LAFAYETTE IN VIRGINIA
The British still held the city of New York. General Washington's army
sat in their impregnable camps on the Hudson and along the Delaware,
where he could reach out a hand to New England on the east, and to
Philadelphia on the south, at the same time threatening now and then
the stronghold of the British. Meantime an active campaign was being
carried on in the states south of Virginia. At the battle of
Charleston the brave General Lincoln and his gallant army were
compelled by the British to lay down their arms and give themselves up
as prisoners of war without the usual courtesies. The ceremony of
surrender was particularly galling. Forbidden by their conquerors to
play a British or a Hessian air, they marched to the joyous melody of
"Yankee Doodle," their colors cased, and their hearts rebellious. The
battle of Camden was another defeat for the Americans. On that
disastrous day fell the companion of Lafayette's first voyage, the
Baron de Kalb, who died bravely after receiving no less than eleven
wounds. Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in the south, thought
that defeats like these would finish the question for that part of the
country, so he gave out proclamations of amnesty to the tractable and
built scaffolds to hang the unsubmissive. But the south was not to be
so easily subdued. The British met with defeat at King's Mountain, and
in October, 1780, General Greene was sent to push the southern
campaign more vigorously.
One result of these southern disasters was to make the importance of
Virginia increasingly evident as a base for operations in the
Carolinas. Cornwallis saw this and he determined to reduce that state,
to cut off the southern army from its base, and thus to control the
approaches to the heart of the country. Accordingly, in January, 1781,
he sent Benedict Arnold, who had been made a brigadier general in the
British army, with a strong force, and with two trusted British
colonels, to conduct a campaign in that state.
If the British commander in chief had wished to fill the men of the
Continental army with a fire that would make them unconquerable, this was
the way to do it, and this was the man against whom they most desired to
fight. On the other hand, General Washington chose a leader for the
defense who was so well beloved by his men, and who was himself filled
with so fiery an enthusiasm for the cause, that this alone would have
been enough to bring into effect all the strength of those drained and
exhausted men and to energize them for prodigies of valor. This leader
was Lafayette. In February, 1781, he was commissioned to go against
Arnold.
Lafayette was glad to be trusted with a command and overjoyed at the
prospect of action. But he still believed that the great final blow
was to be struck at New York and he was most reluctant to be separated
from Washington with whom he intensely longed to be when the great
climax came. However, he obeyed orders with perfect alacrity and
planned for a swift march in order to intercept any efforts on the
part of Arnold to obtain access to the various storehouses and river
crossings in Virginia. Leaving under guard his tents, artillery, and
everything that could be spared, with orders to follow as rapidly as
possible, he marched his men through heavy rains and over bad roads.
The Virginia campaign, says a French historian, is to be ranked among
the classic tales of all time; and in this campaign the young
Lafayette was the most notable leader. It was on the 6th of April,
1781, that General Washington wrote to Lafayette, giving him full
instructions, which led him into the midst of active service.
Lafayette's detachment included men from New Jersey, from New
Hampshire, and from other New England states. Among them were some of
the men who had been willing to take their lives in their hands and
follow their young leader on the hazardous expedition into Canada.
Although the men had no idea at this time what was before them, they
were now going to follow Lafayette to the glory that he so ardently
desired.
But in spite of the splendid spirit of the troops, Lafayette found
that they were in sore need of encouragement. They saw that they were
not going toward the grand final attack; they were not used to the
blind obedience exacted from trained European troops; and they did not
understand this discouraging southward move.
Fearing that the summer would be wasted, Lafayette thought of a device
to strengthen the tie between himself and his detachment. He wrote it
down in the order of the day that they were about to start out on an
expedition that would tax all a soldier's powers, and in which there
would be abundant dangers and difficulties. The enemy, he said, was
far superior to them in numbers, thoroughly despised them, and was
determined to conquer them. He added that no soldier should accompany
him who was inclined to abandon him; nor was it necessary that any one
should desert; for any man could, if he desired, have a pass and be
sent to join his regiment in winter quarters.
This method of approach had more than the desired effect. Lafayette
soon wrote to Washington: "Our men are in high spirits. Their honor
was interested, and murmurs as well as desertions are entirely out of
fashion."
Soon after the advent of Lafayette in the Virginia field, he came into
contact with Benedict Arnold in a very curious way. The commander of
the opposing British forces had died, and Arnold took his place. About
that time Arnold sent a message under a flag of truce to Lafayette.
When Lafayette learned that the letter which was brought in was from
the traitor, he returned it unopened, sending a verbal message stating
that with Benedict Arnold he would hold no communication whatever.
Later he sent a formal letter to the officer that had brought the
flag, in which he declined all correspondence with Arnold, but added
with the utmost courtesy that "in case any other British officer
should honour him with a letter, he would always be happy to give the
officers every testimony of esteem."
The subject of the letter from Arnold was an exchange of prisoners, a
matter that interested him extremely, as he well knew that Lafayette
could hardly have pleased the American people better than by
presenting Benedict Arnold to them a prisoner. We know that Arnold's
mind dwelt on this aspect of his sad situation from the fact that he
once quizzed a captured American to find out what the Americans would
do with him if they took him prisoner. The soldier audaciously replied
that they would "cut off the leg that had been wounded in the
country's service and hang the rest of him!" Lafayette's action in
regard to the letter from Arnold was very gratifying to Washington; he
said that in nothing had Lafayette pleased him more than in refusing
to hold communication with Benedict Arnold.
