The most interesting feature of the siege was the storming of two redoubts, which, standing forward, greatly impeded the progress of the besiegers. It was determined, therefore, to attack these as the darkness of night fell, on the 14th. The attack of the one was committed to the Americans, under Colonel Hamilton, Washington’s aide-de-camp, and the other to the French, the one nation emulating the other in the honour and the duty of the enterprise. Both were successful; both redoubts were taken, when daylight appeared, but the loss of the French was the greater. So important did Lord Cornwallis consider the taking of these redoubts, that, writing to Sir Henry Clinton the following day, he said that “he considered his situation desperate.” Using, however, all means to procrastinate, he anxiously and impatiently waited for relief from New York; but in vain. At length, when no relief came, and when, on the 16th, a hundred pieces of heavy ordnance had so ruined the works and overpowered the batteries that the besieged could not show a single gun, and their shells, their sole means of defence, were nearly exhausted, Lord Cornwallis determined, as a last resource before surrendering, to attempt an escape with the greater part of his troops. Accordingly boats were secretly prepared; and abandoning the baggage, the troops during the night were to pass over to Gloucester Point, to cut their way through a French detachment posted in the rear of that place, and by rapid marches to reach New York in safety. The first debarkation had been made towards midnight in safety, when the weather, which had hitherto been moderate, instantly changed, and a violent storm drove the boats down the river. It was impossible to bring back the landed troops; and thus weakened and discouraged, the danger of the army was still further increased. Means of defence there were none; their hopes of succour were at an end; the troops were diminished and worn out by constant watching and unremitting fatigue. To avoid, therefore, the useless shedding of blood by an assault, Cornwallis wrote to Washington on the 17th, proposing a suspension of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that commissioners might be appointed to settle terms of capitulation.