V. VICTORY AT YORKTOWN
Yorktown was the General’s final test, and again it showed how views of his leadership changed from campaign to campaign. For years, through all the defensive battles after Trenton and Princeton, the General had been talking with the French generals about trapping a large British force on the coast where the General would concentrate our combined forces unexpectedly and, with the help of the French fleet, force a British surrender. The General’s first choice was New York. I think he still smoldered from the thrashings the British had given us there and looked on a victory at New York as the ultimate vindication. Actually, the General would have been happy if the French fleet attacked the British forces in Charleston. I remember traveling hundreds of miles and enduring interminable formal dinners with the French generals and admirals at Newport, Rhode Island, and Wethersfield, Connecticut. The General shrugged and said to me, “We should remember the French are a people old in war and very strict in military etiquette.” The French were opposed to any joint land and sea operation directed at New York. Perhaps they feared that the British fleet there was too powerful. Perhaps they were just reluctant to commit their troops. With the French troops camped in Newport, this had been a problem for years.
Anyway, when General Rochambeau sent the General word that the French fleet under the comte de Grasse would be sailing from the Caribbean to the Chesapeake, and Rochambeau’s troops would be willing to join our forces, the General quickly abandoned New York for the new opportunity. Under Cornwallis, the British army fought many battles in the South, but harassed by Lafayette, they had withdrawn to Yorktown on the Virginia coast. I have read criticism of Cornwallis’s decision, but at the time it seemed quite logical. He was looking for a place to rest his troops, await reinforcements for a campaign through Virginia, and have access to and from General Clinton and the main British garrison in New York.
He probably took into account the possibility of a French fleet cruising up from the Caribbean. He may have even envisioned the General moving his forces down from New York—after all, if that happened, General Clinton would certainly find out and send troops and supplies by sea that would be more than enough to both hold off and defeat our forces.
What Cornwallis underestimated was the General’s ability to move both our fifty-eight hundred men and the French force of forty-eight hundred south so rapidly without arousing Clinton’s suspicions. It was almost a repeat of what happened after the second battle of Trenton. The men lit campfires close to New York City, and small detachments harassed the British forces on the perimeter of the city. The General had me pen letters to citizens in New York and New Jersey—some of which he knew would be intercepted by the British—hinting at a coming American-French siege of New York. The wagon wheels again were covered with cloth so the departure would be as quiet as possible. The General moved his forces to the Yorktown peninsula while Clinton and Cornwallis still thought the General was quartered up the Hudson. The General’s critics said Cornwallis, like all the British generals, was stupid and that this was just another example. But Cornwallis had a long and illustrious career that extended well after Yorktown, serving the British in Ireland and later in India. I have read he won many battles and was one of the king’s most decorated generals. We considered Cornwallis by far the ablest of the British generals.
It was amazing to me how deferential the French commanders were to the General. They yielded command of their troops on the long march to Virginia and refused to accept Cornwallis’s surrender, insisting upon Lafayette’s urging that the British surrender directly to the General. Perhaps the French were being diplomatic, but based on their own observations and the reports from their superiors in Paris, I believe they had concluded that the General was one of the world’s great commanders. I have in my files a copy of a letter from the French general Rochambeau pleading with the General to review the French troops: “If your Excellency does not find a moment to come and see this part of your army, I am afraid the whole of it will desert, so great is their desire to see their General.” I suspect letters such as these must have boosted the General’s spirits during all the internecine struggles with Congress, governors, and jealous fellow American generals. I did notice, however, that the opinion held by Congress of the General rose as opinion abroad of the General soared.
Despite his now rising reputation, the General was always open to suggestions. The General recognized that the French knew far more than he did about laying siege to enemy strongholds. He happily followed the suggested French strategy for the digging of trenches in a V-shaped pattern closer and closer to the Yorktown fortifications to enable our artillery to pound the British positions. This made it possible for us to overrun the British outposts, necessitating Cornwallis’s surrender.
Over the years, many have asked me why Cornwallis did not try to have his outnumbered six thousand men escape when the French fleet arrived off Yorktown, especially when General Clinton, learning too late of our march to Virginia, failed to send him reinforcements. The answer is that he did try, sending his troops across the York River to prepare for an escape by his main forces. But again the Divine Ruler seemed to intervene. Ferocious winds arose, wrecking some of the British boats while driving the others back to the peninsula.
At Yorktown, the General once again was right at the front with the troops. I do believe he wanted to personally lead the charges on outlying British positions, but the General was always willing to give recognition to talent—especially if that talent supported him. He happily let Hamilton, Lafayette, and Laurens lead the last charges that made clear to Cornwallis the hopelessness of his position. I heard the speech he gave to Hamilton’s men, including the free black soldiers from Rhode Island. No one could inspire troops like the General.