Washington himself was approaching Lafayette by way of Philadelphia, Rochambeau by way of Chester and Philadelphia, and De Grasse by the sea. General Thomas Nelson, Governor of Virginia, was arousing the spirit of Virginia again and calling out the militia.
At the great banquet which was given in Philadelphia by the French minister, Chevalier de Luzerne, to Washington and the French officers, when came the news that Count De Grasse and Marquis St. Simon with 3,000 troops had joined Lafayette, all Philadelphia had rung with cheers, and the news thrilled the country. At that hour the destiny of America was revealed. There could but one thing happen at Yorktown now—Cornwallis must surrender. The General was certain to be blocked up in York River.
Everything was going well. Washington and Rochambeau went to Baltimore and found the city blazing as with the assurance of victory. At this time, with victory in view, Washington visited Mount Vernon, from which he had been absent six anxious years. He passed the evening there with Count Rochambeau, and they were joined there by Chastellux. Washington now left his old home for the field of final victory.
The great generals next faced Yorktown, with their forces, some 16,000 men. They saw the helplessness of Cornwallis, and as De Grasse wished to return soon to the West Indies, the combined forces prepared to move on the British fortifications at once. Seven redoubts and six batteries faced the allies, with abatis, field-works, and barricades of fallen trees.
The allies began to prepare for an immediate conflict. They erected advancing earthworks, in a semicircle, and with the French fleet in the bay, the 1st of October heard the sound of the cannonade.
The peninsula thundered and smoked, and the drama there begun was watched by Washington, Rochambeau, Chastellux, and Count de Grasse. What men were these with Lafayette at the front!
A great cannonade began on the 9th of October, Washington himself putting the match to the first gun.
Governor Nelson of Virginia was in the field. His house was there, too, within the enemy’s lines in Yorktown. “Do you see yonder house?” said he to a commander of the artillery. It was the headquarters of the enemy. “It is my house, but fire upon it.”
This recalls John Hancock’s message to Washington at the beginning of the war. “Burn Boston, if need be, and leave John Hancock a beggar.”
The enemy responded. The shells of each crossed each other in the bright, smoky October air. The British fired red-hot shot, and set on fire some of their own shipping. The nights seemed full of meteors, as though red armies were battling in the sky.