ginia, about seven thousand men, under the
command of Earl Cornwallis; and thirdly, the garrison of Charleston,
South Carolina, under the command of Lord Rawdon; Savannah, the capital
of Georgia, was also occupied by a British garrison. Washington's plan
was to pretend an attack upon New York, but to make a real attack upon
the army of Virginia, with the view of extinguishing British power in
the Southern States. So well was the appearance of an intended attack
upon New York kept up, that Sir Henry Clinton made all needful
preparations for its defence, and actually ordered Lord Cornwallis to
send a detachment of his men to New York to strengthen its defence; but
after their embarkation for that purpose the order was countermanded,
and Lord Cornwallis was allowed to retain them. Nothing could be more
complete than the deception practised upon Sir Henry Clinton; nor did
he suspect the real intention of the allied armies until they had
crossed the Hudson and were on their way, through the Jerseys,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland, to Virginia.[49]

"In the latter end of August," says Dr. Ramsay, "the American army began
their march to Virginia from the neighbourhood of New York. Washington
had advanced as far as Chester before he received information of the
arrival of De Grasse. The French troops marched at the same time, for
the same place. In the course of this summer they passed through all the
extensive settlements which lie between Newport and Yorktown. It seldom
if ever happened before, that an army led through a foreign country at
so great a distance from their own, among a people of different
principles, customs, language, and religion, behaved with so much
regularity. In their march to Yorktown they had to pass through five
hundred miles of a country abounding in fruit, and at a time when the
most delicious productions of nature, growing on and near the public
highways, presented both opportunity and temptation to gratify their
appetites, yet so complete was their discipline, that in this long march
scarce an instance could be produced of a peach or an apple being taken
without the consent of the inhabitants."[50]

On the 14th of September, Washington and De Rochambeau, in advance of
their armies and with their respective staffs of officers, arrived at
Williamsburg; and with Generals Chastellux, Du Portail, and Knox,
visited Count de Grasse on board his famous ship, the _Ville de Paris_,
and agreed on the plan of opera