In the Hurricane's Eye

by Nathaniel Philbrick

  St. George Tucker writes of the “remarkably clear” night and the bagpipe serenade the next morning in his “Journal,” p. 391. In a letter written at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1781, Cornwallis informs GW that “the basis of my proposals will be that the garrisons of York and Gloucester shall be prisoners of war with the customary honors and for the convenience of the individuals whom I have the honor to command, that the British shall be sent to Britain and the Germans to Germany under engagement not to serve against France, America, or their allies,” in Correspondence, p. 96. In a letter written to Cornwallis on Oct. 18, 1781, GW proposes much more severe terms, then demands that “Your Lordship will be pleased to signify your determination either to accept or reject the proposals now offered, in the course of two hours from the delivery of this letter, that commissioners may be appointed to digest the articles of capitulation or a renewal of hostilities may take place,” in Stevens, The Campaign in Virginia, 2:194. Cornwallis responded that same day: “I agree to open a treaty of capitulation. . . . I shall in particular desire that the Bonetta sloop of war may be left entirely at my disposal from the hour that the capitulation is signed to receive an aide de camp to carry my dispatches to Clinton,” in Stevens, The Campaign in Virginia, 2:195. John Laurens’s insistence that “it is not the individual that is here considered. It is the nation” appears in George Scheer and Hugh Rankin, eds., Rebels and Redcoats, p. 569. In his Diaries, GW complains that the treaty negotiations are “so procrastinated” that the American commissioners “could do no more than make the rough draft of the articles,” which moved him to insist that they be “copied” and sent to Cornwallis with the message “that I expected to have them signed at 11 am and that the garrison would march out at 2 pm,” 2:269. Richard Ketchum cites the note that the Articles of Capitulation had been signed “in the trenches before Yorktown” in Victory at Yorktown p. 244.

  In an Oct. 31, 1781, entry in his Diary, Frederick Mackenzie writes that “our fleet heard of the surrender of Yorktown on the 24th, by three men who escaped from thence the night of the capitulation,” 2:683. Rodney’s claim that if he had been in Graves’s place, he would “block them up to eternity” is in an Oct. 19, 1781, letter to George Jackson in Chadwick, The Graves Papers, p. 135. In an Oct. 29, 1781, letter to George Jackson, Samuel Hood describes Cornwallis’s surrender as “a most heartbreaking business” in Letters Written by Sir Samuel Hood, p. 39. Joseph Plumb Martin describes the surrender ceremony as the “grand exhibition” in his Journal, p. 152. Jerome Greene discusses the evidence that the British played “The World Turned Upside Down” in The Guns of Independence, p. 296. Baron von Closen recounts how when Admiral de Barras’s “horse stretched to vent himself, he cried, ‘Good heavens! I believe my horse is sinking!!,’” in his Revolutionary Journal, p. 156; von Closen also writes of how the American soldiers were “eclipsed by our army in splendor of appearance and dress,” as well as how the British showed “the greatest scorn for the Americans,” p. 154. Louis Gottschalk tells of how Lafayette “ordered his drum major to strike up ‘Yankee Doodle.’ The band’s blare made them turn their eyes toward his side of the line” in Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution, p. 326. In his Journal, William Feltman claimed that the “British prisoners all appeared to be much in liquor,” p. 22. Greene cites the story from the New Jersey Gazette in which the author compares the British officers to “boys who had been whipped at school” in The Guns of Independence, p. 299.Martin writes that the German soldiers “did not greatly care” about having to surrender to the allied forces in his Journal, p. 153. James Thacher tells of how the British soldiers’ “mortification could not be concealed” once it came time to ground their arms, in his Military Journal, p. 280.

