In 1931 the United States celebrated the sesquicentennial anniversary of the surrender of the British forces under the Earl of Cornwallis to the allied American and French land and sea forces under General George Washington, a victory which assured American independence.

The ceremonies, held at Yorktown, lasted for four days, and included addresses by the Hon. Herbert Hoover, President of the United States; Governor John Garland Pollard of Virginia, Governor Roosevelt of New York, and the Governors of the other original States. Marshal Pétain, Commander in Chief of the French Army in the World War, General John J. Pershing, and other speakers of note. There were appropriate pageants, a naval review, special drills, and other important events.

The Society of the Cincinnati was invited to take part, just as they had been at the centennial celebration at Yorktown in 1881 when the corner stone of the Yorktown monument was laid.

The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia elected to honorary membership the French Ambassador, M. Claudel, and Marshal Pétain, the Eagles being presented to them in the historic Hall of Delegates in the Capitol in Richmond, the room in which a Vice-President of the United States, Aaron Burr, a member of the New York Cincinnati, had been tried and acquitted of a charge of treason, and in which General Robert Edward Lee, son of "Light Horse Harry" Lee, an original member of the Virginia Cincinnati, had accepted command of the armed forces of his native Virginia in 1861. In this room the original members of the Virginia Cincinnati always met on July fourth. It was at this time that Marshal Pétain, on behalf of the French Government, presented to Governor Pollard and General Pershing copies in gold of the Yorktown medal struck at the French mint. Copies in silver and bronze were also presented to other Americans who had taken important parts in the Yorktown Celebration, including representatives of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia.

To commemorate further this anniversary, the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia struck a commemorative medal of bronze (Hume #16), presenting copies to the official guests at Yorktown, the Presidents of the United States, France, and Poland, members of the Virginia Society, and a few others.

Medal of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati Commemorating the
Sesquicentennial of the Victory at Yorktown, 1931.
(Obverse). Hume #16.

Medal of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati Commemorating the
Sesquicentennial of the Victory at Yorktown, 1931.
(Obverse). Hume #16.

Baker: E-454. 54mm. Bronze.

The medal has the same obverse as those presented annually at the College of William and Mary and at the University of Virginia (Hume #12 and #13), and was designed and struck by the same foundry.

The reverse depicts in high relief the well-known painting of the Surrender at Yorktown, with the inscription, 1781—Yorktown-1931 . There are also vignettes of Washington (at the top), of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (at the left), deGrasse (at the right) and Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, at the bottom. It will be recalled that Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse, the Count deGrasse, was in command of the French Naval forces and General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the Count de Rochambeau, of the French Land forces at Yorktown, while Lafayette's part, known to every schoolboy, need not be repeated here.

One of the most interesting features of the 1931 celebration was the presence of the representatives in the French Society of the Cincinnati of these very officers, and others of the French Expeditionary Force in America.

The Marquis de Grasse, the Marquis de Rochambeau, the Marquis and the Count de Chambrun (descendants of Lafayette), the Duke de Broglie (President of the French Cincinnati and representative of the Prince de Broglie who fought at Yorktown and who perished on the guillotine during the French Revolution), the Duke de Noailles, whose ancestor represented the French in arranging the terms of Lord Cornwallis's surrender, and who was the brother-in-law of Lafayette, General the Count d'Ollone, Vice-President of the French Cincinnati, and a number of others.

There was likewise present as the guest of the United States, Major the Baron von Steuben of the German Army, who represented the family of General Steuben, the drillmaster of the Revolution, and who was not only an original member, but was for a time the President of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati. Copies of the medal were presented to these visitors, the presentation taking place at the luncheon given by Governor Pollard, in the Governor's Mansion adjoining the Capitol.

To each recipient of the Yorktown Medal there was presented a certificate from the Society. The certificates show the obverse and reverse of the medal and the following text:

SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA

To Commemorate the Sesquicentennial Anniversary
of the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia and the
Surrender of the Troops commanded by the Earl of Cornwallis
to the allied American and French land and sea forces,
THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
has caused to be struck a Medal commemorative of this great event
A copy of the Medal is hereby presented to


In Testimony Whereof: I, the President of the Society, have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the Society to be affixed at Richmond in the State of Virginia, this nineteenth day of October, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one, and in the year of the Society of the Cincinnati the one hundred and forty- ninth.

Edgar Erskine Hume
President

By Order (SEAL)

John A. Coke, Jr.
Secretary