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 a.s.sembled 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.
The British troops in new uniforms, in striking contrast to the worn and faded garb of the colonists, followed the officer with colors furled.
Coming opposite General Washington, O"Hara saluted and presented the sword of Cornwallis. A tense silence pervaded the a.s.sembly. General Washington motioned that the sword be given to General Lincoln.
Apparently forgetful of the indignities heaped upon him by the British at Charleston, the latter returned the sword to General O"Hara, remarking as he did so, "Kindly return it to his Lordship, Sir."
"Ground arms" came the order from the British officers. The troops complied sullenly; the humiliation felt by them in their defeat was everywhere apparent.
The next day the conquered army marched out of Yorktown between the American and French troops. Their fifers, with a brave show of humor, played, "The World"s turned Upside Down." Washington had directed his soldiers to show no disrespect nor unkindness to the defeated troops.
But the remembrance of "Yankee Doodle," as played by the Britons in their times of conquest, in taunting derision of the Americans, proved too much for the latter to endure without return, when supreme occasion such as this offered. To the strains of "Yankee Doodle Do," from American fifes, Lord Cornwallis and his army bade adieu to the scenes wherein they had once marched as conquerors.
In thanksgiving to G.o.d was voiced the nation"s exultation. Congress adjourned the sessions and the members repaired to church to give thanks; business was suspended in all places. Throughout the land the voice of the people was raised in a mighty chorus of prayer and praise to the Almighty.
YORKTOWN
FROM Yorktown"s ruins, ranked and still, Two lines stretch far o"er vale and hill: Who curbs his steed at head of one?
Hark! the low murmur: Washington!
Who bends his keen, approving glance Where down the gorgeous line of France Shine knightly star and plume of snow?
Thou too art victor, Rochambeau!
The earth which bears this calm array Shook with the war-charge yesterday; Plowed deep with hurrying hoof and wheel, Shot down and bladed thick with steel; October"s clear and noonday sun Paled in the breath-smoke of the gun; And down night"s double blackness fell, Like a dropped star, the blazing sh.e.l.l.
Now all is hushed: the gleaming lines Stand moveless as the neighboring pines; While through them, sullen, grim, and slow, The conquered hosts of England go; O"Hara"s brow belies his dress, Gay Tarleton"s troops ride bannerless; Shout from the fired and wasted homes, Thy scourge, Virginia, captive comes!
Nor thou alone: with one glad voice Let all thy sister States rejoice: Let Freedom, in whatever clime She waits with sleepless eye her time, Shouting from cave and mountain wood Make glad her desert solitude, While they who hunt her, quail with fear; The New World"s chain lies broken here!
WHITTIER.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE
(1812)
THE year 1812 witnessed our second war with Great Britain. In an effort to prevent emigration from her sh.o.r.es England claimed the right to seize any of her subjects upon any vessel of the high seas. America denied her right to do this on American ships. Disagreement broke into open rupture. War with the mother country was again declared.
The doughty American seamen would not wait for attack upon them, but went forth aggressively against the squadron of the British. Oddly enough, considering the condition of the poorly equipped navy, they were remarkably successful and captured more than two hundred and fifty prizes. The following year, however, the British gained the ascendency, and in 1814 came in with sea force and land force and sacked and burned the Capitol at Washington and all public buildings except the patent office.
They then proceeded against Baltimore. The land troops were almost in sight of the city of their desires, when they were halted and held in check by American troops under General Sticker, whose name, it may be said, meant as it sounded, and who effectually prevented their further advance. But the fleet on the waters sailed into the bay of Baltimore and up to Fort McHenry at the mouth of the Patapsco River, in the determination to bombard the fortress and compel entrance to the city in that way. The British admiral had boasted the fort would fall to his hand an easy prey.
Prior to this, Dr. William Beane, a citizen of Baltimore and a non-combatant, had been captured at Marlboro and was held a prisoner on one of the vessels of the British fleet. To secure his release, Francis Scott Key and John Skinner set out from Baltimore on the ship _Minden_ flying a flag of truce. The British admiral received them kindly and released Dr. Beane; but detained the three on board ship pending the bombardment of the fort, lest in their return to land the intentions of the British might be frustrated.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET THEY WATCHED THE SHOT AND Sh.e.l.l POURED INTO THE FORT AND NOTED WITH INFINITE JOY THAT THE FLAG STILL FLEW.]
Thus from the side of the enemy they were constrained to witness the efforts of destruction urged against the protecting fortress of their own city. From sunrise to sunset they watched the shot and sh.e.l.l poured into the fort and noted with infinite joy that the flag still flew.
Through the glare of the artillery, as the night advanced, they caught now and then the gleam of the flag still flying. Would it be there at another sunrise? Who could tell! Suddenly the cannonading ceased. The British, despairing of carrying the fort, abandoned the project. In the emotion of the hour and inspiration born of the victory, Key composed the immortal lines now become our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The flag is preserved in the museum of Washington and is distinctive in having fifteen stripes and fifteen stars, one of the very few national flags with this number.
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
OH, say, can you see, by the dawn"s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight"s last gleaming; Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro" the perilous fight O"er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket"s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O"er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the sh.o.r.e dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe"s haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze o"er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning"s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream; "Tis the star-spangled banner; oh, long may it wave O"er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that land who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle"s confusion A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps" pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave; And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O"er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and wild war"s desolation; Blest with vict"ry and peace may the Heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In G.o.d is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O"er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
THE DEFENSE OF THE CRESCENT CITY
UPON every recurrence of January the eighth, the city of New Orleans dons gala attire and shouts herself hoa.r.s.e with rejoicing. She chants the _Te Deum_ in her Cathedrals; and lays wreaths of immortelles and garlands of roses and sweet-smelling shrubs upon the monument of Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square.
"The Saviour of New Orleans," the inhabitants called Jackson in the exuberance of their grat.i.tude for his defense of the city, and their deliverance from threatened peril, that fateful day of January, 1815.
From capture and pillage and divers evil things he saved her, and the Crescent City has not forgotten.
Neither indeed has the nation become unmindful of his great achievement, but upon each succeeding anniversary of the battle of New Orleans--that remarkable battle that gloriously ended the War of 1812, and restored the national pride and honor so sorely wounded by the fall of Washington--celebrates the event in the chief cities of the United States.
During our second clash of arms with England, the Creek War, wherein the red man met his doom, brought Jackson"s name into prominence. At one bound, as it were, he sprang from comparative obscurity into renown.
In 1814 he was appointed a major general in the United States army, and established his headquarters at Mobile. He repulsed the English at Fort Bowyer, on Mobile Point, and awaited orders from Washington to attack them at Pensacola, where, through the sympathy of the Spaniards who were then in possession of the Florida peninsula, they had their base of operations.