Washington made no delay, but on the fifth of September started for the “Head of the Elk.” He had but just passed Chester, when he met a courier from Lafayette, with announcement of the arrival of the Count de Grasse. Riding back to Chester, Washington advised Rochambeau of the welcome tidings, and then pushed forward, arriving at the Head of Elk the next morning.
The previous day had been one of peculiar excitement in the city of Philadelphia. A formal review and rigid inspection of the entire French army took place, and the President of the American Congress received the honors of the occasion. During the evening, the French officers gave a grand banquet in honor of Chevalier Lauzun. The despatch to Washington was read amid cheers. A half hour later, a second despatch, announcing “the landing of Count de Simon and his junction with Lafayette,” was read; and read a second time, “all standing” in its honor.
On this memorable date, September 6th, other events of interest are to be noticed. It was Lafayette’s twenty-fourth birthday. In a letter to his wife, still preserved by the family, he poured forth from an overflowing soul, his “love for his great Captain”; “for the American cause”; appreciation of his “enviable lot, as victory is drawing nigh,” and his “longing to tell her, face to face, of thrilling adventures, which had never been interrupted by night or day.”
September 6th, also, Clinton wrote to Cornwallis:
As I find by your letters, that Count de Grasse has got into the Chesapeake, and I have no doubt that Washington is moving with at least six thousand French and rebel troops against you, I think the best way to relieve you, is, to join you, as soon as possible, with all the force that can be spared from here, which is about four thousand men. They are already embarked, and will proceed, the instant I receive information from the admiral that we may venture; or that from other intelligence, the commodore and I should judge sufficient to move upon. By accounts from Europe we have every reason to expect Admiral Digby hourly upon the coast.
On this same sixth of September, Clinton disclosed his last move to check Washington’s advance, and take Cornwallis out of check. Arnold, who had been so summarily withdrawn from the South, landed at New London, Connecticut, wantonly destroying houses, stores, a church, the Court-House, ships, and whatever he could damage without personal danger to himself; and made forever memorable the cruel massacre of Colonel Ledyard and the garrison of Fort Griswold after their honorable surrender. He no less permanently made memorable their extraordinary defence, in which the British assailing column lost one hundred and sixty-three officers and men, a number exceeding that of the entire American resisting force. It was soon over; and Arnold did not dare delay, and risk his fate with the yeomanry of his native New England. The secret of Clinton’s cipher despatch to Cornwallis on the second of August, respecting the use of Arnold, was thus revealed. But the attention of the American Commander-in-Chief was not diverted from his own supreme purpose, whatever Clinton might undertake in his absence.
The allied French and American armies remained at Head of Elk for transportation; but during that interval, Rochambeau accompanied Washington to Baltimore, where illuminations and civil honors attested the welcome of these distinguished guests. On the ninth, for the first time in six years, the American Commander-in-Chief visited his Mount Vernon home. On the tenth, his own staff, together with the Count de Rochambeau and staff, were his guests. On the eleventh, General Chastellux and aides-de-camp joined the party. On the twelfth, the visit came to its close. On the fourteenth of September, Washington reached the headquarters of General, the Marquis de Lafayette, commanding the Department, at Williamsburg, Virginia.
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE VINDICATED.—WASHINGTON’S MAGNANIMITY.—HIS BENEDICTION.
The story of the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Earl Cornwallis, Lieutenant-General in command, has been so fully detailed by many writers that only a few features of the general conduct of that campaign, and some special incidents not so frequently noticed, are within the province of this narrative.
While the control of Chesapeake Bay and of Virginia was essential to British success, Sir Henry Clinton deliberately proposed to couple with that general design another invasion of Pennsylvania, but from the south. When Cornwallis moved northward from his useless position at Wilmington, he was advised by General Clinton to make a movement upon Philadelphia. General Clinton must have very feebly remembered the circumstances of his hasty departure from that city in 1778, or have overlooked Washington’s strategic control of that entire region. The movement of Lafayette southward, and the energy with which that officer rallied Virginians to his support, were not appreciated by either of the British Generals in time to be of benefit to either.