The signal was a shell from the American batteries, followed by one from the French.  The instant the French shell ascended, Hamilton gave the order to advance at the point of the bayonet; then his impatience, too long gnawing at its curb, dominated him, and he ran ahead of his men and leaped to the abatis.  For a half moment he stood alone on the parapet, then Fish reached him, and together they encouraged the rest to come on.  Hamilton turned and sprang into the ditch, Fish following.  The infantry was close behind, and surmounting the abatis, ditch, and palisades, leaped into the work.  Hamilton had disappeared, and they feared he had fallen, but he was investigating; he suddenly reappeared, and formed the troops in the redoubt.  It surrendered almost immediately.  The attack took but nine minutes, so irresistible was the impetuosity of the onslaught.  Hamilton gave orders at once to spare every man who had ceased to fight.  When Colonel Campbell advanced to surrender, one of the American captains seized a bayonet and drew back to plunge it into the Englishman’s breast.  Hamilton thrust it aside, and Campbell was made prisoner by Laurens.  Washington was delighted.  “Few cases,” he said, “have exhibited greater proofs of intrepidity, coolness, and firmness than were shown on this occasion.”  On the 17th, when Washington received the proposition for surrender from Cornwallis, he sent for Hamilton and asked his opinion of the terms.  To Laurens was given the honour of representing the American army at the conference before the surrender.  Tilghman rode, express haste, to Philadelphia with the first news of the surrender of Cornwallis and his army.

Hamilton’s description of his part in the conquest that virtually put an end to the war is characteristic.

Two nights ago, my Eliza [he wrote], my duty and my honour obliged me to take a step in which your happiness was too much risked.  I commanded an attack upon one of the enemy’s redoubts; we carried it in an instant and with little loss.  You will see the particulars in the Philadelphia papers.  There will be, certainly, nothing more of this kind; all the rest will be by approach; and if there should be another occasion, it would not fall to my turn to execute it.

“It is to be hoped so,” she said plaintively to her mother.  “Else shall I no longer need to wear a wig.”

XII

The next few years may be passed over quickly; they are not the most interesting, though not the least happy of Hamilton’s life.  He returned home on furlough after the battle of York Town and remained in his father-in-law’s hospitable home until the birth of his boy, on the 22d of January.  Then, having made up his mind that there was no further work for him in the army, and that Britain was as tired of the war as the States, he announced his intention to study for the bar.  His friends endeavoured to dissuade him from a career whose preparation was