The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971)

talents and qualities which ornament birth and fortune, who has besides the advantage
of being allied to the Marquis De la Fayette, and participates in the same
zeal for the service of America." Noailles may have gone to Philadelphia to meet
political leaders, but the ladies there had other ideas, according to the Marquis
de Chastellux, who attended a pre-Christmas ball on December 14: "... in Philadelphia,
as in Paris, the best company seldom go to balls before Christmas. However,
on entering the room, which was rather well lighted, I found twenty or
twenty-five ladies dancing. It was whispered to me that having heard a great deal
about the Vicomte de Noailles and the Comte de Damas, they had come with
hopes of having them for partners; but they were completely 'disappointed, for
these gentlemen had set out that very morning."
Noailles returned to Newport for the winter to continue the soldierly routine
of drills and dancing, with a side trip to Boston, until the French army marched
in June and July across Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Westchester County to
join Washington at Phillipsburg on the Hudson before the campaign against
Cornwallis on the Chesapeake. The Comte de Custine and Noailles won many
compliments for setting an example by marching on foot at the head of their
regiments. En route, Noailles dispatched a series of warm letters-fortunately
preserved-to a Miss Robinson of Newport recalling their friendship and discussing
the war. From Wilmington on September 6, 1781, he noted: "Cornwallis
position lays on the York river, covering the town with five thousand of the best
troops in the English army. We received by Count de Grasse that a reinforcement
of three thousand two hundred, besides the garrison of the ships.... Eight and
twenty ships of the line are anchored in Sheespeak besides the Newport fleet.
I think we are good allies. Your country was never so well supplied." The Vicomte
proved his value as an ally during the ensuing siege of Yorktown when he was in
the midst of a direct British attack led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Abercromby
against the allied lines early on October 16. Douglas Southall Freeman in his
biography of George Washington retells the story:
When the redcoats came to the French communications trench . . . they halted
doubtfully but found close at hand Savage's American Battery, which they could
not identify.
"Whatroops" the commanding officer [Abercromby] challenged.
"French" was the reply, perhaps with a tell-tale accent.
"Push on, my brave boys," the British leader shouted, "and skin the bastards!"
Noailles overheard this and led the successful counterattack shouting "Vive le
Roi!" To Miss Robinson he modestly wrote the following week that "the seige
continued but twelf days, and the allied army was so pretty near the town that
the British thought prudent to surrender. They made but a sorty and were obliged
to return briskly."
Although Noailles fails to mention in the Robinson letters his role as negotiator
for the French before the British surrender on October 19, George Washington
noted in his diary for October 18 that "the commissioners met accordingly; but
the business was so procrastinated by those on their side (a Colo. Dundas and
Major Ross) that Colo. Laurens and the Viscount De Noailles who were appointed
on our part could do no more than make the rough draft of the articles which
were to be submitted for Lord Cornwallis' consideration."
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