The generals and their officers then sat down to a table improvised of boards laid across barrels and dined together most amicably, but on very frugal fare. General Burgoyne took occasion to compliment the discipline of the American army. He then proposed a toast to General Washington. General Gates then drank to the health of the king. High above the marquee the Stars and Stripes waved gloriously in triumph of the day of first formal military unfurling. The turning point of the war of the Revolution was come, this October day, 1777. THE SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE October 17, 1777 BROTHERS, this spot is holy! Look around! Before us flows our memory's sacred river, Whose banks are Freedom's shrines. This grassy mound, The altar, on whose height the Mighty Giver Gave Independence to our country; when, Thanks to its brave, enduring, patient men, The invading host was brought to bay and laid Beneath "Old Glory's" new-born folds, the blade, The brazen thunder-throats, the pomp of war, And England's yoke, broken forevermore. You, on this spot,--thanks to our gracious God, Where last in conscious arrogance it trod, Defied, as captives, Burgoyne's conquered horde; Below, their general yielded up his sword; There, to our flag, bowed England's battle-torn; Where now we stand, the United States was born. GENERAL JOHN WATTS DE PEYSTER. THE YOKE OF BRITAIN BROKEN THE final scene in this stupendous drama of American Freedom was enacted in Virginia. In September, 1781, Washington began a three weeks' siege against Yorktown, held by the British under Lord Cornwallis. Finding himself there completely surrounded by both land and water, Cornwallis was forced to surrender. Now was the yoke of Great Britain at last broken. Seven thousand English and Hessian soldiers and eight hundred and forty sailors laid down their arms and became prisoners of war. The formal ceremony of surrender was to take place in an open field the last day of October. Thousands of spectators assembled to behold the detested Cornwallis surrender the army they had hated and feared. The Americans, commanded by General Washington in full uniform, and the French troops, under Count Rochambeau, were drawn up in two lines. At length a splendid charger issued through the gate, bearing not the hated Cornwallis as expected, but General O'Hara. So overcome was Lord Cornwallis with the consciousness of his defeat by the "raw Americans," that, feigning illness, he refused to appear.