Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2: Revised, Enlarged, and EnrichedSchroeder, John Frederick
History
Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2: Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched
Schroeder, John Frederick
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
Part of the prisoners were sent to Winchester in Virginia and
Fredericktown, Maryland, the remainder to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lord
Cornwallis and the principal officers were paroled and sailed for New
York. During their stay at Yorktown, after the surrender, they received
the most delicate attentions from the conquerors. Dr. Thacher, in his
"Military Journal," notices particularly some of these attentions: "Lord
Cornwallis and his officers," he says, "since their capitulation, have
received all the civilities and hospitality which is in the power of
their conquerors to bestow. General Washington, Count Rochambeau, and
other general officers have frequently invited them to entertainments,
and they have expressed their grateful acknowledgments in return. They
cannot avoid feeling the striking contrast between the treatment which
they now experience and that which they have bestowed on our prisoners
who have unfortunately fallen into their hands. It is a dictate of
humanity and benevolence, after sheathing the sword, to relieve and
meliorate the condition of the vanquished prisoner.
"On one occasion, while in the presence of General Washington, Lord
Cornwallis was standing with his head uncovered. His Excellency said to
him, politely, 'My lord, you had better be covered from the cold.' His
lordship, applying his hand to his head, replied, 'It matters not, sir,
what becomes of this head now.'" The reader will not have failed to
notice that the capture of Cornwallis was effected solely by the able
and judicious strategy of Washington. It was he that collected from
different parts of the country the forces that were necessary to enclose
that commander and his hitherto victorious army as it were in a net,
from which there was no possibility of escape. It was he who, by
personal influence and exertion, brought de Grasse to renounce his
expected triumphs at sea and zealously assist in the siege by preventing
Cornwallis from receiving any aid from British naval forces. It was he
who detained de Grasse at a critical moment of the siege, when he
was anxious to go off with the chief part of his force and engage the
British at sea. In short, it was he who provided all, oversaw all,
directed all, and having, by prudence and forethought, as well as
by activity and perseverance, brought all the elements of conquest
together, combined them into one mighty effort with glorious success.
It was the second siege on a grand scale which had been brought to a
brilliant and fortunate conclusion by the wisdom and prudence as well as
the courage and perseverance of Washington. In the first he expelled the
enemy and recovered Boston uninjured, freeing the soil for a time from
the presence of the enemy. In the second, he captured the most renowned
and successful British army in America and dictated his own terms of
surrender to a commander who, from his marquee, had recently given law
to three States of the Union.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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