Yorktown Revisited, 240 Years Later

25,000 plus National Guard troops will be in our Nation’s Capitol on January 20th, Inauguration Day. This doesn’t include the National Guard troops deployed across our country at state capitols on the same day. All of this is to prevent the violence and insurrection threatened by right wing extremists.

People have noted the size of the contingent in our Nation’s Capitol is larger than the combined number of troops we currently have deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq (5,000 as of January 15th, 2021).

For me, there is another number that puts this deployment in perspective – The Battle of Yorktown in 1781. It was, in essence, the final battle of the American Revolution, resulting in American Independence. With a combined American/French force of approximately 18,000, General George Washington defeated the 8,000 troops under Lord Cornwallis in October of 1781.

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Think about it. In the battle that determined American Independence, there were approximately 26,000 troops between the two sides together. America is now deploying nearly that number itself, to guarantee extremist rabble doesn’t act out it’s fantasies.

The cost to defend and ensure American democracy is never cheap. It was not in 1781, and it is not 240 years later in 2021. That we need 25,000 troops, not to mention untold numbers of law enforcement personnel, to ensure a peaceful transition of power in this country is both sad and appalling.

What is equally as sad, is that no one expects anything to change for the foreseeable future. Whither next America?

As a footnote to history, it’s worth noting that after the Battle of Yorktown, Cornwallis refused to attend the surrender ceremony, saying he was ill. Instead, his deputy, Brigadier General Charles O’Hara, led the British Army on the field that day. The official treaty between Britain and America would not be signed for another two years.

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Addendum:

• Thanks to my friends Tim Stouffer and Mark Dunavan for our discussions on this topic. Tim, who knows more about history than anyone I personally know, first made the comparison to Yorktown in our discussions and helped me flush out this blog.

• The official treaty between Britain and America, “The Treaty of Paris” was signed on September 3rd, 1783.

• Our Constitution was not ratified until June 21st, 1788.