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Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown...
Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown...
Item # 718115 THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, London, January, 1782
* Lord Charles Cornwallis
* General George Washington
* Surrender at Yorktown - Virginia
This issue contains the very historic report of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. An inside page has a nice report headed: "Extract of a Letter from Sir Henry Clinton" which begins: "...I had the honour to acquaint your Lordship with my fears respecting the fate of the army in Virginia. It now gives me the deepest concern to inform you that they were but too well founded..." with more. Following this is a report headed: "Copy of a Letter from Lt. General Earl Cornwallis to Sir Henry Clinton dated York-Town, in Virginia, Oct. 20, 1781" which begins with the very famous line: "I have the mortification to inform your excellency that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester and to surrender the troops under my command, by capitulation, on the 19th inst. as prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France..." with much, much more, portions seen in the photos. This report carries over to the following three pages, and which includes letters between Cornwallis and George Washington, signed by each. One of the more significant dispatches signed by Washington includes his statement "...an ardent desire to spare the further effusion of blood will readily incline me to listen to such terms for the surrender of your posts as are admissable..." with more.
Truly a very historic issue on the ending of the Revolutionary War, and great to have these reports in a British publication.
The road map plate called for is present.
Complete in 48 pages, full title/contents page featuring an engraving of St. John's Gate, 5 1/4 by 8 3/4 inches with wide untrimmed margins, great condition.
AI notes: The surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis to American and French forces at Yorktown in 1781 was the decisive event that effectively ended the American Revolutionary War. In October of that year, after a months-long siege, Cornwallis’s army was trapped on the Virginia Peninsula by the combined forces of General George Washington’s Continental Army and the French army under General Comte de Rochambeau, while the French fleet, commanded by Admiral de Grasse, blocked any escape or resupply by sea. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis formally surrendered his approximately 8,000 troops, signaling the collapse of British military operations in the colonies. Though the war did not officially end until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the victory at Yorktown gave the Americans and their French allies a decisive political and military advantage, solidifying the path to American independence. The surrender ceremony is famously remembered for the symbolic exchange of swords, though Cornwallis claimed illness and did not attend in person, sending his second-in-command instead.
A very nice magazine from the closing moments of the Revolutionary War with a wide range of varied content. This was the first periodical to use the word "magazine" in its title, having begun in 1731 and lasting until 1907.
Category: Revolutionary War
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