[1787 A.D.] was afterwards joined by La Fayette, whose troops had been clad on their march at his expense. By sea, the French fleet was engaged in defending the coasts against the invader. It seemed as if the stranger were the only defender of Virginia and of America. But on the southern border was Greene, with his troops and his partisan allies. At the north was Washington, planning, acting, summoning troops from the states, and the French from Newport, to aid him in an attack upon New York, as the stronghold of the foe, until, convinced of the impossibility of securing the force required for such an enterprise, he resolved upon taking the command in Virginia (August 14th). Thither he at once directed the greater part of his scanty troops, as well as of the French. The allied army was to be strengthened by the French fleet, and not merely by that of Newport, but by another and a larger fleet from the West Indies. THE SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN, AND END OF THE WAR The British under Cornwallis were now within fortified lines at Yorktown and Gloucester (August 1st-22nd). There they had retired under orders from the commander-in-chief at New York, who thought both that post and the Virginian conquests in danger from the increasing activity of the Americans, and especially the French. Little had been done in the field by Cornwallis. He had been most gallantly watched, and even pursued by La Fayette, whose praises for skill, as well as heroism, rang far and wide. Washington and the French general Rochambeau joined La Fayette at Williamsburg (September 14th). A great fleet under Count de Grasse was already in the Chesapeake. As soon as the land forces arrived, the siege of Yorktown was begun (September 28th). The result was certain. Washington had contrived to leave Sir Henry Clinton impressed with the idea that New York was still the main object. Sir Henry, therefore, thought of no reinforcements for Cornwallis, until they were too late, until, indeed, they were out of the question in consequence of the naval superiority of the French. In fact, an expedition to lay waste the eastern part of Connecticut was occupying Clinton's mind. He placed the loyalists and the Hessians despatched for the purpose under the traitor Arnold, who succeeded in destroying New London in September. Thus there were but seven thousand five hundred British at Yorktown to resist nine thousand Americans and seven thousand French, besides the numerous fleet. In less than three weeks Cornwallis asked for terms (October 17th), and two days afterwards surrendered. The blow was decisive. The United States were transported. Government, army, people were for once united, for once elevated to the altitude of order, with the sanction of Washington. He drafted a hundred and twenty men from the line, as a guard for the chief-in-command. He drilled them himself twice a day. "In a fortnight my company knew perfectly how to bear arms, had a military air, knew how to march, deploy, and execute some little manœuvres with excellent precision." In the course of instruction he departed altogether from the general rule. "In our European armies a man who has been drilled for three months is called a recruit; here, in two months, I must have a soldier. In Europe we had a number of evolutions very pretty to look at when well executed, but in my opinion absolutely useless so far as essential objects are concerned." He reversed the whole system of eternal manual and platoon exercises, and commenced with manœuvres. He soon taught them something better than the pedantic routine which was taught in manuals of tactics. To the objectors against Steuben's system it was answered that "in fact there was no time to spare in learning the minutia the troops must be prepared for instant combat." The sagacious German had his men at drill every morning at sunrise, and he soon made the colonels of regiments not ashamed of instructing their recruits.— KNIGHT.ee] [1782 A.D.] those noble spirits who, like Washington, had sustained the nation until the moment of victory. "The play is over, "The play is over," wrote La Fayette, "and the fifth act is just finished." "O God!" exclaimed Lord North, the English prime minister, on hearing of the event. "It is all over-all over!" It was Washington's earnest desire to avail of the French fleet in an attack on Charleston. De Grasse refused. Then Washington urged him to transport troops to Wilmington. But De Grasse alleged his engagement in the West Indies, and sailed thither. The French under Rochambeau went into winter quarters at Williamsburg, while the Americans marched, a part to reinforce the southern army, and a part to the various posts in the north. Prospects were uncertain. It was evident that the war was approaching its close, but none could tell how nearly. A vote of parliament that the king be requested to bring the war to a close (February 27th, 1782) led to a change of ministry. Determining to recognise the independence of the United States, and to concentrate hostilities against the European powers, the new ministry sent out Sir Guy Carleton as commander-in-chief, with instructions to evacuate New York, Charleston, and Savannah-in a word, the entire seaboard. It was the result of past campaigns, not of any present one. The Americans were without armies, without supplies, at least without such as were indispensable for any active operations. When the French under Rochambeau reached the American camp on the Hudson in the autumn, they passed between two lines of troops clothed and armed by subsidies from France. It was a touching tribute of gratitude, and an equally touching confession of weakness. All but a single corps of the French embarked at the close of the year. The remainder followed in the ensuing spring. Peace was then decided upon. It had been brought about by other operations besides those which have been described. The contest in America, indeed, was but an episode in the extended warfare of the period. Upon the sea, the fleets of Britain hardly encountered an American man-ofwar. The opposing squadrons were those of France and Spain and Holland. By land, the French opposed the British in the East Indies, upon the coast of Africa, and in the West Indies. They also aided the Spaniards to conquer Minorca, in the Mediterranean, and to assail, but in vain, the great stronghold of Gibraltar. The Spanish forces were also active in the Floridas. Holland alone of the European combatants made no stand against Great Britain. In the Indies, both East and West, and in South American Guiana, the Dutch were immense losers. What was gained from them, however, did not compensate for what was lost to others by the British. The preliminaries of peace, at first with America (November 30th, 1782), and afterwards with the European powers (January 20th, 1783), were signed to the general contentment of