OUR FIRST ALLIANCE 



543 



sailors killed or wounded, but he had lost 

 no ship, and the enemy's fleet, very much 

 damaged, with 336 men killed or dis- 

 abled, and having lost the Terrible, of 

 74 guns, and the frigates Iris and Rich- 

 mond of 40, had been compelled to re- 

 treat to New York. Admiral Robert 

 Digby thereupon arrived with naval re- 

 inforcements ; "yet I do not think," La 

 Luzerne wrote to Rochambeau, "that 

 battle will be offered again. If it is, I am 

 not anxious about the result." Nothing 

 was attempted. This "superiority at sea," 

 Tarleton wrote in his History of the Cam- 

 paigns, "proved the strength of the ene- 

 mies of Great Britain, deranged the plans 

 of her generals, disheartened the courage 

 of her friends, and finally confirmed the 

 independency of America." "Nothing," 

 Rochambeau had written in his note-book 

 at starting, "without naval supremacy." 



ANOTHER FRENCH FLEET IX THE 

 CHESAPEAKE 



On reentering the bay, de Grasse had 

 the pleasure to find there another French 

 fleet, that of his friend Barras. As a lieu- 

 tenant general, de Grasse outranked him, 

 but as a "chef d'escadre" Barras was his 

 senior officer, which might have caused 

 difficulties ; the latter could be tempted, 

 and he was, to conduct a campaign apart, 

 so as to personally reap the glory of pos- 

 sible successes. 



"I leave it to thee, my dear Barras," 

 de Grasse had written him on the 28th of 

 July, "to come and join me or to act on 

 thy own account for the good of the com- 

 mon cause. Do only let me know, so that 

 we do not hamper each other unawares." 



Barras preferred the service of the 

 cause to his own interest ; leaving New- 

 port, going far out on the high seas, then 

 dashing south at a great distance from 

 the coast, he escaped the English and 

 reached the Chesapeake, bringing the 

 heavy siege artillery now indispensable 

 for the last operations. The stars had 

 continued incredibly propitious. 



The well-known double siege now be- 

 gan — that of Yorktown by Washington 

 and Rochambeau, and that of Gloucester, 

 on the opposite side of the river, which 

 might have afforded a place of retreat to 

 Cornwallis. De Grasse had consented to 



land, in view of the latter, 800 men under 

 Choisy, whom Lauzun joined with his 

 legion, and both acted in conjunction with 

 the American militia under Weedon. 



The two chiefs on the Yorktown side 

 were careful to conduct the operations 

 according to rules, "on account," says 

 Closen, "of the reputation of Cornwallis 

 and the strength of the garrison." Such 

 rules were certainly familiar to Rocham- 

 beau, whose fifteenth siege this one was. 



TFIE SURRENDER 



From day to day Cornwallis was more 

 narrowly pressed. As late as the 29th of 

 September he was still full of hope. "I 

 have ventured these two days," he wrote 

 to Clinton, "to look General Washington's 

 whole force in the face in the position on 

 the outside of my works ; and I have the 

 pleasure to assure Your Excellency that 

 there was but one wish throughout the 

 whole army, which was that the enemy 

 would advance." 



A dozen days later the tone was very 

 different. "I have only to repeat that 

 nothing but a direct move to York River, 

 which includes a successful naval action, 

 can save me ; . . . many of our works 

 are considerably damaged." 



Lord Germain was, in the meantime, 

 writing to Clinton in his happiest mood, 

 on the 12th of October: "It is a great 

 satisfaction to me to find . . . that 

 the plan you had concerted for conduct- 

 ing the military operations in that quarter 

 (the Chesapeake) corresponds with what 

 I had suggested." 



The court, which had no more misgiv- 

 ings than Lord Germain himself, had 

 caused to sail with Digby no less a per- 

 sonage than Prince William, one of the 

 fifteen children of George III, and even- 

 tually one of his successors as William 

 IV ; but his presence could only prove one 

 more encumbrance. 



After the familiar incidents of the 

 siege, in which the American and French 

 armies displayed similar valor and met 

 with about the same losses, the decisive 

 move of the night attack on the enemy's 

 advanced redoubts had to be made — one 

 of the redoubts to be stormed by the 

 Americans with Lafayette and the other 

 by the French under Viomesnil. 



