Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Founding Fathers Pt6: The Spy, the Traitor and the Surrender at Yorktown

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

George Washington is stunned when an American war hero betrays the cause and switches sides. In the dead of night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Thomas Jefferson’s plantation with an urgent warning. And while the British attempt to rally support in the southern states, a decisive, climactic battle takes place in Virginia… the Siege of Yorktown. Here, a young officer named Alexander Hamilton will perform heroics… A Noiser podcast production. Narrated by Clarke Peters. Featuring Krysten Blackstone, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Caroline Stanley, Alan Taylor. For more on the surrender at Yorktown and the founding of the USA, see special event: ‘Dinners of Diplomacy’, 29th-30th October, 2026, Knowsley Hall in England. Hosted by the Countess of Derby and featuring expert scholars.  https://knowsleyhall.co.uk/event/dinners-of-diplomacy-american-revolution/⁠⁠https://knowsleyhall.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/76875?catID=72250& Written and produced by Edward White | Series Producer: Ed Baranski | Executive Producer: Joel Duddell | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Head of Production: Natalie Brook-Reynolds | Script Consultant: Peter Kastor | Sound Supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly editing by Tony Onuchukwu | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering by Josh Latham. Recording Engineer: Gerry O’Riordan at The Soundhouse Studios | Additional voice performed by Francesca Thakorlal. Get every episode of Founding Fathers: An American Dream two weeks early and ad-free by joining Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wayfair, every style, every home. It's the morning of September 23rd, 1780. In New York State, a man rides alone near the east bank of the Hudson River. John Anderson is his name. Well, it is today at least. He's 30 years old and clearly affluent. His beautifully cut purple coat is trimmed with gold lace. Such elegance is a rare sight around here.

This is no man's land, an area over which neither American revolutionaries nor the British have control. It's not safe for civilians. patrols for both sides are frequent. Anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time could be a mortal danger. John Anderson, the man on horseback, is heading south towards British territory.

There's not much further to go now, but the rider's anxiety rises with every step. Each yard seems like a mile. Somewhere within the nearby woods, voices call out. The man shifts. in his saddle. He looks around nervously. Three armed militiamen emerge from the trees. Anderson breathes a sigh of relief. He recognizes them as loyalists, locals fighting on behalf of the British. He dismounts his

horse and introduces himself, not as John Anderson, but his real identity, Major John Andre, an officer in the British Army. It's an enormous error. He's got these men all wrong. The militiamen are not loyalists, but patriots, Americans fighting for independence. Grabbing Andre by the arm, they begin to search him. They're rifle in his pockets and find nothing.

But they're not satisfied. So they order him to take off his clothes. As Andre removes his boots, some papers fall. to the ground. The militiamen gather the pages and begin to study them. Stood in his stockinged feet, Andre's heart pumps beneath his tailored shirt. He's been found out. These past few days,

he's been behind American lines on a top secret mission. But now, the evidence of what he's been up to is in the hands of the enemy. The militiamen exchange confused looks. What these papers seem to suggest, is something mind-boggling. It appears one of the most respected figures in the new United States, a patriot and a war hero, is secretly working for the British.

In the American struggle for independence, loyalties are often divided, but this is something else. It could wreck morale in the Continental Army and spell the end of the revolution. I'm Clark Peters, From the Noisor Podcast Network, this is part six of Founding Fathers, an American Dream. A quick recap. In October 1777, a division of the British Army, led by General John Burgoyne, finds itself isolated in Saratoga, New York.

Cut off from the rest of the army, no backup comes to its rescue. Borgoyne is forced to surrender. The world is stunned. Saratoga exposes British flaws. The imperial administration has deep pockets and vast resources. But waging a lengthy war 3,000 miles from home, it turns out that's a strategic and logistical nightmare. What's more, the British aren't just battling an opposing army. They're fighting ideals and identities, too.

Vanquishing them is near impossible. Now it's May 1778. An American hero of Saratoga rides through rural Pennsylvania. He's a 37-year-old white man, bright blue eyes, thick black hair. His striking looks are as distinctive as his abrasive personality. He's infamously thin-skinned and short-tempered. This is Major General Bennington. General Benedict Arnold. At Saratoga, Arnold suffered life-changing wounds. Shot in the leg,

he fell from his horse. Lying in agony on the ground, the horse then collapsed on top of him. Months later, he still walks with a pronounced limp. Arnold descends into a lush green valley. The landscape is dominated by two wooded uplands, and beneath them, the forest. The forest is, the fourth largest settlement in the United States. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Population, almost 20,000. But this is no regular city. Valley Forge is a sprawling community of tents.

