1. CORNWALLIS GOES TO YORKTOWN In the spring of 1781, the seventh year of the struggle for American independence, Lord Cornwallis, commanding a British Army, marched from North Carolina into Virginia, in an attempt to conquer the State and restore it to allegiance to Great Britain. The Marquis de Lafayette, sent to Virginia with a small American force, was unable to meet him in open battle but did his best to hamper the movements of the British. In midsummer Cornwallis received orders from Sir Henry Clinton, his superior in New York, to fortify a base in the lower Chesapeake for the use of the British fleet. Sir, I was honoured with your letter of the 12th of July, by the Solebay, in which you mention a desire of having a harbour secured in the Chesapeak for line of battle ships. I immediately ordered the engineers to examine Old Point Comfort, and went thither myself with the captains of the navy on this station. You will receive a copy of the engineer’s report, with a sketch of the peninsula, and the opinion of the officers of the navy relative to the occupying and fortifying of that post. The Commander-in-chief having signified to me in his letter of the 11th instant, that he thought a secure harbour for line of battle ships of so much importance in the Chesapeak, that he wished me to possess one, even if it should occupy all the force at present in Virginia; and, as it is our unanimous opinion, that Point Comfort will not answer the purpose, I shall immediately sieze and fortify the posts of York and Gloucester, and shall be happy at all times to concur in any measures which may promote the convenience and advantage of his Majesty’s navy. LORD CORNWALLIS TO ADMIRAL GRAVES, JULY 26, 1781. 2. THE FRENCH FLEET BLOCKADES THE CHESAPEAKE Cornwallis moved his whole army to Yorktown, on the York River, in August and began leisurely fortifying that position and Gloucester Point opposite. Meanwhile the French West Indies fleet, under Comte de Grasse, evaded its British opponent and moved north to cooperate with the French and American land forces under Washington and Rochambeau. De Grasse sailed for the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to blockade Cornwallis by sea, while the allied armies prepared to leave the Hudson River, where they had been threatening Clinton, and close in by land. Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, Cornwallis’s cavalry leader, watched the gathering of hostile forces.