Arnold, and that if the French fleet should be defeated he should march
his men back to headquarters without further risk. So he now sent his
militia to Williamsburg and forwarded orders to Annapolis to have the
troops prepared for immediate departure. When he reached Annapolis he
found there were great difficulties in the way of transporting his men
to Elk. There were very few horses or wagons or small boats for crossing
the ferries, and the port was blocked by English ships. He had resort
to a clever stratagem. He put two eighteen-pounders on a small sloop,
which, with another ship under Commodore Nicholson, sailed out toward
the enemy vessels, firing their guns as if about to attack. The two
English ships on guard withdrew a considerable distance down the bay,
and then Lafayette embarked his troops on his own boats and got them out
of the harbor and up the bay to Elk. They reached there safely during
the night, followed by Lafayette and Nicholson in the sloop.
When Washington heard of General Phillips’ arrival in Virginia his
anxiety was great. The situation in the south was extremely perilous.
General Greene was having all he could do to oppose Lord Cornwallis
in North Carolina. Unless strong opposition could be brought against
Phillips the latter could quickly overrun Virginia and unite with
Cornwallis. In this predicament the commander-in-chief determined to put
the defense of Virginia in the hands of Lafayette.
Lafayette heard of this new appointment as soon as he reached Elk. The
task was a great one. His men lacked proper equipment and even necessary
clothing, and they were much disheartened by the unsuccessful campaign
in the south. He borrowed ten thousand dollars from the merchants
of Baltimore on his personal security and bought his army food and
supplies. Then he told his men that his business was to fight an enemy
greatly superior in numbers, through difficulties of every sort, and
that any soldier who was unwilling to accompany him might avoid the
penalties of desertion by applying for a pass to the North. His men,
placed on their mettle, stood by him cheerfully. Immediately Lafayette
marched on Richmond, reaching that place a day ahead of General
Phillips. And General Phillips was so much impressed by Lafayette’s
show of strength that he gave up his intention of seizing Richmond and
retreated down the James River.
Cornwallis heard of this, and, vowing that he would defeat “that boy
Lafayette,” as he called the Marquis, stopped his campaign against
Greene in North Carolina and determined that he would himself take
command in Virginia. Cornwallis, a major-general and an officer of great
experience, expected an easy task when he sent word to Phillips to await
his arrival at the town of Petersburg.
When he heard that Cornwallis was moving north and that Phillips was
on the march Lafayette guessed that they intended to join forces, and
hurried toward Petersburg to prevent it. Phillips, however, was nearer
to that town and reached it before Lafayette, who was obliged to fall
back on Richmond, but who sent out Colonel Gimat, with artillery, to
keep the enemy busy.
On May thirteenth General Phillips died at Petersburg. It was before
this general’s guns that Lafayette’s father had fallen at the battle
of Hastenbeck. Benedict Arnold was second in command, and on taking
Phillips’ place he sent a letter to Lafayette under a flag of truce.
When the latter learned the name of the writer he at once informed the
men who brought Arnold’s communication that while he would be glad
to treat with any other English officer he could not read a message
from this one. This placed General Arnold in a difficult position
and was resented by a threat to send all American prisoners to the
West Indies. But when the people heard of it they were delighted, and
Washington wrote to the Marquis, “Your conduct upon every occasion
meets my approbation, but in none more than in your refusing to hold a
correspondence with Arnold.”
On May 24, 1781, Cornwallis, having joined his army to that of Arnold
at Petersburg and having rested his men, marched out with his whole
force to attack Lafayette at Richmond. At Byrd’s Plantation, where the
British commander had his quarters, he wrote of his opponent, “The boy
cannot escape me.”
Lafayette, on his part, knew that his enemy had a fine fighting
force, and that he must be wary to avoid him. The Marquis said, “Lord
Cornwallis marches with amazing celerity. But I have done everything
I could, without arms or men, at least to impede him by local
embarrassments.”