It was created back in December, literally overnight. It's the winter camp of George Washington's Continental Army. Ever since, this has been their home. But it's far from cozy. Christmas 1777 was especially miserable. Back then, half the soldiers went without blankets. One in three didn't have shoes. Hardly any of them had a coat.

Illness is rife. As a result, 2,000 soldiers die. Influenza, dysentery, antifas is the main culprits. Even today, hunger, malnutrition, and disease are a problem. Hundreds also suffer from scabies. Lice are ubiquitous. George Washington's pleas for congressional assistants are rebuffed. Some fear how he might react. Professor Alan Taylor

The Continental Congress is trying to wage this war with a population that's not keen to pay taxes. So Washington gets really exasperated with the civilian authorities of Pennsylvania and with Congress that they're allowing the army to suffer like this. There were people who were fearful at that time that Washington would start to act as a military dictator, that he would just send Congress home, they'd take over the government of Pennsylvania, and they'd just send troops to the farms and take what they wanted. Previous revolutions, including the English Revolution, of the middle of the 17th century

had collapsed because a military leader, in that case, Oliver Cromwell, had seized power. The fear in the American colonies is that Washington will become a Cromwell, but he doesn't. And that's key to the survival of this revolution. In time, the hardships of Valley Forge acquire legendary status.

According to some, it's a distortion of the truth. But Valley Forge is central to the story. story of America's founding. Dr. Kristen Blackstone. Valley Forge is actually not the worst winter that the Continental Army faces, but Valley Forge is the quintessential image and description of the experience of the Continental Army. He rag-tagged group of soldiers, badly clothed, no shoes, bandages around their heads, looking very cold.

It's been mythologized, and this is how we now view the army. They suffered for the public good and therefore United States came to be. Today in the spring of 1778, Valley Forge's darkest days are in the past. As Benedict Arnold rides into the camp, he's given a rousing reception. After a long period of recuperation, he's rejoining the Continental Army as a hero, thanks to his courage at Saratoga. That battle has changed everything in this war. It's boosted patriot morale, weakened British forces, and, crucially, its convinced France and other European powers to ally with the U.S.

Professor Andrew Oshonisi. That changes the nature of the war altogether, because it means that the British, they're eventually fighting the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch, and they're fighting a global war. And this is often the case with what we call counterinsurgency, which we faced in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, where small powers defeat large powers. And it seems to me a key is that they have foreign support. Americans anticipate a glut of French money and munitions, but there are other reasons for U.S. optimism.

The Continental Army doesn't merely survive Valley Ford, It's transformed by it. The person responsible is a German officer named Baron Friedrich von Stubin. Immensely experienced in European warfare, von Stubin is no revolutionary idealist. He only joined the rebels' cause in hope of a lucrative payday. Yet he's just the man Washington needs. Von Stubin takes a diverse collection of amateurs and turns them into an effective well-organized fighting force.

For the first time, the Continental Army is worthy of its name. There are big changes among the British, too. General Howe is replaced as leader of the army by Henry Clinton. With the new leadership comes a new strategy. Clinton abandons Philadelphia and switches his focus to New York City. With the French now in the game, the British are weary of invasion further north. Up until now, Britain has assumed its military might will overwhelm the revolutionaries. Defeat at Saratoga forces a rethink.

From now on, Britain will use Americans to get the job done. British leaders are convinced that most Americans are at heart on their side, especially in the South. So they plan to send thousands of soldiers there, create havoc, and allow the silent majority of loyalists to rise up and support King George. The so-called Southern strategy gets off to a remarkably good start.

