obvious from the proceedings of Congress that the leaders

obvious from the proceedings of Congress that the leaders had learned in five years of war how to get their act together.

Numerous committees were appointed to attend the logistics of acquiring cattle, horses, wagons, gun powder, clothing, food and weapons to supply a great army. Transportation problems were acute and had to be handled by secret committees. The water lanes were controlled by the British Navy; over land was slow and hazardous with breakdowns and impassable roads in wet weather. But the planners utilized the dry summer to move animals and supplies to Virginia from the north.

By this time the United States had a great French ally in Court de Rochambeau and the French Navy commanded by Count deGraffe. Rochambeau, with Gen. Washington, accepted the surrender of Earl Cornwallis at Yorktown and deGraffe commanding the French Navy in the Chesapeake, should forever share in the honors of bringing independence to these United States. Without their help in the early fall of 781, the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 may never have been more than a glorious dream, unfulfilled.

Communications in that era was a problem and it was not until the 24th of October that Gen. Washington’s letter describing the surrender of Cornwallis and the Articles of Capitulation reached the Congress and read to the entire body. Thereupon a motion was made by Mr. Randolph, “Resolved—that Congress will, at two o’clock this day, go in procession to the Dutch Lutheran,, Church, and return thanks to Almighty God for crowning the allied armies of the United States and France with success, by the surrender of the whole British Army under the command of the Earl Cornwallis,” So, in a sense, this Fourth of July 1981, we can in anticipation of the victory at Yorktown on October 18, 1781, truly celebrate - the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Independence in America.