Old-News Flash: Cheese-Eating Surrender-Monkeys Save American Revolution

(2007 Oct blog post)

A few maps and links to references could be added.
But these images and links will probably be sufficient.

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It really gets tiring hearing FoxNews "anal-ists" repeatedly refer to the French as "cheese-eating surrender-monkeys". I recently (Sep 2007) saw a documentary on the American Revolution, with particular emphasis on the battle at Yorktown, Virginia, which resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis and his troops. This battle is consistently touted as the beginning of the end of the American Revolution --- with the result being that the United States was formed, free from the governance and taxation of the British. Two significant factors led to the capitulation of Cornwallis. A French Navy fleet arrived in time to chase off a fleet of British ships that were to rescue Cornwallis and his troops from their bad position at Yorktown. Lafayette and his troops constituted at least half of the troops surrounding Yorktown. That is, the French occupied at least half of the bulwarks surrounding Yorktown. In fact, Washington did not have sufficient troops to surround Yorktown. Cornwallis and his troops would surely have escaped to New York, had it not been for the presence of the French troops. Washington's troops were said to be on their last legs. They were badly in need of a victory. Without a victory, they were likely to fold up their tents and go home. Hence, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter and that FoxNews ilk would have been saying "aluminium" instead of "aluminum" --- and "God save the queen" instead of "God bless America" --- if it had not been for the French. They can thank those "cheese-eating surrender-monkeys" for that.

Note that on the following battle map, the French constitute
at least half of the forces surrounding Cornwallis ---
mostly on the left (the west) side of the map.

Links to more maps : This map or this map may show the locations of the French and American forces more clearly. Notice how close the French lines are to the British position. The second of these two maps came from this page on the Yorktown Campaign. (By the way, that word 'campaign' looks suspiciously French to me.) This map indicates the role played by the French navy in chasing off the British fleet when it arrived.

Here is a quote that I found on wikipedia.org. You can check out other info and links on this page. "In June, Cornwallis received orders from London to proceed to the Chesapeake Bay and to oversee construction of a port, in preparation of an attack on Philadelphia. As the British column travelled, Lafayette followed in a bold show of force that encouraged new recruits. In June, Lafayette's men were joined by forces under General (Mad) Anthony Wayne. Soldiers deserted both leaders; Wayne executed six for desertion. Lafayette offered to release his men from service because of the great danger ahead, all of his men remained." That doesn't sound like 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' to me.

Bottom of page on blog topic Old-News Flash: Cheese-Eating Surrender-Monkeys Save American Revolution. To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times. OR, use the History-list option of your web browser. OR ... < Return to Top of Page, above. > < Return to Blog menu. > < Return to Home page. > Or you can scroll up, to the top of this page. Posted 2007 Oct 24. Maps were added to this page 2008 Dec 24. Changed, to facilitate better printing, 2009 Aug 25.