Part V:

The War for Independence

[Sidenote: "_He has abdicated government here...._"]

Virginia's participation in the Revolutionary War military operations

developed in seven stages: (1) the initial conflict with Lord Dunmore in

the Norfolk and Chesapeake areas in 1775-1776; (2) the thousands of

Virginians who joined the Continental Army and campaigned throughout the

country; (3) the bloody Cherokee war in the southwest from 1775-1782; (4)

George Rogers Clark's audacious and spectacular victory in the Northwest;

(5) the British invasion and ravaging of Virginia throughout 1780-1781;

(6) the southern campaigns of Generals Gates and Greene in 1780 and 1781;

and (7) the final victory at Yorktown in the fall of 1781.[41]

[41] The best general survey of the war is by John Alden, A

History of the American Revolution (Knopf: New York, 1969). The

best detailed account is by Christopher Ward, The War of the

Revolution, 2 volumes. (MacMillan: New York, 1952). Both have

been utilized in this section.

Virginians and the Continental Army, 1775-1779

The decision to make George Washington commander-in-chief of the

Continental armies was undoubtedly a political act meant to bind the

southern colonies to the war and to blunt charges that this was a New

England revolution. Seldom has a political decision borne greater

positive benefits. Washington is an enigma and he always will remain so

to his countrymen. His greatness as a man and as a commander are

difficult to fathom. The contradictions are best summarized by military

historian John Alden:

Faults have been, and can be, found in Washington as commander. He

did not have the advantages of a good military education. He did not

know, and he never quite learned, how to discipline and to drill his

men. He was not a consistently brilliant strategist or tactician....

(Often) he secured advantage ... by avoiding battle. Actually he was

quite willing to fight when the odds were not too heavily against

him. He retreated only when he was compelled to do so, during the

campaigns of 1776 and 1777.... On occasion he was perhaps too

venturesome. His generalship improved as the war continued. However,

his defeats in the field were more numerous than his victories; and

he had to share the laurels of his great triumph at Yorktown, with

the French. If Washington had his shortcomings as a tactician, he

nevertheless performed superbly under the most difficult conditions.

He gave dignity, steadfast loyalty, and indomitable courage to the

American cause.... Indeed Congress supplied historians with

convincing evidence of Washington's greatness. It not only appointed

him as commander in chief, but maintained him in that post year after

year, in victory and defeat, in prosperity and adversity, until the

war was won.[42]

[42] Alden, American Revolution, 183-184.

At first Congress was not certain Washington could command and eagerly

sought European officers for field command positions. Charles Lee and

Horatio Gates, two of the four major-generals appointed to serve under

Washington, were residents of Virginia. Both were English army officers

who had left the British army, settled in Berkeley County, and become

ardent advocates of the colonials' cause. Lee, the well-bred son of

English gentry had served under Braddock in the ill-fated Fort Duquesne

expedition of 1756, was later wounded, left the army after the war, and

became interested in western land schemes. He came to Virginia in 1775

after a stint as a general in the Polish army. Lee was courageous,

ambitious, and vain. He could command when necessary, but had difficulty

following Washington's orders. Given credit for stopping the British

attack on Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1776, he came back north

and was captured in New Jersey in December 1776. Exchanged by the

British, he resumed command in 1778. However, his scandalous behavior at

Monmouth in June 1778 resulted in his court martial. He was finally

dismissed from the service by Congress in 1780.

Gates was the son of an English servant. Somehow he received a regular

army commission, serving in the colonies during the French and Indian

War. He resigned as a major in 1772 and moved to Virginia. Whereas Lee

was haughty, Gates was pleasant and amiable. He also was ambitious and

constantly sought military commands whose demands exceeded his talents.

Commander of the northern army which won the great victory at Saratoga in

1777, Gates was willing to take over as commander in chief in the dark

days of 1777-1778, but his friends in Congress could not displace

Washington. Over Washington's recommendation, Congress elected him

commander of the southern armies in 1780. He left that command after the

blundering defeat at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780. Gates

retired to Virginia where he lived to an old age, much honored as an

Englishman who loyally supported independence.

The English generals from Virginia did not give Washington his eventual

victories, however. His command strength came from Virginians who learned

by experience, were devoted to the Revolutionary cause, and were loyal to

the general. They were with the Continental Army in its darkest days at

Morristown in the winter of 1776-1777 and Valley Forge in 1777-1778.

These included Colonel Theodorick Bland and his cavalry who fought at

Brandywine in 1777 and Charleston in 1780; General William Woodford, the

victor at Great Bridge, who commanded Virginia Continentals fighting at

Brandywine and Germantown in 1777, and Monmouth in 1778, was captured at

Charleston in 1780 and died in a New York prison that December; Colonel

William Washington and his cavalry who fought in nearly all the battles

in southern campaigns; Colonel Peter Muhlenberg, who raised the German

Regiment from the Valley and Piedmont around his Woodstock home and

commanded them with distinction at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and

Stony Point, and later led Virginia militia against Cornwallis in 1781;

and the gallant Colonel Edward Porterfield, who died with many of his

troops, called "Porterfield's Virginians" at Camden.

