Seven Years’ War
Sevier, John (Nolichucky Jack”)
Seybothen, Colonel von
Shaw, Samuel
Shelburne, Earl of
Shelby, Isaac
Sheldon, Elisha
Sheldon’s dragoons
Shippen, Edward
Shreve, Israel
Siege (artwork)
sieges, ritual for
Simcoe, John Graves
Sireuil, de (captain)
slavery
slaves
requisitioned by British
with smallpox
as soldiers
smallpox
Smith, Joshua Hett
Smith, Mildred
Smith, William
Smith, William, Jr.
Society of Friends
Soissonnais regiment
South
American army in
British holding
Cornwallis command in
fighting in
guerrilla movement in
possibility of campaign in
war in
South Carolina
British attack on
carrying war back to
situation in
South Carolina militia
South Carolinians
southern command
Greene head of
southern deparment
Lincoln commander of
situation in
Spain
navy
Spanish Main
spies
Clinton
Washington
Stansbury, Joseph
Staten Island
states
appeal to, for troops
failure to provide food for army
not producing soldiers
and pay owed to soldiers
represented in Congress
responsible for raising funds
Steele, Mrs.
Steuben, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von
division commander at Yorktown
and Washington’s farewell
in Yorktown
Stewart, Alexander
Stewart, Walter
Stiles, Ezra
Stirling, Thomas
Stony Point
Stormont, Viscount
Strafford, Earl of
Strickland (hangman)
Stuart, Charles
Stuart, Gilbert
Suffolk, Lord
Sullivan, John
Sumter, Thomas
Surrender, The (artwork)
Symonds, Thomas
Tallmadge, Benjamin
Tangier Island
Tappan
Tarleton, Banastre
dragoons
ostracized at surrender
pursuit of Jefferson
and siege of Yorktown
submitted resignation
at Yorktown
Tate, Samuel
Ternay, Chevalier de
death of
Thacher, James
Thicketty Creek
Tilghman, Tench
taking news of Cornwallis’s surrender to Continental Congress
tobacco
Tobago
Tories
in Carolinas
in Connecticut
at Kings Mountain
in New York City
in North Carolina
plan to protect
Tornquist, Carl Gustaf
Touraine regiment
Tower of London
trade, international
travel
Trawley, Lord
treason
of Arnold
treaty ending war
treaty of commerce
Treaty of Paris
Trenton
victory at
Trinity Church
Triton
Trumbull, Jonathan
Tucker, St. George
United States of America
Valley Forge
Varick, Richard
Vauban, Sébastien Le Prestre de
Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de
Washington’s “suggestions” to
and peace treaty
Verger, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de
Versailles
Lafayette at
news of Yorktown victory at
Ville de Paris
Vioménil, Baron de
at Yorktown
Vioménil, Comte de
at Yorktown
Virginia
armies heading to
concentrating allied armies in
conquest of
Cornwallis’s move to
decision not to send troops to British army in
importance of subduing
reinforcements from
unprepared
Virginia assembly
Virginia Continentals
Virginia dragoons
Virginia House of Burgesses
Virginia militia
Vulture (sloop of war)
Walker, Benjamin
Walpole, Horace
Walsingham, Lord
war in America
end of
lost by Britain
not over
risks in
see also American Revolution
War of Jenkins’s Ear
warfare, change in dynamics of
Washington, George (His Excellency; the General)
appearance
dedication to freedom
efforts to discredit
farewell
as leader
life mask by Houdon
in Manhattan
personal characteristics
relationship with Lafayette
risks in battle
Washington, George, as commander-in-chief
and André death sentence
army
army moved to Verplanck’s Point
army to New Jersey and the Hudson
and Arnold
avoiding decisive battle
and Congress
and Cornwallis’s plan to protect Tories
finishing war in South
and the French
and French fleet
and French officers
and Greene
heading south
on Hudson
inactive campaign
and issue of soldiers’ pay
journey to Yorktown
meeting with de Grasse
messages to Congress
and military conspiracy
and Morgan
and mutiny
in Newport
in Philadelphia
plan of operation
plan to capture
plan to capture Clinton
and planned attack on New York
praise for Greene
problems faced by
resignation
and Rochambeau
Rochambeau loaned money to
and siege of Yorktown
and siege of Yorktown: capitulation terms
and siege of Yorktown: Cornwallis’s letter to
and Tilghman mission
troops’ confidence in
using blacks as soldiers
and victory at Yorktown
visit to Mount Vernon
and Wayne
in Williamsburg
Washington, Martha
Washington, Samuel
Washington, William
Watchung Mountains
Wayne, “Mad Anthony”
headed south to reinforce Greene
and mutiny
weather
Webb, Samuel
Weedon, George
in siege of Yorktown
Virginia militia
Wentworth, Benning
Wentworth, Charles, Marquis of Rockingham
Wentworth, Paul
West Indies
British islands in
British squa
dron
engagements in
fleet sailing from
in trade
West Point
Arnold and/at
French at
plan to seize
protecting
security of
West Point garrison