The British claim big winds along the Atlantic coast. At the end of 1778, Savannah, Georgia Falls, Charleston, South Carolina soon follows. As the coastal cities capitulate, thousands of people pledge their loyalty to His Majesty. But not all Britain's attention remains in the South. By this point, the conflict is spread far and wide. For example, in 1780, a huge battle takes place in St. Louis,

roughly 900 miles west of New York City. On one side are Britain's native allies. On the other are Spanish forces, fighting alongside American revolutionaries. The war also rages in the Caribbean. British and French navies even clash off the coast of India. Make no mistake, this war has gone global. But much of the focus remains on the American East Coast, where the problems all began.

all began. In fact, Clinton, the new British leader in America, is convinced that the big climatic battle to end the war will one day take place in New York. For what is worth, George Washington seems to agree. He's also stationed up north, leaving the Southern Theater to trusted deputies. So Clinton heads north towards Washington, taking thousands of soldiers with him. This leaves the South in the hands of his second in command, Lord Charles Cornwallis. Like many British Army officers, Cornwallis is that most un-American thing, an aristocrat. In part, this whole war is about overthrowing old-world hierarchies. As such, men like Cornwallis occupy a particular place in the American imagination. They are arrogant, ignorant, ridiculous.

Yet there may be more to these men than the stereotypes suggest. Caroline Stanley is the Countess of Darby and a Cornwallis descendant. In the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibson is this swash-buttling hero, and Cornwallis is sort of a buffoon. He's much more interested in his wolf hands that he had in his room and sort of tying his cravat. And that is just not the impression I have of him. He was a very, very serious soldier. And he went to this academy where he learnt advanced artillery and advanced ways of conducting a siege. And so that stood him in really good stead for the seven years war and later the American Revolution. War. He was a devout Christian. He was also a very loyal man. His wife died just before he went to war,

tragically on Valentine's Day. So he went to war and left two young children out of total duty to his sovereign. And he didn't actually agree necessarily with the war. He was one of the six lords who voted against the Stamp Act. He did not believe there should be direct taxation on American citizens without representation. And that is the nuts and bolts of how that war started. Cornwallis's first objective is to subdue South Carolina. But Clinton has left him a relatively small army. Just 8,000 men.

So Cornwallis turns to local loyalists. Fast-moving cavalry units race through the backcountry. They terrorize patriot communities. setting farms ablaze, killing prisoners. They are ruthless and devastatingly effective. Patriots respond with equal ferocity. Opposing militias are locked in a cycle of violence. Guerrilla warfare rages throughout South Carolina.

In August 1780, Cornwallis scores a big win. At the Battle of Camden, his troops overwhelm the enemy. Local militias make up a sizable chunk of both forces. The Southern Strategy polarizes communities. Neighbors turn on neighbors and with unprecedented brutality. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19-speaker AKG surround audio system.

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In total, it weighs 65 tons. Its purpose is to block the travel of British ships along this strategically crucial waterway. Some call this feat of engineering America's Iron Wall of Liberty. but it's just one of many impressive features at the newly refurbished West Point Fortress. And, as of August 1780, it's all under Arnold's control. He's West Point's new commander. Not only that, but one of the installations here is named after him, Fort Arnold, in recognition of his battlefield heroics.

Quite an honor. though Arnold, it seems, is underwhelmed. Since the outbreak of war, he's grown increasingly bitter. Despite his remarkable service record, he's consistently overlooked for promotions and medals. Arnold blames everyone but himself for his lack of advancement. Yet often, he's his own worst enemy. Even the soldiers who absolutely love Benedict Arnold

also say he's very arrogant. He has a big head, And I think this is evident throughout the entire revolution. He constantly was criticized by other generals. He had been injured in battle a number of times, so much so that his ability to go into battle had been hindered. So his position in the army shifted to something slightly less exciting than he had hoped for. And so he is this ambitious man who is frustrated by his position in the army.

Things are coming to a head. Just a few months ago, charges of corrupt. were leveled against him. A court-martial trial followed. In the end, Arnold received only a reprimand. But it seems it may have been the final straw, because Benedict Arnold is going rogue. Last year, Arnold married a young woman named Peggy Shippen.

Her family are loyalists from Philadelphia. Through his wife, Arnold made acquaintance with John Andre, head of British intelligence. Via a discreet messenger, Arnold offers his surfaces. And so it is that the hero of Saratoga is now working for the British, plotting the destruction of the United States. Why Arnold betrays the cause will always remain something of a mystery. The influence of his wife is often cited.

