The moment he learned from Lafayette that the French succors were actually on the way, he began to lay out plans in a manner which showed how he had taken in at the first glance every chance and every contingency.  He wrote that the decisive moment was at hand, and that the French succors would be fatal if not used successfully now.  Congress must improve their methods of administration, and for this purpose must appoint a small committee to cooeperate with him.  This step he demanded, and it was taken at once.  Fresh from his interview with Lafayette, he sent out orders to have inquiries made as to Halifax and its defenses.  Possibly a sudden and telling blow might be struck there, and nothing should be overlooked.  He also wrote to Lafayette to urge upon the French commander an immediate assault on New York the moment he landed.  Yet despite his thought for New York, he even then began to see the opportunities which were destined to develop into Yorktown.  He had longed to go to the south before, and had held back only because he felt that the main army and New York were still the key of the position, and could not be safely abandoned.  Now, while planning the capture of New York, he asked in a letter whether the enemy was not more exposed at the southward and therefore a better subject for a combined attack there.  Clearness and precision of plan as to the central point, joined to a perfect readiness to change suddenly and strike hard and decisively in a totally different quarter, are sure marks of the great commander.  We can find them all through the correspondence, but here in May, 1780, they come out with peculiar vividness.  They are qualities arising from a wide foresight, and from a sure and quick perception.  They are not the qualities of a slow or heavy mind.

On June 1 came the news of the surrender of Charleston and the loss of the army, which was followed by the return of Clinton to New York.  The southern States lay open now to the enemy, and it was a severe trial to Washington to be unable to go to their rescue; but with the same dogged adherence to his ruling idea, he concentrated his attention on the Hudson with renewed vigilance on account of Clinton’s return.  Adversity and prosperity alike were unable to divert him from the control of the great river and the mastery of the middle States until he saw conclusive victory elsewhere fairly within his grasp.  In the same unswerving way he pushed on the preparations for what he felt to be the coming of the decisive campaign and the supreme moment of the war.  To all the governors went urgent letters, calling on the States to fill their lines in the continental army, and to have their militia in readiness.