A careful inspection of the map will disclose the relations of the allied forces, and the completeness of the investment. Washington opened the fire in person. The rivalry of the American and French troops became intense. Generals Lincoln, Wayne, Knox, Du Portail, Steuben, Nelson, Weedon, Clinton, St. Clair, Lawson, and Muhlenburg, with Colonels Hamilton, Stevens, Lamb, Carrington, Scammel, and Laurens, were among the American leaders. Generals de Boville, de Vioménil, Chastellux, de Choisy, de Lauzun, de St. Simon, and Colonels de Dumas, de Deux Pont, and Gimât, were as active, on the part of the French.
The line of redoubts and batteries marked F (French) had been completed, and it was deemed necessary to storm two British redoubts and take them into the parallel. Famous soldiers and corps took part in simultaneous assault, upon rocket signals, at night. Lafayette, with Gimât, Hamilton, Laurens, and Barber, was assigned to the redoubt nearest the river. The Baron de Vioménil with the Count Deux Pont, supported by the grenadiers of Gatinais, attacked the other. This regiment had been formed out of that of Auvergne, once commanded by Rochambeau, and long known as the Regiment d’Auvergne, sans tache. When drawn up in line, Rochambeau promised that if they did well, he would ask the King to restore their old name; and this was afterwards done by Louis XVI.
Before the signal of attack was given, some light words passed between the Baron de Vioménil and Lafayette as to the superiority of the French Grenadiers for these attacks. Lafayette’s column succeeded first, and he promptly despatched Major Barber to the Baron, with a tender of assistance. Hamilton and Laurens were conspicuous for gallantry, moving over the abatis with unloaded muskets; and the French officers were equally complimented for daring and disregard of British resistance.
Clinton, at his New York headquarters, was in the fullest possible possession of the record of events then occurring in and about Yorktown. Space cannot be given, even to a glance over his shoulder, as he reads, day by day, repeated messages and short postscripts from Cornwallis indicating the grave peril of his position, and the conviction that protracted resistance is not to be looked for. An attempt by Cornwallis, to cross the river and gain New York by land, was a failure. On the sixteenth, when he ordered these detachments to return, he closed his correspondence with Clinton in this sad and desperate paragraph: “Our works are going to ruin. The boats are now being returned. We cannot fire a single gun. Only one eight-inch, and a little more than a hundred cohorn shells remain. I therefore propose to capitulate.”
The seventeenth day of October, 1781, dawned, and at 10 o’clock A.M. two concurrent events occurred,—one at New York, and its contrary, in Virginia. Sir Henry Clinton, accompanied by a command of seven thousand choice troops, under convoy of the magnificent squadron of twenty-five battleships, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates, sailed past Staten Island, for the rescue of the worn-out garrison of Yorktown. He had previously sailed past Sandy Hook, and the reader will appreciate the involuntary contrast with a similar departure southward, in the year 1776.
At the same hour, ten o’clock, A.M., a flag of truce bore to the headquarters of the American Commander-in-Chief, the following note:
York, 17th October, 1781.
Earl Cornwallis To General Washington:
Sir: I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that two officers be appointed by each side, to meet at Moore’s house, to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.
I have the honor to be, etc.,