De Grasse, on his arrival at Lynnhaven Bay, just inside Cape Henry, had found an aide of Lafayette's, and soon the marquis arrived in person. As soon as possible the troops under St. Simon were landed at Jamestown Island, and Wayne was recalled from his southward march. These corps, with the light infantry and the Virginia militia, took up a strong position at Williamsburg, not more than twelve miles from Yorktown. Cornwallis reconnoitred the lines; but they were too strong to be attacked except at great risk. Confident in being relieved by Clinton and Graves, he retired to his fortifications.
Had Rodney done his full duty he would have followed De Grasse in his northward cruise. But pleading illness, he sent fourteen ships of the line, under Hood, to the assistance of Graves, and sailed himself for Europe.[1032] The event was most fortunate for the American cause, as the control of the sea for a brief period passed away from the British. It should be said that Rodney had written to Graves, warning him of his danger; but through a fortunate accident the letter never reached Graves, and the first he heard of the coming of De Grasse was on the arrival of Hood. That admiral on August 25th had looked into the Chesapeake on his way north; but the French had not yet arrived. Graves had already discovered that Barras had sailed from Newport with a siege train and tools, and the two admirals, conjecturing, therefore, that the destination of Barras was the Chesapeake, determined to seek him there and destroy him before the arrival of the main fleet. They reached Cape Henry on the 5th of September, and there they found, not Barras, as he had purposely taken a long, roundabout route to avoid them, but De Grasse. The English fleet numbered nineteen sail of the line, the French twenty-four, but fifteen hundred men were absent, engaged in landing the troops of St. Simon. Nevertheless, De Grasse slipped his cables and stood out to sea. The ensuing action was indecisive, but De Grasse accomplished his purpose, as the British were obliged to seek New York to refit. On his arrival back at Lynnhaven Bay he found Barras. There was now abundant transportation, and by the 26th of September the allied troops—Washington's, Rochambeau's, Lafayette's, and St. Simon's—were concentrated at Williamsburg.
Two days later, on the 28th, the allied army marched to Yorktown, and found Cornwallis occupying an intrenched camp outside the immediate defences of the town. On the 29th the lines were extended so as to envelop the place, the Americans taking the right, with their right flank resting on Wormley Creek. Cornwallis, seeing that he would be outflanked, withdrew to the inner defences, and on the morning of the 30th the besiegers took possession of the abandoned works.[1033]
COUNT DE GRASSE.
From Andrews's Hist. of the War, Lond., 1785, vol. ii. Cf. European Mag., ii. 83; Hennequin's Biographie maritime, iii. 297; E. M. Stone's French Allies, 396, 398; Mag. of Amer. Hist., vi. p. 1; Harper's Mag., lxiii. 330.
The Operations of the French feet under the Count de Grasse in 1781-82, as described in two Contemporary Journals (New York, 1864, for the Bradford Club, 150 copies), edited by John G. Shea, gives two narratives, of which one purports to have been written by a certain Chevalier de Goussencourt, who is hostile and cannot be identified, while the other is anonymous and friendly. This last had been printed at Amsterdam in 1782, and it is suspected was written by De Grasse himself. A sketch of De Grasse's life, for which his family gave material, is prefixed. It also contains (p. 192) the account, abridged from the Gazette de France, Nov. 20th, in the Remembrancer, xiii. 46. A Notice Biographique of De Grasse, by his son, was published in Paris in 1840.—Ed.
