While several European nations claim ownership of the tune of "Yankee Doodle," the song became famous as a march of the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War. The song first appeared in America in 1755, during the French and Indian War. A British officer, scornful of the colonial militiamen's lack of polish and discipline, wrote "Yankee Doodle" as a joke. The colonists turned the joke around eight years later. As Britain's General Cornwallis marched to the American lines to surrender to George Washington's army, it was "Yankee Doodle" that he heard.