Victory at Yorktown (42 page)

Captain Allen McLane
(1746–1829). A Pennsylvanian, he fought with Virginia militia on Long Island and was promoted to captain on the field at Princeton by Washington. After the British evacuated Philadelphia McLane tried unsuccessfully to reveal Benedict Arnold's profiteering to Washington. In June 1781 he bore a message urging de Grasse to sail north to the Chesapeake, and during the Yorktown campaign he was posted on Long Island to inform Washington if the British were reinforcing Cornwallis.

Brigadier General Daniel Morgan
(1736–1802). Leaving home at seventeen, he became a farm laborer and wagoner. Two years later he joined General Edward Braddock's expedition as a teamster and got to know Washington. He fought in the French and Indian wars, led Benedict Arnold's march to Quebec, was captured and exchanged. His riflemen played a decisive role at Saratoga. Resigning in 1779 after being passed over, he later took charge of an elite corps after the disaster at Camden, went on to win the pivotal victory at Cowpens, and finally left the army because of ill health. In 1797, by which time he owned 250,000 acres of land, he was elected to Congress.

Robert Morris
(1734–1806). English-born merchant who was known as the financier of the Revolution. A partner in a Philadelphia import-export firm, he became a leader in the patriot cause and signed the nonimportation agreement in 1765. He was in the Congress while continuing his commercial activities, and brokered deals to supply rebel troops. He personally financed the Yorktown campaign. Like many others, his postwar downfall resulted from land speculation.

Governor Thomas Nelson
(1739–1789). Educated in England, he returned to serve in the House of Burgesses, as brigadier general in the state militia, in Congress, and as governor of Virginia, succeeding Jefferson. War debts turned him into a poor man.

Louis-Marie, Vicomte de Noailles
(1756–1804). Lafayette's brother-in-law, he fought at Yorktown and helped negotiate surrender terms with the British. Back in France, he was elected to the Estates-General but during the Reign of Terror fled to England and then to the United States.

Lord North, courtesy title of Frederick, second Earl of Guilford
(1732–1792). Appointed first minister in 1770 by George III, for whom he was a pliant agent. North's administration bears much blame for the loss of the colonies. After Yorktown he finally lost faith in the cause and resigned.

Brigadier General Charles O'Hara
(1740?–1802). After service in Africa he came to America in 1778 and later joined Cornwallis in the South, where he spearheaded the pursuit of Nathanael Greene to the Dan and represented the earl at the Yorktown surrender.

Major General William Phillips
(1731?–1781). A brilliant artillerist, he was captured at Saratoga and, when exchanged, led two thousand troops to join Benedict Arnold in Virginia. There he died of typhoid fever in May 1781.

Andrew Pickens
(1739–1817). An austere South Carolina farmer and justice of the peace, he became a brigadier general of militia and fought in numerous engagements, including Cowpens, with his irregulars, whom he paid in goods and slaves taken from loyalists.

Colonel Timothy Pickering
(1745–1829). Author of a training manual for militia, he served in the Lexington alert and the New York and New Jersey campaigns. In 1780 he replaced Nathanael Greene as quartermaster general. Earlier he wrote, “If we should fail at last, the Americans can blame only their own negligence, avarice, and want of almost every public virtue.” He was not an admirer of George Washington.

Francis, Lord Rawdon
(1754–1826). Distinguished at Bunker Hill, he became an aide to General Sir Henry Clinton, then recruited a provincial regiment called “Volunteers of Ireland” and led them to the South. He fought at Camden and was left behind by Cornwallis to take charge of South Carolina and Georgia. Ill, he was captured by the French en route to England.

Beverley Robinson
(1721–1792). A New York loyalist who became a hugely wealthy landowner. He raised a regiment of loyalists and served as an intelligence agent for Clinton. His property on the Hudson was confiscated, and he was exiled to England.

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau
(1725–1807). After several decades of fighting in Europe, he was chosen to lead French expeditionary forces in America. Fortunately, he accepted a subordinate role to Washington and maintained good relations with the American, which, with the help of the French fleet, led to the triumph at Yorktown. Jailed during the Reign of Terror in France, only the death of Robespierre saved him from the guillotine.

Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, Vicomte de Rochambeau
(1755–1813). During the Revolution, he was an aide to his father, the Comte de Rochambeau. After the war he served in the West Indies and was captured by the British.

Admiral Sir George Rodney
(1718–1792). He played almost no part in the Revolution beyond capturing Admiral de Grasse in 1782, but by then the war was all but over.

Benjamin Rush
(1745–1813). Trained in medicine at Edinburgh, he became the colony's best-known physician as well as a member of Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Appointed surgeon general of the army, he complained about Washington's handling of military matters and started what became the Conway Cabal. He resigned when confronted with evidence of his disloyalty.

Claude Henri, Marquis de Saint-Simon
(1760–1825). He entered the army in 1775 and took part in the Yorktown campaign with three thousand men.

John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich
(1718–1792). As first lord of the Admiralty, he and his corrupt department were responsible for the wretched condition of ships and naval personnel during the Revolution. He liked to eat meat held between two slices of bread; hence the name.

Colonel Alexander Scammell
(1747–1781). A surveyor and brigade major in John Sullivan's militia, he served at the siege of Boston, in Canada, and distinguished himself at Saratoga. As Washington's adjutant general, he arrested Charles Lee and had John André executed. One of the most admired field officers, he was mortally wounded at Yorktown.

Major General Philip Schuyler
(1733–1804). One of four major generals commissioned under Washington, he was a huge landowner in the Hudson Valley and an ardent patriot. His leadership was plagued by tensions between New Yorkers and New Englanders and by friction with General Horatio Gates. He resigned but continued to advise Washington.

Colonel Isaac Shelby
(1750–1826). A frontier surveyor, he became a militia colonel and led troops to important victories in the Carolinas, notably at Kings Mountain. He became Kentucky's first governor after the war.

Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe
(1752–1806). Commander of the Queen's Rangers, a Tory corps, he fought around Boston, at Brandywine, and in Virginia, where he was posted at Gloucester during the Yorktown siege.

Joshua Hett Smith
(1736–1818). Brother of William and an active Whig, perhaps quite innocently he helped John André meet with Benedict Arnold by taking him ashore from the British ship
Vulture.
He accompanied André on part of his journey, leaving him before they reached British lines.

William Smith, Jr.
(1728–1793). A distinguished jurist and historian of New York, Smith was a fence-sitter when war broke out. He refused to take the oath supporting the rebel cause and remained in New York City until war's end, when he moved to England and was appointed chief justice in Canada.

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
(1730–1794). The bogus “baron” had served under Frederick the Great and was sent to America by Benjamin Franklin. Here he had great success in training rebel soldiers and teaching them discipline. His “blue book” was the official drill manual until 1812.

David Murray, Viscount Stormont
(1727–1796). As British ambassador to France, he tried to block the French alliance, employing a network of spies to help. As secretary of state for the northern department, he persuaded the king to declare war on Holland in 1780.

Major General John Sullivan
(1740–1795). A Maine lawyer, he was in the Continental Congress and served at the siege of Boston and the invasion of Canada. He was captured at Long Island, fought at Trenton, Princeton, and Brandywine, and led an expedition against the Iroquois. As a military diplomatist with the French at Newport, he was a failure.

Major Benjamin Tallmadge
(1754–1835). A Yale graduate, he saw action from Long Island to Monmouth before taking over Washington's secret service from 1778 to 1783. His initiative after the capture of John André led to the revelation of Benedict Arnold's treachery.

Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton
(1754–1833). An accomplished cavalryman, he was a favorite of Cornwallis and anathema to rebels, who called him “Butcher” and “Bloody Tarleton” for his tactics. Badly beaten at Cowpens, he fought Lauzun at Yorktown and asked to be surrendered to Rochambeau rather than to the Americans, for fear of what they would do to him.

