. the
same which had been forced upon the
Americans when the British had cap
tured Charleston-the officers retain
ing their side arms and everybody his
private property. AS tho Americans
had been compelled to play an Ameri-
can march when they surrendered, it
was insisted that the British should
do the same by playing British air
in this instance. At moon, then, on
October 10, 1881, the allied arms were
drawn up in two lines. the Americans
on the right and .ho French on the
left. The British marched out be-
tween them, sullen, detected, bitterly
indignant, their bands playing, signi-
ficantly enough, quaint old English
tune called, The World Turned Up
side Downl' The red standard of
England was lowered befores the ban
ners of her Oldest antagonist and her
newest enemy. The white flags Of
France with their golden lilies, which
had gone down in the dust at Crecy.
at Agincourt and at Poictiers, now
beheld the banners Of their ancient
foe dropping in submission before
them and before the Stars and Stripes;
the flag that Paul Jones's hand had
hoisted at the masthead Of his ship;
the flag which had futtared above the
bastion at Fort Stanwix; which Corn
wallis himself had seen at Monmouth
and at Guilford Court House flag
of the child who had broken eway
from the cruel mother. General
o Hara, who led the British troops in
the indiepos:::cH of C0Inwaiiis, sur
rendered his sword to General Lincoln,
who had oapitulated at Charleston.
The British soldiers grounded arms
and marched back and that was the
end.
"It was great day for Washington
and for the Revolution which had
been conceived when the minute men
of Lexington and Of Concord rallied to
the midnight summons of Paul Revere,
riding hotly through the night; that
Revolution which hid quickened on
the blood-stained slopes Of Bunker
Hill which hod trauo;lod ~ T.ooto~