Or perhaps a mixture of vanity, bitterness, and greed are to be. blame. There are some historians who I think are probably overly critical of his wife who say that she forced him to defect, and I am not sure that's true. But what is definitely true is by entering a relationship with her and entering her social circle, his worldview is shifted. In addition to that, the gulf between loyalists and patriots is incredibly thin and fluctuates constantly, depending on the situation. Someone could be an ardent patriot, and then if the Continental Army comes in and steals all of their livestock and plunders their house for goods, their understanding of the Revolutionary War might be slightly different after that. It is possible also that he felt there was no way

the Revolution was going to be won, and that playing both sides mitigated his risks, right? If he was never found out, then whoever won, he was a good guy. Almost as soon as he starts his new command, Arnold strikes a deal with John Andre. Arnold agrees he will sabotage and ultimately surrender the West Point fortifications. In return, he will receive a huge lump sum of 20,000 pounds, plus a command in the British Army and a lifetime pension of 500 pounds per year. Arnold will become rich. Britain will reclaim supremacy in New York.

To seal the deal, Andre arranges a secret visit to West Point. Early on September the 22nd, he meets Arnold in the clearing of a woods. Arnold hands over detailed information about West Point. He also writes a letter intended to provide Andre with a cover. It vouches that Andre is in fact a traveling businessman named John Anderson, who is on an official visit to West Point. Ultimately, it's these two documents that incriminate Andre and Benedict Arnold. The following day, Andre is stopped and searched whilst trying to get back behind British lines.

He's caught red-handed. Word of the treachery is sent straight to Washington, and you won't believe where he is when the news filters through. It's September the 25th, 1780. Two miles from West Point, George Washington arrives at the front door of a beautiful mansion. Friends of his used to live here. Used to, but not anymore. When war broke out, they revealed themselves to be loyalists and were forced to leave.

Now it's the home of the new commander of West Point, Benedict Arnold, and his delightful wife Peggy. In the short time she's been here, Peggy has become the talk of the local Continental Army officers. It seems half of them are madly in love with her. Perhaps Washington is just a tiny bit, too. He's supposed to have dinner here this evening with the Arnold's. But evidently, neither of them is here just now. He's shown to a room where he can wait.

Soon, there's a knock on the door. A junior officer enters, looking distraught. He tells the commander-in-chief the unbelievable truth. Benedict Arnold is a traitor. Washington is befuddled, then furious. Not just with Arnold, but with himself. He had never for a moment suspected any sign of disloyalty in the hero of Saratoga. through the open door, a strange noise drifts in.

The noise appears to be coming from the second floor. Washington goes to investigate. At the top of the stairs, he's shocked to see Peggy Arnold in her night clothes, her hair loose, and cradling her baby. The angelic Mrs. Arnold staggers around. She's babbling. Washington can barely make sense of anything she says. says, it appears she's barely aware of anyone around her.

An aide approaches Washington and whispers in his ear. Mrs. Arnold has recently heard the awful news about her husband, he says. The shock has sent her mad. In reality, Peggy Arnold has known about her husband's treachery for weeks. She's actively encouraged it. Nevertheless, her hammy performance has the leader of the Continental Army fooled. Washington believes her. His old-fashioned Virginian sense of chivalry won't allow him not to.

He decides that the poor woman needs to be left alone to convalesce. She isn't questioned. She isn't detained. The first chance she gets, she takes the baby and leaves the house for good. Eventually, the Arnold's are reunited safely on British territory. With Andre's arrest taking place so near West Point, Arnold soon learns the news. He immediately flees. A crew of his underlings row him out to a British warship.

Arnold can no longer help the British take West Point, but he becomes one of their officers anyway, and he still gets 6,000 pounds for his treacherous trouble. The news stuns people on both sides of the pond. Kristen Blackstone has carried out extensive research into the diaries of Continental Army soldiers. Those firsthand accounts reveal the impact of Arnold's defection on troop morale. It absolutely wreaks havoc.

It doesn't seem to cause any additional defections, but it does cause this almost existential panic amongst the soldiers. They basically say, if a general like Arnold is defecting, what hope do we have? And it sets the scene for a very difficult 1780 and 1781.

At the start of 1781, Arnold is back on the front line, only now he's fighting for the British. Fittingly, the great American turncoat is helping to awaken loyalist support in the South. His first action is to lead a raid on Richmond, Virginia. With several hundred soldiers, including many loyalists, he destroys parts of the city.

