tions against Earl Cornwallis at
Yorktown, on York river, to which the allied armies at once proceeded,
for the purpose of besieging it. On the 1st day of October, General
Washington was able to report to the President of Congress that the
investment of the place was completed. "Gloucester (on the opposite side
of the river, not a mile wide there), which was held by Colonel Dundas,
was beleaguered by some Virginian troops, and by the French legion of
the Duke de Lauzun. Yorktown, where Cornwallis in person, and with his
main force, commanded, saw to his left the division of La Fayette, and
to his right the division of St. Simon. Other bodies of troops filled
the space between them, while Washington and Rochambeau fixed their
posts near together, towards the centre. They brought up fifty pieces of
cannon, for the most part heavy, by aid from the French ships, as also
sixteen mortars, and they lost no time in commencing their first
parallel against the town.[51] By the 9th the first parallel was
completed, when the town and its defences were cannonaded and shelled.
Within another week a second parallel was completed within three
hundred yards of the defences, two redoubts stormed and taken--one by
the French and the other by the Americans--and the further defence of
the town rendered impossible."

"Down to this time, the 15th of October, Lord Cornwallis had expected
reinforcements of ships and troops from New York;[52] but he now
despaired of aid from that quarter, and attempted to escape with his
army in the night across the river, which was prevented by a storm, when
the only alternative left him was to surrender on the best terms he
could obtain. On the morning of the 17th he sent a flag of truce to
Washington, proposing a cessation of arms, and a treaty for the
capitulation of his post. Hostilities ceased; the terms of surrender
were discussed and agreed upon on the 18th by four commissioners, two
field officers being named on each side. The army, and all that belonged
to it, was surrendered to Washington; and the ships and seamen to Count
de Grasse" (Tucker).

"All the artillery and public stores in the two forts, together with the
shipping and boats in the two harbours, were to be surrendered by the
English. On the other hand, private property of every kind was to be
respected by the Americans and French. The garrisons of York and
Gloucester were to march out with the same honours of war as had been
granted by Sir