George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[507] place, clung to it tenaciously, and declared that he

Chap. XXV.} 1781. July. 4.

would not be ‘duped’¹ by his rival into resigning.

‘To your opinions it is my duty implicitly to submit,’ was the answer of Cornwallis to the orders of Clinton; and on the fourth of July he began his march to Portsmouth. On that day, the royal army arrived near James island, and in the evening the advanced guard reached the opposite bank of the James river. Two or three more days were required to carry over all the stores and the troops. The small American army followed at a distance. Beside fifteen hundred regular troops, equal to the best in the royal army, Lafayette drew to his side as volunteers gallant young men mounted on their own horses from Maryland and Virginia. Youth and generosity, courage and prudence, were his spells of persuasion. His perceptions were quick and his vigilance never failed, and in his methods of gaining information of the movements of the enemy he excelled all officers in the war except Washington and Morgan. All accounts bear testimony to his prudence, and that he never once committed himself during a very difficult campaign.² Of his selfpossession in danger he was now called upon to give proof.

On the sixth, Lafayette judged correctly that the

6.

great body of the British army was still on the north side of the James river; but Wayne, without his knowledge, detached a party under Colonel Galvan to carry off a field-piece of the enemy which was