Trumbull’s painting of Cornwallis’ surrender, Sons of the American Revolution
Bernarda notes in comments:
This is the 225th anniversary of the Franco-American victory at Yorktown. The French Defense Minister, Alliot-marie, will be attending the commemoration on October 19th.
Funny, no news about it in the MSM, or you might say thundering silence. Where is the rightwing press, 0′Reilly, Hannity, et al? Do you think they will mention it on the 10th, and the following detail?
“Did You Know?
The 9,000 American forces were in the minority during the Yorktown Campaign. The French army and navy combined for over 25,000 men, while the British army and navy participants numbered over 21,000.”
More history kids ought to know better, and today’s a chance to tell them about it.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Tony,
I’ve argued for making “ten most important” lists of battles. It’s shallow coverage, but it helps keep things in perspective. I think kids need help figuring out what is important; then they figure out why it’s important, and that’s the real learning process.
Thanks for the links. I’ll look at the Bender speech, especially. Texas texts are up for review soon . . .
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For info on a talk by Tom Bender on A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History, a book in which he makes the case for teaching American history as embedded in world history (cf. the Yorktown matter), see
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Failure to identify Yorktown as the decisive final battle was featured as a lead example in the recent ISI study on the woeful state of civic literacy in this country.
This “name that battle” approach may be indicative of a pretty poor idea of social education; but as I noted on my blog:
See http://curricublog.wordpress.com/2006/10/06/isi-civics/
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