Moore House

On October 18, 1781, after eight days of continual bombardment, surrender negotiations for the posts of York and Gloucester took place at the home of Augustine Moore after General Charles Lord Cornwallis proposed a twenty four hour cessation of hostilities and a meeting there. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas and Major Alexander Ross represented the British, while Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens and Second Colonel Viscount de Noailles represented the Allies. Laurens, with George Washington’s support, insisted that the British accept terms similar to those imposed on the defeated American army at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780, which had denied American soldiers the right to surrender with the army’s personal honor intact. Although the British argued for better terms, the Allies prevailed, and around midnight a draft of the Articles of Capitulation was completed with 14 provisions, including two that denied the British the full honors of war by requiring them to case their regimental flags at the surrender ceremony and have their military band play British music instead of professionally saluting the victors with American and French songs.

Virginia · United States