There also was a distinguished group of young men like John Marshall,

James Monroe, and Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee who achieved distinction

and displayed loyalty to the national cause which they never surrendered.

The percentage of Virginians who fought in the Continental Army and who

supported the stronger national government of the Federal Constitution

was high. These were men who experienced and remembered the

embarrassments and inadequacies of a weak national government during the

Revolution. They did not want to see the experience repeated.

Perhaps the best Virginia field general and the prototype of the

inventive, untrained American general was Daniel Morgan. A wagon master

from Frederick County, Morgan had fought in the French and Indian War. He

raised the first unit of Virginia Continentals, a company of Valley

riflemen, and took them to Boston in 1775. He and his men fought

brilliantly in the near victory of General Richard Montgomery at Quebec

on Christmas 1775. Captured along with the equally bold Benedict Arnold,

Morgan was exchanged. Developing effectively the Virginia riflemen into

mobile light infantry units and merging frontier tactics with formal

warfare, Morgan showed a real flare for commanding small units of men.

His greatest moments were at Saratoga in 1777 and later in his total

victory over Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina in

1781. The wagon master progressed steadily from captain to colonel, to

general, and became one of the genuine heroes of the Revolution.

The total number of Virginians who fought in the Continental Army is

difficult to determine. Records were poor, lengthy service infrequent,

and troop strength constantly overestimated. There were possibly 25,000

Virginians in the Continental Army at one time or another, although the

number in the field at any one time was much smaller. Another 30,000 to

35,000 might have joined the Virginia militia. In an era when European

armies went into winter quarters and did not fight at all, the unorthodox

Continental Army won some of its greatest victories in the dead of

winter, yet it too tended to suffer from winter desertions and

unauthorized leaves. Still the shriveled army always seemed to revive in

the spring as the men returned to the ranks.

Troops, even continental units, tended to serve near home. Northern

troops were rarely found in the deep southern colonies and vice versa.

Yet Virginians, because of their proximity to all fighting zones, fought

from Quebec to Charleston, contributing heavily to the units fighting to

hold the middle states in 1777 and 1778 and the Carolinas in 1780 and

1781.

The Indian Wars

The Revolution reopened the long series of Indian wars along the western

frontiers. Encouraged and financed by the same British agents who had

once acted in behalf of the former colonists, the Cherokees and Shawnees,

particularly, seized upon the unsettled conditions to strike back at the

steadily advancing waves of settlers moving southwestward along the

Clinch, Holston, French Broad, and Watauga Rivers. Throughout 1775 and

1776 Virginian, North Carolinian, and Georgian frontiersmen fought the

Cherokee in a series of bloody battles. The culminating attack by 2,000

riflemen under Colonel William Christian destroyed the major Cherokee

villages and compelled the Cherokees to sign "humiliating" treaties with

the southern states in 1777. The determined Cherokee chieftain, Dragging

Canoe, moved westward, regrouped his warriors at Chickamauga, and

launched another series of frontier raids. North Carolina and Virginia

riflemen under Colonel Evan Shelby in 1779 and Colonel Arthur Campbell in

1781 battled the undaunted Cherokees. Finally, in 1782, the Indians

yielded their territory to the frontiersmen. Little noticed, this series

of battles involved a high percentage of the western Virginians in nearly

constant battle readiness.

George Rogers Clark and the Winning of the West

In the Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois country the Revolution was a

continuation of the long series of bloody battles, ambushes, and

deceptions which the Indians and whites had been perpetrating against

each other since the settlers had pushed over the mountains in the early

1770's. The British had merely replaced the French as the European ally

of the Indians. The principal opponents were the tough, well-organized

Shawnees who had been the main targets of Dunmore and Colonel Andrew

Lewis during Dunmore's War in 1774. The Shawnees were joined by the

Miami, Delaware, and Ottawa Indians. These Ohio Indians needed little

encouragement from Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton, the British

commander at Fort Detroit. Amply supplied with munitions, guns, and money

for patriot scalps received from Hamilton, known among the frontiersmen

as the "Hair Buyer", these Indians swarmed across the Ohio River in 1775,

1776, and 1777. No quarter was asked by either side; none was given.

Conditions became especially critical in 1777 when the Indians were

angered and embittered by the foolish and senseless murder of Cornstalk,

the captured chief of the Shawnees.

Complicating any military solution to the western fighting were the old

rivalries among the states for control of the western lands. Virginia had

to establish county government in Kentucky in order to head off North

Carolinian Richard Henderson's bid for that region in 1776.

