Lafayette was extremely desirous that the English army should unite at that very spot. Such had been the aim of all his movements, ever since a slight increase of force had permitted him to think of any other thing than of retiring without being destroyed and of saving the magazines. He knew that a French fleet was to arrive from the islands upon the American coast. His principal object had been to force Lord Cornwallis to withdraw towards the sea-shore, and then entangle him in such a manner in the rivers, that there should remain no possibility of a retreat. The English, on the contrary, fancied themselves in a very good position, as they were possessors of a sea-port by which they could receive succours from New York, and communicate with the different parts of the coast. An accidental, but a very fortunate circumstance, increased their security. Whilst Lafayette, full of hope, was writing to General Washington that he foresaw he could push Lord Cornwallis into a situation in which it would be easy for him, with some assistance from the navy, to cut off his retreat, the general, who had always thought that Lafayette would be very fortunate if he could save Virginia without being cut up himself, spoke to him of his project of attack against New York, granting him permission to come and take part in it, if he wished it, but representing how useful it was to the Virginian army that he should remain at its head. The two letters passed each other; the one written by Lafayette arrived safely, and Washington prepared beforehand to take advantage of the situation of Lord Cornwallis. Gen. Washington's letter was intercepted, and the English, upon seeing that confidential communication, never doubted for a moment but the real intention of the Americans was to attack New York: their own security at Yorktown was therefore complete.~{8}
The Count de Grasse, however, arrived with a naval force, and three thousand troops~{9} for the land service. He was met at the landing place of Cape Henry by Colonel Gimat, a Frenchman by birth, commander of the American battalion, who was charged with despatches from Lafayette; which explained fully to the admiral his own military position, and that of the enemy, and conjured him to sail immediately into the Chesapeake; to drive the frigates into the James River, that the passage might be kept clear; to blockade the York River; to send two vessels above the position of Lord Cornwallis, before the batteries on the water-side, at Yorktown and Gloucester could be put in a proper state. The Count de Grasse adhered to these proposals, with the exception of not forcing the batteries with two vessels, which manoeuvre would have made the blockade of Cornwallis by the land troops still more easy of achievement. The Marquis de St. Simon landed with three thousand men at James Island. Lafayette assembled a small corps in the county of Gloucester, led, himself, the American forces on Williamsburg, where he was met by the corps of the Marquis de St. Simon, who came to range themselves under his orders, so that Lord Cornwallis found himself suddenly, as if by enchantment, blockaded both by sea and land. The combined army, under the orders of Lafayette, was placed in an excellent situation at Williamsburg. It was impossible to arrive there except by two difficult and well-defended passages. Lord Cornwallis presented himself before them in the hope of escaping, by making a forcible attack; but having ascertained the impossibility of forcing them, he only occupied himself with finishing speedily the fortifications of Yorktown; his hopes, however, declined, when the Count de Grasse, having only left the ships necessary for the blockade, and having gone out of the harbour to attack Admiral Graves, forced the English to retire, and returned to his former station in the bay. The French admiral was, however, impatient to return to the islands; he wished that Yorktown should be taken by force of arms. The Marquis de St. Simon was of the same opinion; they both represented strongly to Lafayette that it was just, after such a long, fatiguing, and fortunate campaign, that the glory of making Cornwallis lay down his arms should belong to him who had reduced him to that situation. The admiral offered to send to the attack not only the garrisons from the ships, but all the sailors he should ask for. Lafayette was deaf to this proposal, and answered, that General Washington and the corps of General Rochambeau would soon arrive, and that it was far better to hasten their movements than act without them; and, by making a murderous attack, shed a great deal of blood from a feeling of vanity and a selfish love of glory; that they were certain, after the arrival of the succours, of taking the hostile army by a regular attack, and thus spare the lives of the soldiers; which a good general ought always to respect as much as possible, especially in a country where it was so difficult to obtain others to replace those who fell. General Washington and Count Rochambeau were the first to arrive; they were soon followed by their troops; but, at the same moment, the Admiral de Grasse wrote word that he was obliged to return to the islands. The whole expedition seemed on the point of failing, and General Washington begged Lafayette to go on board the admiral's ship in the bay, and endeavour to persuade him to change his mind: he succeeded, and the siege of Yorktown was begun. The Count de Rochambeau commanded the French, including the corps of St. Simon; the Americans were divided in two parts; one, under Major-general Lincoln, who had come from the north with some troops; the other, under General Lafayette, who had been joined by two more battalions of light infantry, under the orders of Colonel Hamilton. It became necessary to attack two redoubts. One of these attacks was confided to the Baron de Viomenil, the other to General Lafayette. The former had expressed, in a somewhat boasting manner, the idea he had of the superiority of the French in an attack of that kind; Lafayette, a little offended, answered, "We are but young soldiers, and we have but one sort of tactic on such occasions, which is, to discharge our muskets, and push on straight with our bayonets." He led on the American troops, of whom he gave the