The American Gunners at Yorktown

The Siege of Yorktown began subsequent to the movement of about fifty thousand American and French soldiers and sailors to eastern Virginia, twenty-eight thousand sailors and marines in the French blockade fleet and twenty-two thousand American and French soldiers surrounding the British Army on land.  By October 9, 1781 tens of thousands of manhours had been expended building fortifications and batteries in the first parallel and hauling siege weapons across the peninsula from the James River to the Yorktown lines.  On that date less than one thousand American and French artillerymen began bombarding the British lines, initiating an eight-day assault that directly resulted in the British surrender and which had the eventual consequence of American independence.  The American portion of that artillery force consisted of fewer than 400 gunners of the Continental artillery.[1]

The Core Artillery Regiment

Gen. George Washington’s determination of units from the American Army in New York that would march to Yorktown in August 1781 included only one artillery regiment, the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment.  Of the four Continental artillery regiments that existed at the time, only the 2nd and 3rd were with the army in New York and the 3rd was to remain there in a defensive posture.  By virtue of its size among the artillery units at Yorktown the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment became the core American artillery unit there.  Brig. Gen. Henry Knox directed Col. John Lamb, commanding the 2nd Artillery, to begin the march towards Yorktown early on August 19.  Lamb’s second-in-command was Lt. Col. Ebenezer Stevens and for the southern campaign Knox augmented the regiment’s staff with Maj. Sebastian Bauman, then commanding the artillery at West Point.[2]

The regiment that marched south was comprised of seven companies, raised primarily in New York, whose captains were:  Thomas Bliss; John Doughty; George Fleming; Thomas Machin; Gershom Mott; Jacob Reed; and William Stevens.[3]  It accompanied the artillery and supplies brought from New York on the march south through New Jersey to Trenton.  Picking up additional ordnance in Philadelphia, the regiment continued via the Delaware River and Christiana Creek to Christiana Bridge, overland to Head of Elk, and down the Chesapeake Bay to the James River.  Lamb arrived off Williamsburg in that river by September 25, found nearby Trebell’s Landing to be a suitable place to land the ordnance, and by October 1 had his guns and supplies ashore.  Since the artillery’s draft horses had travelled overland and only arrived in early October, moving the guns to the Artillery Park at Yorktown was not accomplished until October 6.[4]

Other Artillery Detachments at Yorktown

The other three Continental artillery regiments were represented by detachments that arrived at Yorktown through a variety of circumstances.  The 1st Continental Artillery Regiment, raised in Virginia and commanded by Col. Charles Harrison, had marched from New York in April 1780 to the support of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, whose force was under siege at Charleston, South Carolina.  Harrison’s second-in-command was the versatile and capable Lt. Col. Edward Carrington.  The 1st Regiment did not reach Charleston before Lincoln surrendered the city to the British, so it joined the Southern Army under Gen. Horatio Gates (and later, Gen. Nathanael Greene) and served in the Carolinas.  Capt. Samuel Eddins’ Company of the 1st Regiment was detached to Yorktown in February 1781 to protect prizes anchored in York River, and Capt. Whitehead Coleman’s Company was sent to Virginia later that year to recruit.  Portions of these and perhaps other companies, serving under Captain Coleman, reported to General Knox when he arrived in Williamsburg in September.[5]

Washington had ordered Maj. Gen.Marquis de Lafayette to take 1,200 Continentals from the army in New York to Virginia in February 1781 to oppose British forces then threatening that state, instructing Lafayette to confer with General Knox concerning needed artillery support.  Knox assigned Lafayette one company each from the 2nd and 3rd Continental Artillery Regiments under Capt. Joseph Savage of the former regiment.  The 3rd Regiment had been raised primarily in Massachusetts.  Lafayette’s force arrived at Richmond in late April and spent the spring and summer maneuvering against British forces under Gen. William Phillips, and after his death under Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis.  When the latter moved his army to Yorktown in August Lafayette followed and positioned his force, including Savage’s artillery, to block any attempt by Cornwallis to escape once he became aware of his isolation.[6]

