After resting a few moments, we resumed the path leading to the shore: our march was silent; each of us bore a branch of cypress, cut from over the tomb of Washington. We resembled a bereaved family, who had entombed a beloved father, recently dead. We were already on board our vessel—and the waves had borne us afar, and no one had interrupted our silent meditation. At last Mount Vernon disappeared behind the high and winding banks of the river; all then grouped themselves on the quarter deck of the steam-boat, and listened attentively till evening to Lafayette, who talked of Washington.
Soon after leaving Mount Vernon we met the steam-boat Potomac, having on board a volunteer company from Fredericksburgh, commanded by captain Crutchfield, and a great number of passengers who came to meet general Lafayette. The two boats after exchanging salutes, sailed in company during the night, and arrived next day at noon at the mouth of York river, where were five other boats, which ascended the river with us to Yorktown. We delayed a moment in front of a point marked for our landing, and at a signal given by the artillery on shore, we debarked in boats commanded by captain Elliot. The general was received on shore by the Yorktown committee, the governor of Virginia and council, the chief justice of the United States, John Marshall, and numerous officers of the army. The upper banks of the river were covered with a crowd of ladies from great distances, and its waters offered an entirely picturesque view from the number, variety and disposition of the vessels with which it was covered. After having replied to the addresses of Mr. Leigh, president of the committee, and to that of the governor of Virginia, general Lafayette was conducted amid the acclamations of the people, to the head quarters prepared for him. It was in the very house that Cornwallis inhabited during the siege of Yorktown, forty-three years previous.
Yorktown, which has never recovered from the disasters of the revolutionary war, because its unhealthy situation prevented the access of new inhabitants, appeared from its actual condition very properly adapted to the celebration which was to take place on the following day: houses in ruins, blackened by fire, or pierced by bullets; the ground covered with fragments of arms, the broken shells, and overturned gun-carriages; tents grouped or scattered according to the nature of the ground; small platoons of soldiers placed at various points, all in a word, conveyed the idea of a camp hastily formed near a village taken and occupied after an obstinate battle. The manner in which we were lodged, tended to keep up the illusion; a single bed was prepared for general Lafayette; all who accompanied him, officers, generals, and the governor, placed themselves at random on mattresses or straw, in the half open and unfurnished apartments. During the night sixty officers formed a volunteer company, to guard the head quarters, around which they were bivouacked. We were awaked at day-break on the 19th, by the cannon thundering from the plain, calling all the surrounding troops to arms. General Lafayette, accompanied by the committee of arrangement, went to Washington’s marquee, which had travelled with us, and was erected at some distance from the head quarters: there he received the different corps of officers from the surrounding regiments. During this presentation we were witness to the most affecting scenes: two old revolutionary soldiers fainted away in shaking hands with the general. The appearance of colonel Lewis who presented himself in the dress of a Virginian mountaineer, and asked permission to address Lafayette on behalf of his county, attracted great attention.
As soon as colonel Lewis had finished this discourse, which was much applauded by the auditors, the general kindly took his hand into his own, thanked him affectionately, and begged him to express all his gratitude to the mountaineers of Virginia, whose excellent and numerous services rendered during the revolution, he rapidly enumerated.
At eleven o’clock the troops approached the head quarters near which they formed two columns, and some moments after they marched to conduct general Lafayette under a triumphal arch erected over the situation of the English redoubt which he formerly carried, at the head of the American troops he commanded during the siege of Yorktown. His march now took place through a double row of ladies whose vivid joy and elegant costume singularly contrasted with the warlike arrangements around us. He was received under the triumphal arch by general Taylor who after the different corps had taken the places assigned them, and silence was established among the surrounding crowd, commenced an eloquent address, in which he developed the motives of American enthusiasm and gratitude, towards Lafayette.
General Lafayette was profoundly moved, and his emotion was still more augmented by the enthusiasm with which the last words of the orator were received by the people. However, always governed by that modesty which so strongly characterizes him, he immediately removed the wreath which had been placed upon his head, and turning to colonel Fish, one of the officers who valiantly seconded him in the attack upon the redoubt; “take it,” said he, “this wreath belongs to you also, preserve it as a deposit for which we must account to our comrades.” Then addressing general Taylor, he returned his thanks, thus:
“I am happy to receive such honourable evidences of friendship from my ancient companions in arms, in the place where the American and French arms were so gloriously united in a holy alliance in favour of American independence, and the sacred principle of the sovereignty of the people. I am happy also to be thus received on the very place where my dear comrades of the light infantry acquired one of their most honorable rights to the love and esteem of their fellow-citizens.” He finished by paying a tribute of gratitude to the officers who directed the attack upon the redoubt, and among them named Hamilton, Gimat, Lawrence, Fish, and added that it was in their name, in the name of the light infantry, and only in common with them, that he accepted the proffered wreath.
