Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/296

282 That evening Cornwallis received a dispatch from Sir Henry Clinton, dated September 24th, which gave the cheering expectation that he was duly sensible of the imminence of the occasion, and of his responsibility. He said:—

"At a meeting of the general and flag officers held this day, it is determined that above five thousand men, rank and file, shall be embarked on board the king's ships, and the joint exertions of the navy and army made in a few days to relieve you, and afterwards to co-operate with you. The fleet consists of twenty-three sail of the line, three of which are three-deckers. There is every reason to hope that we start on the 5th of October."

On this promising intimation of speedy aid, Cornwallis immediately drew in his small force from the extended outworks, and concentrated them within the entrenchments round the town. Undoubtedly it was a measure calculated to save much life, which must have been lost in defending outworks too widely extended for the inclosed force; but it encouraged the Americana, who did not expect to gain them thus easily, and Washington wrote to congress, on the 1st of October, that this receding of the British had put them in possession of very advantageous ground, and that the investment of the place was fully completed. Two thousand men—French and Americans, the latter under general Weedon, the French under the duke de Lauzun—took up their ground before Gloucester. Colonel Dundas, commanding the troops, made a brilliant sally, and cost the duke a considerable number of men, and Dundas being supported by the noted colonel Tarleton, the enemy, instead of any attempt at carrying the post by storm, proceeded by a cautious blockade. Round York Town itself Washington, Rochambeau, La Fayette, and St. Simon concentrated their forces. On the night of the 1st of October, the French on the right and the Americans on the left, drew nearer, and commenced breaking ground. Six days were then spent in bringing from the ships fifty pieces of cannon, some of them very heavy, ammunition, and other military stores: in fact, as much preparation was made for carrying this single post