Soon after this Arnold was transferred to New York, and Cornwallis
came forward with reënforcements, declaring that he would now "proceed
to dislodge Lafayette from Richmond." The struggle between the young
French officer (not yet twenty-four years old) in his first attempt
at carrying on an independent campaign, and the veteran British
commander with years of service behind him, was now taken up with more
spirit than ever before. It was the crisis of the Revolution. If the
Continental army could only hold out a little longer, it might be
possible, by adroit advance and diplomatic retreat, to avoid unequal
battles until the foe was worn out or until some favorable opportunity
should arise for a direct attack. Cornwallis, of course, despised his
exhausted enemy. A letter from him was intercepted and brought into
the American camp; in the letter he said, "The Boy cannot escape me!"
Lafayette's face must have been set in very grim lines when he read
that letter.
Technically, Lafayette had been taking orders from General Greene whose
command was in the south and included Virginia. But on the 18th of May,
Lafayette was ordered to take the entire command in Virginia and to send
all reports directly to General Washington. "The Boy's" letters to
Colonel Hamilton show that he fully recognized the gravity of affairs,
the responsibility of his position, and the dangers of his own
over-enthusiastic spirit. The British command of the adjacent waters, the
superiority of their cavalry, and the great disproportion in the forces
of the two armies, gave the enemy such advantages that Lafayette dared
not venture to engage the British. The British generals thoroughly
understood what they called Lafayette's "gasconading disposition," and
they relied upon it to work woe to his plans and to contribute to their
own glory. His prudence disappointed them as much as it satisfied
Washington who had said of Lafayette, "This noble soldier combines all
the military fire of youth with an unusual maturity of judgment."
Lafayette desired to be worthy of this high praise.
On April 29, Lafayette and his light infantry reached Richmond in time
to prevent its capture and to protect the supplies that had been
concentrated there. In the battle at Green Spring his bravery led him
once more to plunge into the thick of the fight, losing his horse
(some reports say two horses) which was shot under him or by his side.
In Wayne's official report on that battle he said that "Lafayette was
frequently requested to keep at a greater distance, but his native
bravery rendered him deaf to the admonition."
He compelled the admiration of his opponents by his skill in defensive
maneuvers. The "Boy" obeyed his commander in chief, and he succeeded
in misleading his foe, for Cornwallis believed that the American force
was larger than it actually was; he also believed that he could break
down the loyalty of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and of Virginia.
In both these points he was direfully mistaken. But Lafayette had high
respect for Cornwallis as a general. "His Lordship plays so well," he
complained, "that no blunder can be hoped from him to recover a bad
step of ours."
Finally, reënforcements did come to Lafayette. In despair the American
Congress sent a special messenger express to Paris to bear one more
urgent appeal for help. Washington wrote, "We are at the end of our
tether; ... now or never our deliverance must come."
Impetuous young John Laurens was chosen to be this Ambassador
Extraordinary to France. Laurens was greatly admired and loved by
Lafayette and he recommended him to the affections of his noble
relatives in Paris. At the moment Laurens's father was being held a
prisoner by the British in the Tower of London--a fact that no doubt
quickened the zeal of the son. At all events, he was successful in his
mission. The French fleet in the West Indies was ordered to the United
States and the king himself became surety for several millions of
livres in addition to what had already been sent to our aid.
The time was coming when Lafayette could begin to move the British
army before him little by little down the York River toward Yorktown,
a method of procedure that now became, as the British reports
described it, the "constant and good policy of the enemy." On the 24th
of September, 1781, Cornwallis proceeded to occupy Yorktown and to
strengthen it against attack.
The city of Yorktown is situated near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
At that place two rivers enter the bay, the York and the James, and
upon a conspicuous bluff on the northern side of the neck of land
between them stood this small town.
Cornwallis began at once to prepare the place for assault. Around the
village he built a series of fortifications consisting of seven redoubts
and six batteries on the land side, and these he connected by
intrenchments. He placed a line of batteries on the river bank to command
the channel, and he established outworks to impede the approach of the
enemy. Lafayette saw all this and rejoiced, for he believed that
Cornwallis was at last where he most desired to have him--in a place
where he would be open to attack, and with some hope of success. All the
country around Yorktown was now familiar to Lafayette. He knew every
inch of the land, the river, the morass, and the commanding hill. "Should
a fleet come in at this moment, affairs would take a very happy turn," he
wrote joyfully to General Washington.
On the 30th of August the French fleet, under the Count de Grasse,
with twenty-eight ships of the line, appeared in the waters of
Chesapeake Bay; a few days later the Marquis de Saint Simon, field
marshal in the French army, debarked a large reënforcement of French
troops; and on the 4th of September Lafayette moved nearer to Yorktown
and took a position with the troops he could bring together,--his own
light infantry, the militia, and the reënforcements at Williamsburg, a
town in the vicinity of the British position.
Nothing now remained but the arrival of General Washington himself to
take charge of the whole enterprise, and Lafayette's happiness was
complete when, on the 14th of September, he resigned his command into
the hands of his revered General.