The World Turned Upside Down

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 62 for his account.

In the summer of 1781 Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia and, on Clinton’s orders, dug in at Yorktown on the York River. Washington had meant to attack New York, but Rochambeau and the French admiral de Grasse steered him south. De Grasse’s fleet closed the Chesapeake on 30 August, and by late September Washington’s army had joined Lafayette’s to besiege the town: nearly 7,800 French troops and over 8,800 Americans against a little more than 7,000 British. Siege guns opened on 9 October. On the night of 16 October Cornwallis tried to ferry his men across the river and a storm drove the boats back. He proposed terms on the 17th. On the 19th the allies drew up in two lines, a mile long, on either side of a road, the Americans on one side and the French on the other, with Washington and Rochambeau at their heads. The British marched out between them with their colors cased and drums beating. Cornwallis stayed behind, ill, and General O’Hara led the column. Dr. James Thacher, a Continental surgeon, saw the ranks break and some men throw their muskets on the pile as if to ruin them. Rothbard gives the tune as The World Turned Upside Down, a story first written down long after. He credits the French siege guns and Henry Knox’s artillery with forcing the surrender, and says the southern strategy was finished.