He sent all the troops he could spare to Greene, to help him in wresting the southern States from the enemy, the work to which he had in vain summoned De Grasse.

This done, he prepared to go north.

On his way he was stopped at Eltham by the illness and death of his wife's son, John Custis, a blow which he felt severely, and which saddened the great victory he had just achieved.

Still the business of the State could not wait on private grief.

He left the house of mourning, and, pausing for an instant only at Mount Vernon, hastened on to Philadelphia.