Naval engagement....

The combined armies march for the Chesapeake....

Yorktown invested....

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.
[Sidenote: 1781] [Sidenote: State of affairs at the beginning of the year 1781.] The deep gloom which had enveloped the prospects of America in the commencement of the year, which darkened for a time in the south, had also spread itself over the north.

The total incompetency of the political system adopted by the United States to their own preservation, became every day more apparent.