For the Yorktown campaign itself two excellent books based on thorough research with well-chosen quotations by the participants, are Thomas J. Fleming’s Beat the Last Drum and Burke Davis’ The Campaign That Won America.
For the long march from the Hudson to Yorktown there are six eyewitness journals of particular interest: by Claude Blanchard, the Commissary or Quartermaster for the French army; by Baron Ludwig von Closen, Aide to General Rochambeau; by Gaspard Gallatin of the French general staff; Rochambeau’s own memoirs; and especially the indispensable journal of Karl Gustaf Tornquist, a Swedish Lieutenant serving under de Grasse, and an anonymous work of two French Officers entitled Operations of the French Fleet Under the Count de Grasse.
There is no English first-hand account of the American war overall, understandably in view of the outcome, except Sir Henry Clinton’s sad post-war narrative. This lack is made up for by the thorough work concentrating on the American campaigns of Lord Cornwallis by Franklin and Mary Wickwire and by the psychological portrait of Sir Henry Clinton by the late Professor William Willcox. Of English diaries, the most interesting is that of Captain Frederick MacKenzie, a keen observer with a sharp pen, writing from General Headquarters.
English diaries of social life not directly connected to the war are ample and invaluable: they include Sir N. William Wraxall’s Memoirs; the diaries of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, who was British minister at The Hague and St. Petersburg; the memoirs of John Heneage Jesse; and above all the correspondence and Last Journals of Horace Walpole.
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Reference Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
AHA American Historical Association
AHR American Historical Review
DAB Dictionary of American Biography
DNB Dictionary of National Biography (English)
GB Parl The History, Debates and Proceedings of the Houses of Parliament
Morison, AP Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of the American People
PRO Public Record Office [London]
CHAPTER I “HERE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS FIRST ACKNOWLEDGED”
The most complete history of the Andrew Doria episode and the record of the supply of arms from St. Eustatius to the American rebels is by J. Franklin Jameson in “St. Eustatius in the American Revolution,” in AHR, July, 1903. See also Nordholt Schulte, The Dutch Republic and American Independence, 36-46; Melville; Edler; de Bruin; and Clark’s Naval Documents, which has a clear statement of all contents.
1 “DOUBTS AROSE”: Malmesbury introduction, 18.
2 “MOST EVENTFUL EPOCH”: ibid.
3 ROOSEVELT PLAQUE, “HERE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE UNITED STATES”: The New York Times, December 9, 1939, p. 6, col. 7. The words can still be read on the monument.
4 “NINE CARTRIDGES TO A MAN”: Sparks, I, 146.
5 WASHINGTON, “WE ARE OBLIGED TO SUBMIT”: Fitzpatrick, Writings, IV, 27.
6 AT BUNKER HILL, BUTT ENDS: Jesse, II, 107.
7 CADWALLADER COLDEN, “CONTRABAND BETWEEN THIS PLACE AND HOLLAND”: q. Schulte, 35.
> 8 YORKE, “ALL OUR BOASTED EMPIRE”: ibid., 36.
9 PEPYS: full transcript, ed. Latham, Robert, entry of June 12, 1667, VIII, 261-2.
10 DUTCH RULERS ANNOUNCE SIX MONTHS’ EMBARGO OF CONTRABAND TO COLONIES: Edler, 26.
11 ENGLISH SHIPS TO SHOW “MORE VIGILANCE”: q. Schulte, 39.
12 PROPOSAL TO BLOCKADE YORKE’S RESIDENCE: Edler, 84.
13 KING GEORGE, “EVERY INTELLIGENCE CONFIRMS”: Sandwich Papers, I, 103.
14 HEYLIGER PROTESTS “IRREGULARITIES SO FLAGRANT”: q. Schulte, 38.
15 WIFE AS “STINGY AS SIN”: q. ibid., 38.
16 THE PORT IS “OPENED,” PROTESTED CAPTAIN COLPOYS: Clark’s Naval Documents, VII, 500.
17 “I AM ON THE BEST OF TERMS”: letter of November 19, 1776, in Maryland Archives, XII; Jameson, 690-91.
18 “NETHERLANDS ANTILLES WINDWARD ISLANDS”: Hartog, 168 and passim.
19 TWENTY-TWO CHANGES OF SOVEREIGNTY: ibid., 23.
20 ABRAHAM RAVENÉ, THE GOVERNOR ORDERED: Melville, 61.
21 CAPTAIN “MOST GRACIOUSLY RECEIVED”: Jameson, 691.
22 PARTY GIVEN FOR CAPTAIN ROBINSON: Clark, 616.
23 REPORTED IN PURDIE’S VIRGINIA GAZETTE: December 27, 1776, ibid.
24 ADMIRAL YOUNG’S PAINED “SURPRISE”: Clark, 485-8.
CHAPTER II THE GOLDEN ROCK
Chief sources for Chapter II, in addition to those for Chapter I, are, for the commerce of the Golden Rock, Boxer; for van Bibber, Maryland Archives.
1 SAID TO BE RICHEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD: Miller, 591.
2 BURKE’S SPEECH, “IT WAS DIFFERENT”: GB Parl, XXII, 220-21.
3 49,000 POUNDS OF GUNPOWDER: Jameson, 688.
4 ON A SINGLE DAY—FOUR SHIPS: q. Schulte, 35, nn. 36 and 37.
5 YORKE, “THE AMERICANS WOULD HAVE HAD TO ABANDON”: q. ibid., 36-7.
CHAPTER III BEGGARS OF THE SEA—THE DUTCH ASCENDANCY
The First Salute Page 40