As it was, a storm prevented the crossing to Gloucester.The defenses of Yorktown were weakening and in face of this new discouragement the British leader made up his mind that the end was near.Tarleton and other officers condemned Cornwallis sharply for not persisting in the effort to get away.Cornwallis was a considerate man."I thought it would have been wanton and inhuman," he reported later, "to sacrifice the lives of this small body of gallant soldiers." He had already written to Clinton to say that there would be great risk in trying to send a fleet and army to rescue him.On the 19th of October came the climax.Cornwallis surrendered with some hundreds of sailors and about seven thousand soldiers, of whom two thousand were in hospital.The terms were similar to those which the British had granted at Charleston to General Lincoln, who was now charged with carrying out the surrender.Such is the play of human fortune.At two o'clock in the afternoon the British marched out between two lines, the French on the one side, the Americans on the other, the French in full dress uniform, the Americans in some cases half naked and barefoot.No civilian sightseers were admitted, and there was a respectful silence in the presence of this great humiliation to a proud army.The town itself was a dreadful spectacle with, as a French observer noted, "big holes made by bombs, cannon balls, splinters, barely covered graves, arms and legs of blacks and whites scattered here and there, most of the houses riddled with shot and devoid of window-panes."On the very day of surrender Clinton sailed from New York with a rescuing army.Nine days later forty-four British ships were counted off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.The next day there were none.The great fleet had heard of the surrender and had turned back to New York.Washington urged Grasse to attack New York or Charleston but the French Admiral was anxious to take his fleet back to meet the British menace farther south and he sailed away with all his great array.The waters of the Chesapeake, the scene of one of the decisive events in human history, were deserted by ships of war.Grasse had sailed, however, to meet a stern fate.He was a fine fighting sailor.His men said of him that he was on ordinary days six feet in height but on battle days six feet and six inches.None the less did a few months bring the British a quick revenge on the sea.On April 12, 1782, Rodney met Grasse in a terrible naval battle in the West Indies.
Some five thousand in both fleets perished.When night came Grasse was Rodney's prisoner and Britain had recovered her supremacy on the sea.On returning to France Grasse was tried by court-martial and, though acquitted, he remained in disgrace until he died in 1788, "weary," as he said, "of the burden of life." The defeated Cornwallis was not blamed in England.His character commanded wide respect and he lived to play a great part in public life.He became Governor General of India, and was Viceroy of Ireland when its restless union with England was brought about in 1800.
Yorktown settled the issue of the war but did not end it.For more than a year still hostilities continued and, in parts of the South, embittered faction led to more bloodshed.In England the news of Yorktown caused a commotion.When Lord George Germain received the first despatch he drove with one or two colleagues to the Prime Minister's house in Downing Street.A friend asked Lord George how Lord North had taken the news."As he would have taken a ball in the breast," he replied; "for he opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment during a few minutes, 'Oh God! it is all over,' words which he repeated many times, under emotions of the deepest agitation and distress." Lord North might well be agitated for the news meant the collapse of a system.The King was at Kew and word was sent to him.That Sunday evening Lord George Germain had a small dinner party and the King's letter in reply was brought to the table.The guests were curious to know how the King took the news."The King writes just as he always does," said Lord George, "except that I observe he has omitted to mark the hour and the minute of his writing with his usual precision." It needed a heavy shock to disturb the routine of George III.The King hoped no one would think that the bad news "makes the smallest alteration in those principles of my conduct which have directed me in past time." Lesser men might change in the face of evils;George III was resolved to be changeless and never, never, to yield to the coercion of facts.