The aim is to deplete patriot resources, disrupt the flow of supplies south, and damage enemy morale. Undoubtedly, in early 1781, American revolutionaries are feeling gloomy. There are rumors that French are tiring of the alliance. and many Americans are frustrated that France has yet to offer a decisive contribution. Money, equipment, and soldiers have all been dispatched,

but there's been no breathtaking military win yet. The spirit within the Continental Army is on the floor. Conditions, as always, are abysmal for the soldiers. Now there are mutinies over wage arrears. The force commanded by Washington in the north, is now only 9,000. We are at the end of our tether, writes the commander-in-chief.

Now or never, our deliverance must come. But warning signs are also flashing for the British. Cornwallis has scored great victories, but attempting to subdue South Carolina is like playing whack-a-mole. Just as one cluster of patriots is put down, another pops up somewhere else. In every sense, Cornwallis is a very long way from home.

British often make the mistake of thinking that they're fighting a conventional war, kind of war that they were used to fighting in Europe, where if you capture key places and you defeat the enemy's army, that they'll negotiate a resolution with you. They are now in a very different setting, where populations, particularly in the southern colonies, are very dispersed. We've got long stretches of countryside with relatively few people living in it. Really bad roads.

Very difficult to control these areas once your army moves through. So one British officer likened the British Army as like a ship sailing through the sea. It's powerful where it is located. But as it moves on, it leaves nothing but water in its wake, which is the Patriots move back in and they snuff out the loyalists. They're also underestimating the political situation. situation, the British have to destroy the authority of the Continental Congress. They have to crush this rebellion, the hearts and minds of people.

And it's very hard to win a war in the hearts and minds of people because wars put soldiers into situations where they do terrible things to civilians. Both sides are doing this. But the British come to be perceived by most Americans as the ones who, if they were would just go home, the trouble will go away. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that last year too.

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create the best beauty products for all people. Visit laurel.com to learn more. In the spring of 1781, British control of South Carolina needs to be consolidated. But Cornwallis is a man in a hurry. Rather than betting down, he heads north. His aim is to crush the Continental Army's southern detachments. Those detachments are currently in separate parts of North Carolina,

but they are on the move. hoping to unite. Cornwallis is desperate to catch them before they can coalesce into one much stronger single unit. Move fast enough, he reckons, and he can pulverize the Americans into dust. It's a bold strategy. Some might say reckless, reminiscent of another British general, John Burgoyne, the man who lost Saratoga. Perhaps Cornwallis is channeling a higher power. Not God, but in his mind, the next best thing, his sovereign.

King George III is a hawk. He wants an end to this absurd fantasy of American independence. A quick, decisive victory, a thumping knockout blow. Maybe this is in Cornwallis' thinking as he begins his charge north. I think hope has a lot to play and bravery. You know, after the event it could be perceived as stupidity or reckless, but, you know, they were there to win a war. And don't forget also that Cornwallis was a good friend of King George III's.

He liked him, he trusted him, and he'd been paid to his father. So there was a familiarity between King and General there that wasn't with Clinton. King George III thought that Borgoyne was a bit reckless, didn't know Clinton so well, but he really did know Cornwallis. King George III very much felt that if Britain lost the American Revolutionary War, they would cease to be a great power in Europe. That is the crux of why we were in that war. Cornwallis tears through North Carolina. To speed things up, he makes an astonishing decision. He orders the men to burn their tents

and get rid of their supplies of rum too, anything that weighs them down. According to Caroline Stanley, these are not the actions of some lazy aristocrat, but of a committed soldier. Oh, he leads from the front, and he was very concerned with his troops, very, very concerned with the condition of his troops,

the privations they had. He did actually burn their time. tents, and then he slept out in the open with them. So he definitely led from the front. He was not this fancy soldier who was keeping himself in a smart jacket. He fought the war. Cornwallis leads his men on a frantic surge north. They march 20 miles a day, subsisting on meager rations. Scirmishes with patriots break out the whole way. Loyalists do come out in support. But nowhere near as many as Cornwallis had anticipated, an awful realization creeps in.

The British had been kidding themselves. The problem for the British was that they predicated this war on the idea the majority of Americans supported them, and that never proved to be correct. There were Americans who supported the British. Someone has argued that it was as many as a quarter of the population. The problem was the British were talking to the wrong people. They were talking to people who just months before Yorktown, the very last battle the revolution,

was saying nine-tenths of Americans support you. And there is really a parallel between the revolution and Vietnam. America was led into Vietnam by one of the most experienced and ablest war cabinets in American history, and yet they still made fatal errors. Eventually, Cornwallis' exhausted men confront the enemy. In March 1781, at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the British prevail, but at tremendous cost. Cornwallis is left with just 1,500 men, yet he will not turn back. The British press ahead into Virginia.

