The list of prisoners was attached to Schwerin's letter. Deux-Ponts' injuries were indeed only minor. On October 21, he departed for Versailles with the official news of Cornwallis' surrender along with Schwerin's letter, which reached Count Reingard on December 19, 1781.

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'The French forces consisted of 7,000 men, the Americans 8,000,' Schwerin wrote. 'Normally our forces in this country are only 4,000 men, but Monsieur [Admiral Joseph Paul,] comte de Grasse, who is commander of our Squadron of the Islands, joined Monsieur [Admiral Louis, comte] de Barras, who commands our fleet in Rhode Island, and they betook themselves to the entrance of the Bay of Chesapeake, which is the place where the British could have come to the aid of Monsieur de Cornwallis in Virginia. Monsieur de Grasse landed 3,000 men to join himself to us in a way that the English general, seeing himself surrounded on land and on sea, gave himself up as a prisoner of war on 18 October once he was without hope for the least help. And now we are masters of this beautiful province of Virginia, which the English had already thought was theirs. Our sea forces were 36 ships of the line and frigates without number; the English had but 26. My dear uncle, I can assure you that I can hardly contain my joy at having been part of such a beautiful and glorious campaign, which was so fortunate for us. We have lost in our whole army but 300 men, that is to say killed as well as lightly wounded, which is not much for a siege that lasted 12 days. Hessian officers of the Regiment Erbprinz assured me that they have lost more than 800 men. After the capitulation was signed I went to York to talk to our German prisoners; I assure you that they behaved very honorably toward me. I wanted to inform myself about Count Wittgenstein, but nobody could tell me any news. These are, my very dear uncle, the news from this country.'

French casualties at Yorktown were less than 200 killed or wounded. The Americans lost half as many. British casualties totaled about 600 killed, wounded or missing. Count Wittgenstein was a brother of Count Reingard's wife, fighting with a Hessian unit of the British army. His exact fate remains unknown, but he seems to have been killed during an earlier engagement in the Carolinas.

'The campaign has been pretty hard on us,' Schwerin wrote, 'but in return I had the satisfaction of seeing a large part of the country. Here are the names of the provinces I marched through between 2 June and September 29. We stopped at Philippsburg for 15 days, which is in the province of New York, to rest up; Rhod Island, Connecticut, Jork Statt, Jersey, Pinsilvani, Mariland, Virgini [sic]. Judge for yourself, my very dear uncle, that we were exhausted and desirous to go into winter quarters. The chevalier de Deux-Ponts has returned to France with Monsieur [Captain Johann Christian, Baron] de Wisch to announce the defeat and capture of General Cornwallis. I believe that Monsieur de Wisch has quit the regiment.

'It is time that I talk to you also a bit about myself. Our colonel has asked me that you will have the goodness to reimburse his mother in Forbach for the money I have spent here. I have already had the honor to inform you that I have received 50 Louis d'Ors (1,200 livres) upon the orders of the colonel from my captain, but they are not to be paid to my captain who is returning to France. Of that money I equipped myself, bought a horse, clothed my servants, and for myself bought shirts and stockings, which I greatly needed; beyond that I received nothing without telling you instantly about it. I am keeping my horse for the winter, because if I should get rid of it I am not certain that I will be able to go through a campaign as we will have it next year, and it is very agreeable to have a horse when one has to cover a route of 400 miles as we did. All hardships, ten guard duties which I [was] sent on during the twelve days of the siege have not tired me out, and I pray that the heavens will preserve me my health so that I can continue to serve in this war which, I don't think, will continue much longer.

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