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and which also is a flourishing trade city due to its location along a beautiful river and port. We boarded ship in Annapolis to go to Virginia because the route is shorter by sea than by land, and also because the situation in Klein-York was becoming very urgent and the Americans were impatiently awaiting us.

und nach Probortion auch sehr handelbar wegen seinem schönen Fluße und Hafen. Wir schiffeten alda zu Annapolis ein um nach Virginien zu fahren weil der Weg näher zu Wasser als zu Lande ist, theils auch weil es zu Klein-York sehr pressierete und die Americani-schen mit Schmertzen auf uns wardeten.

On the 19th, we passed by Hampton a little town along the shore.

Den 19ten passirten wir Hamton ein kleines Städtgen am Wasser liegent.

On the 22nd we arrived in the province of Virginia, 40 miles from Annapolis. We immediately disembarked in Kolletz-Canting. We continued all the way to Williamsburg, 9 miles from Kolletz-Cantry. Our grenadiers and Chasseurs were already in Williamsburg just like our detachment groups that we had left in Newport. There as well were General Comte de Grasse’s[156] troops that had landed leaving the flotilla to carry out a siege; those troops were made up of the Gâtinois, Angenois, and Touraine regiments. They were camping above the city and we were already on that side. Those three regiments were under the command of Monsieur La Fayette[157] etc.

Den 23ten kamen wir in der Profintz Virginien an, 40 Meillen von Annapolis. Zugleicher Zeit schifften wir auch aus zu Kolletz-Canring. Wir gingen noch bis Wiliamsburg 9 Meillen von Kolletz-Cantry. Unsere Grenadirs und Jäger waren schon zu Wiliamsburg wie auch unsere Detachements, welches wir in Nieport zurück gelassen hatten. Auch waren schon alda die Truppen von General Compte de Grass welcher von seiner Flotte alda ausgeschiffet hatte zur Belag-rung : Diese Truppen waren : das Regimen t Gadinois Angenois und Touraine. Diese campierten oberhalb der Stadt und wir unterhalb der Stadt. Diese 3 Regimenter stunden unter dem Befehl des Herrn La Fayette etc.

On the 25th, we set off again from Williamsburg for 18 miles to Little-York where the English army was established.

Wir brachen den 25ten zu Wiliamsburg wiedrum auf 18 Meillen biß Lettel-Yorck allwo die englische Armee sich vestgesetzt hat.

We arrived near York around 1 o’clock in the afternoon,

Wir kamen gegen 1 Uhr nach Mittag bey Yorck an

[réclame]

worauf

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f38/pct:0,0,50,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 74.

[agrandir]

 Notes

156. François Joseph Paul de Grasse du Bar, Marquis de Tilly, was born in 1722. In succession, he was a marine guard in 1734, captain in 1762, fleet commander in 1778, lieutenant general in 1781. He was generally referred to as Admiral de Grasse (and not as General count). He left Brest in March 1781 at the head of 26 war ships and headed for the Caribbean West Indies. Upon his arrival in St. Domingo, he received a message from Washington and Rochambeau ordering him to go back toward the Chesapeake Bay to block Cornwallis by sea and confront possible British reinforcements. De Grasse accepted this unexpected plan, boarded 3,000 men who were placed under the orders of Marquis de Saint-Simon (three St. Domingo regiments) and sailed north. De Grasse arrived on August 30 in the bay and disembarked his troops. On the 5th, the English flotilla commanded by Admiral Graves discovered the French flotilla in the bay. An uncertain combat followed that ended with the retreat of the English flotilla. The “Battle of the Capes” or the Battle of the Chesapeake Bay was a victory of great magnitude for the French Royal Navy as it sealed the fate of Cornwallis and his army, held captive in Yorktown. De Grasse was consequently acclaimed by the Americans and by Washington as one of the principal actors in the victory at Yorktown. Nevertheless, De Grasse was defeated the following year on April 12, 1782 by Admiral Rodney in the Battle of Dominica, where he was taken prisoner. Disgraced after this harsh defeat, Count de Grasse Tilly died on January 11, 1788. [Christian de la Jonquière, Les marins français sous Louis XVI, Guerre d’Indépendance Américaine, Muller editions, 1996. p. 125]. Cf. Jean Baptiste Mauzaisse, François Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse, lieutenant général des armées, oil on canvas, 1842, Versailles, Castle of Versailles and Trianon [reproduction en ligne - RMN].
157. Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. The son of Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert, a colonel killed in the Battle of Minden in 1759. Lafayette was born in the Château de Chavaignac on September 6, 1757. He had a short military career (musketeer in 1771, sub lieutenant in the Noailles regiment in 1773, captain in 1774) before leaving in 1777 to serve in the American army as major general. A member of General Washington’s general staff, he was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine. Lafayette became a close friend of General Washington and earned the respect of Congress. From then on, troops were entrusted to him with which he held up well when faced with the British army (Barren Hill, Monmouth Courthouse). Once the French alliance was obtained, he returned to France in 1779 to appeal for reinforcements to be sent to America. In 1780, he again crossed the Atlantic, and Washington entrusted him with defending Virginia against Arnold and later Cornwallis. Commanding only a few thousand men, he managed to stand up to Cornwallis’s corps, which retreated toward the Chesapeake Bay exhausted. Thanks to him holding back Cornwallis on the Jamestown peninsula (the Battle of Green Springs), the English army was encircled by land and sea. During the Siege of Yorktown, he led the Americans’ attack on redoubt n°10. He returned to Paris a hero at the beginning of 1782, and was promoted to maréchal de camp. A representative of the aristocracy at the 1789 Estates-General, he was named major of the National Guard on July 15, 1789, then lieutenant general in 1791. His popularity fell dramatically after the escape and arrest of the King in Varennes and the Champs de Mars Massacre. As a “moderate”, his position became more and more difficult, especially as he defended, along with Rochambeau, stopping the offensive against the Austrians. Definitively discredited, he emigrated in August 1792, he was arrested by the Austrians and held until 1797. He ceased to play any public role before becoming a liberal deputy in 1818. He made a triumphant return to the United States in 1824. His political influence was strong after the fall of Charles X and the ascension of Louis-Philippe whom he supported. He was named major of the National Guard on July 29, 1830. Deputy in 1831. He died in Paris on May 20, 1834. [Gilbert Bodinier, Dictionnaire des officiers de l’armée royale, SHAT, editions Mémoires et documents, 2005, p. 167; Philippe Olivier, Bibliographie des travaux relatifs à Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834), Institut d’études du Massif-central, Clermont-Ferrand, 1979; Lyod Kramer, La Fayette in two worlds: public cultures and personal identities in an age of Revolution, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, 1996]. Cf. Jean Baptiste Le Paon, Le Marquis de La Fayette, etching, late eighteenth century [reproduction en ligne - RMN].