Pennsylvanians and Virginians still quarrelled over Pittsburgh and the

Upper Ohio. Aid from the Continental Congress was obstructed by the

claims of at least four states to Ohio and the jealousy of the landless

states toward the landed states.

Then in 1777 a 23 year-old Virginian, George Rogers Clark, found the

solution. Virginia should go it alone, raise and equip a small army of

riflemen, and in a lightening move take the Indiana and Illinois region

from the British. Clark reasoned that the British were trying to hold a

vast tract of land with a few troops, a handful of Tories, and the

Indians. The British posts at Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi, and

Vincennes, on the Wabash, were former French forts manned by men with no

allegiance to Britain. Clark's enthusiasm convinced Governor Henry and

the Council of State that victory was possible if the operation was

conducted secretly. Support from George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and

George Wythe was solicited and gained. The assembly, without knowing the

purpose for the authorization, gave Clark permission to raise troops and

released the needed gunpowder.

In June 1778 Clark with 175 riflemen, far short of his hoped-for

complement, set out from the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville). The small

number can be attributed to the fact that the men, like the assembly, had

to sign-on without knowing their destiny. A few slipped away after they

learned Clark's true plans. Those who stayed were dedicated warriors. On

July 4, after floating down the Ohio, Clark's men appeared outside

Kaskaskia. The fort surrendered without a shot being fired. As Clark

suspected, the French inhabitants welcomed the Americans. On July 6

another former French town, Cahokia, 60 miles northward, capitulated. And

on July 14 Frenchmen from Kaskaskia persuaded their fellow countrymen at

Fort Sackville in Vincennes to surrender. On August 1 Clark occupied the

fort.

Clark's plan had worked to perfection. But he was now faced with the same

problem which had enabled him to seize the region--he could not hold

three forts scattered over several hundred miles (Vincennes is 180 miles

east of Kaskaskia). Therefore, when Governor Hamilton moved south from

Detroit in December with his own make-shift army, Clark's men had to

abandon Vincennes and flee west to Kaskaskia. All seemed lost.

Again the refusal of the Americans to follow European military

conventions paid off. Clark, ignoring the tradition to go into winter

quarters took Vincennes in the dead of winter with less than 130 men,

many of them French. It was the most remarkable single military feat of

the Revolution. Only men who had lived in the frontier wilderness could

have endured the march. Despite wading waist-deep through flooding rivers

and swamps in freezing February snowstorms, going days without warm food,

poorly clothed, and carrying only the minimum supply of gunpowder and

shot, Clark and his men reached Vincennes determined to fight. Learning

that he had arrived undetected by the British, Clark ordered great

bonfires lit, both to warm his frozen men and to deceive Hamilton.

Watching dancing shadows of seemingly countless men whooping and shouting

in front of the fires, Hamilton concluded he was hopelessly outnumbered.

The next morning, February 24, 1779, the bold Clark demanded Hamilton's

surrender. At first the governor refused, but a series of well placed

rifle shots took the fight out of the defenders. Then Clark ordered

several Indians, caught in the act of taking scalps into the fort,

tomahawked in full view of the fort. Hamilton agreed to surrender. Clark

sent Hamilton under heavy guard to Virginia, passing through the Kentucky

settlements his Indians had harassed. Ignoring protests from the British,

Governor Jefferson refused to exchange Hamilton, keeping him in irons in

the Williamsburg jail until November 1780 when the prisoner finally

agreed to sign a parole not to fight against the Americans or to go among

the Indians.[43] Clark was treated shamefully by the Virginia Assembly

after the war and was never fully reimbursed for his personal expenses in

the west.

[43] For a dramatic, but not inaccurate, account of the

expedition and Clark, read John Bakeless, Background to Glory:

The Story of George Rogers Clark (Lippincott: Philadelphia,

1957.)

For Clark the capture of Vincennes was to be a prelude to taking Detroit.

In both 1779 and 1780 he planned marches to the center of British western

power. Neither time could he bring off a coordinated attack. The frontier

was under too heavy pressure from the Ohio Indians led by Tory Henry Bird

and the infamous renegade, Simon Girty. Instead, Clark concentrated on

Indians closer to Kentucky. In August 1780 with 1,000 riflemen he

destroyed the principal Shawnee towns of Chillocothe and Piqua, but could

not break the Shawnee strength. The invasion of eastern Virginia in 1781

ended hopes for the Detroit project, drew men from the west, and opened

the way for the Ohio Indians to go on the offensive. Bitter fighting

continued in the west after Yorktown. Clark's troops finally broke the

Shawnees in November 1782 when they again leveled Chillocothe and Piqua.

Hostilities and the British presence in the Northwest Territory remained

a contentious issue until after the War of 1812.

