Regardless of the personal loss that must ensue, he pointed one of his heaviest guns directly toward his house, and ordered the gunner, and also a bombardier, to play upon it with the greatest vigor. * The desired effect was accomplished. Upon the heights of Saratoga, Burgoyne found no place secure from the cannon-balls of the besiegers; in Yorktown there was like insecurity and before ten o'clock in the morning, Cornwallis beat a parley, and proposed a cessation of hostilities. The house of Governor Nelson, I have already mentioned, still bears many scars received during the bombardment; and in the yard attached to the dwelling, I saw a huge unexploded bomb-shell which was cast there by order of the patriot owner.
Cornwallis, despairing of victory or escape, sent a flag to Washington with a request that hostilities should be suspended for twenty-four hours, and that commissioners should be appointed to meet at Mrs. Moore's house on the right of the American lines, and just in the rear of the first parallel, **** to arrange terms for the surrender of his army. Washington was unwilling to waste precious time in negotiations, for, in the mean while, the augmented British fleet might arrive, and give the earl an opportunity to escape. (v) In his reply to
* Never did a man display more lofty patriotism than Governor Nelson on this occasion. He was the chief magistrate of the state, and by virtue of his office was commander-in-chief of its militia. At that time the treasury of Virginia was empty, and there was great apprehension that the militia would disband for want of pay. Governor Nelson applied to a wealthy citizen to borrow money on the credit of the state. The security was not considered safe, and the patriot pledged his private property as collateral. The money was obtained and used for the public service. Because Governor Nelson exercised his prerogative as chief magistrate of the state in impressing men into the military service on the occasion of the siege of Yorktown, many influential men were offended, and many mortal enemies appeared. But he outlived all the wounds of malice, and posterity does honor to his name.
** Dr. Thatcher says: "I have this day visited the town of York, to witness the destructive effects of the siege. It contains about sixty houses; some of them are elegant, many of them are greatly damaged, and some totally ruined, being shot through in a thousand plaees, and honey-combed, ready to crumble to pieces. Rich furniture and books were scattered over the ground, and the carcasses of men and horses, half covered with earth, exhibited a scene of ruin and horror beyond description. The earth in many places is thrown up into mounds by the force of our shells, and it is difficult to point to a spot where a man could have resorted for safety.
*** This view is from the street looking northwest. A long wooden building, with steep roof and dormer windows, a portion of which is seen on the left, is also a relic of the Revolutionary era. It, too, was much damaged by the bombardment. A few feet from the door of Mr. Nelson's dwelling is a fine laurel-tree. On the occasion of La Fayette's visit to Yorktown in 1824, a large concourse of people were assembled; branches were taken from this laurel-tree, woven into a civic crown, and placed upon the head of the venerable marquis. He took it from his brow, and placing it upon that of Preserved Fish, who accompanied him, remarked that none in all that company was better entitled to wear the mark of honor than he.
**** See the map on page 518.
* (v) Delay on that occasion would, indeed, have been dangerous, perhaps fatal to the hopes of the Americans. Admiral Digby hastened the repairs of his vessels with all possible dispatch, and on the very day when the capitulation was signed, Sir Henry Clinton, with seven thousand of his best troops, sailed for the Chesapeake to aid Cornwallis, under a convoy of twenty-five ships of the line. This armament appeared off the Capes of Virginia on the twenty-fourth; but, receiving unquestionable intelligence of the capitulation at Yorktown, the British general returned to New York.
Thomas Anburey, a British officer in Burgoyne's army, and who served in America until near the close of 1781, published two interesting volumes, called Travels in America. Alluding to the capture ot Cornwallis, which occurred three or four weeks previous to his sailing for Europe, he says: "When the British fleet left Sandy Hook, General Washington had certain intelligence of it, within forty-eight hours after it sailed, although at such a considerable distance as near six hundred miles, by means of signal guns and alarms. A very notorious rebel in New York, from the top of his house, hung out the signal of a white flag the moment the fleet got under way, which was immediately answered by the firing of a gun at a small village about a mile from our post at Paulus' Hook (now Jersey City); after that a continual firing of cannon was heard on the opposite shore; and about two days after the fleet sailed, was the period in which General Washington was so pressing for the army to surrender."—Volume ii., page 481. There is no evidence that Washington was informed of the departure of the fleet previous to the surrender. Although Digby did not leave Sandy Hook until the nineteenth, on account of unfavorable winds and other causes of delay, he left the harbor of New York on the seventeenth.