Victory at Yorktown

by Richard M. Ketchum

  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 Di
gby (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.

  Comte Axel von Fersen (1755–1810). A Swede who sought service in America and, through his connections, became an aide to Rochambeau. A personal favorite of Marie Antoinette, he drove the coach in which the royal family tried to flee Paris. He escaped to Sweden.

  Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Born in Boston, he established himself early in life as a printer and author in Philadelphia, winning fame and financial success with the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Dividing his time between politics, business, and science, he was easily America’s best-known colonist. He was deputy postmaster of the colonies (1753–1774), proposed the plan of union at the Albany Congress of 1754, helped draft the Declaration of Independence, was a peace negotiator with Britain after the war, and took part in the 1787 Constitutional Convention. His natural son William was the last royal governor of New Jersey.

  Major David Franks. An aide to Benedict Arnold in Philadelphia and at West Point, he escorted Peggy Arnold to Philadelphia after discovery of her husband’s treachery.

  Major General Horatio Gates (1728–1806). Son of a duke’s housekeeper in England, he joined the British army, was present at General Braddock’s defeat in 1755, and retired on half-pay in 1765. With Washington’s help he settled on a Virginia plantation, supported the revolutionary cause, and was commissioned in the Continental Army. Gates commanded rebel forces at Saratoga and in 1778 was the willing choice of the Conway Cabal to replace Washington as commander. His reliance on militiamen cost him a major defeat at Camden. He was replaced by Nathanael Greene.

  George III (1738–1820). King of Ireland and Great Britain from 1760 until his death sixty years later, he became the symbol of oppression after the Revolution began. He was increasingly hardened against independence and even considered abdication rather than give in to a Parliament committed to making peace.

  Lord George Germain (1716–1785). After being denounced as “unfit to serve … in any military capacity whatever” (he had been convicted of disobeying orders as commander of British forces at Minden in 1759), he became secretary of state for the American colonies, where his misguided efforts to manage the war from London were disastrous.

  François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse (1722–1788). The French admiral whose fleet was instrumental in trapping Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown was a big, strapping man. His naval career began at the age of eleven. He was defeated and captured by the British in 1782.

  Admiral Thomas Graves (1725?–1802). His career marked by setbacks and accusations, Graves was made second in command to Marriot Arbuthnot and was in charge during the Battle of the Virginia Capes that set up the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

  Major General Nathanael Greene (1742–1786). Son of Rhode Island Quakers, Greene became an ironworker, then defied his pacifist origins to become a soldier. In 1775 he organized a militia company whose men rejected him as an officer because of his stiff knee—an affliction since childhood. Nevertheless, he became a general (regarded by Washington as his best), was appointed quartermaster general in 1778, and returned to field command to succeed Horatio Gates as commander of the southern troops. He retired to a plantation given him by Georgia.

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804). As secretary and aide to Washington, Hamilton had a very responsible job and was a trusted adviser until the two had a falling out. Hamilton sought and received a field command and performed ably at Yorktown. After the war he wrote more than half of the Federalist Papers and was Washington’s treasury secretary.

  Brigadier General William Heath (1737–1814). A Massachusetts farmer, Heath won a commission as brigadier after service in the siege of Boston. When he seriously mishandled an attack on Fort Independence in 1777, he was removed from command. He helped Washington prepare for the coming of Rochambeau’s army in 1780.

  Admiral Sir Samuel Hood (1724–1816). A quarrelsome man, he was one of the best British naval officers of his day. In 1780 he became second in command to Sir George Rodney, and when the latter left for England, he joined Thomas Graves but failed to defeat the French off Chesapeake Bay.

  Colonel John Eager Howard (1752–1827). A Maryland officer, Howard not only fought but distinguished himself again and again—at White Plains, Germantown, Monmouth, Camden, and Cowpens. Nathanael Greene called him “as good an officer as the world affords.” After the war he was elected governor and senator from his state.

