Picture thousands of American and French soldiers lined two deep on either side of the Hampton Road near Yorktown, Virginia on a magnificent warm October day in 1781: "Few, if any of them, could have understood the magnitude of what they had achieved, which was not only to ensure the independence of the United States, but, eventually, to change the history of the world." (Richard M. Ketchum, in "Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution") The proud French soldiers were relatively new to the American battle scene and had on their best military uniforms. The brave American...