1781 News Flash:

Cheese-Eating
Surrender-Monkeys
Save American Revolution

(2007 Oct blog post)

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This page on the Cheese-Eating, Surrender-Monkeys
who saved the American Revolution

! Note !
A few maps and links to references may be added
if/when I re-visit this page.

INTRODUCTION:

It really gets tiring hearing Fox News "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 1781 siege 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, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Tucker Carlson and others of the Fox News crew (past and present) 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.

More maps :

The following two maps may show the locations of the French and American forces more clearly, in the Yorktown campaign.

Notice how close the French lines are to the British position. Pretty aggressive for a bunch of surrender-monkeys.

    (By the way, that word 'campaign' looks suspiciously French to me.)

The following map indicates the role played by the French navy in chasing off the British fleet when it arrived.

French show dedication to the fight

Here is a quote that I found on the Lafayette page at wikipedia.org.

    "In June, Cornwallis received orders from London to proceed to the Chesapeake Bay and to oversee construction of a port, in preparation for 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.

You can check out other info and links on the Wikipedia page on Lafayette.

Note that Lafayette and French troops were involved in at least seven other American Revolutionary War battles before Yorktown:

These cheese-eating surrender-monkeys put themselves in harms way --- under some very difficult conditions --- like Valley Forge.

Conclusion

It is very doubtful that Washington and the rather rag-tag bands of quite-often demoralized American colonists could have prevailed against the British, if it were not for the help of the French army and navy over a period of several years.

The help of the French rallied the spirits of Washington's troops on several occasions. And the French army and navy were essential to the victory at Yorktown.

For more info:

To find more information on the French in the American Revolutionary War, you could try some WEB SEARCHES on keywords such as :

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News Flash from 1781:
Cheese-Eating Surrender-Monkeys
Save American Revolution.

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Page history:

Page was posted 2007 Oct 24.

Page was changed 2008 Dec 24.
(Maps were added.)

Page was changed 2009 Aug 25.
(To facilitate page breaks in printing.)

Page was changed 2013 May 03.
(Changed page format slightly.)

Page was changed 2019 May 29.
(Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation. Also added WEB SEARCHES section to bottom of page.)