the English general could not be aware of our real design; but it was too late to defeat it, if M. de Grasse should arrive in the Chesapeake at the time he had specified. The two armies continuing their march, passed through Philadelphia, and defiled before the Congress. There we learned that Admiral Hood had joined Admiral Graves before New York, and had made all sail for the Chesapeake. This news was compensated by a report from Baltimore, a town situated at the head of that bay, which announced the arrival of M. de Grasse with twenty-six sail of the line. We hastened our march at the head of our respective van-guards; and upon reaching the head of the Elk, we found an officer who had arrived an hour before us with despatches from M. de Grasse. All difficulties were not yet overcome: the English, in their different incursions, had so destroyed the American shipping that we could only collect enough to embark two thousand men. This was scarcely sufficient for conveying the advanced guards of grenadiers and chasseurs of the two armies. The two Viomenils continued the march by land with the army, passing around the bay to Baltimore and Annapolis; General Washington and myself pushed on with a small escort, and having made forced marches of sixty miles a-day, we arrived on the 14th of September at Williamsburg, where we found the divisions of La Fayette and Saint Simon united and waiting for us in a good position. Lord Cornwallis was busily entrenching himself at Gloucester and York. He barred the river by sinking vessels in the channel, and mooring others within the protection of his works. There was much uneasiness excited at Williamsburg by the appearance of the enemy's fleet, by a heavy cannonade which had been heard on the 5th of September, and by the subsequent appearance of two English frigates in the bay. At length, however, in the night of the 14th and 15th, we received a letter from M. de Grasse, which informed us that an English fleet of twenty sail had appeared off Cape Charles on the 5th; that although he had fifteen hundred sailors employed in landing the troops of M. de Saint Simon, he immediately cut his cables and went out with twenty-four ships to meet the enemy; that Graves having the wind, the advanced guard only, under M. de Bougainville, had closed with the English squadron which was very roughly handied; that he, M. de Grasse, had continued in pursuit for some time; that upon returning to the bay, he had found there the squadron of M. de Barras; that this admiral having left Newport with our artillery for the siege, had arrived in the bay on the 10th; that he had met with and taken the two English frigates; that he had immediately despatched the ten transports of M. de Barras, those two fri gates, and his other prizes, under M. de La Villebrune, to bring the troops from Annapolis. This officer having joined Viomenil, by their united exertions, they arrived at James-town on the 25th, and the armies landed on the 26th and 27th. The 28th of September we left Williamsburg at break of day, and advanced towards York. I commenced the investment with the French troops, beginning some distance up York river, and passing down to the marsh near Colonel Nelson's house, availing myself of the woods and swamps to enclose the enemy within pistol-shot of his works. The three French brigades were encamped at a short distance, but sheltered by the heights from the enemy's cannon. Viomenil commanded the grenadiers and chasseurs of the advanced guard; and the investment was effected without the loss of a man. On the same day, General Washington, at the head of an American corps, was obliged to retire behind us, and to halt at the morass, all the bridges over which had been broken; he employed the rest of the day and the night in refitting them. On the 29th, the American army passed the morass, on which it rested its left, with its right on the river. The investment of the place was now complete, and as close as possible. The infantry of Lauzun having landed under its colonel, joined his cavalry which I had directed to move by Tarr on the road to Gloucester, under Brigadier-general Voueden, who commanded there a body of American militia. The whole of this legion was reassembled on the 28th, the day on which York was invested. On the night of the 29th and 30th, the enemy dreading a coup-de-main on the extensive position which he had fortified, abandoned the entrenched camp at Pigeon's-hill, and retired within his enclosure. The 30th we were employed in fixing ourselves in the works abandoned by the enemy; which enabled us to enclose him in a narrower circle, and gave us great advantages. On the same day, we sent M. de Choisy to request of M. de Grasse a detachment from his squadron, to reinforce M. de Lauzun in Gloucester county; M. de Grasse gave him eight hundred men. He marched forward to take a position nearer to Gloucester. He overtook Tarleton on the route with four hundred cavalry and two hundred infantry on a foraging party. The legion of Lauzun, supported by a body of American militia, attacked him so vigorously that they beat him, and forced the detachment to retire into the fort with some loss. After this action M. de Choisy push ed his advanced posts to within a mile of Gloucester. The trenches were opened by two attacks above and below York, on the night of the 6th of October. That on the right was of six or seven hundred fathoms front, and flanked by four redoubts. It was completed without any loss, because we made the left com. mence the work, which, although the attack on this side was a feint, drew all the attention of the enemy. The strength of the army enclosed, and the character of the man who commanded it, obliged us to conduct these attacks with a great deal of method and precaution. The American army had charge of the right of the trenches, and