Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-15
THE SURRENDER OF LORD
CORVALLIS.
An Account of the Affair by his
English BiOgraPher.

They are, OF course aDburuiy P@teANNi
and many Of the historians OF that
period of slow mails and sailing
packets were not only incapable OF
believing that British arm could be
defeated, but were also incapable OF
~confessing to others the fact of a de-
feat after their convictions had been
reversed. Lord CORVALLIS was not OF
this number. His own account OF the
events preceding the catastrophe at
Yorktown-or, as he punctiliously
writes it, York Town,-is manly,
honest and unaffected; and at this
moment it assumes a bright and some
what exhilarating appearance. Ills
letters from America cover the entire
period of his stay in the country; and,
although, his pen is always serious,
his style is free from the bombast of
Burgoyne, with whom writing was a
vastly more important business than
fighting; but he wrote no better than
he fought, although he took infinitely
more pains with it.
CORVALLIS was a young man when
appointed acknowledgement and sent
over the sea 20 put down al %insolent
rebellion. He was born December,
81, 1738; and just 80 years and a day
afterward be received his American
commission. The most remarkable
things about him up 10 that time were
negative; he had lost IN eye-the boy
VINO put it out became a bishop, and
he had been abused by Junius. 1t is
quite incompEehensible that Junius
should have discovered him at all
possibly there we're so many old mer
in the House Of Lords who saw moth
ing with two eyes, that something
was expected of a young man with
only one. What is still more curious
Junius abused HIM for losing what hI
really had never Acquired-rePutation
He sailed in search of it to Americs
in the winter of &c, but the yer!
winds were traitors; they kept hin
from shore for nearly three months
The pompsus imbecile in chief com
mundsEave him no opportunity to d.
anything before the winter OF n
whsn operations we're impracticable
and, although he might have dissipa.
ed In the Capua of the Births
army in Ameriea-Philadelphia-h
preferred returning to England.
His biographer describes that WIN
ter as one Of lax discipline. Gaming
if not encouraged. was permitted TO
most ruinOus extent; and the gros
misconduct Of very many officers dis
gusted to such a degree the inhsbitsnl
Of a town in which, perhaps, more tha.
in any other, prOhigzcy wa otenslv:
that feelings very adverse TO Brtlsl
authority were e~ngendered or IN
creased among 4 people original,
loyal. These bad impressions Esr
/. never removed or overcome. Corn
wallis went of quietly; not 50 81
William Howe, who sailed later. I
fete. misteriously called "Meschianza,
was arranged in his honor; Sevs
Knights of the Blended Rose con
tended with Seven Knights of tn
Burning Mountain, the honors Of tn
combat being awarded BY fourteen
ladies dressed in Turkish fashion
Thus did the martial aesthetics of tina
merry season coax horrid war to softeI
his grim c%ountenance while the.
melted his awful mouth with trope
and t%reacle.
CORVALLIS came back in the sprin.
of 70. He was morose and sulky. Ii
; his pocket slept a dormant commission
I making him commander in chic
should a sinister stroke carry off Gin
ton; but that party was hale and rubi
; cund; and he did not love CORVALLIS
: A mere Sir could not be expected t
; admire the coronet on one Of his sub
alterns. So jealous we're these two
7 His Majesty's servants, that afte
: Yorktown Clinton vowed he woulC
challenge the Earl; but there is NJ
! record Of a deadly meeting. The KIM
= would not permit CORVALLIS to leavI
! America; and in October of that yea
. Clinton wrote German, Secretary 0
2 State, that he had assigned CORNWALL
to a position between Newbridge, o
! the Hackensack river in Jersey, an
Hudson river; and Lieutenan (tenera
! Knyphausen one between WeppeI
; ham, on the last Of these two river'
and the Brunx." In this situation
he said, he could assemble his entiI
9 army in twenty four hours; but IN
(sic) Washington could not assemb.
q that of the rebels in ten days" Corr
! wallis, however, was destined to Wis
/ England once more. His wife, wi
, was dramatically attached to hiI
y pined away and died; he reached h
>. side in time to catch her last requei
1t was that a thorn tree should
planted over her broken heart, al
that the stone at her gave should
q: forever unmarked.
Bearing his bereavement manful
in CORVALLIS set sail again in the autuu
Of of 70; but another year passed befo
# he whipped the rebels. Camden "
If a great victory. it was his last. Eve
be day increased his impatience with
n. superior officer, and his disgust wi
MI the Royalists in the army and out
it. He speaks of them as p%usillal
rs nous and dastardly. II cannot
so fend every mans house." he wrC
,er s~narlingly; "and | must say that VIII
ni- | see a whole settlement running aw
lat from twenty OF thirty robbers | thi
he they deserve to be robbed" Still a
as other year passed without q decisi
engagement, and he became weari
AZ. and petulant. In the spring ofsl1
No. he wrote: 81 am quite tired march
80 about the country in quest of adv'
ers lures. If we mean an offensive \
has in America we must abandon N
der York and bring our whole force
nan Virginia; we then have a stake to Fl
in for, aud a successful battle may g
Ar us America" He had his way
der time. He fought for a stake in '
en- ginia, and lost America forever to
the King.
liar In August, 1881, he was encam
IN at York and busily enga
fortilying it in anticipation
the struggle. He finds
49,