Cornwallis is left. now able to join forces with Benedict Arnold, who's been in Virginia since January. As most of the Continental Army's southern troops are in the Carolinas, the Redcoats have free reign. Virginia is rocked. Faring for their lives, many who support the revolution flee their homes. But there's one patriot above all others who preoccupies Cornwallis. Thomas Jefferson. the author of the Declaration of Independence and currently the governor of Virginia.

At the start of the summer, the hunt for Jefferson is on. It's June 4, 1781. Before sunrise, a commotion breaks out at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's mansion and plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. Outside in the half-light, A young man is demanding to see the owner, Governor Jefferson himself. When Jefferson is roused, he walks downstairs, rubbing his eyes.

Upon seeing the visitor, Jefferson is taken aback. The young man's face is bleeding. The cuts, he says, are from the 40-mile ride he's just undertaken, in the dark, through dense brush. The young man says his name is Jack. Jefferson has a slave pour him a glass of wine, and Jack explains the reason for this startling visit. Last night, he spotted a pack of redcoats in a nearby town, and he's certain they're headed for Monticello.

Jefferson leaves the room. He wakes up his wife and daughter. They hurriedly pack and set off to a safe location. But Jefferson isn't ready to flee. Not yet. There's every chance this is a false alarm. So, as the sun rises, he takes breakfast. Periodically, he walks to a window, looking out onto the grounds.

Where the telescope pressed to his eye, he scours the horizon, looking for any sign of the invading hordes. Time and again, he sees nothing. But then comes a second report. A trusted neighbor has witnessed the Redcoats advancing up Monticello Mountain. Jefferson makes a hurried exit, and just in time. Within minutes, a dragoon of soldiers arrive. Forgoing the main road, Jefferson darts into the woods.

He heads for the safe haven of a friend's farm. It's an undignified exit for the state governor to make. And it's one that will stick. with him. The accusation of Jefferson, the coward who abandoned his post, will be used against him by political opponents for years to come. But for now, at least, he's safe. Cornwallis's men turned Monticello upside down. Other Jefferson properties are also ransacked. Across three of his plantations, 23 enslaved people seize a chance at freedom and leave with the redcoats. Jefferson will later claim that these people were captured by the tyrannical British,

but there's no evidence of coercion. In fact, around a thousand enslaved people joined Cornwallis in Virginia, mostly as camp followers. They joined the 2,000 African Americans from the Carolinas who have taken the same risk. In all this time, Cornwallis has barely heard from his superior, General Cleland. Clinton. But in the summer of 1781, Clinton sends orders. Perurbed by all the daring do, he tells Cornwallis to establish a naval post in the Chesapeake Bay. There, Cornwallis will be able to receive supplies and reinforcements by sea. That's the idea, at least. In August, 7,000 British soldiers arrive at Yorktown, a tobacco port. After months of battling patriots and chasing shadows, the men are exhausted.

They begin to build fortifications. It's a slow process. Virginia is oppressively hot, and Cornwallis' army is riddled with illness. Cornwallis himself is struggling with malaria. There are, however, reasons to step on the gas. Unbeknownst to Cornwallis, a huge French fleet is homing in on Yorktown, and on land, a gigantic American force is coming to meet it. Right now, Washington is on a 400-mile march, from New York to Virginia.

Alongside him is the Comp de Roche-Mbo, the head of the French Army in America. Beneath them are several thousand soldiers, French and American. The two sets of troops belong to different worlds. The French marvel at the Hodgepodge Continental Army, its array of ages and ethnicities, and so many of them destitute, underfed, and ill-equipped. But they are still standing, more than six years into the war.

Much of the credit is given to George Washington's leadership. Soldiers in their diaries don't talk about battles often, hardly ever. But there would be occasions when George Washington would formally enter a battle in quite a dramatic way that soldiers always commented on. His presence on the battlefield and his insistence that soldiers keep fighting really did impact on the soldiers. And I think is reflective of what his presence did most of the time. But the revolution is about more than the inspirational leadership of one man. On the line are ideas, ideals, and the promise of a better future. Officers, when they talk about the revolution, do so in quite lofty ideological terms.