Washington next ordered Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne to reinforce Lafayette with his 1,200 Pennsylvanians including about one hundred officers and men of the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment.  The latter was comprised of three companies, two of which were commanded by Captains William Ferguson and Patrick Duffy.  Wayne left York, Pennsylvania in late May and joined Lafayette in central Virginia on June 11.  His Pennsylvanians led the engagement with the British at the Battle of Green Springs on July 6, where the artillery suffered losses of men and guns.  Thus it was a reduced contingent of the 4th Continental Artillery that was available to Knox in September.  That contingent was further weakened due to a September 23 altercation between Duffy and another officer, leading to Duffy’s arrest, court martial, and dismissal from the service on October 12.[7]

The original commander of the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment, Col. Thomas Proctor, had resigned in April so Knox appointed as his replacement the 1st Regiment’s Lieutenant Colonel Carrington, then serving as Deputy Quartermaster General for Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Army.  Carrington accepted on August 7 and had arrived in Virginia by September 21.  During the siege Carrington apparently also commanded the detachments of the 1st and 3rd Continental Artillery Regiments.  As one of four experienced field officers of artillery, he would prove to be a valuable addition to Knox’s force during the siege.[8]

Knox’s “Corps of Artillery” at Yorktown

Knox brought together the four elements described above in a “Corps of Artillery” at Yorktown.  On October 1, 1781, he mustered 382 officers and men present and fit for duty representing the Continental artillery regiments as follows:

• Detachment of the 1st Continental Artillery Regiment – 44
• Entire 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment – 242
• Detachment of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment – 25
• Detachment of the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment – 71

Much credit must go to the thirty-one-year-old Knox and his field officers for training his regiments from the beginning of the war such that the officers and men in this diverse corps, supported by a large group of non-artillerists, could perform as efficiently as they did during the siege.[9]

Knox undoubtedly knew before he left New York that he would not have trained gunners sufficient for the number of pieces of siege artillery he planned to take to Yorktown, and this muster provided confirmation.  Assuming he brought forty-five artillery pieces as planned, he would have needed approximately eight hundred men to provide crews for all pieces for alternating days on duty.  The resulting shortfall led to the assignment to Knox on October 6 of the Virginia State Regiment under Lt. Col. Charles Dabney, the Delaware Regiment under Capt. William McKennan, and 160 Virginia Militiamen under Major Wood Jones.  These additional 420 “auxiliaries” joined Knox’s men who were encamped at the Artillery Park, bringing his total strength to about 800.  While their greatest contribution was to relieve the artillerymen of duties which took them away from the firing line, such as guarding the artillery park, maintenance of fortifications, and hauling ammunition from the artillery park to the batteries, many of the auxiliaries worked in the laboratory and batteries under direction of Knox’s men.  They also assisted Capt. Thomas Patten’s small company of artificers that supported the artillerymen.[10]

In comparison to the resources available to Knox, the French Army at Yorktown included 600 artillerymen under the command of fifty-one-year-old Lt. Col. Francois Marie d’Aboville to manage their installation of perhaps thirty-eight guns.[11]

American Gunners in Action

A detail of artillerymen was appointed each day to work during daylight hours in the artillery park’s laboratory where ammunition was prepared for delivery to the batteries.  These men cleaned shot, made cartridges, and proved and filled shells.  By October 7 “many persons were busily employed” there.  Early in the siege a typical detail from the 2nd Regiment numbered fourteen, to which were added men from the other artillery regiments as well as the three auxiliary units.  Knox testified to the importance of this work through his complaint about the quality of the shells which had been cast by Pennsylvania ironworks, compared with those from a New Jersey supplier; workers in the laboratory did essential duty in proof-testing the shells and sending the batteries only good ammunition.[12]

Most of the artillery had been hauled from Trebell’s Landing across the peninsula six miles to the artillery park by October 6 allowing Knox’s men to concentrate on completing the batteries and moving guns and mortars into them.  The Grand American Battery, on the right of the American line near the York River, was completed by the afternoon of October 9 and the Left Battery and Bomb Battery were completed early the next day.  The first American gun was fired from the Grand American Battery late in the afternoon of October 9 followed by round-the-clock bombardment of British lines by American and French gunners.[13]

