. The history of our country from its discovery by Columbus to the celebration of the centennial anniversary of its declaration of independence ... ssist theroyal cause. The united army of the French and Americans couldnot be less than 16,000,13,000 of this number disciplined troops, andthe other 3,000 picked men of the Virginia militia. If Clinton couldnot send an army to his aid, Cornwallis felt that his case was hope-less. On the 28th of Sejitember Washingtons army marched fromWilliamsburg, Virginia, and sat down one mile fiom a short distance away they could see the outer wor
. The history of our country from its discovery by Columbus to the celebration of the centennial anniversary of its declaration of independence ... ssist theroyal cause. The united army of the French and Americans couldnot be less than 16,000,13,000 of this number disciplined troops, andthe other 3,000 picked men of the Virginia militia. If Clinton couldnot send an army to his aid, Cornwallis felt that his case was hope-less. On the 28th of Sejitember Washingtons army marched fromWilliamsburg, Virginia, and sat down one mile fiom a short distance away they could see the outer works of theenemy; and the hum and bustle of life in the British camps musthave reached the ears of the Americans. Everything was orderand regularity. There must be no hurrying and no false move-ments in so important an affair as a siege. Two days after Wash-ington appeared, Cornwallis drew all his forces inside his fortifica-tions. He had received private dispatches that Clinton would sendhim relief by the 5th of October. If he could hold out until then,Yorktown might be held and his honor as a British leader 272 STORY OF OUR Siege of Yorktown. Incessantly the batteries kept up their roar against the besiegedtown. Gun after gun was silenced, and the ditches outside the town were filled with shatteredfragments of the wall, andheaped with the dead and dy-ing who had fallen in defend-ing it. The Americans, undercover of the intrenchmentswhich they threw up in thenight approached every daynearer the town. Even atnight the batteries were notstill, and every now and thena shell went whizzing throughthe air like a blazing comet,falling with a great roar insidethe the evening of the 14th of October only two redoubts laybetween our army and the town. It w^as decided that these mustat once be carried. Two columns, one French and one American,were ordered to attack on the right and left. The French columnwas commanded by Lafayette, the Americans Avere un
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1881
