rd, Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, and although he did not win a
battle, he left the enemy, on each occasion, in much worse condition than
before the encounter. Cornwallis, the British commander, although not
defeated, was becoming weaker and weaker, and he retreated into Virginia,
from an enemy whose every repulse was a British disaster.

* * *

The final act in the mighty drama was now approaching. From the Potomac
to the confines of Florida the Southland was aroused against the British
as it never could have been aroused except for the barbarities which
Cornwallis perpetrated and sanctioned. The British commander was behind
the intrenchments at Yorktown with an army of about eight thousand men
and a horde of Tories who had been willing agents in carrying out against
their own countrymen the atrocious decrees which for a time made a Poland
of the Carolinas. Sir Henry Clinton, thoroughly deceived by the movements
of Washington and Rochambeau, was anxious only to protect New York, and
the victorious fleet of France was prepared to cut off the escape of
Cornwallis by the sea. Washington and Rochambeau, with the allied armies,
marched against Yorktown from their rendezvous at Williamsburg on
September 28. They drove in the British outposts, and began siege
operations so promptly and vigorously that the place was completely
invested on the thirtieth by a semi-circular line of the allied forces,
each wing resting on the York River. The Americans held the right; the
French the left. A small body of British at Gloucester, opposite
Yorktown, was beset by a force consisting of French dragoons and marines,
and Virginia militia. Heavy ordnance was brought from the French ships,
and on the afternoon of October 9, the artillery opened on the British.
Red-hot balls were hurled upon the British vessels in the river, and the
flames shooting up from a 44-gun ship showed that fire was doing its
work. Under cover of night parallels were thrown up closer and closer to
the British lines, and the besieged saw the chain which they could not
break tightening around them. The Americans and French carried by storm
two redoubts which commanded the trenches, and now Cornwallis had to take
his choice between flight or surrender, if flight were possible. He
determined to flee, but a terrible storm made the passing of the river
too dangerous, and a few troops who had crossed over were brought back to
York