The news of the capture of Yorktown was carried to France by a French frigate, who made the voyage in eighteen days. The English were thrown into consternation at that news, which occasioned the downfall of the ministry of Lord North. It was felt in London, as in the rest of all Europe, that the decisive check the English had received, had completely settled the final issue of the conflict, and from that period nothing was thought of but to acknowledge the independence of the United States on favourable terms for Great Britain.
Generals Washington and Lafayette wished to take advantage of the superiority of the Count de Grasse in order to attack Charlestown, and the English who remained in the southern states. Lafayette was to take his light infantry, as well as the corps of St. Simon, and land on the Charlestown side, to co-operate with General Greene, who still commanded in Carolina. It is evident that this project would have been successful. It has since become known that Lord Cornwallis, when he saw Lafayette enter into a canoe to go on board the fleet of the Count de Grasse, said to some English officers, "He is going to decide the loss of Charlestown." But the admiral refused obstinately to make any operation upon the coast of North America.~[15]
General Lafayette afterwards repaired to congress. To him, who was then but four-and-twenty, the happy issue of that campaign was as flattering a success as it had been decisive to the American cause. He received the instructions of congress, in relation to the affairs of the United States in Europe; and embarked at Boston in the frigate _the Alliance_. He reached France in twenty-three days. The reception he met with, and the credit he enjoyed both at court and in society were constantly and usefully employed in the service of the cause he had embraced.
1. These Memoirs are extracted from the American Biography of M. de Lafayette, written by himself, which we have designated under the name of Manuscript, No. 1. We have completed them by extracts of Manuscript, No. 2, which contains observations on the historians of America.
2. It was settled that that corps of six thousand men, commanded by Lieutenant-General Rochambeau, was to be completely under the orders of the American commander-in-chief, and was only to form a division of his army. The order of service was regulated in such a manner that the French were only to be looked upon as auxiliaries, keeping the left of the American troops, and the command belonging, when there was equality, of rank and age, to the American officers. In a word, the advantages to be derived by the government, the general, and the American soldiers, were stipulated beforehand in such a manner as to prevent all future discussions. (Manuscript, No. 2.)