Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

Capture of Cornwallis

WHEN British troops first landed here,

With Howe commander o’er them,

They thought they’d make us quake with fear,

And carry all before them.

With thirty thousand men and more,

And us without assistance,

America must needs give o’er,

And make no more resistance.

But Washington, our glorious sun,

Of British hosts the terror;

Soon by repeated overthrows

Convinced them of their error.

Let Princeton and let Trenton tell,

What gallant deeds he’s done, sir;

And Monmouth’s plains where hundreds fell,

And thousands from them ran, sir.

Cornwallis, too, when he approach’d

Virginia’s old dominion,

Thought he would soon her conqueror be;

And so was North’s opinion.

But Washington no sooner knew,

The visit that he paid her,

Than to his parent state he flew,

To crush the bold invader.

When he march’d down before Yorktown,

His Lordship soon surrender’d;

His martial pride he laid aside,

And struck the British standard.

Gods! how this stroke did George provoke,

And all his thoughts confuse, sir;

And how the peers did hang their ears,

When first they heard the news, sir.

Then let us toast America,

“Thy glory ne’er shall wither;

And long will Britain rue the day

Her hostile bands came hither.”