rom Rochambeau and Washington urging
his cooperation with the campaign in America. To his credit be
it said that on this occasion he acted promptly and skillfully,
and the results were of great moment.

At this time the British had subdued Georgia and South Carolina,
and Cornwallis was attempting to carry the conquest through North
Carolina. In order to keep in touch with his source of supplies
the sea, however, he was compelled to fall back to Wilmington.
From there, under orders from General Clinton, he marched north
to Yorktown, Virginia, where he was joined by a small force of
infantry. Washington and Rochambeau had agreed on the necessity of
getting the cooperation of the West Indies fleet in an offensive
directed either at Clinton in New York or at Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Rochambeau preferred the latter alternative, because it involved
fewer difficulties, and the message to de Grasse was accompanied
by a private memorandum from him to the effect that he preferred
the Chesapeake as the scene of operations. Accordingly de Grasse
sent the messenger frigate back with word of his intention to go to
Chesapeake Bay. He then made skillful arrangements for the transport
of all available troops, and set sail with every ship he could
muster, steering by the less frequented Old Bahama Channel in order
to screen his movement.

[Illustration: SCENE OF THE YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN]

On August 30 (1781) de Grasse anchored in Lynnhaven Bay, just inside
the Chesapeake Capes, with 28 ships of the line. The two British
guard frigates were found stupidly at anchor inside the bay; one
was taken and the other chased up the York river. De Grasse then
landed the troops he had brought with him, and these made a welcome
reenforcement to Lafayette, who was then opposing Cornwallis. At
the same time Washington was marching south to join Lafayette,
and word had been sent to the commander of a small French squadron
at Newport to make junction with de Grasse, bringing the siege
artillery necessary to the operations before Yorktown. Thus the
available farces were converging on Cornwallis in superior strength,
and his only route for supplies and reenforcements lay by sea.
All depended on whether the British could succeed in forcing the
entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

Hood, with 14 ships of the line, had followed on the trail of de
Grasse, and as it happened looked into Chesapeake Bay just three
days before the French admiral arrived. Finding no sign o