They are fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Common soldiers, so soldiers without rank, they understand the revolution as something, that is going to directly change their life. They also think that through their suffering in this new nation, they will gain social status. So it will not be an aristocratic system like the British have. It will not be a system based on wealth that existed in the colonies beforehand. Instead it will be one based on good citizenship. And in suffering for the revolution or the public good, they have proven that they have proven that they

they are good citizens. And therefore, in this new nation, they should have this elevated social status. That doesn't necessarily pan out for them after the war. But it is something that they really care about throughout. It's late September when Cornwallis learns the full truth. The enemy force is at hand, and its power is colossal. Between them, Washington and Rochembo command an army of nearly 19,000 men. Clinton promises to send reinforcements, but that can't stop the inevitable.

The Allies dig trenches and begin a siege of Yorktown. Inside the town, thousands of British soldiers and their loyalist followers are trapped, immobile. There is no way out. For once, George Washington is not calling the shots. The French are masters at siege warfare. This is Rochambeau's domain. Even so, on October the 9th, it's Washington who lights the first cannon. The opening shot of a barrage that will last for days.

Each blow erodes British resistance. The French and the Americans inch ever closer to the enemy. They dig new trenches, these just 300 yards from the British lines. Among the British defenses, are redoubts, essentially ditches protected by a wall made from wood and earth. On October 14th, Washington gives the order for a special mission. He tells his men that two key British outposts must be captured, redoubt nine and ten.

Once that's done, Yorktown will be a sitting duck. Washington splits the mission in two. responsibility for Redoubt 9 is handed to the Marquis de Lafayette, a young French officer. Lafayette is, in many ways, an embodiment of old Europe, a polished aristocrat of substantial means and elaborate manners. But he's also a bundle of revolutionary passion. The attack on Redoubt 10 is to be led by another young officer. This one, a hungry, hard-scrabble American. A self-made man in more ways than one.

Alexander Hamilton is the same age as Lafayette. 24. Or maybe he's 26. Nobody can be sure. The uncertainty is pure Hamilton. He's an expert self-mythologizer. If it serves as ambition, he's not against massaging the facts. What definitely is true is that Washington trusts him implicitly. I suspect George Washington found in Alexander Hamilton a similar spirit that he himself had just manifesting in a different way.

Alexander Hamilton, too, was very devoted to the cause. The writings of George Washington from the French and Indian War reflect this similar kind of hunger for battle and promotion. and the excitement that comes with that. By the time you get to the revolution, Washington is older, he's wiser, he's certainly much more tempered than he was in his youth, but it wouldn't surprise me if he saw similar characteristics in Hamilton. Hamilton has spent much of the war on Washington's staff. For a long time, he was desperate for a field command.

Finally, in July 1781, Washington put Hamilton in charge of an infantry battalion. Now as the siege of Yorktown grinds on, a life or death challenge stands in front of him. That night, artillery rains down on the British defenses. In the trenches, Hamilton crouches, ready to charge Redoubt 10. Around him, awaiting his signal, are 400 American soldiers. Each is armed, but their orders are to use their bayonauts. only. This is to be a surprise attack. Valleys of gunfire would surely give the game away. When the moment comes, Hamilton springs to his feet. The men immediately follow. Over the top they go.

They sprint towards the redoubt. Overhead, a barrage of artillery lights their path. Racing nearer to the redoubt, Hamilton leads his men in loud guttural war cries. Dodging obstacles planted in the ground, he leaps onto the enemy parapet, and then down into the redoubt. A stream of American soldiers follow. Within no time, they have overwhelmed the enemy.

A stone's throw away, the other edoubt is also captured by the French. The whole mission has taken just 10 minutes. In that blink of an eye, British defenses have been seriously weakened. The end of the siege is within sight. It's October the 17th, 1781. For the past two days, Yorktown has suffered relentless bombardment.

The Allies are within a hair's breath of storming the town. Yorktown and its war-wary inhabitants can take no more. At 10 a.m., a boy dressed in a red coat, straps a drum over his shoulder. Drumsticks in hand. He climbs atop the parapet of the Yorktown defenses. Behind him is a soldier waving a white handkerchief. Spotting this, the Allies hold their fire. The boy begins to beat out a rhythm.

It's a parley, a call for discussion with the enemy. Cornwallis has recognized the inevitable. He's asking for a 24-hour ceasefire and to negotiate the terms of British surrender. He never got the 24 hours. He got a two-hour ceasefire, which I'm sure was enough for them to just collapse and have a sleep. Even so, negotiations commence.