  Johann Ewald comments on the “national enmity” between the French and American soldiers, in DAW, pp. 339–40. Clermont-Crèvecoeur writes of how “good upbringing and courtesy” bound together the French and British officers, in ACRA, p. 64. Ewald describes GW’s “jealousy” and how “cool conduct began to prevail among the two diverse nations which, in good fortune, had formed only one” in DAW, p. 342. Von Closen writes of accompanying Rochambeau on a visit to Yorktown to see Cornwallis in his Revolutionary Journal, p. 155. George Flohr’s claim that African Americans made up the “majority of the dead” in Yorktown is in Robert Selig’s “German Soldier in America: Journal of George Flohr,” p. 584. Joseph Plumb Martin writes of how African Americans were “scattered about in every direction, dead and dying with pieces of ears of burnt Indian corn in the hands and mouths,” in his Journal, p. 153. Verger in ACRA cites article 4 of the Articles of Capitulation: “any property obviously belonging to the inhabitants of these states . . . shall be subject to be reclaimed,” p. 145. Daniel Trabue’s claim that after the British surrender the African Americans “looked condemned” is in his Journal, p. 116. Henry Wiencek in An Imperfect God writes insightfully of GW’s shifting opinion concerning John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton’s plan for recruiting enslaved African Americans from the south for the Continental army, citing GW’s initial claim that “blacks in the southern parts of the continent offer a resource to us that should not be neglected,” as well as his ultimately self-serving judgment that the proposal would be “productive of much discontent in those who are held in servitude,” pp. 223, 227. Michael Kranish cites Thomas Jefferson’s reference to slavery as a “moral depravity,” as well as his claim “We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go,” in Flight from Monticello, p. 300. Alan Taylor cites Henry Latrobe’s description of “many wagon loads of the bones of men, women, and children” littering the riverbanks of Virginia in The Internal Enemy, pp. 27–28. Wiencek cites GW’s 1779 letter to Lund about the sale of his own slaves, in which he writes of a possible “punishment . . . for our want of public, and indeed private virtue,” in An Imperfect God, p. 229.

  In an Oct. 20, 1781, letter to de Grasse, GW urges the French admiral to assist him in attacking Charleston so as to “destroy the last hope” of the British in North America in Correspondence, p. 119. In an Oct. 29, 1781, letter to GW, de Grasse attributes his inability to commit to a spring plan to his “wretched health” in Correspondence, p. 151. A note in GW’s Diaries attributes Jacky Custis’s death to “camp fever,” 2:273. In a Nov. 15, 1781, letter to Lafayette, GW recounts how he arrived at Martha’s brother-in-law’s house just in time “to see poor Mr. Custis breathe his last” in WGW, 23:340. In an Oct. 1, 1785, letter to Jonathan Trumbull, GW writes, “I can offer nothing which your own reason has not already suggested on this occasion,” in WGW, 28:285. James Flexner cites the letter from GW’s mother in which she recounts how she felt “truly uneasy by not being at home when you went through Fredericksburg” in George Washington in the American Revolution, p. 471. GW writes of how “Mr. Custis’ death has given much distress in this family” in a Nov. 18, 1781, letter to Benjamin Harrison in WGW, 23:352. In a Nov. 16, 1781, letter to NG, GW admits, “My greatest fear is that Congress viewing this stroke in too important a point of light, may think our work too nearly closed,” in WGW, 23:347.

  CHAPTER 10 ◆ “THE NORTH RIVER CAPTAIN”