And he did embarrass the Earl. He led him a dance through the country
about Richmond, he retreated across the Chickahominy River to
Fredericksburg, time and again he just escaped the swiftly pursuing
British. He knew he could not venture on fighting without the aid of
more troops, and he kept up his retreat until he was joined by General
Wayne with Pennsylvania soldiers on June tenth. Then he planned to take
the offensive, and rapidly crossed the Rapidan River in the direction of
Cornwallis.
Cornwallis would have liked a direct battle with the Americans, but
again Lafayette proved wary. While the British army blocked the road to
Albemarle, Lafayette discovered an old unused road and under cover of
night marched his men along it and took up a strong position before the
town. There militia joined him from the neighboring mountains, and he
was able to show so strong a front that the British commander did not
dare to attack him. In his turn Cornwallis retreated, first to Richmond
and then to Williamsburg, near the coast, and left the greater part of
Virginia in the control of the Americans.
Lafayette now became the pursuer instead of the pursued, and harried
Cornwallis on the rear and flanks. The famous cavalry officer, Colonel
Tarleton, serving under Cornwallis, described the pursuit: “The Marquis
de Lafayette, who had previously practised defensive manœuvres with
skill and security, being now reinforced by General Wayne and about
eight hundred Continentals and some detachments of militia, followed
the British as they proceeded down the James River. This design,
being judiciously arranged and executed with extreme caution, allowed
opportunity for the junction of Baron Steuben, confined the small
detachments of the King’s troops, and both saved the property and
animated the drooping spirits of the Virginians.”
Lafayette was proving that Washington’s confidence in him was well
placed and showing himself an extraordinarily able commander in the
field.
At Williamsburg Cornwallis received word from General Clinton in New
York that a part of the British troops in Virginia were to be sent
north. In order to embark these troops he set out for Portsmouth on
July fourth. Knowing that the enemy would be obliged to cross the James
River at James Island, Lafayette decided to attack their rear as soon as
a considerable number should have passed the ford. Cornwallis foresaw
this, and sending his baggage-wagons across arranged his men to surprise
the Americans.
Toward sunset on July sixth Lafayette crossed the causeways that led to
the British position and opened an attack. General Wayne, whose popular
nickname was “Mad Anthony,” led the advance with a thousand riflemen,
dragoons, and two pieces of artillery. Lafayette, with twelve hundred
infantry, was ready to support him. But at Wayne’s first advance he
found that the whole British army was before him; he attacked with
the greatest vigor; Lafayette, however, realizing that Cornwallis had
prepared a surprise, ordered a retreat to General Muhlenberg’s station a
half mile in the rear. Had Cornwallis pursued he must have defeated the
American forces, which had to cross long log bridges over marshy land,
but in his turn he feared an ambush, and was content to bring his men
safely across the James and proceed to Portsmouth.
The British were now at Portsmouth and the rest of Virginia in the
Americans’ hands. Lafayette wrote a description of the situation to
Washington, and added, “Should a French fleet now come into Hampton
Roads, the British army would, I think, be ours.” Hardly had his letter
reached Washington when a French ship arrived at Newport with word that
the fleet of the French Count de Grasse had left the West Indies bound
for Chesapeake Bay. Instantly Washington saw that he ought not now to
direct his attack against Clinton in New York, but against Cornwallis
in Virginia.
Cornwallis, wanting to take up a strong position with easy access to
the sea, began to move his army to Yorktown on August first. At the
same time Lafayette arranged his forces so as to cut off any retreat
of the enemy. And while this was going on, and the fleet of the Count
de Grasse was nearing the coast, Washington and Rochambeau met in the
old Livingston manor-house at Dobb’s Ferry on the Hudson on August
fourteenth and planned their joint campaign against Yorktown.
Then the two armies marched south. The Continental troops, many ragged
and poorly armed, but with green sprigs in their caps, passed through
Philadelphia on September second, and the French, more sprucely and
gaily uniformed, followed them the next day. On September twelfth
Washington reached Mount Vernon, which he had not seen for six years,
and there entertained Rochambeau and other French officers. Two days
later he took command of the allied forces at Williamsburg, and on the
seventeenth visited De Grasse on his flag-ship, and completed plans for
the siege. The army held the mainland, the French fleet blocked the
path to the sea, and Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown.
