Praise for Barbara Tuchman and The First Salute “[A] tightly woven narrative, ingeniously structured.… She concludes with a salute for all that America has achieved, and a deep sadness for all that it hasn’t.” —The Christian Science Monitor “Nothing in a novel could be more thrilling than the moment in this glorious history when French soldiers arrive on a boat at Chester, Pa., in 1781, look on the dock and see a tall, familiar gure: George Washington.… It is only part of Tuchman’s genius that she can reconstitute such scenes with so much precision and passion.… [A]n exhilarating book about human greed, foolishness and courage.” —People Magazine “This is ‘drum-and-trumpet’ history at its best (in this case ‘jib-and-mainsail’ would be more apt).… [B]ecause she presents both telling detail and grand theory in unexpected ways and in splendid, sweeping prose, Barbara Tuchman’s works continue to dazzle.” —Houston Post “[F]resh, interesting.… The author’s keen sense of human nature and her considerable knowledge of 18th-century government and military tactics unlock the machinations and motivations behind the basic facts of the conflict.” —The Pittsburgh Press By Barbara W Tuchman BIBLE AND SWORD (1956) THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM (1958) THE GUNS OF AUGUST (1962) THE PROUD TOWER (1966) STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA (1971) NOTES FROM CHINA (1972) A DISTANT MIRROR (1978) PRACTICING HISTORY (1981) THE MARCH OF FOLLY (1984) THE FIRST SALUTE (1988) A Ballantine Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group Copyright © 1988 by Barbara W Tuchman All rights reserved Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto Grateful acknowledgment is made to Little, Brown and Company and to Curtis Brown Ltd for permission to reprint excerpts from John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography by Samuel Eliot Morison Copyright © 1959 by Samuel Eliot Morison Copyright renewed by Emily Morison Beck Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company and Curtis Brown Ltd Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc www.ballantinebooks.com Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88–92862 eISBN: 978-0-307-79857-2 This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A Knopf, Inc v3.1 To my grandchildren, Jennifer, Nell, Oliver and Jordan, lights of the new generation Contents Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Maps Notice I “Here the Sovereignty of the United States of America Was First Acknowledged” II The Golden Rock III Beggars of the Sea—The Dutch Ascendancy IV “The Maddest Idea in the World”—An American Navy V Buccaneer—The Baltimore Hero VI The Dutch and the English: Another War VII Enter Admiral Rodney VIII The French Intervention IX Low Point of the Revolution X “A Successful Battle May Give Us America” XI The Critical Moment XII Last Chance—The Yorktown Campaign Epilogue Bibliography Reference Notes About the Author Illustrations (FOLLOWING this page) Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney at forty-two, by Joshua Reynolds, 1761 (Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London) St Eustatius (Courtesy of Algemeen Rijks Archief) Southeast view of New York Harbor (Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society, New York) Sir Joseph Yorke, by Perroneau (Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London) Admiral Franỗois Joseph Paul de Grasse at Yorktown (Courtesy of the New York Public Library—Prints Division) Action between the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard (Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London) The Battle of Cowpens, by Frederick Kemmelmeyer (Courtesy of The Yale University Gallery, Mabel Garvan Collection) Sir Henry Clinton, 1787 (Courtesy of the R W Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana) General Count de Rochambeau, by Charles Willson Peale (Courtesy of Independence Hall) 10 “America Triumphant and Britannia in Distress” (Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, H Dunscombe Colt Collection, photograph by Delmore Wenzel) (FOLLOWING this page) Johannes de Graaff, artist unknown (Courtesy of New Hampshire State House, photograph by Bill Finney) First Marquess, Lord Cornwallis, by Thomas Gainsborough (Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London) General George Washington at Trenton, by John Trumbull (Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art) Map of the Siege of Yorktown (Courtesy of The Library of Congress) Surrender of the British at Yorktown, by John Trumbull (Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery) Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney in his last years, by Joshua Reynolds (Reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen) MAPS The West Indies in Relation to Europe and America The March from New York to Virginia The American Colonies Southern Theater of Operations New York Harbor and Environs The Siege of Yorktown Acknowledgments I WOULD like to acknowledge with thanks those persons and institutions who helped me to locate sources in an unfamiliar eld and otherwise assisted in the production of this book First, to my husband, Lester Tuchman, whose dependable presence and aid in support of failing eyesight is the rock on which this house is built H E Richard H Fein, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States, who gave the initial impetus by an invitation to address the Commemoration in 1985 of the fortieth anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands Dr Fred de Bruin of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Special thanks to my daughter Alma Tuchman for persistence in untangling confusions, detecting errors and setting things straight, and additional thanks to my granddaughter Jennifer Eisenberg for help in the preparation of the reference notes A B C Whipple of Greenwich, Connecticut, author of Fighting Sail, for clari cation in the language and understanding of naval matters Dawnita Bryson, my secretary and typist, for devoted work through a difficult maze Han Jordaan of The Hague for records of Johannes de Graa in the Archive of the West India Company G W Van der Meiden, Keeper of the First Section, Netherlands Rijks Archive Colonel Trevor Dupuy for guidance in the military history of the American Revolution Professor Simon Schama of Harvard University on questions of Dutch history Professor Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, for supplying the quotation from Hakluyt on naval education (this page) Galen Wilson, Manuscript Curator of the William L Clements Library, University of Michigan, for records of Sir Henry Clinton Dr Marie Devine, Joan Sussler, Catherine Justin and Anna Malicka, librarians of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, whose acquaintance with and instant recall of the contents of their collection is stunning Mark Piel, Director of the New York Society Library, and his sta for their kind assistance in many ways Rodney Phillips, Elizabeth Diefendorf and Joyce Djurdjevich of the New York Public Library for bibliographical help and guidance in the reference division Bridie Race, secretary to the corporation, who pulls all wires with charm and efficiency Todd Ellison of Greenbelt, Maryland, for nding the Van Bibber correspondence in the Maryland Archives, and for his careful analysis of Clark’s Naval Documents Dorothy Hughes, London, for research assistance at the Public Record Office Joan Kerr, Richard Snow and Arthur Nielsen of American Heritage for picture research Geraldine Ostrove and Charles Sens, Music Division of Library of Congress, for ...Praise for Barbara Tuchman and The First Salute “[A] tightly woven narrative, ingeniously structured.… She concludes with a salute for all that America has achieved,... HISTORY (1981) THE MARCH OF FOLLY (1984) THE FIRST SALUTE (1988) A Ballantine Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group Copyright © 1988 by Barbara W Tuchman All rights reserved Published... machinations and motivations behind the basic facts of the conflict.” —The Pittsburgh Press By Barbara W Tuchman BIBLE AND SWORD (1956) THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM (1958) THE GUNS OF AUGUST (1962) THE