Oct 20, 1781. Yorktown, Virginia. The day after Cornwallis surrendered, George Washington writes his orders to the army. He doesn't brag. He thanks his men, frees the ones in the stockade, and tells everyone to go to church. He began by congratulating the army on the victory and thanking everyone who made it happen. He singled out the French by name, Comte de Rochambeau and his officers, and Admiral de Grasse, whose fleet had trapped Cornwallis in the first place. He thanked his own generals, the engineers, the artillerymen, and the regular soldiers who'd dug the trenches and stormed the redoubts. He even thanked the Virginia militia and Governor Thomas Nelson. Then came the part that tells you what kind of man he was. To spread the general joy to every heart, he wrote, every man in the army under arrest was to be pardoned and released. Deserters, men accused of misconduct, all of them. Nobody was going to sit in confinement on a day like this. He ordered divine services to be held the next day in every brigade. He asked the troops who weren't on duty to attend with seriousness and gratitude, because he believed the victory showed a surprising and particular interposition of Providence in their favor. That was Washington. He had just won the war, and his instinct was humility. Around the same time, he picked a messenger to carry the news to France. It was the Duc de Lauzun, the dashing French cavalry commander whose hussars had beaten Tarleton at the Hook across the river. Lauzun sailed for Europe to tell King Louis XVI that his gamble on America had paid off. And Washington invited the defeated British officers to dine with him. Cornwallis eventually joined in. There's a story, told by Washington's step-grandson years later, that Cornwallis raised a toast at one of these dinners. He said that when history was written, Washington's fame would rest less on the banks of the Chesapeake than on the banks of the Delaware. He meant the night crossing to Trenton, back when everything seemed lost. Whether those were his exact words or not, it was true.