Great Britain, of Europe, and of America. Hostilities soon ceased. In America, Sir Guy Carleton proclaimed their cessation on the part of the British (April 8th). Washington, with the consent of congress, made proclamation to the same effect. By a singular coincidence, the day on which hostilities were stayed was the anniversary of that on which they were begun at Lexington, eight years before (April 19th). Measures, already proposed by the British commander, were at once taken on both sides for the release of prisoners. The treatment and the exchange of these unfortunate men had given rise to great difficulties during the war. Even where actual cruelty did not exist, etiquette and policy were too strong for humanity. The horrors of the British jails and prison ships were by-words, and when their unhappy victims were offered in exchange for the better treated prisoners of the other side, the Americans hesitated to receive them. [1782 A.D.] The troops that surrendered at Saratoga, on condition of a free passage to Great Britain, were detained, in consequence of various objections, to be freed only by desertions and slow exchanges after the lapse of years. In short, the prisoners of both armies seem to have been regarded in the light of troublesome burdens, alike by those who had captured them and those from whom they were captured. Individual benevolence alone lights up the gloomy scene. At the close of the war, we find congress, on the recommendation of Washington, voting its thanks to Reuben Harvey, a merchant of Cork, for his humane succours to the American prisoners in Ireland. Negotiations for peace met with many interruptions. So far as the United States were concerned, the questions of boundary, of the St. Lawrence and Newfoundland fisheries, of indemnity to British creditors as well as to American loyalists, were all knotty points; the more so that the four negotiators—Franklin, John Jay, John Adams, and Henry Laurens-were by no means agreed upon the principles by which to decide them. Some of the envoys, moreover, were possessed of the idea that France was disposed to betray her American allies; and so strong was this feeling that the consent of the French government, the point which had been agreed upon as the essential condition of making peace, was not even asked before the signature of the preliminaries already mentioned. It was before the preliminaries were signed that all these embarrassments appeared, and they continued afterwards. At length, however, definitive treaties were signed at Paris and at Versailles between Great Britain and her foes (September 3rd). The treaty with Holland was not concluded until the following spring. America obtained her independence, with all the accompanying privileges and possessions which she desired. She agreed, however, against her will, to make her debts good, and to recommend the loyalists, whose property had been confiscated, to the favour of the state governments. Spain recovered the Floridas. The other terms of the treaties-the cessions on one side and on the other-have been detailed elsewhere in our history. The treaty between Great Britain and the United States was formally confirmed by congress at the beginning of the following year (January 14th, 1784). After long delays, the British withdrew from their post on the Penobscot. New York was evacuated (November 25th, 1783), and ten days later the remaining forces embarked from Staten Island and Long Island (December 4th-6th). A few western posts excepted, the territory of the United States was free. MUTINIES IN THE AMERICAN ARMY The disposal of the American army had long been a serious question. A year before, the army had addressed congress on the subject of the pay, then months, and even years, in arrears (December, 1782). Congress was powerless. The army was incensed. When, therefore, anonymous addresses to the officers were issued from the camp at Newburg, proposing the alternative of redress or of desertion,1 the worst consequences appeared inevitable. The more so, that the excitement was greatest amongst the better class of soldiers, the "worthy and faithful men," as their commander described them, "who, from their early engaging in the war at moderate bounties, and from their patient continuance under innumerable distresses, have not only deserved well of their country, but have obtained an honourable distinction over those "If peace [comes], that nothing shall separate you from your arms but death; if war, that you will retire to some unsettled country." [1782 A.D.] who, with shorter times, have gained large pecuniary rewards." Washington, and Washington alone, was equal to the crisis. He had repelled with unutterable disdain the offer of a crown from certain individuals in the army a year before (May, 1782). He now rebuked the spirit of the Newburg addresses, and by his majestic integrity quelled the rising passions of those around him. But he entered with all the greater fervour into the just claims of the army. His refusal at the outset of the war, renewed at the close, to receive any compensation for his services to the country, placed him in precisely the position from which he could now appeal in behalf of his officers and soldiers to congress and the nation. His voice was heard. The army obtained a promise of its pay, including the commutation to a fixed sum of the half pay for life formerly promised to the officers at the expiration of the war (March, 1783). All was not yet secure. But three months later, and a body of Pennsylvanian troops marched upon congress itself in Philadelphia. Washington denounced the act with scorn. "These Pennsylvania levies," he says, "who have now mutinied, are recruits and soldiers of a day, who have not borne the heat and burden of the war." He at once sent a force to reduce and to chastise them. "It is high time for a peace," Washington had written some months previously. The army was slowly disbanded, a small number only being left when the formal proclamation of dissolution was made, November 3rd. A few troops were still retained in arms. Of these, and of his faithful officers, the commander-in-chief took his leave at New York, December 4th. Thence he repaired to Annapolis, where congress was in session, and there resigned (December 23rd) the commission which he had held, unstained and glorious, for eight years and a half. It seems as if he left no one behind him. The town and the state each had its authorities; but the nation was without a government, at least with nothing more than the name of one. Yet the need of a directing and a sustaining power had never been greater or clearer. If the war itself was over, its consequences, its burdens, its debts, its wasting influences, were but begun. No one saw this more plainly, no one felt it more deeply, than the retiring commander-in-chief. At no time had he been absorbed in his military duties. |