  Brigadier General Isaac Huger (1743–1797). Son of a wealthy South Carolina planter, Huger began soldiering in the Cherokee War of 1760. He served in the state militia and in 1779 became a brigadier in the Continental Army. He tried unsuccessfully to defend Georgia and later commanded a detachment of Virginians at Guilford and Hobkirk’s Hill.

  Lieutenant Colonel David Humphreys (1752–1818). A sentimental and sometimes dramatic figure, this Connecticut poet and statesman gave up a tutoring position at Yale to join the state militia. He developed a sharp military mind and in 1780 became a valued aide to Washington.

  John Jay (1745–1829). As a delegate to the First Continental Congress, Jay represented the interests of conservative merchants, but he became a supporter of revolution after the Declaration of Independence. He was elected president of the Congress in 1778, and later served as commissioner to Spain. In 1782 he joined Franklin and Adams in Paris to negotiate peace with Great Britain. After the war he was secretary of foreign affairs, chief justice of the Supreme Court, and governor of New York, and he wrote the Federalist Papers with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

  Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). A many-talented man, Jefferson embodied the Enlightenment ideas of his time. Trained in the law, he entered politics at the onset of the Revolution. Recognized as a fine writer, he was chief author of the Declaration of Independence. During the war he was governor of Virginia (1779–1781) and narrowly escaped capture by the enemy. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as commissioner to France in 1784 and after returning to the United States began arguing against the ideas of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists. He was elected president in 1800 and served two terms.

  Major General Henry Knox (1750–1806). A Boston bookseller, Knox married Lucy Flucker, daughter of the royal secretary of Massachusetts, who remained loyal to the crown. Knox’s career as the army’s chief artillerist spanned almost all of the important campaigns. His first achievement was moving heavy cannon from Fort Ticonderoga three hundred miles to Boston in winter, where they ended the British siege. His last was making critical cannon emplacements at Yorktown. During Washington’s presidency he served as secretary of war and was responsible for the creation of the military academy at West Point.

  Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746–1817). Polish army officer who volunteered to serve in the Continental Army and was commissioned as colonel of engineers. He fortified the battleground at Saratoga and was in charge of transportation in the race for the Dan.

  Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834). In the summer of 1775 the idealistic young nobleman decided to join the American cause, knowing that Louis XVI would disapprove. Leaving France surreptitiously, he received a cold reception from Congress, but was commissioned a major general without command when he offer
ed to serve as a volunteer. He joined Washington and, given increased responsibility, served with considerable distinction and was helpful in obtaining French troops to support Washington.

  Colonel John Lamb (1735–1800). Son of a reputed burglar who came to the colonies and became a successful mathematical instrument maker, Lamb was fluent in several languages, was a good speaker, and became a leader of New York’s Sons of Liberty. Commissioned in the Continental Army, he was captured at Quebec in 1777. After release he commanded the artillery for Benedict Arnold at West Point.

  Henry Laurens (1724–1792). A South Carolinian of Huguenot descent, he made a fortune trading rice, hides, indigo, and slaves. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1777 and became president, succeeding John Hancock the same year. In 1780, on a mission to seek a large loan from Holland, he was captured at sea and imprisoned in the Tower of London under conditions so severe that his health was impaired. After his release he was exchanged for Cornwallis and briefly joined Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams as peace negotiator. His son John was one of the Revolution’s last casualties.

  John Laurens (c. 1754–1782). Educated and married in England, he returned to America in 1777 and joined Washington as an aide. The General used him to help calm tensions between Americans and French officers and sent him on secret missions. Captured at Charleston, he was released and sent by Congress to Europe to raise money. In 1781 he was back with the army at Yorktown and helped Vicomte de Noailles negotiate surrender terms. He was killed in a minor skirmish in 1782.

  Armand-Louis de Gontaut-Biron, Duc de Lauzun (1747–1793). He brought to America a regiment of volunteers from at least fifteen foreign countries. Rochambeau picked him to carry the news of Yorktown to Versailles. A moderate who initially supported the French Revolution, he was condemned to die. Sharing a last meal with his executioner, he observed, “You need courage in prosecuting a trade like yours.”