1781.
Cornwallis at Petersburg--La Fayette retreats--Simcoe's
Expedition--Tarleton's Expedition--Cornwallis marches toward
Point of Fork--Devastations of the Enemy--Peter Francisco--La
Fayette re-enforced by Wayne--Cornwallis retires--Followed by
La Fayette--Skirmish at Spencer's Plantation--Action near
Jamestown--La Fayette.
CORNWALLIS marched[726:A] from Wilmington for Petersburg. To facilitate
the passage of the rivers, two boats, mounted on carriages, accompanied
the army. Tarleton led the advance. While the army was yet on the left
bank of the Roanoke, Cornwallis, who had passed it, upon overtaking
Tarleton's detachment, ordered them to be dismounted and formed in line
for the inspection of the inhabitants, to enable them to discover the
men who had committed certain horrid outrages on the preceding evening.
A sergeant and a dragoon being pointed out as the offenders, were
remanded to Halifax, condemned by a court-martial, and executed. His
lordship was prompted to such acts of discipline not only by his
moderation and humanity, but also by a desire to avoid any new
exasperation of the people, and by a hope of alluring the loyalists to
his standard. On the 19th of May, 1781, he reached Petersburg, and with
the remnant of his Carolina army he now united the troops under Arnold,
consisting of a detachment of royal artillery, two battalions of light
infantry, the 76th and 80th British regiments, the Hessian regiment of
the Prince Hereditaire, Simcoe's corps of cavalry and infantry, called
the "Queen's Rangers," chiefly tories, one hundred yagers, and Arnold's
American legion, likewise tories, the whole amounting to about two
thousand five hundred men, which, together with the Carolina army, made
his lordship's aggregate force at Petersburg about four thousand five
hundred. The entire field force now under his command in Virginia was
not less than seven thousand three hundred, including four hundred
dragoons and seven or eight hundred mounted infantry. He received
intelligence from Lord Rawdon of his having defeated Greene, at
Hobkirk's Hill. Cornwallis remained three or four days at Petersburg.
Light troops and spies being despatched to discover La Fayette's
position, he was found posted near Wilton, on the James River, a few
miles below Richmond, with a thousand regulars and three thousand
militia, the main body of them under command of General Nelson. La
Fayette was expecting re-enforcements of militia and Wayne's
Pennsylvania Brigade. In compliance with the orders of Governor
Jefferson, continental officers were substituted in the higher commands
of the militia. Three corps of light infantry, of two hundred and fifty
each, of select militia marksmen, were placed under command of Majors
Call, Willis, and Dick of the continental line. La Fayette's cavalry
comprised only the remnant of Armand's corps, sixty in number, and a
troop of volunteer dragoons under Captain Carter Page, late of Baylor's
Regiment. General Weedon, not now in service, owing to a diminution in
the number of officers, was requested to collect a corps of militia to
protect a manufactory of arms at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg.
Tarleton patroled from Petersburg as far as Warwick, and, surprising a
body of militia, captured fifty of them. In the mean while General
Leslie arrived at the mouth of the James with a re-enforcement sent by
Clinton from New York. Cornwallis, upon receiving intelligence of it,
ordered Leslie to repair to Portsmouth with the 17th British Regiment,
two battalions of Anspach, and the 43d, to join the main army. His
lordship now proceeded with his forces to Macocks, on the James,
opposite to Westover, where, being joined by the 43d, he crossed over,
the passage occupying nearly three days, the horses swimming by aid of
boats, the river there being two miles wide.
Arnold obtained leave to return to New York, "where business of
consequence demanded his attendance." The British officers had found it
irksome to serve under him. Cornwallis afterwards told La Fayette that
as soon as he joined the army in Virginia, he took the first occasion to
send Arnold down to Portsmouth, and expressed disgust at associating
with a person of his character.
