"‘The World Turned Upside Down’ – Did the British..." Topic

… Really Play the Sardonic Melody During the Yorktown Surrender?.

"THE BLOW WAS, on the whole, perhaps the heaviest that has ever fallen on the British army." The great historian Sir William Fortescue did not understate the significance of the British defeat at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown.

The last major land engagement of the American War of Independence, the 21-day battle saw 9,000 elite British and allied troops under Lord Cornwallis surrounded on the shores of the Virginia Peninsula where the York River meets Chesapeake Bay. Encircling them were 16,000 Continental Army and French soldiers under the command of that colonial upstart George Washington. Cut off from escape by sea, thanks to a naval blockade led by the Comte de Grasse, and pounded without mercy by enemy artillery, the British were forced to seek terms for surrender on Oct. 19 after a humiliating three-week standoff.

It was certainly a topsy-turvy climax to a seven-year war that saw a rag-tag band of rebel volunteers hardened into an army capable of taking on and defeating the world's foremost military power. Perhaps that's why legend holds that the British fifes and drums played the sardonic tune The World Turned Upside Down (♬LISTEN HERE♬) as the Redcoats marched out from behind their ramparts to stack their arms at Washington's feet. The tale seems a wholly fitting, but did it actually happen?…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Interesting enough read, basically the victor and his allies got to have their version of history immortalised, but bored people will pry.

Deleted…

Glad you enjoyed it my friend.!

Amicalement
Armand

How unfortunate that bored people should have nothing better to do than became methodical historians.