the French of the cen tre and left. It is but justice to the Americans to declare, that they conducted them. selves with a zeal, a courage, and an emulation, which prevented them from being at any moment behind-hand in their part of the duty, although they were quite unacquainted with the ope rations of a siege. We set fire to an enemy's ship of war by our batteries, and to three transports, which had anchored with a view of acting on our rear. In the night of the 14th, the soldiers on duty in the trenches having been relieved by the regiments of Gatinois and of Royal-Deux-Ponts under the Baron de Viomenil, we resolved to attack the two redoubts on the enemy's left. General Washing. ton entrusted to La Fayette the at tack on the right, and I committed that on the left to M. de Viomenil. Four hundred grenadiers led this as sault under M. de Deux-Ponts and M. de l'Estrapade, Lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Gatinois. M. de Viomenil and La Fayette made so vigorous an attack, that the redoubts were carried at the same moment, sword in hand. We killed, wounded, or took the greater part of the troops which defended them. The lodgment was made by opening a communication between these redoubts and the right of our second parallel. Their situation furnished us with the opportunity of establishing new batteries, which completely enveloped the army of Cornwallis, and enabled us to batter the whole interior of his defences at such a distance as could not but be very effectual. Count de Deux Ponts, Charles de Lameth, and M. de Gimet, aide-de-camp to La Fayette, were wounded. On the night of the 15th, the enemy made a sortie with six hundred chosen troops; he met with resistance at all our redoubts, but took possession of a battery in the second parallel, where he spiked four cannon. The Chevalier de Chatelus marched up with his reserve, and repulsed this sortie. The four pieces badly spiked, were ready to be fired again within six hours, by the exertions of General d'Abbeville commanding our artillery. The Marquis de Saint Simon was wounded at the trench the next day, but went through his twenty-four hours without suffering himself to be relieved. At length, on the 17th, the enemy opened a parley, and the capitulation was signed on the 19th of October, by which Lord Cornwallis and his army became prisoners of war. At noon, the Americans and French took possession of two bastions. The garrison defiled at two o'clock, between the two armies, with drums beating, and carrying their arms, which they afterwards stacked, with about twenty stand of colours. Lord Cornwallis being sick, General O'Hara marched out at the head of the garrison. On reaching us, he presented his sword to me; I showed him General Washington, opposite to me, at the head of the American army, and told him, that the French army being but an auxiliary in the war, he was to receive his orders from the American General. Colonel Laurens, the Viscount de Noailles, and M. de Granchain, had been appointed by their respective commanders, to prepare the articles of capitulation with the superior officers of Cornwallis' army. It was signed by General Washington, myself, and M. de Barras, on the part of the Count de Grasse, and immediately put in execution. We found eight thousand men, of whom seven thousand were regular troops, and one thousand sailors, two hundred and forty pieces of cannon, seventy-five of which were cast, and twenty-two colours. Among the prisoners may be reckoned two thousand who were in the hospitals, of whom the greatest care was taken. The rest were sent into the interior. I despatched the Duke de Lauzun and Count de Deux Ponts, in two frigates, to carry the capitulation to France; and Mr Tilghman, aid-decamp to General Washington, was sent by him to Congress. This affair was hardly over, when the English squadron of twenty-seven sail, appeared off Cape Henry, on the 27th of October; it had on board a body of troops under General Clinton. After having ascertained that the succour was too late, it put to sea again; and the fleet of M. de Grasse sailed for the West Indies on the 4th of November. He sent back to Saint Domingo, the body of troops which he had borrowed from the governor, and left at York a light squadron, of which the frigate Romulus was the largest vessel, under M. de Villebrune. Ge neral Washington returned to his headquarters on the river Hudson, opposite to New York, with the detachment He sent from the northern states. the troops which had been under the command of M. de La Fayette, to reinforce General Greene in the south. The French remained at York, Gloucester, Hampton, and Williamsburg, where they took up the quarters which the enemy had expected to occupy, and rebuilt the houses which had been destroyed during the siege. The Congress, as soon as they heard of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, passed a resolution, to have a marble column erected at York, in Virginia, adorned with emblems, commemora ting the alliance between the United States and France, with a succinct account of the surrender of the army of Cornwallis to Generals Washington, Rochambeau, and De Grasse. They voted also to present two colours to General Washington, and four pieces of cannon, taken from the English army, to Count de Rochambeau and Count de Grasse, with an inscription declaring the gratitude of the United States, for the glorious part which they had acted in this brilliant expedition. General Greene obtained new successes in the south: he descended from the mountains of the Santee, passed the Wateree and Congaree, marched to Dorchester, and forced the enemy to abandon all the posts which he had in the open country, and to retire within the lines of Charleston. The English, at the end of this campaign, which had commenced so unfavourably for the Americans, held