The force concentrated by Cornwallis amounted to eight thousand. La
Fayette, hearing of this movement of the enemy, crossed the Chickahominy
and retreated toward Fredericksburg, with a view of protecting the
arsenal at Falmouth and of meeting Wayne. Cornwallis pursued with
celerity, but finding La Fayette beyond his reach, gave out the chase,
and encamped on the banks of the North Anna, in Hanover. La Fayette, who
had been hotly pursued by Tarleton, retreated precipitately beyond
Fredericksburg; and it was on this occasion that Cornwallis, in a
letter, said of La Fayette: "The boy cannot escape me." The Marquis de
Chastellux says: "All I learnt by a conversation with Mr. Bird[728:A]
was that he had been pillaged by the English when they passed his house
in their march from Westover in pursuit of Monsieur de la Fayette, and
in returning to Williamsburg, after endeavoring in vain to come up with
him. It was comparatively nothing to see their fruits, fowls, and cattle
carried away by the light troops, which formed the van-guard; the army
collected what the van-guard had left; even the officers seized the rum
and all kinds of provisions without paying a farthing for them; this
hurricane, which destroyed everything in its passage, was followed by a
scourge yet more terrible: a numerous rabble, under the title of
Refugees and Loyalists, followed the army, not to assist in the field,
but to partake of the plunder. The furniture and clothes of the
inhabitants were in general the sole booty left to satisfy their
avidity; after they had emptied the houses, they stript the proprietors,
and Mr. Bird repeated with indignation that they had taken from him by
force the very boots from off his legs." "Mr. Tilghman, our
landlord,[728:B] though he lamented his misfortune in having lodged and
boarded Lord Cornwallis and his retinue without his lordship's having
made him the least recompense, could not yet help laughing at the fright
which the unexpected arrival of Tarleton spread among a considerable
number of gentlemen who had come to hear the news, and were assembled at
the court-house. A negro on horseback came full gallop to let them know
that Tarleton was not above three miles off. The resolution of
retreating was soon taken; but the alarm was so sudden and the confusion
so great that every one mounted the first horse he could find, so that
few of those curious gentlemen returned upon their own horses."
From his army encamped in Hanover, Cornwallis detached Simcoe with five
hundred men, Queen's Rangers and yagers, with a three-pounder, the
cavalry amounting to one hundred. The object of this expedition was to
destroy the arsenal lately erected at the Point of Fork, and the
military stores there. The Point of Fork is contained between the
Rivanna and the James, in the County of Fluvanna. At the same time his
lordship detached Tarleton with his legion, and one company of the 23d
Regiment, with the design of capturing Governor Jefferson, and the
members of the assembly, then convened at Charlottesville, and also of
destroying military stores.
During the recent incursions of Phillips and Arnold a state arsenal had
been established at the Point of Fork, and military stores collected
there with a view to the prosecution of the war in the Carolinas. The
protection of this post had been entrusted to Baron Steuben, who had
acquired a knowledge of the military art under Frederick the Great.
Steuben's force consisted of between five and six hundred new levies,
(originally intended for the Southern army,) and a few militia under
General Lawson. Cornwallis informed Simcoe that the baron's force was
only three or four hundred; but Simcoe held the earl's military
intelligence in slight respect. Thus he says:[729:A] "He had received no
advices from Lord Cornwallis, whose general intelligence he knew to be
very bad." "The slightest reliance was not to be placed on any patroles
from his lordship's army."
Lieutenant Spencer, with twenty hussars, formed Simcoe's advanced guard
of chosen men mounted on fleet horses. Simcoe crossing the South Anna,
pushed on with his usual rapidity by Bird's Ordinary toward Napier's
Ford on the Rivanna. Cornwallis, with the main body, followed in
Simcoe's route. No inhabitant of the country coming within view escaped
capture. From some of the prisoners intelligence was obtained that
Steuben was at the Point of Fork and in the act of crossing to the south
side of the James. The baron adopted this measure in consequence of
intelligence of Tarleton's incursion. Within two miles of Steuben's camp
a patrol of dragoons appeared, was chased and taken; it consisted of a
French officer and four of Armand's corps. The advanced men of Spencer's
guard changed clothes with the prisoners for the purpose of attempting
to surprise the baron at the only house at the Point of Fork. Just as
Simcoe was about to give the order to his men to lay down their
knapsacks in preparation for an engagement, the advanced guard brought
in a prisoner, Mr. Farley, Steuben's aid, who had mistaken them for the
patrol which had just been captured. He assured Simcoe that he had seen
every man over the James before he left the Point of Fork, and this was
confirmed by some captured wagoners. Simcoe's cavalry advancing, plainly
saw the baron's force on the opposite side. About thirty of Steuben's
people, collected on the bank where the embarcation had taken place,
were captured. Simcoe, thus disappointed, employed stratagem to persuade
the baron that the party was Earl Cornwallis' whole army, so as to cause
the arms and stores that covered the opposite banks to be abandoned.
