incursions beyond Charleston. St. Clair had come down from Yorktown, and
had driven the British from Wilmington. Governor Rutledge had called the
legislators of South Carolina together at Jacksonboro', to re-establish
civil government in that state, and Greene's army lay as a guard between
them and the enemy at Charleston. In that city and Savannah only, did
the British have a foothold south of the Delaware at the close of 1781;
and Wayne, with vigilant eye and supple limb, lay not far from the
latter place, closely watching the British there. The war was virtually
at an end in the South.

Let us turn to the consideration of Washington's movements after the
capitulation at Yorktown.

In the midst of the rejoicings because of the great victory,
Washington's heart was made sad by domestic affliction. His stepson,
John Parke Custis, who had followed him to the field as his aid-de-camp,
sickened before the close of the siege. Anxious to participate in the
pleasures of the victory, he remained in camp until the completion of
the surrender, when he retired to Eltham, the seat of Colonel Bassett,
who had married Mrs. Washington's sister. His malady (camp-fever) had
increased, and Washington sent Doctor Craik with him. A courier was also
despatched to Mount Vernon for his wife and mother; and on the fifth of
November, having arranged all public business at Yorktown, Washington
set out for Eltham. He arrived there, as he wrote to Lafayette, "time
enough to see poor Mr. Custis breathe his last."

The grief of Washington was very great, and he wept bitterly. He had
watched over that young man from his earliest childhood with paternal
affection and solicitude; and with pride he had seen him take public
position as a member of the Virginia assembly. Now, at the age of
twenty-eight years, he was taken from him. The mother was almost
unconsolable, and the young wife was sorely smitten by the bereavement.
Washington's heart deeply sympathized with them, and there, in the
death-chamber, he formally adopted the two younger children of Mrs.
Custis, who thenceforth became members of his family. These were
Eleanor Parke Custis, who married Lawrence Lewis, the favorite nephew of
Washington, and George Washington Parke Custis, who lived until the
autumn of 1857.

Washington proceeded directly from Eltham to Mount Vernon, only halting
at Fredericksburg to see his mother, and join in some public ceremonials
there, in honor of himself and