Portions of his orderly-books, extending, with breaks, from June 19, 1781, to April 30, 1782, were printed in the Amer. Hist. Record (iii.; on the siege itself, pp. 403, 457-462). The orderly-books were reprinted at Philadelphia in 1865,[1208] while two orders of Sept. 15th and 25th, not included, are in the Penna. Hist. Mag. (1881), and in Johnston's Yorktown, 199. Many other important journals and orderly-books on the American side are preserved.[1209]
On the French side we have several contemporary accounts. First of all I should place an anonymous journal which has been attributed to Rochambeau.[1210] The Diary of a French Officer, 1781 (March 26 to Nov. 18, 1781), presumed to be the work of Baron Cromot-Dubourg, an aide to Rochambeau, was brought to light by Mr. Balch (Mag. Am. Hist., vii. 295), and is printed in Ibid. iv. 205, from an unpublished MS. then in the possession of Mr. C. Fiske Harris,[1211] of Providence, R. I.[1212] In some respects this is the most valuable paper of this class that we have. Still another important diary is the Journal of Claude Blanchard, Commissary of the French Auxiliary Army sent to the United States during the American Revolution, 1780-1783. Translated from the French MS. by William Duane, and edited by Thomas Balch (Albany, 1876, pp. 92-184 especially including the march back to Boston).[1213]
In 1879 Mr. J. A. Stevens printed in the Mag. of Amer. Hist. a series of letters from Count Fersen to his father, occasionally inclosing a bit of journal, a great deal of which relates to the operations before and after Yorktown, and it is in all respects a very valuable contribution. The greater part of Deux-Pont's Campaigns[1214] relates to this period, while the Journal of an Officer (pp. 148-164) and portions of the diaries kept by the naval officers refer to the same campaign.
The French accounts of the assaults on the redoubts are in the above. Hamilton's report to Lafayette is in Remembrancer, xiii. 61, while Lafayette's report to Washington is in Corresp. of the Rev., iii. 425.[1215]
There are good accounts of this campaign in the standard books.[1216] Of the more recent works, Henry P. Johnston's Yorktown[1217] stands first, though it was written with an evident bias. J. H. Patton[1218] also produced a small volume. Giradin's Continuation of Burk (iv. 519) contains a one-sided description; and the lives of any of the Revolutionary worthies[1219] devote a considerable space to the campaign. Among these is the Life of Muhlenberg by his son (268-276), in which an unfounded claim is advanced for the sire that he commanded the storming party led by Hamilton. The more popular books also have detailed accounts,[1220] while the subject has been repeatedly treated by orators, notably by Robert C. Winthrop.[1221]
[EDITORIAL NOTES ON EVENTS IN THE NORTH, 1779-1781.]
While the events followed in the preceding chapter were all tending, both by Washington's victory and Greene's defeats, to a discouragement of the English necessary to induce the British government to desire a peace, the succession of events in the North had hardly any interdependence, and of themselves conduced but little to the same end. The campaigns of Sullivan in 1778 and 1779, the dismal failure of the Massachusetts expedition to Penobscot in 1779, and the plot of Arnold, are considered in other chapters. A brief commentary upon the other transactions of this period here follows. The spring of 1779 was not an encouraging one for the cause. Washington had kept his main army during the winter at Middlebrook (Irving, iii.; Greene's Greene, ii. 160), and he was now resolved on a defensive campaign (Bancroft, x. ch. 9). He gave his views to Congress (Sparks, vi. 158); but that body inspired little confidence. It did something to increase the efficiency of the army in creating an inspector-general (Journals, iii. 202); but its internal bickerings were sadly discouraging (Greene's Hist. View; Bancroft, x. 208; Greene's Greene, ii. 170, 175; John Adams's Works, i. 292). The legislators were powerless to regulate prices as they wished, and riots were in progress at their very doors (Reed's Reed, ii. ch. 6). They sent A circular letter to their constituents, and urged enlistments in an address (May 26th; Niles's Principles, etc., 1876, p. 405); while Gouverneur Morris prepared for them some Observations on the American Revolution, published according to a Resolution of Congress, by their Committee for the Consideration of those who are desirous of comparing the Conduct of the Opposed Parties, and the several Consequences which have flowed from it (Phila., 1779). (Cf. Sparks's Gouv. Morris, and the letter of Thomas Paine, Hist. Mag., i. 20.)