Captain Hutchinson, with the 71st Regiment clothed in red, was directed
to approach the banks of the James, while the baggage and women halted
in the woods on the summit of a hill, where they made the appearance of
a numerous corps, the woods mystifying their numbers, and numerous
camp-fires aiding the deception. The three-pounder was carried down and
one shot fired, by which was killed the horse of one of Steuben's
orderly dragoons. The baron was encamped on the heights on the opposite
shore, about three-quarters of a mile back from the river. He had passed
the river in consequence of intelligence of Tarleton's incursion, which
he apprehended was aimed at him. The river was broad and unfordable, and
Steuben was in possession of all the boats. Simcoe himself was now in an
exposed position; but his anxiety was relieved when the baron's people
were heard at night destroying their boats with great noise. At midnight
they made up their camp fires. Soon after a deserter and a little
drummer-boy passed over in a canoe, and gave information that Steuben
had marched off on the road by Cumberland Court-house toward North
Carolina. The drummer-boy belonged to the 71st Regiment; he had been
taken prisoner at the Cowpens, had enlisted in Morgan's army, and now
making his escape happened to be received by a picket-guard which his
own father commanded. On the following day, by aid of some canoes,
Simcoe sent across the river Captain Stevenson with twenty light
infantry, and Cornet Wolsey with four hussars, who carried their saddles
with them. The infantry detachment were ordered to bring off such
supplies as Simcoe might need, and to destroy the remainder. The hussars
were directed to mount upon such straggling horses as they could find,
and patrol in Steuben's wake. Both orders were executed; the stores were
destroyed and Steuben's retreat accelerated. Simcoe in the mean while
employed his men in constructing a raft by which he might pass the
Rivanna. There was destroyed here a large quantity of arms, the greater
part of them, however, out of repair, together with ammunition and
military stores. The quantity and value of property destroyed were
exaggerated by the enemy; as also was Steuben's force. Simcoe took away
a mortar, five brass howitzers, and four long brass nine-pounders, all
French, mounted afterwards at Yorktown. According to his opinion a small
guard left by Steuben would have protected these stores. The disaster
was probably owing to a want of accurate military intelligence. Simcoe
held Steuben's military qualifications in high estimation; but his
opinion of La Fayette was the reverse.
Mean while Tarleton, passing rapidly along the road by Louisa
Court-house, met with some wagons laden with clothing for the Southern
army, and burnt them. Learning that a number of gentlemen, who had
escaped from the lower country, were assembled, some at Dr. Walker's,
the others at Mr. John Walker's,[731:A] Tarleton, instead of advancing
at once upon Charlottesville, despatched Captain Kinloch with a party to
Mr. John Walker's, while he proceeded with the rest to the doctor's
mansion, where he surprised Colonel John Syme, half-brother to Patrick
Henry, Judge Lyons, and some other gentlemen who were found asleep, it
being early in the morning.[732:A] Captain Kinloch captured Francis
Kinloch, his relative, a delegate to congress from South Carolina,
together with William and Robert Nelson, brothers to General Thomas
Nelson. There is a family tradition that when this Captain Kinloch was
about to leave England, the ladies of his family begged him not to kill
his cousin in America, and that he replied, "No, but I will be sure to
take him prisoner," which playful prediction was now fulfilled.[732:B] A
Mr. Jouitte, mounted on a fleet horse, conveyed intelligence of
Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville, so that the greater part of the
members of the assembly escaped.[732:C] Tarleton, after a delay of some
hours, entered Charlottesville; seven of the delegates fell into his
hands, and the public stores were destroyed. Captain McCleod, with a
troop of horse, visited Monticello with a view of capturing Mr.
Jefferson; but he had about sunrise received information of Tarleton's
approach. Some members of the assembly, and the speakers of both houses,
who were his guests, hastened to Charlottesville; Mrs. Jefferson and her
children hurried off in a carriage, and Mr. Jefferson followed
afterwards on horseback, a few minutes before McCleod reached the house.
The magnificent panorama of mountain scenery visible there must have
afforded him and his dragoons some compensation for the disappointment.
While Tarleton was in the neighborhood of Charlottesville, some British
and Hessian prisoners of the convention troops cantoned with the
planters, joined him. The prisoners of distinction, whom he had
captured, were treated with lenity, being detained only a few days on
their parole not to escape; "the lower class were secured as prisoners
of war." The prisoners of note were released at Elkhill, a plantation of
Mr. Jefferson's, where Cornwallis for ten days made his headquarters.
This plantation was laid waste by the enemy. Wherever his lordship's
army went, plantations were despoiled, and private houses plundered.