Prior to the beginning of the bombardment Knox issued orders that “a Field officer of artillery will be appointed every day to command in the Trenches … he will pointedly attend that the firing is well-directed according to the object …” and further ordered that “the officers of Artillery in the Batteries are to level every piece themselves.”  Colonel Lamb and Lieutenant Colonel Stevens took the first day’s assignment as field officer of, respectively, the batteries and the artillery park; subsequently Lieutenant Colonel Carrington and Major Bauman relieved Lamb and Stevens and that cycle continued throughout the siege.  Every two days each pair of officers switched assignments between the batteries and the park.  The field officer of the batteries provided a daily written report to Knox of ammunition used at each artillery position, furnishing a useful picture today of the American gunners’ activity.[14]

In addition to the field officers, captains and captain-lieutenants were assigned each day to command in the batteries.  Knox rotated this duty among the company officers of all four Continental artillery regiments.  The men detailed for service in the batteries formed each day at 11 A.M. before marching to their assigned battery or redoubt for a twenty-four-hour tour of duty beginning at noon.  While daylight probably saw more action than nighttime, Washington was determined to force the British to surrender before reinforcements arrived and directed that the bombardment continue around the clock.  Knox’s direction to use ricochet firing and the extensive use of howitzers and mortars reduced the need for observing precisely where each round landed, facilitating night firing.  As long as a round landed behind British lines, Washington’s goal was achieved.[15]

Daily details for the batteries totaled between 120 and 200 officers and men during the first five days of the siege, reflecting the fact that the Americans probably had a maximum of twenty pieces of ordnance mounted during that period.  These details were comprised of members of all four artillery regiments and the three auxiliary units, with the artillerymen providing approximately half of each detail.  Their daily rate of fire averaged 686 rounds varying from a low of about 240 to a high of over 1,600; American gunners hurled over one hundred tons of metal at the British during the bombardment.[16]

Although Knox’s gunners were primarily engaged managing siege weapons, they had also brought field artillery to Yorktown.  During the attack on Redoubts 9 and 10 on the evening of October 14, the 2nd Artillery’s Capt. William Stevens provided support to the infantry by advancing six 3-pounders, though the attackers were successful without that support.[17]

American gunners were effective in hitting targeted British artillery positions and fortifications and in inflicting great damage on British troops.  During the siege numerous American observers recorded that their cannonade resulted in a reduction or cessation of British fire and provided various descriptions of the damage it inflicted.  By October 17 most of the British artillery facing the allied forces had been silenced and Cornwallis had taken nearly 500 casualties.  He asked for a cease fire that day leading to his surrender two days later.  Cornwallis stated after the siege that “all our guns on the left were silenced, our works much damaged, and our loss of men considerable.”  Following the siege French gunners praised their American counterparts, as did Lt. Gen. Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau and his generals.  Washington lauded the “judicious and spirited management of [the artillery] in the parallels” and Knox published his individual and collective thanks.[18]

Daily reports by the field officer of the batteries were required to mention casualties as well as ammunition consumed.  During the day beginning on October 14 American artillerymen suffered one killed and two wounded, while the next day two men were killed and three wounded.  One of the militiamen, Peter Peiner, died after being wounded during the day beginning October 16, for a total of four killed and five wounded among the artillerymen out of the total American casualties of twenty-four killed and sixty-five wounded.  There were casualties in equipment also: two 18-pounders burst; one 10-inch mortar was disabled; and one howitzer was dismounted.[19]

After the Siege

Following the surrender of Cornwallis, Knox released the Virginia State Regiment, Delaware Regiment, and Virginia militia to go their separate ways.  After the British had been escorted away towards prisoner of war camps, the artillerymen loaded the siege guns and supplies on transports for return up the Chesapeake Bay.  The detachment of the 1st Continental Artillery remained in Virginia, while that of the 4th Continental Artillery joined Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Army in the Carolinas.  General Knox ordered Colonel Lamb to take charge of transporting the artillery and supplies, including captured pieces, to Philadelphia and the 2nd Continental Artillery accompanied the guns there before going into winter quarters at Burlington, New Jersey.  Presumably the detachment from the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment returned to their base in the New York Highlands.[20]

