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71.

71.

and because of this colonel, the house had been spared for a long time. As this building was located at a distance of about 300 paces, just in front of the houses of the city, it formed an obstacle, so that we could not shoot at the general headquarters.

Belagrung ware, und diesem Obrist halben wurde dieses Hauß lange Zeit verschont. Weil dieses Gebäute aber just ohngefehr 300 Schritt vor der Stadt-Haussen stunde, so ware es im Weeg und machte viele Ver-hindernüß, daß man das General-Quatier nicht be-schießen konte.

Around noon, General Washington sent for this colonel and told him that he intended to set fire to the general headquarters with fire shots, and if his house, or that of his father, came to be destroyed by the fire, he would replace it up to the total cost of the damage. But the colonel responded that we blow it up, to the great displeasure of his father[179]. Around 11:30, it was already burning like a torch, it is true that some 20 bombs had fallen there.

Gegen Mittag aber fragte der General Wahsington diesen Obrist und sagte, daß er willens wäre, das Generals-Quatier anzuzünden mit feurigen Kuglen, und wann sein oder seines Vatters Hauß vor der Front sollte verdorben werden, wolte er es ihm wieder ersetzen, was der Schaden anbelangen thäte. Der Obrist aber sagte, man solte es zum Trutz seines Vatters zusammen schießen. Gegen 11 Uhr und ein 1/2 hatte es schon einer Laterne gleich gesehen, es seynd auch schon etliche 20 Bommen darein geflochen gewessen.

Around 1 o’clock, while the staff was eating, we sent 24 bombs on that house, one after the other. Some of them fell in front of the house, some inside, which ruined General Cornwallis’s appetite and that of his staff. Two of them were killed and several severely wounded, the others ran away. But as the bombs were falling in abundance, they no longer knew where to retreat. Whereever they went,

Gegen 1 Uhr, als die Generalitet an der Taffel saße, schickten wir 24 Bommen, so daß eine die andre jagte auf dieses Hauß loß. Etliche viehlen vor das Hauß, die andren drein, daß dem General Kornwallis mit seiner Generalitet das Mittag-Essen verginge. Zwey von ihnen wurden gedötet und etliche scharf plessiert, der Überest machte sich flüchtig. Weilen die Bommen so häufig kamen, wußten sich nicht mehr zu reterieren. Wo sie hin gingen, wurden sie von den

[réclame]

kuglen

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f50/pct:50,0,100,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 99.

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 Notes

179. The colonel that Flohr mentions was Thomas Nelson Junior, Brigadier general, commander of the Virginia militia. The man named as his father was actually his uncle and was not an “upstanding Englishman”, that is to say, a Loyalist. Thomas Nelson, a former public figure of the colony, was in Yorktown during the Siege of the city, he switched to the allies’ side on October 10 with the permission of Cornwallis. Cornwallis’s general staff directly occupied Thomas Nelson Senior’s house, which was immediately chosen as a target by the artillerymen. Brigadier general Thomas Nelson Junior played a part at another moment of the Siege, on the 9th or the 11th of October (Emory G. Evans, Thomas Nelson of Yorktown: Revolutionary Virginian, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, 1975) when he signaled to Lafayette to direct the artillery shots in the direction of the great brick house where the enemy general staff was located. He also specified to a surprised Lafayette that it was his own house. [Guns of Independence, p. 214].