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By Root 1254 0

more firing from the British, had made it a priority to protect his workmen by ordering von Steuben to plan a careful routine to their movements. As the dawn spilled slowly onto the barren ground in front of them, they faced only silence, no activity in the British works. Gradually, curious men began to peer up, scanning the earthworks across from them for the telltale signs of movement, the usual glimpse of red, the flash and smoke of the cannon. As the sun rose higher Washington’s men could see clearly that something had changed. They began to slip out from the entrenchments, moving carefully forward. Washington moved to his observation point, glassed them as they slipped out into the open ground. Their officers were as nervous as he was, and close in front of him, riflemen stood poised to cover his men should they need a rapid retreat. The men moved up close to the British works, and Washington watched them with a hard pounding in his chest as they climbed through the cut trees and pointed sticks, up and over, disappearing into the silent trenches. Then he saw their celebration, hands up high, hats tossed in the air. It was a stunning surprise. The British had completely abandoned their outer works. Cornwallis had pulled his men back to their defensive entrenchments closer to the town, a much more compact line.

The tactic of a full hard assault against the British lines was still in his mind, the temptation to capture this magnificent victory in one powerful thrust. But a frontal assault now would have to concentrate in a narrow area, into a much greater mass of power. A slaughter would be a certainty. If Washington had any doubts about conducting a siege, he understood now that Cornwallis had made his decision for him.

OCTOBER 6, 1781

For several days, the engineers had given instructions, and a thousand men had spread out behind the lines into the woods, cutting and gathering great masses of sticks and cut limbs, bundling the timber into stout bales. It was the same kind of work Washington had seen at Boston, the bundles used to assemble a wall of fortifications. At Dorchester Heights, the work had been done in one night, and when the British woke, Boston was suddenly under the guns of Washington’s army. The enemy then had been William Howe, and Howe had responded by abandoning the city. Now, the enemy was a different kind of commander, a man who was pinned into a desperate hole and would certainly seek some vulnerability, some means to strike out at his enemy. If the parallel trench was to be dug and fortified, it would have to be accomplished with the same efficiency that Washington had seen at Dorchester Heights. They would have to complete the task in absolute quiet, in only one night.

Nearly four thousand men took part in the work, half serving only as guards to protect the laborers in the event the British launched an assault. They were blessed by a light rain, which blanketed them from moonlight and muffled any sounds. The engineers worked the men for eight hours, long shifts of the fittest men armed only with shovels. As each new section of trench was dug, the bundles of sticks were carried forward, placed up in front of the workmen. All through the night, British cannon barked out across the open ground, but with no good aim, no sign that the British had any notion of the work that progressed well within the range of their guns. When the sun rose, it was exactly as Washington remembered on Dorchester Heights, stunned British lookouts staring in amazement at the fortified works so close to their defenses. The work could continue by day now, the trenches protected from British fire by the high mounds of sand and sticks. For three days they labored still, the trenches widening into strong fortified lines, gun pits constructed, the cannon brought forward in complete cover. They pushed on, used the nights to move closer yet, and each morning the lines had been dug farther forward, forming a second parallel. When the sun rose, Washington heard the enthusiasm of the marksmen, already moving into place, carving