before
Newport, caused the enemy to feel perfectly secure in the positions he
occupied.

As has been stated, the intelligence from Admiral de Grasse changed the
plans of the allies; and, instead of General Clinton and the main body
of the enemy in the city of New York, Lord Cornwallis and the combined
forces under his command, then at Yorktown, were made the objects of
General Washington's attention. In executing this plan, however, it was
necessary to exercise great caution, not only to prevent Sir Henry
Clinton from moving to the assistance of Lord Cornwallis, but also to
prevent Admiral Graves from joining Sir Samuel Hood, and, by occupying
the Chesapeake, keeping open the communication by sea between Yorktown
and New York.

For this purpose, on August 19th the New Jersey line and Colonel Hazen's
regiment were sent to New Jersey, by way of Dobbs Ferry, to protect a
large number of "ovens" which were ordered to be erected near
Springfield and Chatham in that State; and forage and boats, with some
efforts to display the same, were also collected on the west side of the
Hudson, by which the enemy was led to suppose that an attack was
intended from that quarter. Fictitious letters were also written and put
in the way of the enemy, by which the deception was confirmed; and Sir
Henry Clinton appears to have supposed that Staten Island, or a position
near Sandy Hook, to cover the entrance of the French fleet into the
harbor, was the real object of the movements, until the allied
forces--which had crossed the Hudson, leaving General Heath, with a
respectable force, on its eastern bank--had passed the Delaware, and
rendered the true object of the movement a matter of obvious certainty.

The body of troops with which General Washington moved to the South
embraced all the French auxiliaries, led by Count Rochambeau; the light
infantry of the Continental army, led by Colonel Alexander Scammel;
detachments of light troops from the Connecticut and New York State
troops; the Rhode Island regiment; the regiment known as "Congress'
Own," under Colonel Hazen; two New York regiments; a detachment of New
Jersey troops; and the artillery, under Colonel John Lamb, numbering in
the aggregate about two thousand Americans and a strong body of French.
It is said that the American troops, who were mostly from New England
and the Middle States, marched with reluctance to the southward, showing
"strong symptoms of discontent when they passed