September, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



175 



Sketch Made by Colonel John Trumbull, on the Field at Yorktown, in I 79 I , as a Study for His Painting of the Surrender at Yorktown 



The good news of the great event spread through the coun- 

 try like wildfire, and Congress, in recognition of its deep joy 

 and gratitude, passed a vote of thanks to the great leaders in 

 the allied armies and voted two stands of colors to Washing- 

 ton, two pieces of field ordnance to de Rochambeau and 

 de Grasse, and also decreed that a marble column should be 

 erected in Yorktown to commemorate the event. It seems 

 strange that a century should have passed before this last act 

 should have been carried out. 



On the same day that Yorktown surrendered, which, by 

 the way, was the fourth anniversary of the surrender of 

 Burgoyne at Saratoga, Sir Henry Clinton set sail from New 

 York with a powerful fleet of twenty-five ships of the line 

 and ten frigates and an army of picked veterans, seven thou- 



sand strong. He arrived at Yorktown five days later, but, 

 finding the capitulation had already taken place, sailed back 

 again to New York and despatched the news of the catas- 

 trophe to England. 



The significance of the event was well expressed by Lord 

 North, when the news reached him, for he threw his arms 

 wildly in the air and exclaimed, "It is all over ! It is all over !" 



Note. — The various objects reproduced in facsimile in connection with this 

 article form part of a collection of Revolutionary material belonging to a private 

 collector in New York. It may be of interest to note that on the same shelf with 

 the book illustrated above, from Washington's Library, is a copy of "Sir H. 

 Clinton's Narrative," from his library and bearing his autograph. 



The Controversy between the two British leaders was of the most venomous 

 character, and as a study of invective nothing could be more illuminating than a 

 perusal of the "Reply of Lord Cornwallis " to Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative. 



Nelson House, the Residence of Governor Thomas Nelson of Virginia, Who Commanded the Virginia Militia at the Siege and Directed the Fire of 

 the Gunners at His Own Mansion Under the Supposition that it Was Lord Comwallis's Headquarters 