The end of the drama came swiftly. The American and French entrenchments
drew closer and closer to the British lines until they were only three
hundred yards apart. Then, on October fourteenth, Lafayette’s men, led
by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, charged the British works on the left,
while the French grenadiers stormed a redoubt on the right. The outer
works were won in this attack, which proved to be the last battle of the
Revolution.
The next night Cornwallis tried to cut his way out from Yorktown and
escape across the York River to Gloucester. Watchful outposts drove him
back. On October seventeenth a British drummer appeared on Yorktown’s
ramparts and beat a parley. An American and a French officer met two
British officers at a farmhouse, and articles of surrender were drawn
up and accepted. Two days later, on October 19, 1781, the army of
Cornwallis marched out of Yorktown and passed between the American and
French troops, commanded respectively by Washington and Rochambeau.
The French officer who had prepared the articles of surrender at the
farmhouse was Lafayette’s brother-in-law, the Vicomte de Noailles, one
of the two young men to whom Lafayette had taken the word that he meant
to go “to America to fight for liberty!” Now the Vicomte saw that the
ardent hopes of the young enthusiast had borne such glorious fruit!
There stands a monument on the heights above the York River, in
Virginia, and on one side of it are these words: “At York, on October
19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen days, by 5,500 American and 7,000
French Troops of the Line, 3,500 Virginia Militia under command of
General Thomas Nelson and 36 French ships of war, Earl Cornwallis,
Commander of the British Forces at York and Gloucester, surrendered his
army, 7,251 officers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons and 24 standards
to His Excellency George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Combined
Forces of America and France, to His Excellency the Comte de Rochambeau,
commanding the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian Majesty in
America, and to His Excellency the Comte de Grasse, commanding in chief
the Naval Army of France in Chesapeake.”
It was largely due to Lafayette that the French fleet and the army of
Rochambeau had crossed the ocean and that the Americans in Virginia had
succeeded in bottling up Cornwallis at Yorktown and so bringing an end
to the Revolution. Close to Washington he must forever stand as one of
the great men who won liberty for the United States!
VIII
THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES IN FRANCE
Word of the surrender at Yorktown was received all through the thirteen
States with the greatest joy. Watchmen calling the hours of the night
in the cities cried, “Twelve o’clock! All’s well, and Cornwallis has
surrendered!” Everywhere the people hailed this event as heralding the
close of the long and distressing war. When one thinks of what they had
endured since 1775 there is no wonder at the hymns of thanksgiving.
And a ship at once sailed across the Atlantic to France with the glad
tidings.
The surrender at Yorktown did mark the beginning of the end of the
Revolution, though the conflict went on in a desultory fashion for two
years more, and it was not until November 25, 1783, that the British
evacuated New York City. But after Yorktown many of the French officers
went home, and among them Lafayette. He wrote to the French minister,
“The play is over, Monsieur le comte; the fifth act has just come to
an end. I was somewhat disturbed during the former acts, but my heart
rejoices exceedingly at this last, and I have no less pleasure in
congratulating you upon the happy ending of our campaign.”
Both Lafayette and Congress felt that the Marquis could now help the
country greatly by his presence in France in case more men and money
should be needed for further campaigns. So, with Washington’s approval,
Congress agreed that “Major-General the Marquis de Lafayette have
permission to go to France and that he return at such time as shall be
most convenient to him.” And Congress also voted that Lafayette “be
informed that, on a review of his conduct throughout the past campaign
and particularly during the period in which he had the chief command in
Virginia, the many new proofs which present themselves of his zealous
attachment to the cause he has espoused, and of his judgment, vigilance,
gallantry, and address in its defense, have greatly added to the high
opinion entertained by Congress of his merits and military talents.”
