town.

French and Americans poured shot and shell into the British
intrenchments, and the bombardment grew heavier day by day. The superior
forces and strong situation of the besiegers made it impossible to break
through their lines. It would not even have been a forlorn hope. No
course now remained but to surrender. Cornwallis sought to make the best
terms possible. He has been severely and plausibly criticised for
abandoning the Tory refugees to American justice and vengeance. Horace
Walpole, writing in safe and comfortable quarters, far from siege or
battlefield, said that Cornwallis "ought to have declared that he would
die rather than sacrifice the poor Americans who had followed him from
loyalty, against their countrymen." Had Cornwallis so declared he would
doubtless have had a chance to die without any objection on the part of
the patriots on whose friends and relatives he had inflicted devilish
cruelties. Cornwallis was obliged to choose between perishing with all
his army, or accepting the terms which his conquerors saw fit to grant.
Apart from the formal articles of surrender he obtained the informal
consent of the allies that certain Tories most obnoxious to their
countrymen should be permitted to depart to New York in the vessel which
carried dispatches from the British commander to Sir Henry Clinton.[2]
General Lincoln, who had been compelled to surrender to the royal troops
at Charleston in the previous year, received the sword of Cornwallis from
General O'Hara, and twenty-eight British captains, each bearing a flag in
a case, handed over their colors to twenty-eight American sergeants. The
number of troops surrendered was about 7000, and to these were added 2000
sailors, 1500 Tories and 1800 negroes. The British lost during the siege
in killed, wounded and missing about 550 men; the Americans lost about
300. The spoils included nearly 8000 muskets, 75 brass and 160 iron
cannon and a large quantity of munitions of war and military stores, as
well as "about one hundred vessels, above fifty of them
square-rigged."[3] On the day after the surrender Washington ordered
every American soldier under arrest or in confinement to be set at
liberty, and as the next day would be Sunday he directed that divine
service should be performed in the several brigades.

[2] Walpole is right, however, in pointing out that the
unconditional surrender of the refugees by Cornwallis had an
important influence i