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Wheelock, Eleazer
Whigs
White Plains
Whitehall, instructions from
William, Prince
Williams, Daniel
Williams, James
Williams, Otho
Williamsburg
camps at
French headquarters in
Lafayette at
march to
Te Deum sung at
Washington in
Wilmington, North Carolina
Winchester
Windward islands
women
Clermont-Crèvecoeur on
Wormley Creek
Yadkin (river)
York/Yorktown
British at
British surrender at
Cornwallis at
damage to
defenses
monument in
movement of cannon toward
naval engagement deciding campaign in
pounded by allied artillery
selected as post and fortified
siege of
soldiers leaving
terms of capitulation
troops transported to
victory at
victory at: importance of
victory at: news of, reaching England
York Island
York River
de Grasse fleet in
Young, Thomas
Also by Richard M. Ketchum
AUTHOR
Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill
The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton
Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War
Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York
The World of George Washington
The Borrowed Years, 1938–1941: America on the Way to War
The American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places
Faces from the Past
Second Cutting: Letters from the Country
The Secret Life of the Forest
Will Rogers: His Life and Times
What Is Communism?
EDITOR
The American Heritage Book of the Pioneer Spirit
The American Heritage Book of the Revolution
The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War
American Testament: Fifty Great Documents of American History
The Horizon Book of the Renaissance
The Original Water Color Paintings by John James Audubon
for the Birds of America
What Is Democracy?
Four Days
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RICHARD M. KETCHUM has written a number of books about American history, including five others on the Revolutionary War: Decisive Day, The Winter Soldiers, Saratoga, Divided Loyalties, and The World of George Washington.
As editorial director of book publishing at American Heritage Publishing Company, he edited many of that firm’s volumes, including The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, which received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.
He was the cofounder and editor of Blair & Ketchum’s Country Journal, a monthly magazine about country living.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Yale University and commanded a subchaser in the South Atlantic during World War II.
He and his wife have a sheep farm in Vermont and are active conservationists.
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
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Henry Holt® and ® are registered trademarks of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2004 by Richard M. Ketchum
All rights reserved.
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
First Edition 2004
Maps designed by Jeffrey L. Ward
Illustration here from The Pierpont Morgan Library / Art Resource, New York
eISBN 9781466879539
First eBook edititon: July 2014
* The story is told that Napoleon once remarked to Lafayette that during the American Revolution the future of the world was decided by forces no larger than corporals’ guards. One reason conscription was never tried by Congress was that nationalism was not sufficiently advanced to overcome the states’ resistance to a draft.
* In the Washington County, North Carolina, courthouse, one Samuel Tate was indicted for his “evil mind and disposition” and for “maliciously intending to stir up and excite … Disorder, Insurrection, and sedition among the good and faithful subjects [by speaking] the following English words, to wit, ‘God damn the money’ (meaning the Continental Money) it has ruined me.”
* Arrested by Robespierre in 1793, Madame du Barry was tried and condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal and sent to the guillotine.
* The Howe brothers—General William and his brother, Richard, the admiral—who were already in America, were on the commission, and Carlisle brought with him William Eden, a member of the Board of Trade who advocated reconciliation; Eden’s wife, who was four months pregnant; George Johnstone, an American partisan who had been governor of West Florida; Anthony Morris, known as “the best dancer and skater in London”; and Adam Ferguson, a professor of moral philosophy. Also on the boat, but by no means part of the mission, was Charles, Earl Cornwallis, who had sailed for England after the battles of Trenton and Princeton and was now on his way to becoming General Sir Henry Clinton’s second in command.