And two days later, on October the 19th, terms are finalized. the British have surrendered. It comes almost exactly four years since Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. But this time, the British won't be re-arming. Although the war will not officially be over until a treaty is signed,

most people know that this is it. David has beaten Goliath, although that's not how everybody sees it. George III. dismissed it and said we should continue. It's just another Saratoga. The British could technically have continued. They still had no cities like St. Augustine in Florida, they still had Charleston, they still had New York, they still had Quebec and Montreal. But they were surrounded by American and French troops and the French Navy. It was the most perfect checkmate.

What is very significant is what happens in the House of Commons. Army officers and naval officers could sit in the House of Commons at this time, and they started to vote against the war. The opinion had changed in such a way that the war was no longer sustainable, and I think part of that was the realization that there'd never been this port in America. It had finally been demonstrated that there were no huge loyalism. populations to come to the support of Britain. Once terms are agreed, all that remains is the ceremony of surrender.

This is no trivial detail. In the 18th century, codes of honor are everything. As commanding officer, Cornwallis is required to officially submit his sword to his opposite number, George Washington. That sword means the world to Cornwallis. and is still owned by his descendants. When I was growing up, it was always in my father's dressing room, in an umbrella stand with a whole load of other things, walking sticks,

for most of my childhood. It's not a long sword, and the key thing is it's straight. The battle swords then were curbed. So it's quite a simple, unprepossessing sword, but it had huge sentimental, significant for Charles Cornwallis himself. That sword was given to him when he was a child as a 15. year old when he was paged King George II. Two lines of soldiers, French and American, line up for the ceremonial surrender.

They eagerly await the arrival of their British counterparts. At the end of the line is George Washington. He's in his familiar pose, on horseback, in his blue and buff uniform. His black boots gleam just as they did. six and a half years ago when this war began. In that time, he's experienced so much, defeat, humiliation, and the death of thousands of his men. Receiving the surrender of a British general,

a member of the House of Lords, no less, will be sweet. British officers walked between the two lines of Allied soldiers. But Cornwallis is not among them. His place is taken by his second in command. Cornwallis has chickened out, or so it might seem. Some historians suggest that a flare-up of his malaria has left him bedbound. And Caroline Stanley believes her ancestor made a significant diplomatic gesture just two days later. In the diary of a French eyewitness, she's recently found a reference to Cornwallis visiting Washington, Che-Louis.

In other words, at his place, Washington's tent. This particular diary said that there was padafiette, which means it was no pride. So that immediately does away with him being a haughty soldier and a coward. And that he was regale, which means he was received very well. He went there in his finery. He was wearing his wig. He was wearing his smart jacket. He had clean riding boots on.

So it was very much. a diplomatic visit statesman to statesman. The interior of Washington's tent is oval-shaped, lending this meeting an extra layer of symbolism. There is this tradition that Washington's tent was the precursor to the Oval Office. So I think it's very significant that at 12 noon on the 21st of October in 1781, the Anglo-American relations started in an oval space, and it was cordial. In the 21st century, the moment of British surrender continues to stir passions.

When I took the sword to Fort Belvoir to the National Army Museum, there was a journalist there, and he said to me, aren't you ashamed of this sword? And I said, no, this sword represents the birth of America. When they've been in Fort Belvoir, grown men are crying in front of the case of the sword because it represents so much for them about the birth of their nation. And I think it should be celebrated. I don't see it as a shaming thing.

It's a very minor artifact with huge symbolic significance. But in 1781, symbolism is a secondary concern. Americans now have a country to build. And pretty soon, the entire project will be hanging by a thread. In the next episode, with the British Empire defeated, the USA begins an exciting new era of independence. But when economic crisis and civil unrest take hold, war veterans rise up, threatening to create chaos. In response, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison lead the drive for a radical reinvention of government. The result is the U.S. Constitution, an inspirational document shrouded in darkness and pain,

and America's first great political campaign begins. On the line is the survival of the American nation itself. That's next time on Founding Fathers, an American dream. You can listen to the final two episodes of Founding Fathers right now, without waiting and without ads by joining Noisor Plus. Click the banner at the top of the feed or head to noisor.com forward slash subscriptions to find out more. Before the next track starts, have you ever wondered who are the people in my old family photos?

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