The long march from Newport
to New York began. In glowing June, amid the beauties of nature,
now overcome by intense heat and obliged to march at two o'clock
in the morning, now drenched by heavy rains, the French plodded
on, and joined their American comrades along the Hudson early in
July.
By the 14th of August Washington knew two things--that a great
French fleet under the Comte de Grasse had sailed for the
Chesapeake and that the British army had reached Yorktown. Soon
the two allied armies, both lying on the east side of the Hudson,
moved southward. On the 20th of August the Americans began to
cross the river at King's Ferry, eight miles below Peekskill.
Washington had to leave the greater part of his army before New
York, and his meager force of some two thousand was soon over the
river in spite of torrential rains. By the 24th of August the
French, too, had crossed with some four thousand men and with
their heavy equipment. The British made no move. Clinton was,
however, watching these operations nervously. The united armies
marched down the right bank of the Hudson so rapidly that they
had to leave useful effects behind and some grumbled at the
privation. Clinton thought his enemy might still attack New York
from the New Jersey shore.
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