* Among the others were two of the general’s nephews and Comte Axel Fersen, the favorite of Marie Antoinette, and Comte de Vauban, a great-grandnephew of Louis XIV’s famous marshal.
* In selecting Gates, Congress had bypassed Washington, isolating him from the southern theater of action. Gates was frequently insubordinate and had done his level best to replace the commander in chief as part of the so-called Conway Cabal, so Washington was no admirer of his. At the time Gates was appointed, Washington made no comment to Congress, “lest my sentiments, being known, should have an unfavorable interpretation.…”
* A livre was originally worth a pound of silver.
† A ship of the line was a warship with sixty or more guns.
* Jameson was in command that day because his superior, Colonel Elisha Sheldon, had been arrested on unjust accusations against him made by a surgeon. Had Sheldon, an able intelligence officer, been in charge, the whole matter might have been handled a lot more aggressively than it was under Jameson’s somewhat muddled direction.
* At the corner of what was to become First Avenue and 51st Street.
* It was in the 1930s, when the British Headquarters papers, purchased by William L. Clements, were found to contain a detailed record of the negotiations and the participants in treachery, that Peggy Arnold’s role as an accomplice was discovered.
* François-Jean de Beauvoir, Chevalier de Chastellux, wrote a book based on his journeys, Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782.
* Grog was a drink made of rum and water. If sugar was added, it was called toddy; with the addition of lemon, it was called punch.
* Dean was a native of Groton, Connecticut, who had lived as a boy among the Oneidas and become fluent in the Iroquois languages. A protégé of Eleazer Wheelock, the president of Dartmouth, he had graduated from the college before his employment as an agent of Congress.
* One reason they wanted discharges was that new recr
uits were being given cash bonuses for signing up. The only way the veterans could collect any money was to get a discharge and reenlist.
* Ninety-Six was an important post, so-named (erroneously) because it was thought to be ninety-six miles from Fort Prince George. In fact, the distance was sixty-five miles or so, but the name remained.
* The military’s way of celebrating good news: the troops lined up and fired their muskets into the air in sequence, from one end of the line to the other.
* Despite the hazardous mission he had undertaken so courageously, Champe never did get the promotion he had been promised. In 1837 his needy widow was granted $120 a year as the relict of a Revolutionary veteran; by then the former sergeant major was long dead.
* Washington had set aside a considerable store of salted provisions in Rhode Island but feared they would not arrive in Virginia in time to feed the army.
* After the war d’Estaing went into politics, became commandant of the National Guard, and was appointed admiral by the National Assembly. But he remained loyal to the royal family, testified in favor of Marie Antoinette, and was sent to the guillotine in 1794.
* An indication of the intricacies of travel in the eighteenth century appears in a letter from Mordecai Gist to two Maryland gentlemen, requesting fresh horses for Washington to use between Baltimore and Queen Anns, his next stop, and the same number from Queen Anns to the Potomac. Gist said the General would require animals for himself, four aides, and nine servants—fourteen in all, which should be ready “tomorrow morning 10 o’clock.”
* He also took booty worth several million pounds sterling. Under the rules of warfare his share was worth a fortune, but unfortunately for him much of the goods belonged to English merchants and the ship he sent to Britain with what he had not already auctioned was captured by the French. As a result, he had almost nothing to show for it.
* According to Closen, a Mr. and Mrs. Doyle were captured along with Rawdon, and “Gossip asserts that this very pretty lady … was the Lord’s mistress during his campaigns in the South. It is certain that M. Doyle, whom Lord Rawdon made lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, seemed to be a very easy-going fellow.” Guillaume, Comte de Deux-Ponts, who met the three prisoners while on his way to Williamsburg, reported that Mrs. Doyle seemed pleased with her situation and observed that “the French, even on the sea, were better than her countrymen.”
* Contemporaries called it York, but later it became known everywhere as Yorktown.
* Neither side won a victory. Greene lost about 500 men, killed or wounded; Alexander Stewart, leading the British, lost 435 killed or wounded and another 480 captured. Greene had to withdraw; Stewart was forced to return to Charleston.
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