Yorktown Trophy Flag Returns to View November 11: 1775 Silk Colors Surrendered with Cornwallis's Army
A rare Revolutionary War trophy returns to view in a new way on November 11, when the National Museum of American History rotates the Ansbach–Bayreuth Regimental Flag in its third-floor "Price of Freedom" exhibition. The white silk damask flag, made in 1775 for a German mercenary regiment raised to support the British crown in North America, was surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, and is one of the few surviving Revolutionary War trophy flags.
The flag has long been displayed showing one side. Following recent conservation work, the museum will display its reverse, revealing the other face of the silk and the marks of two and a half centuries — a rotation that is also a preservation measure, resting the side that has borne the light.
The Yorktown surrender, in which Lord Cornwallis's army capitulated to the combined forces of Washington and Rochambeau, was the decisive moment of the Revolutionary War and pushed Britain toward peace talks. The flag anchors the museum's military-history displays as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
"Price of Freedom" is an ongoing exhibition and the museum is free; visitors on Veterans Day, November 11, will be the first to see the flag's newly displayed side.
(Source: Smithsonian Institution)
Source: Smithsonian Institution
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons（公共领域）