Final Shot

The American gunners who served at the Siege of Yorktown participated in the longest, most intense, and most decisive artillery engagement of the Revolutionary War.  This small diverse group performed brilliantly, winning the respect of their French counterparts.  Hence it was with a certain element of understatement that Knox’s thanks to his men asserted that the skill of his artillery had “brought home to … our enemies that the officers of the American Artillery have acquired a respectable portion of knowledge in the profession.”[21]

[1] Robert Selig, The March to Victory: Washington, Rochambeau, and the Yorktown Campaign of 1781, CMH Pub. 70-104-1 (Washington: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2007), 43; Robert Arthur, The End of a Revolution (New York: Vantage Press, 1965), 159.  The superb work of the French gunners at Yorktown deserves an account of its own.

[2] George Washington’s Diary for August 19, 1781, Founders Online website, accessed January 12, 2017; Gen. Henry Knox to Col. John Lamb, August 18, 1781, GLC02437.01139, Henry Knox Papers, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York (location cited hereafter as GLI); Lynn L. Sims, “The Military Career of John Lamb” (PhD Dissertation, New York University, 1975), 136, 152; Gen. Henry Knox to Maj. Sebastian Bauman, August 21, 1781, GLC02437.01150, GLI.

[3] The seven companies are mentioned in the assignments for responsibility of ordnance in “Regimental Orders,” October 1, 1781, Orderly Book of the Second Regiment of Continental Artillery, MS2003.12, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.  Muster Rolls, 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment, September 1781, found at fold3.com, accessed January 15, 2017.  Capt. Gershom Mott was in hospital at Albany and Capt. Thomas Bliss may have remained at Head of Elk to forward supplies to the army, according to “Monthly Return of the Corps of Artillery September 1781,” GLC02437.10495, GLI.  The other five captains were present during the siege.  An analysis of pension applications by members of the 2nd Continental Artillery shows that the majority enlisted in New York.

[4] Commissary General Samuel Hogdgon to Gen. Henry Knox, September 8, 1781, GLC02437.01173 and “Invoice of Ordnance & Military Stores forwarded to the Southern Army,” GLC02437.01168, GLI; Col. John Lamb to Lt. George Leacraft, September 25, 1781, and Col. John Lamb to Gen. Henry Knox, September 28, 1781, John Lamb Letterbooks, New York Historical Society, New York, NY; Francis S. Drake, Life and Correspondence of Henry Knox (Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1873), 71.

[5] William W. Reynolds, “Virginia State and Continental Regiments at the Siege of Yorktown,” Military Collector & Historian 68 (2016): 347.

[6] Washington to Lafayette, February 20, 1781, Founders Online website, accessed January 12, 2017; Capt. Joseph Savage to Lafayette, May 26, 1781, GLC02437.00955, “Return of the Companies of Artillery attached to the Brigades of the Line-Octr 5, 1781,” GLC02437.01208, and Capt. Savage’s Receipt of October 8, 1781, GLC02437.01215, GLI; Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1905), 839; Fred Anderson Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1972), 25; Stanley J. Idzerda, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981), 4:80.

[7] Washington to Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne, February 26 and April 8, 1781, and Wayne to Washington, May 26 and July 8, 1781, Founders Online website, accessed January 12, 2017; “A General Return of the American Artillery & Stores Appropriated Thereto with the Army in Virginia Sept 22 1781,” GLC02437.01187, GLI; George W. Kyte, “General Wayne Marches South, 1781,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 30 (1963): 305-307; Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units, 26; Orderly Book of the Siege of Yorktown (Philadelphia: Horace W. Smith, 1865), 35-36; Frances B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (Washington: W.H. Lowdermilk & Co., 1893), 140, 160.  The third company commander of the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment may have been Capt.-Lt. Jesse Crosby who was wounded at the Battle of Green Springs.

