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St. Michaels Map and History
© John Norton
On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.
For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.
Pride Goeth Before French indeed entered Chesapeake Bay at the end of August with 28 to Virginia. Outnumbered Patriots ships-of-the-line, plus frigates, under General Nathaniel Greene gunboats and 3,000 troops. and the Marquis de Lafayette They trapped two Royal Navy dogged the perpetrators across the frigates inside the Capes and left South until the British, with Loy- them unable to convey precise inalists and Hessian mercenaries, telligence of the enemy fleet to stopped to dig in at the little port British headquarters in New York, of Yorktown, Virginia. where Graves knew only that some
The pursuers encamped at Wil- French had headed north from the liamsburg, on the same peninsula, West Indies. He set sail down the awaiting reinforcements to help coast with a favoring wind, expecttrap their quarry. In addition to al- ing perhaps a dozen French warlies marching southward, they an- ships. ticipated de Grasse’s French fleet Shortly after sunup on Septemfrom the West Indies. Past experi- ber 5, Graves reached the mouth of ence left cause for doubt, but the the Bay and spied the astonishing
number of enemy masts. The vanguard of his line entered the Capes, mistakenly headed toward the mid-shallows. To avoid running aground, they had to awkwardly maneuver about. At the same time, in his favor, Graves caught de Grasse unaware, with many French officers ashore overseeing offloading men and materials. Captains scrambled to reassemble crews and set sail for open water.
With the latter portion of Graves’s line in battle order and the wind at his back, he could have taken advantage of French disorganization. But instead of attacking de Grasse’s ships straggling from the Bay, he introduced more confusion by raising contradictory signal
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flags. Already outgunned, many of Graves’s 19 ships-of-the-line never joined the battle.
British officers maneuvered through morning and afternoon to get on the same page of battle formation “by the book.” Seamen toiled, prepping cannons and spreading sand to prevent bare feet slipping on soon-to-be-bloody decks. Battle erupted at four in the afternoon and lasted little more than two hours. Graves absorbed the majority of damage before the fleets drifted apart. Graves ordered emergency repairs and considered his odds; the French slipped back into the Bay. Deciding he could not Lord Charles Cornwallis ~ “The man who lost the Revolutionary War.”
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Pride Goeth Before 700 miles in under four weeks, including four agonizing days’ march offer Cornwallis “effectual suc- after hearing faint sounds of sea cour,” Graves headed back north, battle, before learning the outdispatching word to his astounded come. According to one witness, commander in chief, General Sir when Washington finally reached Henry Clinton: the French were Williamsburg, Lafayette followed “absolute masters” of the Bay. the French fashion and “caught the
Regardless, Cornwallis’s army general…and absolutely kissed him of 10,000 still outnumbered troops from ear to ear.” Washington next initially arrayed against him by went downriver to meet de Grasse, two to one. The pugnacious gen- taking his aide Tench Tilghman as eral could have escaped Yorktown interpreter, while Lafayette recovbut settled in after a storm foiled ered from a bout of ague. one halfhearted foray. Clinton had He learned that de Grasse had promised much, and standard pro- limited permission for American cedure prescribed awaiting antici- operations. Orders required he sail pated reinforcement before taking before November. If one month’s action. siege proved ineffective, a costly
Meanwhile, Washington covered assault on Yorktown would become
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necessary. French engineers, expert at siege operations, directed entrenchments and artillery installation.
To consolidate troops, Cornwallis abandoned two forward redoubts his troops had prepared. Allies quickly occupied them and on October 9 began pounding the British with artillery, some newly arrived in French ships from Newport. As British diarist Lieutenant James recorded, “horrendous” thundering of “almost unendurable” 16-inch mortars rained on their position. Cornwallis wrote Clinton that he was “in daily expectation of the appearance of the British fleet.”
Clinton had sent word south that reinforcements had “already
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