While the control of Chesapeake Bay and of Virginia was essential to British success, Sir Henry Clinton deliberately proposed to couple with that general design another invasion of Pennsylvania, but from the south. When Cornwallis moved northward from his useless position at Wilmington, he was advised by General Clinton to make a movement upon Philadelphia. General Clinton must have very feebly remembered the circumstances of his hasty departure from that city in 1778, or have overlooked Washington’s strategic control of that entire region. The movement of Lafayette southward, and the energy with which that officer rallied Virginians to his support, were not appreciated by either of the British Generals in time to be of benefit to either. Clinton and Cornwallis alike failed to comprehend that when the American Commander-in-Chief parted with Lafayette, and afterwards gave him so large a command, he must have had in view some special service which that officer could perform with credit as a significant factor in the entire campaign. Cornwallis knew, however, that unless he could destroy Lafayette’s army, the British cause in Virginia would certainly be lost. But the same profound strategy which had inclosed Clinton at New York, isolated Cornwallis at Yorktown. Washington was well aware, that neither Louis XVI. nor Rochambeau wholly favored an attack upon New York. Their objections were substantial. Such a movement involved the presence of enormous naval forces, which once within the harbor, might be easily captured or destroyed, whenever Great Britain could seriously concentrate ships for that purpose. Neither could a French fleet secure supplies of any kind, so long as Clinton controlled the city. It was the natural naval depot of Great Britain for the American coast, and convenient for her West India dependencies. France, ever willing to aid America, must, however, always have her naval base in the West Indies, which wholly depended upon her naval supremacy for immunity from British aggression. Notwithstanding these considerations, the harmony of the French and American alliance was never interrupted, and mutual confidence was invariably enjoyed. It is never to be overlooked that Washington cared more for his position in New Jersey than for the possession of New York. Its occupation without a controlling fleet, would be as fatal as the presence of a fleet without control of the city.