The World Turned Upside Down

225 Years ago today, 6,000 British troops marched out of Yorktown and surrendered to American and French troops, marking the end of armed conflict in the American Revolutionary War. England was forced to recognize the Independence of the American Colonies.

General George Washington led the combined forces of the American Army with 8,800 troops and the French forces with 7,800 soldiers, and they surrounded the town of Yorktown, Virginia where the British General Cornwallis had encamped after a campaign in the Carolinas.

Only 80 Americans lost their lives in this battle, and more than 500 British soldiers perished. As they marched out to surrender, the British Bands played “The World Turned Upside Down” on their fifes and drums. Reinforcements for the British were only five days away, delayed by October storms at sea.

If buttercups buzz’d after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies
To the gypsies for half a crown;
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.