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AudibleNod t1_iy401kl wrote

That coward Cornwallis said he was indisposed and couldn't surrender his sword in person at Yorktown.

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sonofabutch t1_iy46rrs wrote

The surrender had all kinds of middle school drama. The British had requested being able to march out with flags flying and weapons at the ready, and playing an American or French tune in tribute to the victors. The Americans refused, as the British had denied the same request to the surrendering Americans at the Siege of Charleston the previous year.

So the British marched out with flags furled, muskets shouldered, and playing "The World Turned Upside Down" (though that might be apocryphal).

Cornwallis, claiming illness, did not attend and instructed a subordinate, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, to surrender. O'Hara first attempted to surrender to Commander-in-Chief of the French forces, Rochambeau, who refused to accept it. O'Hara then attempted to surrender to Washington, who directed O'Hara -- as Cornwallis's subordinate -- to one of his own subordinates, Brigadier General Benjamin Lincoln, who finally accepted the surrender.

The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis as painted by John Trumbull depicts Lincoln reaching out to accept the sword of surrender from O'Hara, as Washington looks on.

Eight thousand British troops then marched out and laid down their weapons before the assembled French and American troops, then taken as prisoners of war. The American and French officers then hosted a cordial dinner with the British officers.

At the same time all this gallantry was going on, the American soldiers were ordered to round up all fugitive slaves who had fought alongside the British, and return them to their masters.

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jdude_97 t1_iy5ucpd wrote

Do you have a citation re the officers getting dinner? Never heard of that

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sonofabutch t1_iy603x1 wrote

https://www.britishbattles.com/war-of-the-revolution-1775-to-1783/battle-of-yorktown/?amp

> After the surrender the American and French officers entertained the British officers to dinner, other than Tarleton with whom the Americans refused to sit at table, due to the atrocities committed by his troops in North and South Carolina.

https://www.nps.gov/people/banastre-tarleton.htm

> When Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia, he loosed Tarleton and the Legion on sweeping raids into the interior. At Monticello, Tarleton nearly captured Governor Thomas Jefferson, who fled just in time. In the Siege of Yorktown, Tarleton served across the river at Gloucester. On October 4, 1781 a French Hussar regiment skirmished with Tarleton's British Legion. In this skirmish, Tarleton was unhorsed and wounded, saved by his men from a French lancer. After the British surrendered at Yorktown, there was a dinner party for military officers. The Americans invited all British officers, except for Tarleton. His past conduct could not be overlooked.

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