Washington, the man of action . pported him, butWashington, who had forgiven,if not quite forgotten his sus-piciously bad judgment in handlinghis reinforcements on the retreat tothe Delaware, promptly disregardedhis opinion and ordered a vigorouspursuit. Lee took offense at thisrebuff and declined to lead theadvance-guard to which he wasassigned, until Washington appoint-ed Lafayette to the position when 231 WASHINGTON he repented and asked for reinstate-ment. Such conduct in the presenceof the enemy was, of course, unpar-donable, and it would have beenwell if Washington had refused tolisten t
Washington, the man of action . pported him, butWashington, who had forgiven,if not quite forgotten his sus-piciously bad judgment in handlinghis reinforcements on the retreat tothe Delaware, promptly disregardedhis opinion and ordered a vigorouspursuit. Lee took offense at thisrebuff and declined to lead theadvance-guard to which he wasassigned, until Washington appoint-ed Lafayette to the position when 231 WASHINGTON he repented and asked for reinstate-ment. Such conduct in the presenceof the enemy was, of course, unpar-donable, and it would have beenwell if Washington had refused tolisten to his plea. But the army asa whole had confidence in the offend-ing officer and his chief had no meansof knowing that the man was atraitor who had already supplied theBritish with a plan for attacking thearmy whose uniform he wore. La-fayette was accordingly asked toyield his command to Lee, who washurried forward with strict injunc-tions to attack and force the fighting 232 French Carrying Redoubt at Yorktown(October 14, 1781). WASHINGTON until the main American columnshould reach the scene. A more favorable moment for theexecution of these orders could nothave been selected, for Clinton haddivided his forces, sending part ofthem forward with the heavy bag-gage trains and holding the rest inreserve to cover the retreat. Corn-wallis, who commanded this rear-guard, concluded that the best wayto fulfill his orders was to attack theadvancing American columns, and afirm stand or counter attack on thepart of Lee would have soon broughtthe divided British army into colli- 237 WASHINGTON sion with a greatly superior force,which was the very situation uponwhich Washington was to the amazement of Lafay-ette and his fellow officers Lee didnot hold his ground and allowed thetroops to retreat in such fashion asto expose them to destruction orcapture. Indeed both officers andmen were becoming badly demoral-ized when Washington arrived onthe scene, and bursting into a violentrag
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