He took his leave of Washington, the man he admired more than any other
in the world, and the commander-in-chief, who looked on the young
Frenchman as if the latter was his own son, said in his dignified
fashion, “I owe it to your friendship and to my affectionate regard for
you, my dear marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying
with you fresh marks of my attachment to you and new expressions of the
high sense I entertain of your military conduct and other important
services in the course of the last campaign, although the latter are too
well known to need the testimony of my approbation, and the former, I
persuade myself, you believe is too well riveted to undergo diminution
or change.”
The Frenchman was not so reserved as the American. His ardent spirit
shows in the letter he wrote his commander. “Adieu, my dear general,” he
said. “I know your heart so well that I am sure that no distance can
alter your attachment to me. With the same candor I assure you that my
love, my respect, my gratitude for you are above expression; that, at
the moment of leaving you, I feel more than ever the struggle of those
friendly ties that forever bind me to you, and that I anticipate the
pleasure, the most wished-for pleasure, to be again with you, and, by my
zeal and services, to gratify the feelings of my respect and affection.”
On December 23, 1781, Lafayette sailed from Boston on the same frigate
_Alliance_ that had carried him back to France the first time. He was
to be received in his native land like a conquering hero. Already
Vergennes, the Secretary of State of France, had written to him. “Our
joy is very great here and throughout the nation,” said Vergennes, “and
you may be assured that your name is held in veneration.... I have been
following you, M. le Marquis, step by step, throughout your campaign in
Virginia; and I should frequently have been anxious for your welfare if
I had not been confident of your wisdom. It required a great deal of
skill to maintain yourself, as you did, for so long a time, in spite of
the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose military
talents are well known. It was you who brought him to the fatal ending,
where, instead of his making you a prisoner of war, as he probably
expected to do, you forced him to surrender.”
He landed in France on January 17, 1782. If his former arrival had been
a succession of triumphs, this one was doubly so. When he reached the
house of the Duke de Noailles in Paris his wife was attending a fête
at the Hôtel de Ville in honor of the birth of the Dauphin. As soon as
his arrival became known the Queen took Madame de Lafayette in her own
carriage and went with her to welcome the Marquis. Louis XVI. announced
that he had promoted Lafayette to the high rank of “Maréchal de camp,”
and wrote to him, through his minister of war, “The King, having been
informed, sir, of the military skill of which you have given repeated
proof in the command of the various army corps entrusted to you in
America, of the wisdom and prudence which have marked the services that
you have performed in the interest of the United States, and of the
confidence which you have won from General Washington, his Majesty has
charged me to announce to you that the commendations which you most
fully deserve have attracted his notice, and that your conduct and your
success have given him, sir, the most favorable opinion of you, such as
you might wish him to have, and upon which you may rely for his future
good-will.”
Every one delighted to entertain and praise him; the Marshal de
Richelieu invited him to dine with all the marshals of France, and at
the dinner the health of Washington was drunk with every honor. And if
the King and the nobles were loud in their acclaim, the people were
no less so; they called Lafayette by such extravagant titles as the
“Conqueror of Cornwallis” and “the Saviour of America with Washington.”
Had it not been that Lafayette had a remarkably level head the things
that people said and wrote about him might almost have made him believe
that he had won the Revolution in America single-handed.
Naturally he enjoyed being with his dear wife and children again, but
he was not a man who could contentedly lead the idle life of a nobleman
in Paris. Soon he was busy doing what he could to help the cause of
the young American republic in France. He saw a great deal of John
Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the commissioners of the United States to
the French court, and Franklin wrote home concerning him, “The Marquis
de Lafayette was, at his return hither, received by all ranks with
all possible distinction. He daily gains in the general esteem and
affection, and promises to be a great man here. He is extremely attached
to our cause; we are on the most friendly and confidential footing with
each other, and he is really very serviceable to me in my applications
for additional assistance.”
He planned to return to America to rejoin the army. “In spite of all
my happiness here,” he wrote to Washington, “I cannot help wishing,
ten times a day, to be on the other side of the Atlantic.” But the
Continental army was merely marking time, no active campaign was in
progress, and neither Lafayette nor French troops were again needed to
fight across the ocean.