[8] Heitman, Historical Register, 337; Carrington to Knox, August 7, 1781, GLC02437.01123, “Return of all Continental spare ordnance and Military Stores in the field and the Waggons which contain them.  September 21, 1781,” GLC02437.01186, and “A General Return of the American Artillery & Stores Appropriated thereto with the Army in Virginia Sept 22, 1781,” GLC02437.01187, GLI; Revolutionary War Pension Application W9944 for William Madison, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, Record Group 15, “Records of the Veterans Administration,” microfilm publication M804, Fold3.com website, accessed January 15, 2015 (location cited hereafter as RWPA).

[9] “Monthly Return of the Corps of Artillery-October 1st 1781,” GLC02437.10495, GLI.  Muster rolls exist for five of Lamb’s companies taken at Head of Elk in early September on the journey south.  Muster rolls for the other two regiments for early 1782 are proxies for the September 1781 rolls.  These show a total of 235 officers and men which, with the addition of regimental staff, is consistent with the total of 242 in the October 1, 1781 return.  The muster rolls are on fold3.com.

[10] Jerome A. Greene, The Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 (New York: Savas Beatie, 2005), 198; Harold L. Peterson, Round Shot and Rammers (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1969), 66; The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1937), 177-178; Orderly Books for Col. John Lamb’s Second Regiment of Continental Artillery, New Jersey & New York, John Lamb Papers, New York Historical Society, New York, NY, entries for October 9-16, 1781; RWPAs S8403 for Edward Elley, S38039 for Thomas Hood, S8731 for Claiborne Howard, and S17593 for George Moore.  The calculation mentioned in the text does not account for men required as guards or laboratory workers, but is overly conservative in assuming that Knox would deploy throughout the siege all of the artillery he transported to Yorktown.  Specifying only 160 militiamen suggests that Knox had determined he needed a total of 420 auxiliaries, since there were plenty of militiamen available to him at Yorktown.  For the militia’s contribution see William W. Reynolds, “The Virginia Militia at the Siege of Yorktown,” Military Collector & Historian 67 (2015): 175-176.

[11] Gaspard de Gallatin, Journal of the Siege of Yorktown (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1931), 31.  The number of pieces of French ordnance deployed at Yorktown is difficult to determine with complete confidence.  In “Calculation of Artillery & for operation,” GLC02437.9947, GLI, Knox speculated the French could furnish a total of twenty-eight pieces.  However, Paul Aussaresses, “L’artillerie francaise au siege de Yorktown (1781),” Revue Historique de l’Armee 26 (2) (1970): 38 stated that the French had deployed sixty-four pieces, though that double-counted pieces in the first and second parallel.  Counting only those in the first parallel yields a total of thirty-eight pieces.

[12] John Bell Tilden, “Extracts from the Journal of Lieutenant John Bell Tilden, Second Pennsylvania Line, 1781-1782,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 19 (1895): 60; Orderly Books for Col. John Lamb’s Second Regiment, New York Historical Society, entries for October 9-17, 1781; Octavius Pickering, Life of Timothy Pickering (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1867), 1: 305; Sims, Military Career of John Lamb, 139.  Ebenezer Denny, Military Diary of Major Ebenezer Denny (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1859), 45, reported “vast heaps of shot and shells lying about in every quarter, which came from our works” which is not surprising for shot since the American gunners sent a total of 3,312 rounds into the town.  However, Denny observed “… the shells did not burst, as was expected,” inferring a problem with fuses.  The number of unexploded shells out of the 2,178 fired by American gunners is unknown so any such problem cannot be quantified.  Knox’s order for ricochet firing may account for many of the unexploded shells since fuses could have been damaged or torn out from ground contact before the shells exploded.  In support of this theory see Greene, The Guns of Independence, 184, 203, 271, 275, 379-380 and John Muller, A Treatise of Artillery (London: John Millan, 1768), 152-153, 204-205.

