e, and by crossing the river to Gloucester
and overpowering the force under General de Choisy, which was then
guarding that position, to fly for his life, through Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, to New York. As no time could be lost,
the attempt was made during the same night, but a violent storm, coming
on while the first detachment was still on the river, preventing the
landing of part of it, the movement was abandoned; and those troops who
had crossed the river returned to York during the next day.

[Illustration: The Siege of Yorktown

Painting by L. C. A. Couder.]

On the morning of the next day (October 17th) the several new batteries,
which supported the second parallel, opened fire; when Lord Cornwallis
considered it no longer incumbent on him to attempt to hold his position
at the cost of his troops, and at 10 A.M. he beat a parley and asked a
cessation of hostilities, that commissioners might meet to settle the
terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.

A correspondence ensued between the commanders-in-chief; and on the 18th
the Viscount de Noailles and Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens met Colonel
Dundas and Major Ross to arrange the terms of surrender. Without being
able to agree on all points, the commissioners separated; when General
Washington sent a rough copy of the articles, which had been prepared,
to Lord Cornwallis, with a note expressing his expectation that they
would be signed by 11 A.M. on the 19th, and that the garrison would be
ready to march out of the town within three hours afterward. Finding all
attempts to obtain more advantageous terms unavailing, Lord Cornwallis
yielded to the necessities of the case and surrendered, with his entire
force, military and naval, to the arms of the allies.

The army, with all its artillery, stores, military-chest, etc., was
surrendered to General Washington; the navy, with its appointments, to
Admiral de Grasse.

The terms were precisely similar to those which the enemy had granted
to the garrison of Charleston in the preceding year; and General
Lincoln, the commander of that garrison, on whom the illiberality of the
enemy then fell, was designated as the officer to whom the surrender
should be made.

"At about 12, noon," says an eye-witness, "the combined army was
arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length.
The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and
the French occu