The negotiations for peace were long drawn out, and in the autumn of
1782 France and Spain again planned a joint expedition against the
English in America. A strong fleet of sixty battle-ships and an army
of twenty-four thousand men were gathered with the purpose of sailing
from the Spanish port of Cadiz to capture the English island of Jamaica
and attack New York and Canada. Lafayette was made chief of staff of the
combined expedition, and, wearing the uniform of an American general, he
set sail from Brest early in December for Cadiz. But the grand fleet was
still in port when a courier arrived with news that a treaty of peace
had just been signed in Paris. So the fleet did not sail. A protocol, or
provisional treaty, was drawn up, and on September 3, 1783, the final
treaty was signed, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence
of the United States.
As soon as he heard the good news, Lafayette borrowed a ship,
appropriately named the _Triumph_, and sent it off to Philadelphia with
the earliest word of peace. And by the same ship he despatched a letter
to Washington. “As for you, my dear general,” he wrote, “who can truly
say that all this is your work, what must be the feelings of your good
and virtuous heart in this happy moment! The eternal honor in which
my descendants will glory, will be to have had an ancestor among your
soldiers, to know that he had the good fortune of being a friend of
your heart. To the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my posterity
shall endure, the favor that you have conferred upon my son George, by
allowing him to bear your name.”
To Vergennes Lafayette wrote, “My great affair is settled; America is
sure of her independence; humanity has gained its cause, and liberty
will never be without a refuge.”
From Cadiz the Marquis went to Madrid, where he straightened out affairs
between the United States and the court of Spain. Then he went back to
Paris, made several visits to his old castle and estates in Auvergne,
and helped Franklin and Adams and John Jay in putting the affairs of the
new republic on a satisfactory footing.
He wanted greatly to see that young republic, now that war was over
and peace had come, and at last his wish was gratified. Washington
had written him frequently, urging the Marquis to visit him, and had
begged Madame de Lafayette to come with her husband. “Come then, let
me entreat you,” Washington wrote to Adrienne. “Call my cottage your
own; for your own doors do not open to you with more readiness than
would mine. You will see the plain manner in which we live, and meet
with rustic civility; and you will taste the simplicity of rural life.
It will diversify the scene, and may give you a higher relish for the
gayeties of the court when you return to Versailles.”
Adrienne de Lafayette, however, was as much of a home-lover as George
Washington. Versailles had never attracted her, and she liked to spend
most of her time at the castle of Chavaniac. The voyage across the
Atlantic was a long and trying experience in those days and so she
answered that she preferred to stay in France. She also sent Washington
a letter from her little daughter, born while her husband was in camp in
America.
Lafayette sailed from Havre on July 1, 1784, and reached New York,
which he had never yet seen, on August fourth. Throngs, eager to sing
his praises, met him at the harbor, and followed him everywhere on his
travels. From New York he went to Philadelphia, and then to Richmond,
where Washington met him. He visited the scenes of his great Virginia
campaign at Williamsburg and Yorktown, and spent two happy weeks with
his beloved friend George Washington at the latter’s home at Mount
Vernon. From there he went north again, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
New York. Up the broad Hudson he traveled to Albany, where he went with
American commissioners to a council with dissatisfied Mohawk chiefs.
And to the sons of primitive America the young Frenchman, lover of
liberty everywhere, spoke so appealingly that he quickly won them away
from their enmity for their white neighbors. “Father,” said the Mohawk
chief, “we have heard thy voice and we rejoice that thou hast visited
thy children to give to them good and necessary advice. Thou hast said
that we have done wrong in opening our ears to wicked men, and closing
our hearts to thy counsels. Father, it is all true; we have left the
good path; we have wandered away from it and have been enveloped in
a black cloud. We have now returned that thou mayest find in us good
and faithful children. We rejoice to hear thy voice among us. It seems
that the Great Spirit had directed thy footsteps to this council of
friendship to smoke the calumet of peace and fellowship with thy
long-lost children.”
Indeed it did seem that the Great Spirit directed the steps of this man
to the places where he was the most needed.