nothing on the continent of North America, but Charleston, Savannah, and the islands of New York. All these successes contributed not a little to the overthrow of the English ministry, when the news of the capture of Cornwallis reached Europe, and induced Parliament to relinquish all offensive operations on the continent of America, During the month of May, 1782, we were informed of the defeat of the Count de Grasse, by a published account of Admiral Rodney, which the English at New York took good care to circulate. This was the more important, as Congress, and the assemblies of several of the states, were convoked to determine whether they should listen to the proposals of General Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry Clinton in the command of the English army. He proposed to the United States, in the name of his Government, the acknowledgment of their independence, without restriction, provided they would renounce the alliance which they had contracted with France. The Congress refused to receive Carleton's secretary, who came with these offers; and the state of Maryland published a resolution, denouncing as an enemy to the state, whoever should propose to treat without the concurrence of France; accompanying this proclamation with declarations of the gratitude which they owed her. This example was followed by the General Assembly of Virginia, and afterwards by all the other states, at the usual times of holding their Assemblies. The English general having, at the same time, despatched a body of troops from Charleston to Jamaica, proposed a suspension of hostilities to General Greene, who, as well as the legislature of South Carolina, refused it. The Chevalier de la Luzerne, sent accounts of all these transactions to France, by the Chevalier Clouard. They confirmed the good opinion which had been entertained there of the firmness of the Americans, and of their gratitude to wards their ally. The Chevalier de la Luzerne had succeeded M. Gérard, as minister plenipotentiary in America. His frank and conciliating manners gained the esteem and confidence of the Americans to such a degree, that although he was apparently unwilling to take any part in their internal affairs, yet there were few matters of consequence in which he was not consulted, The unhealthiness of the season in Virginia began to cause much sickness in the army: the Chevalier de la Luzerne, received letters at this time from M. Vaudreuil, who, after the capture of M. de Grasse, had succeeded to the command of the fleet. This admiral requested him to make preparations for refitting it at Boston. We were also informed, that a body of troops was about embarking at New York, which was supposed to be destined against some of the French colonies. These circumstances induced me to put the French army in motion, to bring it nearer to New York. I requested a conference at Philadelphia with General Washington. It was there resolved, that the two armies should unite on the Hudson, should approach as near as possible to New York, to threaten the place, and prevent it from sending out any detachment against our colonies. During this time the army under the Chevalier de Chatelus, and the Chevalier de Viomenil, marched during the night, and reposed in the day-time. Through the judicious precautions of these generals, it arrived in health and safety at Baltimore, where it was joined by a detachment under M. de Valette, whom I had left at York and Gloucester, to demolish the fortifications, after removing the artillery. Although these troops had been conveyed up the bay by the little squadron of M. de la Villebrune, while the rest of the army proceeding slowly by land; yet from the commander to the lowest soldier, they arrived every man sick. was During the stay which the army was obliged to make at Baltimore, to recruit the sick, and to allow the great summer-heats to pass by, we were informed of the evacuation of Savannah in Georgia; a part of the garrison had returned to New York, and the rest was sent to Charleston, from which place also the enemy was preparing to withdraw his magazines. I received at the same time a letter from M. de Vaudreuil, who was on his way to Boston with the remains of the fleet of M. de Grasse, requesting the assistance necessary for his protection, while refitting. He had detached M. de la Peyrouse towards Hudson's Bay, who destroyed all the British establishments there. I sent M. de Choisy to command his land forces, and the officers of artillery and engineers whom he wanted. General Carleton made another attempt to obtain a truce; he announced the absolute and unqualified acknowledgment of the independence of America, which had passed the two houses of the English Parliament, and the prospect of preliminaries of peace being signed immediately. At the same time, however, we heard of the arrival at New York of Admiral Pigott, who had succeeded Rodney in the command of the enemy's fleet, and of the preparations which were making to embark troops for the French islands. This last piece of news détermined the speedy march of the French army, in order to effect a junction with that of Washington, and to present our united force before the place. This march was made in the same order, and by the same road, which we had taken the year before. The junction was effected at King'sferry, on the North river. General Washington wishing to testify his respect and gratitude to France, made us pass between two lines of his soldiers, dressed, equipped, and armed completely, for the first time since the revolution, partly with arms and clothes sent from France, and partly from the English magazines taken with the garrison of Cornwallis, which the French army had relinquished to that of the Americans. He made his drums beat the French march during the whole of this review, and the two |