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LOT #42019 |
Current Bid: $100,000
Exceptionally Rare Announcement of Cornwallis' Surrender in The Freeman's Journal: or, the North American Intel...
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Description
"LAUS DEO!" The Very First Printed Announcement of Cornwallis' Surrender at Yorktown - Marking the Triumph of American Independence
Exceptionally Rare Announcement of Cornwallis' Surrender in
The Freeman's Journal: or, the North American
Intelligencer. Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, October 24,
1781. Numb. XXVII. 4pp. printed in three columns. Measures 21 x 16
3/4 inches (unfolded).The first announcement of the British surrender at Yorktown, issued in Philadelphia only hours after the official news reached the city. In the early morning of October 24, Tench Tilghman, aide-de-camp to General George Washington, arrived in Philadelphia bearing Washington's letter to Congress. Later that same day, this issue of Freeman's Journal carried the first printed report of the victory, dramatically presented with remarkable urgency-nearly half the front page is devoted to the announcement, enclosed within a decorative border:
"BE IT REMEMBERED!
That on the 17th Day of October, 1781, Lieut. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwallis, with above 5000 British troops, surrendered themselves prisoners of war to his Excellency Gen. George Washington, commander in chief of the allied forces of France and America."
The final exclamation, printed in larger type than the rest, reads:
"LAUS DEO!"
("Praise be to God!")
The news was plainly fresh, and perhaps not yet fully verified in all its particulars. Aside from this extraordinary eight-line front-page announcement, the paper contains no fuller account from Yorktown. The Pennsylvania Packet would print Washington's official letter the following day. Notably, the Freeman's Journal gives the decisive date as October 17, the day Cornwallis first proposed negotiations, rather than October 19, the date of the formal surrender and of Washington's dispatch. That discrepancy itself underscores how immediate the report was. As a weekly paper, the Freeman's Journal may well have risked going to press on partial or hurriedly relayed information rather than delay publication of news so momentous. Bailey followed this issue with an extra the next day containing the Articles of Capitulation.
The surrender at Yorktown effectively ended major military operations in the Revolutionary War. Trapped between some 5,000 Continental troops under the Marquis de Lafayette and a larger combined force of approximately 6,500 American and French troops under Washington, Cornwallis's army of roughly 8,000 soldiers and seamen was overwhelmed. British relief never arrived in time. Although the Treaty of Paris would not be signed until 1783, and British forces remained in some American cities thereafter, Yorktown marked the decisive collapse of Britain's war effort in America.
An exceptional survival: the very first printed announcement of the surrender, issued at the instant the news broke in Philadelphia.
Condition: In overall excellent condition; a beautiful and well-preserved example of a vanishingly scarce print. Warmly toned, commensurate with age, with minor edgewear. Minor adhesive staining from previous matting at the edges only; a few small, professional repairs. Evidence of previous binding at the hinge.
Provenance: Christie's, New York, Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts Including Americana and the Eric C. Caren Collection, June 15, 2017, lot 249.
Auction Info
2026 June 19 The John H. Freund Americana Collection Signature® Auction #6331 (go to Auction Home page)
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