th of October. Cornwallis
immediately wrote in reply: "I have ventured these last two days to
look General Washington's whole force in the face in the position on
the outside of my works, and have the pleasure to assure your
Excellency that there is but one wish throughout the army, which is
that the enemy would advance.... I shall retire this night within the
works, and have no doubt, if relief arrives in any reasonable time,
York and Gloucester will be both in the possession of his Majesty's
troops." That night his lordship accordingly abandoned his outworks,
and drew his troops within the town. The outworks thus abandoned were
seized upon the next morning by detachments of American light infantry
and French troops, and served to cover the troops employed in throwing
up breastworks.

The combined French and American forces were now twelve thousand
strong, exclusive of the Virginia militia which General Thomas Nelson
[now governor of Virginia], had brought into the field. On the morning
of the 28th of September, the combined armies marched from
Williamsburg toward Yorktown, about twelve miles distant, and encamped
at night within two miles of it, driving in the pickets and some
patrols of cavalry. General de Choisy was sent across York River, with
Lauzun's legion and General Weedon's brigade of militia, to watch the
enemy on the side of Gloucester Point. By the 1st of October the line
of the besiegers, nearly two miles from the works, formed a
semicircle, each end resting on the river, so that the investment by
land was complete; while the Count de Grasse, with the main fleet,
remained in Lynn Haven Bay, to keep off assistance by sea.

The besieged army began now to be greatly distressed for want of
forage, and had to kill many of their horses, the carcasses of which
were continually floating down the river. In the evening of the 2d of
October, Tarleton with his legion and the mounted infantry were passed
over the river to Gloucester Point, to assist in foraging. At daybreak
Lieutenant-colonel Dundas led out part of his garrison to forage the
neighboring country. About ten o'clock the wagons and bat horses laden
with Indian corn were returning, covered by Tarleton and his dragoons
as a rear-guard, when word was brought that an enemy was advancing in
force. The report was confirmed by a cloud of dust from which emerged
Lauzun and the Frence hussars and lancers.

Tarleton, with part of his legion, advanced to meet the