Charles-Louis d'Arsac, Admiral the Chevalier de Ternay
(1722–1780). He was commissioned to transport Rochambeau's army from Brest to Rhode Island. He died not long after arriving.

James Thacher
(1754–1844). After apprenticeship to a Massachusetts doctor he became an army surgeon and witnessed many important events, which he described in his journal. It provides a unique glimpse into the cold, hungry lives of the troops.

Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman
(1744–1786). He sold his Philadelphia business on the eve of the Revolution and in 1776 began work as volunteer military secretary to Washington. A favorite of the General, after assisting him for five years he was made a lieutenant colonel. He had the honor of taking news of Yorktown to the Congress. He died young of hardships suffered in the war.

Carl Gustaf Tornquist
(1757–1808). A Swedish officer in the French navy, he served under de Grasse in 1781 and wrote a valuable memoir.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Trumbull
(1740–1809). Son of the Connecticut governor, he was paymaster general in the northern department and later first comptroller of the currency. In 1781 Washington chose him to replace Alexander Hamilton as an aide, and he served in the Yorktown campaign. After the war he was a congressman and governor of Connecticut.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick
(1753–1831). At first he was an aide to Philip Schuyler, then to Benedict Arnold at West Point. After Arnold's treason was revealed, Varick was investigated and found innocent. Between 1781 and 1783 he was Washington's official recording secretary.

Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes
(1717–1787). He became a diplomat as a young man and as a favorite of Louis XVI became secretary of foreign affairs in 1774. In that role he helped Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane secure secret military and financial aid and persuaded the king to sign a treaty of alliance.

Jean-Baptist-Antoine de Verger
(1762–1851). As a teenager, he joined the Deux-Ponts regiment and fought under Rochambeau. With the fall of the French monarchy in 1792, he emigrated to Germany.

Antoine Charles du Houx, Baron de Vioménil
(1728–1792). He entered the army at twelve and was Rochambeau's second in command in America. At Yorktown he led a charge that was decisive. He died of injuries sustained while defending the French royal family in 1792.

Charles-Joseph-Hyacinthe, Comte de Vioménil
(1734–1827). Younger brother of the baron, he commanded the French artillery at Yorktown. In 1792 he joined other émigrés fighting to restore the monarchy, became leader of the Portuguese army, and moved to England in 1808.

Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of Orford
(1717–1797). Third son of Sir Robert Walpole, known as the first prime minister of England, he was a prolific writer of letters and memoirs, providing a vivid picture of Georgian England. He opposed North's ministry and the colonial war.

General George Washington
(1732–1799). A Virginia planter, surveyor, and militia colonel, he became prominent during the French and Indian War. As a member of his province's House of Burgesses, he opposed British legislation affecting the colonies. He was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, which chose him as commander in chief of the Continental Army. After the war he advocated a strong national union and was president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Two years later he was elected the nation's first president and served two terms before retiring to his estate, Mount Vernon.

Colonel William Washington
(1752–1810). A distant relative of George Washington, he studied for the ministry before the war, when he became a captain in the Virginia infantry. Wounded at Long Island and Trenton, he moved to the South to join Benjamin Lincoln and organized a cavalry brigade, which skirmished often with Banastre Tarleton (notably at Cowpens).

Brigadier General Anthony Wayne
(1745–1796). A Pennsylvania tanner, Wayne was active in the revolutionary movement from its earliest days. His fiery leadership won him the nickname “Mad Anthony.” He served in Canada, at Brandywine, Paoli, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, and was with Steuben in the Yorktown campaign, then with Nathanael Greene.

Brigadier General George Weedon
(c. 1730–1793). Known to his tavern customers as “Joe Gourd,” he fought at Brandywine and Germantown and commanded the Virginia militia at the siege of Yorktown.

Paul Wentworth
(?–1793). Though George III never trusted him, calling him a “stock jobber,” he was chief of the loyalist secret agents in London, and after he tried to persuade Benjamin Franklin to seek peace, Louis XVI agreed to a Franco-American treaty. Edward Bancroft reported to him.