President Donald Trump commemorated the 244th anniversary of the British surrender at Yorktown that secured American independence, releasing a statement honoring Revolutionary War heroes.
The October 19 message marks the beginning of America’s 250th Independence Anniversary celebrations.
The Presidential proclamation frames the 1781 victory as a defining moment when “farmers, frontiersmen, blacksmiths, and merchants” defeated the world’s mightiest military force. It calls on citizens to preserve the “hard-won legacy of American grit, greatness, and resolve.”
The statement recounts General George Washington’s grueling march from New York to Virginia in 1781. Continental forces, aided by French allies, trapped British General Charles Cornwallis’s army within “suffocating trenches” at Yorktown.
American and French artillery began bombarding British positions on October 9, 1781. Within days, siege lines had closed almost entirely around Cornwallis’s defenses. On October 19, British forces issued their formal surrender, ending military operations in the Revolutionary War.
The President’s message quotes French General Marquis de Lafayette: “Humanity has won its battle, liberty now has a country.”
While the Treaty of Paris wouldn’t be signed for nearly two more years, Yorktown secured American sovereignty. The statement describes how colonists “taxed without representation and denied the right to govern themselves” finally broke free.
The commemoration pledges that “America will never bend, break, yield, or surrender in the face of tyranny.” It urges citizens to channel the fortitude of Revolutionary heroes as the nation approaches its 250th birthday.