[13] Henry P. Johnston, The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis 1781 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881), 174; William Feltman, The Journal of Lieut. William Feltman (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1853), 18; “Diary of Captain James Duncan, of Colonel Moses Hazen’s Regiment in the Yorktown Campaign, 1781,” Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series (Harrisburg: E.K. Meyers, 1893), 15: 750.

[14] Orderly Books for Col. John Lamb’s Second Regiment, New York Historical Society, entries for October 8-17, 1781.  The Field Officer of the Trenches was also supposed to report daily on “the apparent effect on the enemy’s works” of the bombardment, but the fact that none of the nine reports contain such information indicates that the damage to the British works was obvious.

[15] Orderly Books for Col. John Lamb’s Second Regiment, New York Historical Society, entries for October 8-16, 1781; William Stevens, A System for the Discipline of the Artillery of the United States of America, or, the Young Artillerist’s Pocket Companion (New York: William A. Davis, 1797), 195.  Forty percent of the American rounds fired were from mortars and howitzers, accounting for nearly seventy percent of the weight of metal fired.

[16] Orderly Books for Col. John Lamb’s Second Regiment, New York Historical Society, entries for October 8-12, 1781; Daily Reports by Field Officers of the Batteries, GLC02437.01218, 01219, 01222, 01226, 01227, 01228, 01229, 01232, and 01234, GLI; Adrian B. Caruana, British Artillery Ammunition 1780 (Alexandria Bay, NY: Museum Restoration Service, 1979), 20-21.  The text in the cartouche of the Bauman Map of the Siege of Yorktown, Library of Congress File G3884.Y6S3 1782.B3, states that eighteen pieces of artillery were in service by October 10, 1782, and Maj. Bauman was a particularly qualified source of such information.  Reports of numbers of artillery pieces in batteries added after that date are inconsistent.  However, the daily reports of ammunition expended do not suggest a dramatic increase in the number of artillery pieces in service throughout the siege.  One observer, Feltman, The Journal of Lt. William Feltman, 21, counted twenty-seven American and thirty-three French artillery pieces (not counting the leftmost French battery) in the batteries on October 18.

[17] “Report of the stores expended in the Grand Battery Octo 15 1781 under the command of Capt. Stevens,” GLC02437.01228, GLI.

[18] Tilden, “Extracts from the Journal of Lieutenant John Bell Tilden, 61; “Minutes of Occurrences respecting the Seige (sic) and Capture of York in Virginia, extracted from the Journal of Colonel Jonathan Trumbull, Secretary to the General, 1781,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 14 (1875-76): 336; Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States (Washington: Peter Force, 1827), 360, 365; Benjamin Franklin Stevens, ed., The Campaign in Virginia 1781: An Exact Reprint of Six Rare Pamphlets on the Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy (London, 1888), II:205; Howard C. Rice, Jr., and Anne S.K. Brown, The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 1:33; Claude C. Sturgill, ed., “Rochambeau’s Memoire de la Guerre en Amerique,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 78 (Jan. 1970): 61; Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America, in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782 (London: G.G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787), 1:133-134; Orderly Book of the Siege of Yorktown, 47; “Knox’s Brigade Orders, October 21, 1781,” The Magazine of American History 6 (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1881): 51.

[19] Daily Reports by Field Officers of the Batteries, GLC02437.01228, 01229 and 01232, and “Invoice of stores on the lines October 19th 1781,” GLC02437.01242, GLI; Howard H. Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 92.  Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Fifth Series (Harrisburg: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1906), 3:1021, records that among the wounded artillerymen was Henry Love of Pennsylvania who lost a leg during the siege.

[20] Reynolds, “Virginia State and Continental Regiments,” 346-347; Christopher L. Ward, The Delaware Continentals 1776-1783 (Cranbury, NJ: The Scholar’s Bookshelf, 2005), 473; David Cobb, “Diary of General David Cobb,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 19 (1881-1882): 70; Sims, Military Career of John Lamb, 210-212; Gen. Knox to Col. Lamb, November 2, 1781, GLC02437.01280, GLI.

[21] “Knox’s Brigade Orders,” The Magazine of American History 6: 51.