General
Washington turned to Thomas Nelson who was both governor of Virginia
and a general in the army, and inquired,

"At what object shall this gun be fired?"

Pointing to his own dwelling where the roof appeared above the trees of
Yorktown, and where it was understood Cornwallis had his headquarters,
General Nelson answered,

"There is my house; aim at that!"

The story is that Washington turned to the gunner and said,

"For every shot you cause to hit that house, I will give you five
guineas."

From the 6th to the 10th of October, the fire from the allied
American and French army increased daily in vigor. On the 11th the
second parallel was completed and entered, and the besieging line was
thus tightened and strengthened. Within their intrenchments the
British were watching for reenforcements that were fated never to
come.

On the 14th of October it was found that the British held two redoubts
whose guns were inconveniently active, and the Americans believed they
must be silenced. The redoubts had been built on two small hills on
the American right, in a difficult region where rocky cuts alternated
with swampy depressions. These two hills were called "Number Nine" and
"Number Ten"; "Number Ten" was also called "Rock Redoubt." These
redoubts were about three hundred yards in front of the British
garrison, and Washington decided after consultation that they were of
sufficient importance to take by storm.

Accordingly the order was given. The reduction of Redoubt Number Nine
was intrusted to a group of French grenadiers and chasseurs. Rock
Redoubt stood nearest the river; this was assigned to Lafayette with
his American regiments.

Important among the men under General Lafayette's command was
Lieutenant Colonel de Gimat, the French aid who had always been so
faithful a follower of Lafayette; he commanded a body of men from
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Then there was Lieutenant Colonel
Alexander Hamilton, the young American to whom Lafayette was
personally so warmly attached, who afterwards was to become one of the
most distinguished servants of the new nation, and who was to meet so
strange and sad an end after his great work was done.

When Hamilton heard a rumor that General Washington was intending to
give to a certain Colonel Barber the opportunity to lead the attack,
his spirit was immediately aroused. Without a moment's delay he
hastened to headquarters and warmly urged his right to the honorabl