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

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Nor must impartial history fail to relate that the

Chap. XXV.} 1781. Oct. 19

French provided for the siege of Yorktown thirtyseven ships of the line, and the Americans not one; that while the Americans supplied nine thousand troops, of whom fifty-five hundred were regulars, the contingent of the French consisted of seven thousand.

Among the prisoners were two battalions of Anspach, amounting to ten hundred and seventy-seven men; and two regiments of Hesse, amounting to eight hundred and thirty-three. On the way to their camp, they passed in front of the regiment of Deux Ponts. At the sight of their countrymen, they forgot that they had been in arms against each other, and embraced with tears in their eyes. The English soldiers affected to look at the allied army with scorn. Their officers, of more reflection, conducted themselves with decorum, yet could not but feel how decisive was their defeat.

When the letters of Washington announcing the capitulation reached congress, that body, with the people streaming in their train, went in procession to the Dutch Lutheran church to return thanks to Almighty God. Every breast swelled with joy. In the evening, Philadelphia was illuminated with greater splendor than at any time before. Congress voted honors to Washington, to Rochambeau, and to de Grasse, with special thanks to the officers and troops. A marble column was to be erected at Yorktown, with emblems of the alliance between the United States and his most Christian Majesty.

The Duke de Lauzun, chosen to take the news across the Atlantic, arrived in twenty-two days at Best, and reached Versailles on the nineteenth of Brest, and reached Versailles on the nineteenth of

Nov. 19.