  Henry Knox’s Nov. 1, 1781, letter to NG, in which he refers to GW as “the North River captain,” appears in PGNG, 9:507; the original is in the collection of the Morgan Library in New York City; my thanks to Carolyn Vega at the Morgan for her help in confirming the wording of the letter. GW writes, “No land force can act decisively unless accompanied by a maritime superiority,” in a Nov. 15, 1781, letter to Lafayette in WGW, 23:341. In a July 9, 1782, letter to NG, GW writes of how de Grasse’s defeat at the Saintes “probably will now give a total alteration to the complexion of the campaign” in WGW, 24:409. In a July 18, 1782, letter to James McHenry, GW writes of how they “are enveloped in darkness” in the wake of the disastrous loss in WGW, 24:432. Germain’s description of Lord North receiving the news of Yorktown like “he would have taken a ball in his breast” is in Henr
y Johnston’s The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis, p. 180, as is King George’s claim that the defeat at Yorktown would not make “the smallest alteration” in British policy toward the Americans, p. 181. General Carleton and Admiral Digby’s Aug. 2, 1782, letter to GW, in which they inform him that “negotiations for a general peace” have begun in Paris and that the king is prepared to recognize the independence of the United States, appears in WGW, 24:472. GW’s Aug. 6, 1782, letter to NG, in which he expresses his fears that the British are “only gaining time to become more formidable at sea; to form new alliances, if possible; or to disunite us,” is in WGW, 24:471. Alexander Hamilton speaks of “Continental views” in a March 17, 1783, letter to GW, in Hamilton’s Papers, 3:292. William Fowler cites Maurice Morgann’s prediction that any “federal union” based on “verbal maxims of general liberty and brotherly love” would degenerate into “despotism and mutual rage” in American Crisis, p. 80. For the sources related to GW’s involvement in the Asgill affair, see David Humphreys’s The Conduct of General Washington Respecting the Confinement of Captain Asgill, pp. 1–35. GW’s March 4, 1783, letter to Benjamin Harrison, in which he makes the prediction that without a stronger federal government “anarchy and confusion must prevail,” is in WGW, 26:184–85. GW writes of the “spirit of discontent” among the officers of the Continental army in an Oct. 2, 1782, letter to Benjamin Lincoln in WGW, 25:228. In a Dec. 14, 1782, letter to Joseph Jones, GW writes that once the officers refuse to protect the public from the discontents of the common soldiers, “I know not what the consequences may be,” in WGW, 25:431. GW compares himself to “a careful physician” in an Oct. 17, 1782, letter to James McHenry in WGW, 25:269–70.

  James Flexner writes of how in contrast to GW’s affectionate letters to Chastellux, his letter of farewell to Rochambeau was “formal and stilted” in George Washington in the American Revolution, pp. 497–98. GW’s claim that “it was never in contemplation to attack New York” is in his July 31, 1788, letter to Noah Webster in Founders Online, National Archives, last modified March 30, 2017, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-06-02-0376. Ron Chernow writes of GW’s need “to portray himself as the visionary architect of the Yorktown victory, not as a general misguidedly concentrating upon New York while his French allies masterminded the decisive blow,” in Washington, p. 404. GW informs Lafayette of the “trifling skirmish” in South Carolina that had taken the life of John Laurens in an Oct. 20, 1782, letter in WGW, 25:281. In a Jan. 10, 1783, letter to Tench Tilghman, GW writes that “I have sent Mr. Rittenhouse the glass of such spectacles as suit my eyes, that he may know how to grind his crystals,” in WGW, 26:27. David Cobb recounts how “the General took his station in the desk or pulpit, which you may recollect, was in the Temple,” in a letter reprinted in the notes of WGW, 26:222. GW writes of how the sufferings of the Continental army are “unexampled in history” in an Oct. 17, 1782, letter to James McHenry in WGW, 25:269. Hamilton admits to GW that he and others have been involved in a scheme to “form a mass of influence” that would pressure the states into increasing the powers of the federal government in a March 17, 1783, letter in his Papers, 3:293. Joseph Jones’s Feb. 27, 1783, letter to GW, in which he writes of the dangers of what might occur once “all confidence between the civil and military authority is lost,” as well as the efforts to “lessen your popularity in the army in hopes ultimately the weight of your opposition will prove no obstacle to their ambitious designs,” is in WGW, 25:432. GW’s outraged response to the proposal that he be named king of the United States is in his May 22, 1782, letter to Col. Lewis Nicola in WGW, 24:272. Hamilton’s account of how GW’s popularity has declined because of his “extreme reserve, mixed sometimes with a degree of asperity of temper” is in “Notes of Debates in Cont. Congress, Feb. 20, 1783,” reprinted in WGW, 26:188. GW describes Horatio Gates as “the old leven” who operates “under a mask of the most perfect dissimulation and apparent cordiality” in a March 4, 1783, letter to Hamilton in WGW, 26:186. For the full text of the Newburgh address, written by John Armstrong, see http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-newburgh-address/. GW’s March 11, 1783, orders, in which he states that “his duty as well as the reputation and true interest of the army requires his disapprobation of such disorderly proceedings,” is in WGW, 26:208. Samuel Shaw’s account of GW’s appearance in the Temple on March 15, 1783, is in his Journals, pp. 103–4. GW’s remarks before his officers that day are in WGW, 26:222–27. Col. David Cobb’s letter, in which he quotes GW as saying “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost blind, in the service of my country,” is cited in WGW, 26:222. William Fowler describes what happened among the officers after GW exited the Temple and cites the resolutions drafted by Henry Knox’s committee, in which the officers express their “unshaken confidence in the justice of Congress,” in American Crisis, pp. 186–88. Thomas Jefferson writes of how “the moderation and virtue of a single character has probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others have been by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish” in an April 16, 1784, letter to GW in Jefferson’s Papers, 7:106–7.

