Victory at Yorktown (40 page)

At the wharf a throng had assembled, eager for a glimpse of the great man, many of them holding their children in the air for a sight they would remember years afterward. Few of the spectators could have understood how difficult it must have been for Washington to keep his emotions in check as he strode out on the dock, walked past the crowd, and climbed down into the waiting barge. When it moved out into the river, he gave a single, all-embracing wave of farewell and settled down as the rhythmic motion of the oarsmen took him farther and farther away from the waving, cheering crowd and the tearful officers, who stood watching, in “silence, military grief,” as long as the barge and the figures in it could still be seen.

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CONSIDERING WHAT MIGHT
have been, Washington's farewell to his fellow officers was a disappointing anticlimax. Even so, it was a solemn, unforgettable moment. Some of these men—Henry Knox and Alexander McDougall, among them—had been with him from the beginning in 1775. They and the others who had served so selflessly, enduring such hardships as few armies had known, had achieved a miracle. They had made the impossible possible as they struggled to bring independence to a new nation at a time in the history of the world when it was simply inconceivable that such a transformation could occur.

The American Revolution was a war of liberation from foreign rule—the first of many such uprisings that would take place over time. Yet its significance was in going much further than a war for freedom. Winning the conflict they had begun was the first step. Beyond that was their determination to achieve independence with constitutional guarantees.

As Benjamin Rush put it in his Fourth of July address in Philadelphia in 1781, “There is nothing more common than to confound the terms American Revolution with those of the late American War. The American War is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the contrary, [only] the first act of the great drama is closed.”

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FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON
one more duty remained to be performed.

Setting off to the south, he and his aides, David Humphreys, David Cobb, and Benjamin Walker, rode through New Brunswick, Trenton, and Philadelphia (where Cobb, who had serious financial problems, left him). All along the road he was greeted by joyful, cheering people begging him to stop and say a few words; in every village, church bells rang and cannon boomed in salutes. There was hand-shaking, speeches to deliver, local notables to accommodate, finally a night's rest and back in the saddle the next morning. In Wilmington an “elegant supper” was given him, followed by festivities, and he delivered the expected speech the next morning; in Baltimore another dinner awaited him, followed by a ball that lasted until two in the morning; then it was on to Annapolis, where the Congress of the United States was sitting.

Sitting, that is, after a fashion. General Washington's imminent arrival had thrown that body into a crisis. In the first place, until December 13 not enough states were represented to constitute a quorum, which meant that Congress had been completely impotent before that date. Even after December 13, only seven states were present, so it was voted unanimously that a Congress of seven states could act on Washington's resignation.

No protocol existed for such a formality as the resignation of a commander-in-chief, so a committee was appointed to create one, and on December 23, 1783, in a moving, emotionally charged ceremony, Washington submitted his commission to the president of Congress. After saying good-bye to each congressman, he left the building and mounted his horse.

He and his two aides galloped off at once. After spending the night at a tavern, they pushed on the next day, riding hard through the rolling countryside of Maryland, halting no longer than was absolutely essential to please the groups of happy people that waved to them to stop and visit. Then it was on to the ferry crossing of the Potomac. As the late afternoon light was fading from the sky, they trotted up the long drive to Mount Vernon. It was Christmas Eve, and George Washington was home at last.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

John Adams
(1735–1826). A Boston lawyer, diplomat in Europe, and second president of the United States. A delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and initially fearful of separation from England, he supported the Declaration of Independence in 1776. During the war he served on diplomatic missions and, with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, negotiated the Treaty of Paris ending the war. He was Washington's vice president and, in 1796, president.

Major John André
(1751–1780). An ambitious, capable young man who organized dramatic performances in Philadelphia, where he met Peggy Shippen (later Arnold). He became Sir Henry Clinton's aide, handled his correspondence with secret agents, and was involved with Benedict Arnold. Captured carrying incriminating documents, he was hanged in 1780.

Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot
(1711–1794). A terrible choice for commander in chief on the American station, he was both incompetent and uncooperative, especially with General Sir Henry Clinton. He was succeeded by Admiral Thomas Graves in 1781.

Major General Benedict Arnold
(1741–1801). As a youth in Connecticut, he worked as a bookseller and druggist and became a successful merchant. A captain of a militia company, he took part in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and led the heroic march to Quebec that ended in defeat. He assembled a small fleet with which he fought the British at Valcour Island in 1776, losing the battle but forcing the enemy to delay for a year an invasion from Canada. He fought with distinction at Saratoga, where he was badly wounded. In 1775 he commanded in Philadelphia and later at West Point, the scene of his treason.

Margaret Shippen Arnold
(1760–1804). Daughter of a wealthy, conservative Philadelphia jurist, she socialized with British officers, including John André, in the occupied city. When the British evacuated Philadelphia, she was courted by Benedict Arnold, twenty years her senior. They married in 1779, and Peggy helped her husband convey information to Sir Henry Clinton. After the war she remained a faithful partner to her husband, despite his increasing poverty.

Dr. Edward Bancroft
(1744–1820). Massachusetts-born doctor, scientist, inventor, and double agent, he was largely self-educated. After adventures in Dutch Guiana he moved to England and began working as a spy for Benjamin Franklin. Then he started spying for the British. Through a cozy relationship with Silas Deane, he leaked information about American relations with the French.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
(1732–1799). Writer, musician, inventor, and playwright, he arranged secret aid to the Americans before the alliance with France. At Versailles he was “Watchmaker to the King” and established the fictitious firm Hortalez et Cie as a conduit for 21 million livres' worth of munitions, gunpowder, and clothing to the rebel army. He barely escaped death in the French Revolution and fled to Germany, where he remarried twice—at seventy-six and eighty-six.

Louis-Alexandre Berthier
(1753–1815). An aide to the French quartermaster general, Berthier was a diligent planner and route finder. During the French Revolution he was chief of staff to Comte d'Estaing, then Lafayette, and later an important friend and aide to Napoleon.

Claude Blanchard
(1742–1803). Chief commissary to Rochambeau's corps, he was responsible for organizing hospitals, quarters, fuel, food, and supplies for the army—a formidable task in a foreign land.

Charles-Louis-Victor, Prince de Broglie
(1756–1794). Colonel in the Saint-onge regiment, he returned to France after Yorktown, was president of the national constituent assembly, and, though a proponent of liberty, was sent to the guillotine in 1794.

Lieutenant General Sir Guy Carleton
(1724–1808). Irish-born, he served under General Jeffrey Amherst and General James Wolfe and was named governor of Quebec in 1767. He is said to have drafted the Quebec Act and was the commander of British forces in Canada after 1775. Largely because of his leadership, England was able to retain Canada. After Cornwallis's defeat he went to New York and oversaw the cessation of hostilities.

John Champe
(c. 1756–c. 1798). A member of Henry Lee's cavalry command, Champe was sent in 1780 to New York on a mission to capture Benedict Arnold, after feigning desertion from the Americans. He was taken to Arnold, who made him a sergeant major in his loyalist legion. Champe's plans were foiled, and when he escaped from the British he was discharged to protect him from retaliation by the enemy.

François-Jean de Beauvoir, Chevalier de Chastellux
(1734–1788). He entered the army at the age of thirteen and later won modest fame as a philosopher. After joining Rochambeau's army in 1780, he was third in command at Yorktown. His
Travels in North America
(1786) was a popular account. He died of an illness before the French Revolution.

Jean-François-Louis, Comte de Clermont-Crèvecoeur
(1752–c. 1824). He fought under Rochambeau from 1780 to 1783, returned to France, and served in the army until he emigrated in 1792 with other loyalists.

General Sir Henry Clinton
(1730–1795). As a general in America, Clinton sparred with his peers, Sir William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Lord Cornwallis, and when Burgoyne lost at Saratoga and Howe resigned, he succeeded the latter as commander. He requested a competent, cooperative admiral, only to get Arbuthnot; his communications with Cornwallis were abysmal; and though the capture of Charleston was a triumph, after Cornwallis took matters into his own hands the war turned against the British. Even so, Clinton was made the scapegoat for Yorktown.

