Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-10-23

AtlE iUEA iU " N INN | i.G.N As
 Tho Yorktown contenaiaI Description Of ta'
 Siege, Oc.5bor, l7si-
 One hundred years have elapsed since the Continental Congress IOyluly voted
 to erect a monument on She field where
 the last and the decisive blow was struck for American independence. It was on
 October 2', ll!ol, that the resolution was
 adopted p-edging the new nation 'tioj' .!s .!s fSci. The news of CoruwallIs' surrender had reached Philadelphia the night be- fore, almost week after the occurrence
 Then Congress met, its President Thomas Alckean, read the dispatches from General Washington, and then tie members decided to march in a body t0 | the neares5 church and return thanks to the almighty. After that the resolution for the building oi the monument was passed. The subsequent financial diff fcultiCs of the new Government led t0 the silent neglect of the project, and when money was more plentiful lt was entirely forgotten. The approach of the centenary of the important victory led t0 the appropriation of SlI0OtO. where
 with to redeem the pledge made SO long ago.
 On the 18th instant the corner
 stone oi the monument wua laid on tue Yorktown battl. field by the Grand Master of AasCus ln AiT- giuia, assisted by the Grand Master of the thirteen original States. This Wastne centennial anniversary of the surrender
 oi ot0O British troops to the allied Trench and American forces. It was not truly national affair. for another
 nItiOn shares with us in the glory of the achievement, and rance was htly rep resented bo-h by delegates from its gov eumeut and by thousands of her cit izens.
 Ths seige of Yorktown and its result
 been aptly termed the one great sur- prise of the American Revolution. Bur goyne's surrender at Saratoga was not
 unexpected. His march from Canada
 through New York Go the Hudson was a Ulld enterprise at the best, and its utter
 failure did not much astonish either fl ends or foes. Quite different was Coruwaliis' grand overthrow n th [ northeastern corner or ' ITElLia. He had g,iued the reputation of being the ablest
 British commander tine war had pro- duCed His conquest Of the Caroliuas
 has shown him to be both dGring and
 cautious. Lafayette had gwen him the
 name of the terrible Britisher, who
 made no mistakes, and Both Generals Greene and Gates, who had commanded the American forces opposed to him,
 had to acimpWledI Ie his sllll as leader
 How then did it come to pass that he
 allowed himself to be caught like a rat
 in trap?
 The answer to this question has pug
 zled historians not little, and the acri-
 mJli0us correspondence concerning it,
 which in after years passed between
 CuInwalis and Sir Henry Clinton, his
 then cne., rather obscUrcs than illumi-
 hates the subject. Three years and a
 hall after the beginning of actual armed
 resistance to the British domination, the
 effort to overcome that resistance at the
 North was cJuiessedly a failure. A. though the efforts of the combined American and French forces to drive the English from Rhode Island m the pre- yl.Us August had proved unsuccessful, tle close of ITS saw the American cause far stronger than at any time since the outbreak of actual hOstliIties It was therefore decided to try another plan than that hitherto pursued by the British. The war was ro be transferred to the South, in the hope that after tCorgIa, the CarUlInas and Virginia had been subdued the Middle and New Eng land States could be more easily han diCL An army and iicet were dIs- patched to Savannah, and afterwards another to Charleston, and in both places success crowned the movement. Co-uwailis operations m North Carolina and South Carolina followed, and Tarle- tuI's troopers rayaged both States. Suc- cessiye Generals who had been sent by Congress Go oppose touwal!is were de- feated, and, although klng's Mountain aud Cowpens gave the Americans hope, the outlook at the South especially was dark iu the spring of l7Sl. The battle of Gull ord Court House was fought in March, and was almost a necessary an- tecedeut to Yorktown. It was a British
 victory. but it was bought dearly. and it lel CoFuwal,is to decide that before the more soutlerly States could be thor to be conquered Hence his march norihwa-d III May, march which his superior at New York, Sir Henry Clin- lNafr AllhA aAtfA tli lflNfE Ol. Ab tFtfs
 Before Coruwallis arrived in Virginia. Sir HcuIy Clinton had sent two expedi- tiOls tO ravage the coast. To oppose them Washington had dispatched Lafay- cite with l,2OO men. On May 20. l7S1. Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg from Wilmington, and there the expedition ary ftrces were joined to his own, thus giving him body of 5,0OO veteran troops vherewith to operate in the State. Lafayette retrejted before him wi,hCut fiLLting an engagement, to North Anna, where COrnwailis turned southwest and made for the Upper James River, there to cover a cavalry rad upon some stores at the Point of Forz, wlli,h Steuben was guarding with some JOu militia. Tn the meantime, La fayette had received endorsements in the shape of 1000 Pennsylvania infantry under Wayne's command. He followed ComwallIs, and prevented any further destruction of stores. Steuben's troops were joined to his own, and Cornwallis went to Richmond He did not remain there long, though, but moved to Wal closely watched all the time by Lafayette.
 Exactly why Comwallis went to this corEe- of the peninsula 1t is dir- ticult to understand. It was not because he could Lot hold his own elsewhere. for his troops greatly outnambared those of ! Lafayette. Presumably he intended to l await further developments, and to mu- ture bis plan for completely subiugating ] Virginia. Whatever his intentions were he was given no opportunity to carry them cut At Williamsburg he found !. orde-s from Sir Henry Clinton Co send l 3,o00 of his men North, and to establish ! a defensive pest on the coast. Before 1 the troops had actually been embarked. | another order allowed him Co keep them, ! and told him definitely to fortify Old l Poin- Comfort as a basis for future naval 1 operations. He found that the Point ,ould not he defended, and pushed on to Yorktown, where he began throwing l Ip Notifications. This was in the first | week in Augus-, l1Sl.
 Sir Henry Clinton's orders were the |