THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 45 tions of Y jrktown, Cornwallis and his Englishmen bad so long withstood the assault of the allied armies. Upon yonder ramparts the blood of our soldiers had sealed an alliance unbroken down to our own times ; an alliance to which the United States once owed their prosperity and their greatness. Not to speak of the emotion with which I found myself in this distant spot surrounded by recollections of national glory; not to speak of the interest with which I examined the traces of scenes of war, some of the actors in which I had myself been permitted to see, I could not but ask myself if by a strange caprice of destiny these same ramparts might not behold the undoing of the work of 1781, and if from the slow siege of Yorktown, both the ruin of the great Republic and the rupture of the Franco-American alliance might not be fated to come forth. The destiny of the Union was in the hand of the God of Battles. No one could foresee his decrees; but the Franco-American alliance, that alliance which had so well served all generous ideas, was more plainly dependent upon human will. Doubtless the strife before Y orktown was a civil war, and although the federate were fighting for the most just of all possible causes, nothing absolutely obliged France to send her soldiers to aid them. But the sword of France makes itself felt afar as well as nearer home, and the Americans of the North could have wished to see their ancient allies throw their influence in favor of the side on which were arrayed justice and liberty. It was plain that with the powerful means winch we were using the fall of Yorktown was purely a question of time. Crushed under the weight of the fire about to be opened upon them, without casemates to shelter their troops, with no other defences than earthworks and palisades, the rebels had no chance of prolonged resistance. Everything was ready for the decisive blow. Not only was a terrible bombardment to be directed against the city: not only were the choicest troops
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