During the six months of his stay in Virginia she lost thirty thousand
slaves, of whom the greater part died of small-pox and camp fever; and
the rest were shipped to the West Indies, Nova Scotia, etc. The
devastations committed during these six months were estimated at upwards
of thirteen millions of dollars.[733:A]
Peter Francisco, a soldier of the Revolution, celebrated for his
physical strength and personal prowess, lived long in the County of
Buckingham, Virginia, and died there. His origin is obscure: he supposed
that he was a Portuguese by birth, and that he was kidnapped when an
infant, and carried to Ireland. He had no recollection of his parents,
and the first knowledge that he retained of himself was of being in that
country when a small boy. Resolving to come to America, he indented
himself to a sea-captain for seven years, in payment of his passage. On
arriving in Virginia he was indented to Anthony Winston, Esq., of
Buckingham, and labored on his estate until the breaking out of the
Revolution. Being then at the age of sixteen he obtained permission to
enlist in the army. At the storming of Stony Point he was the next,
after Major Gibbon, to enter the fortress, and he received a bayonet
wound in the thigh. He was present in the battles of Brandywine,
Monmouth, the Cowpens, Camden, and Guilford Court-house. In the
last-mentioned action, where he belonged to Colonel Washington's
dragoons, his strong arm levelled eleven of the enemy. His bravery was
equal to his strength.
During the year 1781, while reconnoitring alone, and stopping at a house
in Amelia, now Nottoway, he was made prisoner by a detachment of
Tarleton's dragoons. But availing himself of a favorable opportunity,
when one of the British was stooping to take off his silver
shoe-buckles, Francisco wounded him with his own sword, and another, and
by a ruse frightened off the rest of the party, who fled, leaving their
horses, although Tarleton's corps was in full view. This exploit was
illustrated by an engraving, published in 1814, a favorite ornament of
the drawing-room. Peter Francisco was in height six feet and one inch:
his weight was two hundred and sixty pounds: his strength Herculean. He
used a sword of extraordinary size. His complexion was that of a native
of the south of Europe, his eye dark, his whole appearance massive,
unique, and remarkable. An excellent portrait of him was made by
Harding. John Randolph, of Roanoke, brought the attention of congress to
Peter Francisco's military services in an interesting memoir, and
applied for a pension for him. He was in old age made sergeant-at-arms
to the house of delegates.[734:A]
The condition of affairs in Virginia in the summer of 1781 was gloomy,
humiliating, apparently almost desperate. After a war of five years the
State was still unfortified, unarmed, unprepared. But it was asked, did
not every Virginian possess a gun of some kind, and was it not with such
arms that the battles of Bunker Hill and of the Cowpens were fought?
Virginia had entered upon the war when she was already loaded with debt,
and exhausted by her Indian war, and by her non-importation policy,
before the war began. Intersected by rivers, she was everywhere exposed
to the inroads of the enemy; and a dense slave population obstructed the
prompt movement of the militia. The darkness of the future was relieved
by a single ray of hope derived from the uncertain rumors of the sailing
of a French fleet for America; but frequent disappointment rendered hope
of help from that quarter precarious. The bulk of the people were
staunch whigs and well affected to the French alliance; but they were
growing despondent, and some were even beginning to fear that France was
prolonging the war so as to weaken America as well as Great Britain, and
to render the new confederation dependent upon its allies. With the aid
of a superior French fleet there could be no doubt of the successful
issue of the war; without that aid, there was too much reason to fear
that the people could not be kept much longer firm, in so unequal a
contest.
La Fayette, joined by Wayne's brigade, eight or nine hundred strong,
marched toward Albemarle old court-house, where some magazines remained
uninjured by the British, and he succeeded in saving them from
Tarleton's grasp. La Fayette at this place was joined by Colonel
Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, with his riflemen. Cornwallis, in
accordance with advices from Clinton, retired to the lower country, and
was followed by La Fayette, who had, in the mean time, above Richmond
been re-enforced by Steuben with his new levies and some militia.
