The day the USA's independence was confirmed

It was declared on July 4, 1776, but it was sealed as a fait accompli on October 19, 1781:

By mid-October, Cornwallis was watching Alexander Hamilton taunting him, by parading his troops in full view, just out of range of the British guns, so he couldn’t do a thing about it.  Washington had sent the upstart wunderkind from St. Croix to command one force, and the French nobleman Lafayette to command the other, making the most of his best people on what was sure to be an overwhelming and long-awaited defeat of their persistant enemy.

The battle was over almost as soon as it was begun; Cornwallis was forced to admit defeat on the 17^th.  All that remained was for them to work out the details of the surrender… and for Cornwallis to present his sword to the dominant Gentleman from Mt. Vernon.

But it was not to be.  Charles Cornwallis, who had been courageous on the battlefield throughout his career, was afraid of the ignominy he was to face on October 19.  This was no Roman triumph, when the victorious general parades his defeated enemy through the city in a cage, closing with his ritual decapitation.  It wasn’t even a televised event, with the defeated general having his shame captured on video for the ages.  In those simpler times, it was just a somber meeting, in which General Cornwallis would ride up on his horse, his retinue behind him, sign the terms of surrender, and present his sword to General Washington.  But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.  When the time came, he turned chicken.

And on the morning of October 19, 1781, little Charles Cornwallis called in sick.

No amount of encouragement or pleading from his staff would do.  He refused to budge from his stateroom.  The most powerful general in the British army handed his sword to his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, and sent him out in his place to bear the shame of England on his shoulders.

So it was that Charles O’Hara approached Washington’s staff on the 19^th of October, proffered the implausible excuse that his superior was just feeling under the weather that day, and tried to present his commander’s sword to the supreme commander of the Continental Army.  General Washington, ever the master of protocol, refused it, sending forward one of his own key aides, General Benjamin Lincoln, to accept the sword instead.   So it was finally done. 

Now, the task before us is to restore post-America to its previous status as the United States of America, thus ensuring that General Lincoln didn't accept that sword in vain.