Carries Surrender Papers To Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 marked the start of the Patriot’s victory and an honor for Tench who Washington picked to carry the surrender papers to Philadelphia. Two poets have written about the ride, Dr. Oliver Huchel and Howard Pyle which both make Tilghman into a hero. A Ballad titled "The Ride of Tench Tilghman" also speaks of the ride and the surrounding areas as well.
In a letter to Tilghman the following year, Washington’s humor and admiration is apparent. Washington’s letter to Tench on July 9, 1782 from Newburgh, New York:
- “Till your letter of the 28th arrived which is the first from you and the only direct account of you since we departed at Philadelphia, we have various conjectures about you. Some thought you were dead—others that you were married—and all that you have forgot us. Your letter is not a more evident contradiction of the first and last of these suppositions than it is a tacit conformation of the second and as more can wish you greater success in the prosecution of the plan you are upon than I do...you have no friend who wishes more to see you than I do.”
Read more about this topic: Tench Tilghman
Famous quotes containing the words carries, surrender and/or papers:
“The token woman carries a bouquet of hothouse celery
and a stenographer’s pad; she will take
the minutes, perk the coffee, smile
like a plastic daisy and put out
the black cat of her sensuous anger
to howl on the fence all night.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“It took nine years, and a great depression, and two wars ending in defeat, and one surrender without war, to break my faith in the benign power of the press. Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.”
—Martha Gellhorn (b. 1908)
“All the familiar horrors we
Associate with others
Are coming fast along our way:
The wind is warning in our tree
And morning papers still betray
The shrieking of the mothers.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)