Virginia -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783; Yorktown (Va.) -- History -- Siege, 1781
The stipulated terms of capitulation are similar to those granted to
General Lincoln at Charleston the last year. The captive troops are
to march out with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums beating a
British or German march, and to ground their arms at a place assigned
for the purpose. The officers are allowed their side arms and private
property, and the generals and such officers as desire it, are to
go on parole to England or New York. The marines and seamen of the
king’s ships are prisoners of war to the navy of France, and the
land forces to the United States. All military and artillery stores
to be delivered up unimpaired. The royal prisoners to be sent into
the interior of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, in regiments,
to have rations allowed them equal to the American soldiers, and to
have their officers near them. Lord Cornwallis to man and despatch
the Bonetta sloop of war with despatches to Sir Henry Clinton at New
York without being searched, the vessel to be returned and the hands
accounted for.
At about twelve o’clock, the combined army was arranged and drawn
up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. The Americans
were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and the French
occupied the left. At the head of the former the great American
commander, mounted on his noble courser, took his station, attended
by his aids. At the head of the latter was posted the excellent Count
Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete uniform,
displayed a martial and noble appearance, their band of music,
of which the timbrel formed a part, is a delightful novelty, and
produced while marching to the ground, a most enchanting effect. The
Americans though not all in uniform nor their dress so neat, yet
exhibited an erect soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with
satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country
was prodigious, in point of numbers probably equal to the military,
but universal silence and order prevailed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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