378 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



of great address : as many of his despatches had been intercepted, 

 and the letters published with great parade and triumph in the New- 

 York papers, to expose the poverty, weakness, and disunion of the 

 Americans ; Washington wrote letters to the southern officers and 

 others, informing them of his total inability to relieve Virginia, un- 

 less by a direct attack with the French troops on New-York. He as- 

 serted it was absolutely determined on, and would soon be executed. 

 These letters were intercepted (as it was intended they should be) 

 with others of the like kind from the French officers, and the project 

 was successful. Sir Henry Clinton was thus amused and deceived, 

 and kept from forming any suspicion of the real designs of ihe 

 enemy. 



By a variety of judicious military manoeuvres, Washington kept 

 New-York and its dependencies in a continual state of alarm for about 

 six weeks, and then suddenly marched across Jersey and through 

 Pennsylvania to the head of Elk, from whence the light troops were 

 conveyed by shipping down the Chesapeak bay ; and the bulk of the 

 army, after reaching Maryland by forced marches, was also there 

 embarked, and soon joined the other body under the marquis de la 

 Fayette. Sir Henry Clinton receiving information that the count De 

 Grasse was expected every moment in the Chesapeak, with a large 

 French fleet to co-operate with Washington, now seriously attempt- 

 ed to reinforce lord Cornwallis, but without success; for on the 5th 

 of September, after a partial action of a few hours between the Bri- 

 tish fleet under admiral Graves, and that of the French under De 

 Grasse, Graves returned to New-York to refit, and left the French 

 masters of the navigation of the Chesapeak. The most effectual 

 measures were immediately adopted by general Washington, for 

 surrounding lord Cornwallis's army, and on the last of September it 

 was closely invested in Yorktown, and at Gloucester on the opposite 

 side of the river, with a considerable body of troops on one side, and 

 a large naval force on the other. The trenches were opened in the 

 night between the 6th and 7th of October, with a large train of ar- 

 tillery. The works which had been raised by the British, suk under 

 the weight of the batteries; the troops were much diminished by the 

 sword and sickness, and worn down by constant watching and fatigue ; 

 and all hope of relief failing, on the 19th of October lord Cornwallis 

 surrendered himself and his whole army by capitulation to general 

 Washington, as prisoners of war. Fifteen hundred seamen under- 

 went the fate of the garrison ; but these, with the Gu'^daloupe fri- 

 gate of 24 guns, and a number of transports, were assigned to M. 

 de Grasse, as a return for the French naval power and assistance. 



Such was the issue of the Virginia war. The capture of this army 

 under lord Cornwallis, was too heavy a blow to be soon or easily reco- 

 vered ; it threw a gloom over the whole British court and cabinet, 

 and put a total period to the hopes of those who had flattered them- 

 selves with the subjugation of the colonies by arms. The surrender 

 of this second British army may be considered as the closing scene 

 of the continental war in America; for the immense expence of car- 

 rying it on, so distant from the seat of preparations and power; the 

 great accumulation of public debt it had brought upon the nation; 

 the plentiful effusion of human blood it had occasioned; the diminu- 

 tion of trade, and the vast increase of taxes — these were evils ol such 

 a magnitude, arising from this contest, as could scarcely be overlook- 

 ed even by the most insensible and stupid. 



