AT the battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781, the French troops
triumphantly carried our American Stars and Stripes, with the spread
eagle on the blue field, for the eagle was their adoration, and they
stormed the redoubts, led on by the chivalric and heroic Generals
Muhlenberg and Lafayette, who immediately hoisted that Flag upon the
turret of the fortifications. The instant that Lord Cornwallis spied
it, he was terror stricken. The waving of that Flag compelled him to
surrender; for that Flag was the proclamation of Victory! and IT ended
the war in a blaze of glory.