NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CCCLXXV.-AUGUST, 1881.-VOL. LXIII. THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. HE French Duc de la Roche THE Freud. Liancourt, who made a tour of the United States at the close of the last century, expressed surprise and disappointment at not finding the monument at Yorktown, Virginia, which the Continental Congress, fifteen years before, had voted to erect there in commemoration of Cornwallis's surrender. "It is not even yet begun," he wrote, in 1796; and if he grew indignant enough to add that "such negligence is inconceivable, shameful, and unaccountable," we must admit that as one of that nation which contributed so much to the great event, he was not at all officious in his rebuke. But perhaps the duke was a trifle severe, and judged us by the standard of republican Rome, which accorded military triumphs and set up memorials and statues without stint. Why no monument was erected at Yorktown during the Revolutionary generation is not altogether unaccountable, in | around with the completion of the centuview of the thousand and one more serious matters in hand. The dilemma of the finances, and the creation of a new political system requiring the attention of years, inevitably overshadowed everything of a purely sentimental nature. monument could wait, as long as the patriotic intent and resolution were on record. It could wait, indeed, until some later generation, appreciating fully the magnitude of the victory, would be disposed to commemorate it in a fitting manner, and make the memorial truly historical, representing alike the struggles of the fathers and the gratitude of their descendants. The time for it has come A THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. ry, and we are now promised both a grand celebration and a grand monument-the Forty-sixth Congress making good the resolution of the Continental Congress by voting an appropriation of one hundred and forty thousand dollars for both objects. The scene of the surrender has long been a much-neglected spot. Yorktown is not reached by railway, and is off the line of progress. Some day it may revive its old-time prosperity; at least it ought to become more accessible as a point for future pilgrimage. Before the Revolution the town was quite an emporium, the only port from which the Virginia Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by Harper and Brothers, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. planters shipped their tobacco to England. Baltimore and Norfolk gradually reduced it by competition. Some two centuries or more ago we first hear of it as one of the few outposts or forts in the colony. In 1725 it was the centre of a thriving county-an Episcopal parish of sixty communicants, with a church. Williamsburg, the capital, with its House of Burgesses and growing college, attracting thither the wisdom and fashion of the Dominion, was scarce a dozen miles away. Until Cornwallis stationed himself there, Yorktown had escaped the ravages of war on the Virginia coast, and after its surrender it still contained about seventy houses, not more than two or three having been wholly destroyed. Fifteen years later it had not extended its limits, and we find its population, more than half of which was composed of negroes, numbering about eight hundred souls. The last war, it need hardly be said, left it in a depressed condition, almost beyond recovery, and to-day it contains not more than three hundred inhabitants, among whom are to be found but few descendants of the ancient proprietors. In fact, it seems to be the lot of Yorktown that the more it becomes a historical spot, the less it becomes anything else. How it happened that so great a stroke as the capture of the ablest British gener- | year, the British commanders and the al in America was finally effected at this little town in Eastern Virginia, involves a lengthy chapter in the history of the struggle. This conspicuous fact, however, goes far toward explaining it. In the early years of the war the enemy struck at the head of the revolt. Unsuccessful there, they turned in the later years to secure the weaker section, the South, and the thunder-bolt directed against it was Lord Cornwallis. Thus, upon the occupation of New York city in 1776, and Philadelphia in the following ministry at home believed that the reduction of the strong Northern and Central colonies was half accomplished, and their expected possession of the Hudson to its source would render further organized cooperation and resistance impossible. This grand scheme, nevertheless, was doomed to disappointment. New York and Philadelphia were excellent bases for military operations, but they never became the centres of recovered territory. The British made no headway inland, and could control very little beyond the strips of sea-coast which they actually occupied. | the Yorktown catastrophe. The victory By the year 1779 they tacitly confessed over Greene was won at too great a cost that the war in the Northern colonies was to be pursued, and Cornwallis found hima failure; that the possession of the two self compelled to retire to the coast to refit cities, one of which had already been given and re-enforce his exhausted and diminup, did not diminish the resources or weak- ished army. He fell back, or to the right, en the army of the rebels. Burgoyne had to Wilmington, North Carolina, and for been captured, Monmouth showed Wash- the time being surrendered the situation to ington strong and confident in the field, his lately beaten antagonist, so that the and Stony Point furnished satisfactory South, at least above the South Carolina proof that his troops, though reduced in line, yet remained to be conquered. numbers, were better disciplined and more effective than ever. Greene called him the "modern Hannibal," and La Fayette referred to him as that "formidable" Britisher who made no mistakes. His next step was awaited by the Americans with deep interest and not a little anxiety. Notwithstanding this apparent retreat, these operations from the capture of Baffled in the North, the British turned Charleston to Guilford won for Cornwalto the conquest of the less populous South. lis a great reputation. He had proved They proceeded upon the assumption that himself the boldest, the most original, if the Southern colonies should first be and the most dangerous of the British subdued and recovered in fact, the North- leaders, and his successes