Then he
hurried to the South. There, at Yorktown, in Virginia, the combined
American army hemmed in, and after a battle forced to surrender, Lord
Cornwallis, the British commander in the South, and all his men.
This victory was so great that it really ended the war. Great Britain
gave up the struggle, and a treaty of peace was signed.
And now you will see how the British army left the city of New York.
CHAPTER XXX
AFTER the WAR
On a crisp, cold day, late in the fall, a tall, mild-faced man on a
spirited horse passed down the Bowery Road, followed by a long train
of soldiers whose shabby clothes and worn faces told of days of trial
and hardship. This was General George Washington with a portion of the
Continental army. They were entering New York on this same day when the
British troops were leaving it.
But although the British were leaving under the terms of the treaty of
peace, and had gone on board ships that were to take them to England,
there were many who were filled with rage at this enforced departure.
At the fort by the river-side they had knocked the cleats _off_ the
flag-pole, and had greased the pole so that no one could climb it
to put up the United States flag and thus flaunt it in the face of the
departing troops.
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