"Yorktown" Historical Analysis
As many of us may have realized Miranda changed some aspects of history for Hamilton. In this post I thought it would be interesting to see what certain lines are mentioning and how accurate they are historically. So lets dive in to Yorktown!
No big surprise the first line that the battle of Yorktown was in 1781 is correct. More specifically it took place in late September and the battle also contained a siege. Something interesting is Lafayette's and Hamilton's pride in being immigrants which I believe speaks more to now since at that time many people were still technically immigrants in the new America.
Later in the song Hamilton mentions fighting up close but that was not exactly true. The battle contained a lot of seiging and distanced artillery fire. The only fighting that could have take place close up was the capture of British redoubts 9 and 10. Hamilton also mentions there being a code word, "Rochambeau" but I could not find evidence of this. Perhaps this is actually a reference to the
French military leader, Comte de Rochambeau which added French troops for the attack on Yorktown. It is true that French forces were waiting in Chesapeake Bay but it was more to keep British reinforcements out instead of keeping the British in but it accomplished both. Also the British surrendering with a single man with a white flag happened.
Something else interesting to point is the espionage surrounding this battle. Mulligan Hercules did exactly what the song says he did, but the song fails to mention James Armistead Lafayette, a slave who spy on British camps and was a double agent against the British. This plays into the line in the song that mentions black and white soldiers because some people sent their slaves to fight for them and after the war some were granted freedom for their service.
Its just interesting the things that Miranda left out in this song. Some of the details are left out but so is the nature of songs that can't be forever and contain everything. The song carries across the general meaning of the battle but sadly forgets James Armistead Lafayette.
Work Cited: https://www.nps.gov/york/learn/historyculture/history-of-the-siege.html
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2016-featured-story-archive/the-legend-of-hercules-mulligan.html
http://www.historyisfun.org/blog/james-armistead-lafayette/
A lot of the sections involving combat seem to be a bit inflated. They act shocked about "abandoning Kip's Bay" when they left 450 men to defend against 4,000 and five frigates. There was no chance they'd ever hold that, but nonetheless they seem like its surprising them.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Miranda chooses to do this. He seems to be capitalizing a bit on people's ignorance of the battles, but its understandable since he wrote the musical to entertain. Battles can be boring and gruesome so perhaps he thought that was an area that could use some spicing up with dramatization.
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