An American Song
Early in the Revolutionary War, the British attacked the Americans who were holed up in a fort along the Hudson River. The Americans fought bravely but were so outnumbered that they were forced to surrender.
The British general demanded that the Americans lay down their arms and walk down a road lined on both sides by British soldiers. The British taunted and hurled insults at the dejected American volunteers as they passed through this barrier of their enemies.
Suddenly, the British general called out to his band to play "Yankee Doodle Dandy" for the American boys. (“Yankee Doodle Dandy” was an old British drinking song designed to humiliate the American colonists.) The lyrics were meant to degrade the Americans: They were not gentlemen, but pretenders to the gentile ranks… "Dandies." They didn’t ride horses, they rode "ponies." They didn’t wear great curled plumes, shaped like macaroni, in their hats like the English nobility did; they wore feathers and called them macaroni. This was purely a song meant to demean the Americans.
The American general was forced to surrender his sword to the English general. At the time, there was no greater insult than to surrender one’s sword. This was indeed a very low point for the Americans in the war.
Several years later, when Washington captured the British forces under Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia and compelled him to surrender, thus ending the revolution, Washington demanded the same of the British general: that they lay down their weapons and pass through the ranks of Americans that lined the road.
Cornwallis was so embarrassed by his defeat that he refused to meet Washington and surrender his sword. Instead, he sent his second in command—the very same general who had accepted the American surrender years before and had imposed such humiliation on the American forces. This general also refused to surrender his sword to Washington and instead presented it to the French commander who was present at the surrender. The Frenchman refused to accept it and pointed to Washington, indicating that it was he who should receive the sword, for it was Washington who had defeated the English.
The Englishman, with great scorn, approached Washington, who immediately turned his head away and pointed to the American general who had been forced to surrender at the fort years before. (The American who had surrendered his sword was now about to receive the sword from the very general he had been forced to surrender to. What irony!)
Just as the British officer was about to hand the sword to the American, Washington suddenly stopped him. “Wait,” he called out. Then he turned to the American band and said, “Play Yankee Doodle for this gentleman. He seems to like it so.”
As the British soldiers passed through the ranks of the victorious American Army, the band played Yankee Doodle over and over, and every American soldier in line laughed and sang along with the tune.
One British officer asked his companion, “Who do they think they are?” “A new breed of men,” was the fellow’s answer. “A breed that bows to no king.”
This is the origin of Yankee Doodle Dandy and how it became important to America.