revived the spirern could thereafter be reduced by isola-its and hopes of the ministry at home, tion and exhaustion. For a time suc- who still expected that from Wilmington cess-rapid and alarming success-attend- he would continue his conquering career. ed the execution of this plan. In 1778 Savannah was taken and Georgia overrun. American attempts to retake the city in the following year proved disastrous. In May, 1780, Charleston fell, and Lord Cornwallis assumed the command. By the month of July he had occupied the The course which Cornwallis deterprincipal points in the State. At this mined to pursue from Wilmington incrisis Congress sent Gates into the South-volved an important personal question as ern field, who in August of the same year well as vital consequences. When Sir suffered the crushing defeat at Camden, Henry Clinton, the commander-in-chief which seemed to lay open everything be- at New York, subsequently held him relow Virginia to the occupation and ravages sponsible for his surrender, he turned of the enemy. Cornwallis, to all appear- back to this Wilmington decision as one ances, was master of the situation. Even of the causes, if not, indeed, the main Greene, who had next been appointed to cause, of the disaster. Cornwallis had face him, as the only hope of the Ameri- made up his mind to push into Virginia, cans, did not dare to risk a battle until and reduce that "powerful province," as the spring of 1781, and then considered he styles it, before operating again to the himself fortunate that he was not beaten south of it; for it is to be noticed that, as badly as he might have been. The notwithstanding his brilliant detour from two brilliant affairs of King's Mountain Charleston northward, and the flattering and the Cowpens, it is true, had mean- compliments it provoked at home, he was while temporarily disconcerted and de- secretly conscious that the sum total of layed the British general; but should he advantages gained amounted to nothing, still succeed in delivering a damaging and that the whole field would have to be blow at Greene, their effect would be en- fought over again, by beginning, howevtirely neutralized, and the country south er, at the other end with the conquest of of the James come under his power. A Virginia. Into Virginia, therefore, he blow was finally given on March 15, 1781, proposed to carry the war. Clinton aftat Guilford Court House, in North Caro- erward pronounced the decision to be lina, near the Virginia border, and had it contrary to the spirit of his instructions, proved in every respect another Camden, which required him to hold and secure the interests of the British in the South South Carolina. By marching to Virmight have become very securely rooted. ginia he was abandoning it. "Had you But right there at Guilford Court House intimated the probability of your intenwe have a crisis in the campaign, a turn tion," wrote Clinton to Cornwallis in in British affairs which led straight on to May, "I should certainly have endeavor expeditions early in 1781 to ravage the coast of that State, one under Arnold, another under Phillips. To meet them, Washington sent La Fayette down in the spring with a select body of twelve hundred light-infantry, mainly from New England. On the 20th of May Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg from Wilmington, joined the expeditionary corps to his own army, and with four thousand veteran infantry, and two well-mounted de ed to have stopped you, as I did then as well as now consider such a move likely to be dangerous to our interests in the Southern colonies." And thirteen years later, when Clinton was answering the criticisms of the historian Stedman, he again insisted that "Cornwallis had been ordered, and had promised, in case of failure in North Carolina, to fall back on South Carolina and secure it." To all this Cornwallis had the ready answer that a return to South Carolina was imprac-tachments of troopers under Simcoe and ticable, that at so great a distance he had to act according to his best judgment, and that Virginia once subdued, the lower provinces would fall without much difficulty." The two generals continued the controversy at a later date with some acrimony, but Cornwallis had the moral support of the home minister, and the commander-in-chief actually found himself obliged to accommodate his own future plans to this movement of his subordinate. Whatever the merits of the case, we have the undisputed fact that Cornwallis entered Virginia against the expectations and wishes of his superior. The final movements of our "modern Hannibal," the ill-timed necessities which compelled him to coop himself up behind intrenchments at Yorktown, compose a distinct and absorbing act in this military drama. The dream of laying Virginia at his feet, which at one time seemed to be on the point of realization, was rudely interrupted by an unexpected combination of circumstances. He had now reached a point where he could not act as independently as before. He was just near enough his chief at New York to find that the two must thenceforth co-operate, and as Clinton presently discovered that his movements must be determined by those of the Americans and their French allies, both on land and sea, we find Cornwallis likewise hampered by what may be called a triple contingency, namely, the possible movements of Washington, the uncertain operations of French and British fleets, and the consequent plans enforced upon Clinton. When combinations finally began to take definite shape toward the close of the summer, they matured so rapidly that for the British the end came like a shock. To summarize these intermediate events -details being beyond our limit-it will be recalled that before Cornwallis reach ed Virginia, Clinton had dispatched two Tarleton, proceeded to operate in the The dearly bought victory at Guilford Court House crippled him in North Carolina, and now the situation and demands of his chief at New York cut off all hope of present success in Virginia; for upon his arrival at Williamsburg he received orders from Clinton to send him three thousand men, and with the rest to establish a defensive post on the coast as a base for future expeditions, and a protection for ships of war. Cornwallis could do no less than obey, and marching to Portsmouth, was proceeding to embark the troops, when later instructions permitted him to retain them, and furthermore directed him to fortify Old Point Comfort |