n. So many disasters had attended the former efforts of the
United States to avail themselves of the succours occasionally
afforded by France, that an opinion not very favourable to the
alliance appears to have gained some ground in the country, and to
have insinuated itself into the army. The Commander-in-chief seized
this occasion to discountenance a course of thinking from which he had
always feared pernicious consequences, and displayed the great value
of the aids lately received, in language highly flattering to the
French monarch, as well as to the land and naval forces of that
nation.

Knowing the influence which the loss of the army in Virginia must have
on the war, Sir Henry Clinton determined to hazard much for its
preservation. About seven thousand of his best troops sailed for the
Chesapeake, under convoy of a fleet augmented to twenty-five ships of
the line. This armament left the Hook the day on which the
capitulation was signed at Yorktown, and appeared off the capes of
Virginia on the 24th of October. Unquestionable intelligence being
there received that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered, the British
general returned to New York.

The exultation manifested throughout the United States at the capture
of this formidable army was equal to the terror it had inspired. In
congress, the intelligence was received with joy proportioned to the
magnitude of the event; and the sense of that body on this brilliant
achievement was expressed in various resolutions, returning the thanks
of the United States to the Commander-in-chief, to the Count de
Rochambeau, to the Count de Grasse, to the officers of the allied army
generally, and to the corps of artillery, and engineers particularly.
In addition to these testimonials of gratitude, it was resolved that a
marble column should be erected at Yorktown, in Virginia, with emblems
of the alliance between the United States and his Most Christian
Majesty, and inscribed with a succinct narrative of the surrender of
Earl Cornwallis to his Excellency General Washington, the
Commander-in-chief of the combined forces of America and France; to
his Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, commanding the auxiliary
troops of his Most Christian Majesty in America; and to his Excellency
Count de Grasse, commanding in chief the naval army of France in the
Chesapeake. Two stand of colours taken in Yorktown were presented to
General Washington; two pieces of field ordnance to the Count de
Roch