  Joseph Plumb Martin writes about GW’s “watch chain” at West Point and how it became “the criterion by which we were to judge of war or peace” in his Journal, pp. 170–71. GW’s April 18, 1783, orders announcing the peace are in WGW, 26:334–37. Martin writes of how the announcement of peace heralded “a serious time” in his Journal, pp. 172–75. Lafayette’s Feb. 5, 1783, letter to GW detailing his “wild scheme” by which slavery might be eradicated in the south, as well as GW’s April 5, 1783, reply, in which he says he would be “happy to join you in so laudable a work,” are in WGW, 26:300. Henry Wiencek cites Lafayette’s insistence that “I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery” in An Imperfect God, p. 261. William Smith describes the conversation between GW and Carleton in a May 6, 1783, entry in his Memoirs, p. 586. Maya Jasanoff writes of GW’s slave Harry Washington’s sailing from New York to Nova Scotia with 132 emancipated blacks in Liberty’s Exiles, p. 90. GW writes of his “wish to see the Union of these states established upon liberal and permanent principles,” in a March 31, 1783, letter to Alexander Hamilton in WGW, 26:277. GW’s June 8, 1783, Circular to the States, in which he writes of the likelihood “that there is a natural and necessary progression, from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny,” is in WGW, 26:483–90. Edmund Randolph’s June 28, 1783, letter to James Madison, in which he writes of the “unsolicited obtrusion” of GW’s advice, is in WGW, 26:491. GW compares the American people to “young heirs come a little premature perhaps to a large inheritance” in a July 10, 1783, letter to George Fairfax in WGW, 27:58. William Fowler cites the letter of an officer named Walter Stewart, in which he describes how the officers rejected GW’s invitation to a final dinner, “declaring they thought the present period more adapted to sorrow than mirth,” in American Crisis, p. 210. GW writes of how his “parting scene” with his officers “will not admit of description” in a June 7, 1783, letter to the president of Congress in WGW, 26:478. GW writes of how his trip to the wilds of New York inspired within him “a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States” in an Oct. 12, 1783, letter to Chastellux in WGW, 27:189–90. GW outlines his plans for a possible tour of the western wilderness in an Oct. 12, 1783, letter to Lafayette, in which he says “there would be nothing wanting to make it perfectly agreeable but your company,” in WGW, 27:187. GW’s proposal that “a boundary line” be placed between the Native Americans and American settlers in the west is in a Sept. 7, 1783, letter to James Duane in WGW, 27:134.