The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [322]
“General Rochambeau, should Admiral de Grasse choose to appear at Virginia, he could be of immeasurable service to our cause. I would suggest that we prepare to join him there.”
AUGUST 1781
The danger was enormous, Clinton perched in New York with a force large enough to crush both Washington and Rochambeau, if they allowed themselves to be caught on a vulnerable march. Washington’s plan was to offer a perfect deceit. The columns paraded close to the Hudson clearly visibile to Clinton’s lookouts. Clinton’s spies could not help but observe rebel militia along the Jersey shore assembling vast fleets of small boats. Rochambeau ordered his troops to build huge ovens, in clear sight of the harbor. It was a convincing show that the armies would form their camps and their main supply base not far from what Clinton would believe to be their primary target: Staten Island. For days, the drums sounded, and troops filed into place near Newark and Amboy, the troops themselves believing that they were preparing to invade New York. Throughout the entire operation, Washington and Rochambeau were the only two men who knew the true plan. The lookouts kept him advised, but Washington would see for himself, would climb the observation posts to study the British warships at anchor in the harbor. There was no change, no flatboats, no troops in motion. Clinton was sitting tight, convinced, as was every man along the Jersey shore, that a massive engagement was imminent, that very soon, New York could be under siege.
When the orders came to march yet again, Washington’s troops still believed they were preparing to cross the narrow waterway. But their march took them through Brunswick, and then Princeton, and by the time they reached the Delaware River, the troops realized it was a different mission altogether.
The march would take them through Philadelphia, to the delight of a citizenry who cheered their disheveled army, shoeless men in ragged shirts. But then the real show began, and the crowds stared in utter amazement at this new army who followed them, the perfect, beautiful uniforms and fat healthy horses. The combined force totaled six thousand men, and few but their commander understood the extraordinary risk. Washington had left behind barely five thousand men, an uncertain combination of regulars and militia, manning the outposts along the Hudson. They shared the desperate hope, with their commander, that Clinton had truly been deceived, that the enormous British force would remain in New York. Once past Philadelphia, Washington could not look back, could only think of the vast ocean to the south, whether or not the French admiral de Grasse was good to his word, whether the French navy would actually appear. But for his soldiers, there could only be one goal now, completing a journey of four hundred miles to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
54. CORNWALLIS
WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA, AUGUST 1781
THERE HAD BEEN NO JOVIAL AND SENTIMENTAL REUNION WITH HIS friend William Phillips. As Cornwallis had brought his army close to their Virginia base, he had received word that Phillips had been stricken by a fever, and only three days before Cornwallis arrived, Phillips had died. It was not the welcome into Virginia he had expected.
There was one blessing to be found. Benedict Arnold was gone, summoned by Clinton to take part in some vaguely detailed campaign to the north, possibly another assault against Newport. The news had lightened Cornwallis’ spirits considerably.
Throughout the summer, the Virginia campaign had been an ordeal of marches in all directions. Cornwallis was determined to engage Lafayette’s forces, but the young Frenchman seemed to know his own weaknesses. As Cornwallis would push his army up the Virginia peninsula, Lafayette would back away, maintaining a safe distance. Cornwallis suffered the same disadvantage of every British commander, an army that moved too slowly, encumbered by its own girth. Cornwallis