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.