Baron von Closen
(c. 1754–1830). A nobleman from Bavaria, he served as an aide to Rochambeau, accompanying him on all his American campaigns. After the war he continued to serve in the French army, resigning during their revolution. He later served under Napoleon.

Colonel David Cobb
(1748–1839). A Harvard-educated doctor, he served as delegate to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1775. As a rebel soldier, he fought in New Jersey and Rhode Island before becoming a trusted aide to Washington. Cobb delivered important messages between the General and Rochambeau and negotiated the evacuation of New York with British general Sir Guy Carleton.

Charles, Earl Cornwallis
(1738–1805). As a member of Parliament, he voted against the Stamp Act and was sympathetic to the interest of the colonies. He pursued but failed to trap Washington's army at Trenton—a major blunder—and in 1778 left for England, where his wife was dying. On his return he took charge of the war in the South and had some major successes until Greene arrived. Moving to Virginia, he took a questionable position in Yorktown, where he was bottled up.

Silas Deane
(1737–1789). A member of the Continental Congress, he was sent to France in 1776, where he arranged for ammunition, weapons, and clothing to supply the Continental Army. In Paris he met his friend Edward Bancroft, not knowing he was a double agent, and they hoped to make a killing by purchasing supplies and profiteering. He helped Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee negotiate commercial and military treaties with France in 1778. Congress ordered his return from Paris after Lee accused him of corruption. He died a poor man in exile.

Henry Dearborn
(1751–1829). A New Hampshireman, he fought at Bunker Hill and marched with Benedict Arnold to Quebec, where he was imprisoned. Exchanged, he was with Alexander Scammell's regiment at Ticonderoga and Saratoga before joining John Sullivan's expedition against the Iroquois. He assisted Timothy Pickering, quartermaster general, at Yorktown.

Oliver DeLancey, Sr.
(1718–1785). Prominent New York loyalist, politician, and merchant. At the outbreak of war DeLancey was the senior loyalist officer in the British army and raised a brigade for the defense of Long Island. Of his three battalions, two served in the South, the third in Queen's County, New York. With British defeat DeLancey lost all his property and went into exile, dying in England two years later.

Vice Admiral Charles Hector Theodat, Comte d'Estaing
(1729–1794). His fleet provided the first formal assistance to rebel forces in 1778. He also caused tension between the allies by leaving the waters around Rhode Island against the wishes of American forces. He commanded the national guard at Versailles in 1789 and was guillotined.

Guillaume, Comte de Deux-Ponts
(1754–1807). He led a crucial attack at Yorktown on Oct. 14, 1781, where he lost one-fifth of his troops in seven minutes. He was chosen by Rochambeau to bring the news of victory to Louis XVI. Deux-Ponts was from Bavaria, and during and after the French Revolution he went by his German name: Wilhelm Graf von Forbach und Freiherr von Zweibruecken. He helped the royal family flee from Varennes in 1791 but survived the revolution to return to his home.

Rear Admiral Robert Digby
(1732–1814). Named in 1781 as a commander of the North American station, he allowed Admiral Thomas Graves, who had been passed over for Digby, to stay in command until the Yorktown siege ended. He remained in America to evacuate the British army.

Comte Mathieu Dumas
(1753–1837). Aide to Rochambeau and assistant quartermaster general. In 1791 he was directed to conduct Louis XVI back to Paris after he tried to flee. A moderate, he fell from favor and fled to Switzerland. His brother was guillotined in 1794.

Major Patrick Ferguson
(1744–1780). Inventor of the first breech-loading rifle used in the British army—a very accurate weapon with a rapid rate of fire. He was wounded at Brandywine, was at the Charleston siege, and was killed at Kings Mountain, where almost all his command was lost. He had been a soldier for twenty-one years when he died at thirty-six.