command to Colonel Hamilton, with the Colonels Laurens and Gimat under him. The American troops took the redoubt with the bayonet. As the firing was still continued on the French side, Lafayette sent an aide-de-camp to the Baron de Viomenil, to ask whether he did not require some succour from the Americans;~{10} but the French were not long in taking possession also of the other redoubt, and that success decided soon after the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis, (19th October, 1781.) Nor must the mention of an action be omitted here which was honourable to the humanity of the Americans. The English had disgraced themselves several times, and again recently at New London, by the murder of some imprisoned garrisons. The detachment of Colonel Hamilton did not for an instant make an ill use of their victory; as soon as the enemy deposed their arms, they no longer received the slightest injury. Colonel Hamilton distinguished himself very much in that attack.~{11}
Lord Cornwallis had demanded, in the capitulation, the permission of marching out with drums beating and colours flying; the Count de Rochambeau and the French officers were of opinion that this request ought to be granted; the American generals did not oppose this idea; Lafayette, recollecting that the same enemy had required General Lincoln, at the capitulation of Charlestown, to furl the American colours and not to play an English march, insisted strongly on using the same measures with them in retaliation, and obtained that these two precise conditions should be inserted in the capitulation. Lord Cornwallis did not himself file out with the detachment. The Generals, Washington, Rochambeau, and Lafayette, sent to present him their compliments by their aides-de-camp. He retained Lafayette's aide-de-camp, young George Washington, and told him that having made this long campaign against General Lafayette, he wished, from the value he annexed to that general's esteem, to give him a private account of the motives which had obliged him to surrender. He told him several things which have since been found in his discussion with General Clinton. Lafayette went the next day to see him. "I know," said Lord Cornwallis, "your humanity towards prisoners, and I recommend my poor army to you." This recommendation was made in a tone which implied that in Lafayette alone he felt real confidence, and placed but little in the Americans. Lafayette therefore replied, "You know, my lord, that the Americans have always been humane towards imprisoned armies;" in allusion to the taking of General Burgoyne at Saratoga.~{12} The English army was in fact treated with every possible mark of attention.
Although the French troops held in every respect the place of auxiliary troops, yet the Americans always yielded them every preference in their power relating to food or any other comfort. It is a singular circumstance that when the troops of the~{13} the young general, although a Frenchman, took upon himself to order that no flour should be delivered to the American troops until the French had received their full provision for three days. The Americans had therefore seldom any thing but the flour of Indian corn. He gave the horses of the gentlemen of that country to the French hussars, and the superior officers themselves were obliged to give up theirs: yet not one murmur escaped as to that preference, which the Americans felt ought to be shewn to foreigners who came from such a distance to fight in their cause.~{14}
The news of the capture of Yorktown was carried to France by a French frigate, who made the voyage in eighteen days. The English were thrown into consternation at that news, which occasioned the downfall of the ministry of Lord North. It was felt in London, as in the rest of all Europe, that the decisive check the English had received, had completely settled the final issue of the conflict, and from that period nothing was thought of but to acknowledge the independence of the United States on favourable terms for Great Britain.
Generals Washington and Lafayette wished to take advantage of the superiority of the Count de Grasse in order to attack Charlestown, and the English who remained in the southern states. Lafayette was to take his light infantry, as well as the corps of St. Simon, and land on the Charlestown side, to co-operate with General Greene, who still commanded in Carolina. It is evident that this project would have been successful. It has since become known that Lord Cornwallis, when he saw Lafayette enter into a canoe to go on board the fleet of the Count de Grasse, said to some English officers, "He is going to decide the loss of Charlestown." But the admiral refused obstinately to make any operation upon the coast of North America.~{15}
General Lafayette afterwards repaired to congress. To him, who was then but four-and-twenty, the happy issue of that campaign was as flattering a success as it had been decisive to the American cause. He received the instructions of congress, in relation to the affairs of the United States in Europe; and embarked at Boston in the frigate the Alliance. He reached France in twenty-three days. The reception he met with, and the credit he enjoyed both at court and in society were constantly and usefully employed in the service of the cause he had embraced.
Endnotes:
1. These Memoirs are extracted from the American Biography of M. de Lafayette, written by himself, which we have designated under the name of Manuscript, No. 1. We have completed them by extracts of Manuscript, No. 2, which contains observations on the historians of America.
2. It was settled that that corps of six thousand men, commanded by Lieutenant-General Rochambeau, was to be completely under the orders of the American commander-in-chief, and was only to form a division of his army. The order of service was regulated in such a manner that the French were only to be looked upon as auxiliaries, keeping the left of the American troops, and the command belonging, when there was equality, of rank and age, to the American officers. In a word, the advantages to be derived by the government, the general, and the American soldiers, were stipulated beforehand in such a manner as to prevent all future discussions. (Manuscript, No. 2.)