The British had taught the Americans much important war-craft during this long struggle; as for instance, in the general orders which Washington gave to his American troops, he charged them to use and depend upon the bayonet, as their best and most essential weapon, in case they should be encountered on the march from Williamsburg, assuring them that they would by that means effectually cure the vanity of the British troops, who attributed to themselves so decided a superiority in that sort of close and trying combat. Nor did he omit any opportunity of exciting that honourable emulation between the allied troops which appeared so conspicuously in the subsequent operations.[[48]]
The combined French and American armies having, by the help of the French transports, formed a junction with La Fayette at Williamsburg, proceeded on the last days of September to invest Lord Cornwallis in York Town. Their whole force amounted to 16,000, 7,000 of whom were French picked men, the very flower of the army. The British force, about 8,000 in number, were chiefly at York Town, which had been made as strong as possible, Cornwallis having abandoned his more distant posts, which had been intended to command the peninsula, as too much exposed to be maintained under present circumstances. These, therefore, were all immediately seized by the combined armies. The post at Gloucester Point, opposite to York Town, was occupied by the famous Tarleton, with both cavalry and infantry, amounting to about 600 men.
On the evening of the 9th of October the batteries were opened against the town, the works of which, even had they been completed, would have been incapable of sustaining such a weight of force; but, as it was, the British troops were as much employed in their construction, amid the fire of the enemy, as in their defence. In a few days most of their guns were dismounted and silenced; their defences in many places broken down. Shells and red-hot ball had reached even the British ships in the harbour, several of which were burned.
In the meantime, Sir Henry Clinton, who had learned the junction of the Rhode Island squadron with the French fleet, from Admiral Graves on his return to New York, and of the peril which threatened Lord Cornwallis, lost no time in refitting and equipping a fleet to aid in extricating him and his army. Accordingly, on the 19th of October, with upwards of 7,000 of his best forces, Sir Henry Clinton set sail on this important service, with twenty-five ships of the line and eight frigates. All felt the greatness of the enterprise; the spirit, it is said, which influenced both officers and common men was full of enthusiasm, all believing that whatever the result might he, they were about to be engaged in one of the most obstinate and bloody naval battles ever fought.
On the 5th of October, Lord Cornwallis received a letter from New York, informing him of the relief that would sail thence for him about that date. But it was a fortnight later before the fleet passed the bar of New York harbour; and in the meantime, while Lord Cornwallis was anxiously expecting relief which never came, events were proceeding rapidly.
The most interesting feature of the siege was the storming of two redoubts, which, standing forward, greatly impeded the progress of the besiegers. It was determined, therefore, to attack these as the darkness of night fell, on the 14th. The attack of the one was committed to the Americans, under Colonel Hamilton, Washington’s aide-de-camp, and the other to the French, the one nation emulating the other in the honour and the duty of the enterprise. Both were successful; both redoubts were taken, when daylight appeared, but the loss of the French was the greater.
So important did Lord Cornwallis consider the taking of these redoubts, that, writing to Sir Henry Clinton the following day, he said that “he considered his situation desperate.” Using, however, all means to procrastinate, he anxiously and impatiently waited for relief from New York; but in vain.
At length, when no relief came, and when, on the 16th, a hundred pieces of heavy ordnance had so ruined the works and overpowered the batteries that the besieged could not show a single gun, and their shells, their sole means of defence, were nearly exhausted, Lord Cornwallis determined, as a last resource before surrendering, to attempt an escape with the greater part of his troops. Accordingly boats were secretly prepared; and abandoning the baggage, the troops during the night were to pass over to Gloucester Point, to cut their way through a French detachment posted in the rear of that place, and by rapid marches to reach New York in safety. The first debarkation had been made towards midnight in safety, when the weather, which had hitherto been moderate, instantly changed, and a violent storm drove the boats down the river. It was impossible to bring back the landed troops; and thus weakened and discouraged, the danger of the army was still further increased.
Means of defence there were none; their hopes of succour were at an end; the troops were diminished and worn out by constant watching and unremitting fatigue.
To avoid, therefore, the useless shedding of blood by an assault, Cornwallis wrote to Washington on the 17th, proposing a suspension of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that commissioners might be appointed to settle terms of capitulation.