After this ceremony all the troops defiled before Lafayette, and we returned to Yorktown, where we passed the rest of the day in festivity. A circumstance of considerable piquancy augmented the interest of this patriotic and military celebration: I have already stated that General Lafayette on arriving at Yorktown, established his head quarters in the same house in which Cornwallis had his, forty-three years before. Some servants, in examining the cellars, in order to put away the refreshments and provisions conveniently, discovered in an obscure corner a large chest; its weight and apparent antiquity excited their curiosity; they opened it, and to their great astonishment found it filled with candles, blackened by time: by an inscription on the lid it was found that they formed part of Cornwallis’s stores during the siege. They immediately made it known in the house, and the intelligence speedily reached the camp. Shortly after all the candles were removed, lighted and arranged in a circle, in the centre of the camp, where the ladies and soldiers danced during the evening. A ball in York-town in 1824 by the light of Cornwallis’s candles, appeared so pleasant an occurrence to our old revolutionary soldiers, that notwithstanding their great age, and the fatigues of the day, most of them were unwilling to retire until the candles were entirely consumed.
Although more than half the night was passed before we could retire to rest, the desire of attentively considering the place in which American independence was secured by a decisive victory, did not permit me to waste much time in sleep. I awoke just at dawn of day, and reached the ruins of the ancient entrenchments of the town as the first rays of the sun fell upon the temporary encampment of the militia, which they had already abandoned; I saw a part of the troops going on board of vessels, which were preparing to leave the shore, while the decreasing sounds of the drum behind the forest, which begins at a short distance from the town, indicated the route of those detachments which sought their homes by land. Although every thing around me offered an exact and piquant scene of war, my attention was not long withheld from my principal object, and I soon began to reconnoitre the situation of the town, the exterior works and the position of the two armies, whose holy alliance had secured the independence of a young nation, and the rights of man on the American continent. Notwithstanding some gardens, and the useless efforts of the plough to fertilize some spots of a soil consisting almost entirely of sterile sand, I could easily find the trace of the fortification of the town, which describes an arc whose chord was formed by York river, which in this place is large and navigable even for frigates; but I had much difficulty in recognising the exterior works. However by the aid of a plan of the siege, I pursued my researches, when I remarked a man seated at the foot of a small pyramid, and who appeared to be plunged in profound meditation. On this pyramid is inscribed in large letters, the names of Viomenil, Rochambeau, Lauzun, St. Simon, Dumas, in short of all the principal officers of the French corps who had fought and conquered at York-town. While I read again and again with satisfaction the glorious names which will remind remotest posterity of the honourable part France took in the struggle of American liberty against British tyranny, the old man rose; I saluted him, and we soon entered into conversation relative to the objects which appeared to interest us equally. He informed me that he had served with Lafayette during the campaign of Virginia, and the siege of York-town; that having lived for forty years since on a farm but a few miles distant, he had not passed an anniversary since the capture of York-town, without coming to the spot, and paying the tribute of his regrets to his ancient comrades, and of gratitude to the French nation. “Since,” said he, “you appear to take so much interest in the details of this event, in which I had the good fortune to take an active part, let us ascend together this point of a bastion, which remains standing among all these ruins, whence we can take in the plan of operations at a glance, and I can make myself better understood.” After the old soldier had looked around to collect his recollections, we sat down together, with our backs toward the town, and in front of us the plain, which the besieging army occupied. “You know,” said he, “how Cornwallis, after a campaign of six months, was driven by the young Lafayette, from post to post through Virginia, to shut himself up in York-town, whence he could only escape by laying down his arms. I shall therefore commence my recital from the period when Lafayette by establishing himself at Williamsburg, rendered it impossible for Cornwallis to escape.”
“In the early part of September, Cornwallis attempted to reconnoitre our position, but judging that it would be impossible to force it, and knowing that all retreat by sea was cut off by the French fleet under Count de Grasse, determined to run the chances of a siege, and endeavoured to fortify himself as well as he could. We all thought, that profiting by the enthusiasm which our late successes had excited in the army, Lafayette would not give his adversary time to prepare himself, but would lead us at once to a final victory. But the young general on this occasion manifested a moderation perhaps still more admirable than his bravery and talents; neither the solicitations of his officers, who pressed him not to lose this opportunity of winning new laurels, by striking the last blow at the English army, nor the offers of Admiral De Grasse, who through M. De St. Simon offered him the support of the marines, and even a part of the crews of his thirty-eight vessels, could determine him to attempt any thing before the arrival of the allied army commanded by Washington and Rochambeau. “When great interests are in question,” answered he, “I shall never prefer the gratification of self-love, to the certainty of a assured success,” and he waited to the end with a patience which would have excited surprise even in an old captain.