Cornwallis halted for a few days at Richmond; Simcoe being posted at
Westham; Tarleton at the Meadow Bridge. La Fayette's army amounted to
four thousand five hundred, of whom one-half were regular; and of these,
fifteen hundred were veterans; he was still inferior to his lordship in
numbers, by one-third, and very deficient in cavalry. Cornwallis,
leaving the picturesque hills of Richmond on the 20th of June, 1781,
reached Williamsburg on the twenty-fifth. La Fayette followed, and
passing Richmond arrived at New Kent Court-house on the day after the
British general had left it. La Fayette took up a position on Tyre's
plantation, twenty miles from Williamsburg. Cornwallis having detached
Simcoe to destroy some boats and stores on the Chickahominy, he
performed the service with his accustomed promptness. La Fayette
discovering Simcoe's movement, detached Colonel Butler, of the
Pennsylvania line, in quest of him. Butler's van consisted of the rifle
corps under Majors Call and Willis and the cavalry; the whole
detachment, not exceeding one hundred and twenty effectives, was led by
Major McPherson, of Pennsylvania. Having mounted some infantry behind
the remnant of Armand's dragoons, he overtook Simcoe, on his return,
near Spencer's plantation, about six miles above Williamsburg, at the
forks of the roads leading to that place and to Jamestown. The ground
there, in Simcoe's phrase, was "admirably adapted to the chicanery of
action." The suddenness of McPherson's attack threw the yagers into
confusion, but they were firmly supported by the Queen's Rangers, to
whom the alarm was given by trumpeter Barney, exclaiming: "Draw your
swords, Rangers; the rebels are coming!" Barney himself captured a
French officer. Call and Willis having now joined McPherson, a warm
conflict ensued; and Simcoe found occasion for all his resources. The
advanced party of Butler's corps was repulsed, and fell back in
confusion upon the continentals, and Simcoe, satisfied with this
advantage, retired. Both parties claimed the advantage in this
rencontre, the loss of the British being eleven killed and twenty-six
wounded; that of the Americans was not reported, except that three
officers and twenty-eight privates were made prisoners; the number of
their killed and wounded probably exceeded that of the British.[736:A]
Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe considered this action as "the climax of a
campaign of five years." Major McPherson was unhorsed, but crept into a
swamp, and so escaped. Simcoe, after retreating two miles toward
Williamsburg, met Cornwallis with the advance of his army coming to his
relief. Colonel Butler, the American commander in this affair, was the
same who afterwards fell at St. Clair's defeat.
Late in June, Cornwallis, with an escort of cavalry under Simcoe,
visited Yorktown for the purpose of examining the capabilities of that
post; and his lordship formed an unfavorable opinion of it. The party
was ineffectually fired at from Gloucester Point, and returned on the
same day to Williamsburg. After halting here nine days,
Cornwallis[736:B] marched, and encamped near Jamestown Island, for the
purpose of crossing the James and proceeding to Portsmouth. The Queen's
Rangers passed over the river in the evening of the same day to cover
the baggage which was now transported. La Fayette, as Cornwallis had
predicted, now advanced with the hope of striking at the rear-guard
only, of the enemy, supposing, upon imperfect intelligence, that the
main body had already crossed. Accordingly, about sunset[736:C] La
Fayette attacked Cornwallis near Greenspring, and after a warm conflict
was compelled to retreat, having discovered that he was engaged by the
main body of the British. Of the continentals one hundred and eighteen
were killed, wounded, or taken. Some cannon also fell into the hands of
the enemy. The British state their loss at five officers and seventy
privates killed and wounded. Cornwallis now crossed the James unmolested
and marched[737:A] for Portsmouth.
La Fayette, re-enforced by some dragoons from Baltimore, retired to a
strong position near the head of York River. The militia had already
been discharged.
FOOTNOTES:
[726:A] April twenty-fifth.
[728:A] Landlord of the Ordinary in New Kent.
[728:B] At Hanover Court-house.
[729:A] Simcoe's Journal, 226.
[731:A] Belvoir, about seven miles from Charlottesville, and the
residence of the late Judge Hugh Nelson. The house has been burnt down.
[732:A] It is said that as one of the gentlemen, who was rather
_embonpoint_, and who in this emergency had found time to put on nothing
but his breeches, ran across the yard in full view of the British
dragoons, they burst into a fit of laughter at so extraordinary a
phenomenon.
[732:B] Francis Kinloch, of Kensington, South Carolina, meeting, in
passing, with Eliza, only daughter of Mr. John Walker, who was also at
Philadelphia attending congress, is said to have fallen in love with her
at first sight, she having at the moment just come from her
hair-dresser, and he afterwards married her: and Eliza, only daughter of
that union, became the wife of the late Judge Hugh Nelson, United States
Minister at Madrid.
[732:C] The general assembly presented him with a horse fully
caparisoned and a pair of pistols for his vigilance and activity.
[733:A] Burk, iv.
[734:A] Howe's Hist. Coll. of Va., 207.
[736:A] Simcoe, 227. Plan of the skirmish opposite 236.
[736:B] Fourth of July.
[736:C] July 6th, 1781.
[737:A] July ninth.