The War and Eastern Virginia, 1776-1779

Initial British war strategy did not call for a direct attack on the

Chesapeake states. They were too hard to hold once conquered. There were

no towns to occupy, no natural defense positions, too many rivers to

cross, too little to be gained in comparison to New York, Philadelphia,

or Charleston. Furthermore, there was no sizeable loyalist population to

rise up and assist the British as in the Carolinas and the middle states.

The war effort was men, material, and money. Under Governor Henry the

executive branch functioned reasonably well. There were no emergencies,

no need for quick decisions which only the executive can make, and little

sapping of morale which a long, inconclusive war can bring. Still, Henry

recognized the restrictions placed on the governor, whom he called a

"mere phantom". Fortunately for him, he left office in June 1779 before

the inherent weakness of the executive branch became apparent. Jefferson

was not to be so fortunate. From time to time in the administrations of

Henry, Jefferson, and Thomas Nelson, Jr., persons talked of making the

governor a "dictator" (in the Roman use of this word, not the modern

connotation). These were mostly speculative discussions, not serious

attempts to change the government. Only in the dire crises of Summer 1781

was it even a remote possibility.

The most direct threat to Virginia in these early years was on the seas.

To meet that threat Virginia established a state navy in 1776. Eventually

the Virginia navy had "72 vessels of all classes, including many ships,

brigs, and schooners; but apparently most of them were small, poorly

manned, and lightly armed; and were used largely for commerce."[44] Never

intended to meet the British fleet in combat, the Virginia navy did

succeed in establishing regular patrols, clearing the Bay of privateers,

and protecting merchantmen trading in the West Indies.

[44] Gardner W. Allen, A Naval of the American Revolution, 2

volumes (Boston, 1913), I, 40-41.

By January 1779 the British army came into Piedmont Virginia in a totally

unexpected manner. Congress declared the "convention" (treaty of

surrender) by which Burgoyne had surrendered his troops at Saratoga to be

faulty and ordered some 4,000 Hessian and British soldiers imprisoned in

Albemarle County. Settled along Ivy Creek, the prisoners, mostly Germans,

lived in hastily built huts generously called "The Barracks". Several of

their chief officers, among them Baron de Riedesel and General William

Phillips, lived in comfort and close contact with their near neighbor,

Governor Jefferson. Phillips was shortly exchanged and went to New York.

The conditions under which the troops lived steadily deteriorated,

although the prisoners were so inadequately guarded that hundreds walked

away. In November 1780 Governor Jefferson concluded that the convention

troops should be moved from Virginia to get them away from invading

British troops. The British troops moved first toward Frederick,

Maryland, with the Hessians following. Again many of the prisoners

drifted off into the forests never reaching Frederick.

Black Virginians in the Revolution

One particularly difficult question for the government was whether to

utilize the black population in the military. Only a few thousand of the

nearly 230,000 black residents were free men. The remainder were slaves.

There was a constant fear that arming free blacks would incite their

slave brethren to revolt. This fear was strongest in 1775-1776 when

Dunmore had encouraged slaves to flee their masters and join his troops.

Although Dunmore's black troops numbered only several hundred nearly

10,000 slaves fled Virginia during the war. Most did not better their

lot, ending up as slaves in the West Indies. Many did get to Nova Scotia

where they lived as free men in the large loyalist colony there. Others

settled in the British West African colony of Sierra Leone.

Negro troops were present at Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and in the

ranks of Washington's first Continentals. Quickly, however, under

pressure from southern colonies, notably South Carolina, Congress adopted

a policy of excluding blacks from further enlistment in the Continental

Army. Although most states excluded slaves from service, they did not

exclude free blacks from enlisting in the militia. Virginia allowed free

blacks to enlist after July 1775. This enticed slaves to run away and

enlist as free blacks, a practice the assembly tried to halt by requiring

all black enlistees to have certificates of freedom. Then an odd reversal

occurred after 1779 when the state began to conscript white males into

the militia. Taking advantage of the provision in the draft law allowing

draftees to send substitutes, some slave owners offered their slaves as

substitutes. This was as far as the enlistment of slaves went. James

Madison proposed in 1780 that the state purchase slaves, free them, and

make them soldiers. The legislature rejected the plan. On the other hand,

the state did buy some slaves to work in shipyards, on shipboard, and in

state-run factories.[45]

[45] For a fuller discussion of black Virginians in the

Revolution, see Luther P. Jackson, Virginia Negro Soldiers and

Sailors in the Revolutionary War (Norfolk, 1944), and Benjamin

Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (University of

North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1961).

The actual number of black Virginians in the service is unknown.

Historians Luther Jackson and Benjamin Quarles suggest there were several

hundred in the army and at least 140 in the small Virginia navy. Usually

these men were orderlies, drummers, and support troops. In the navy they

frequently served as river pilots. There were exceptions like freeman

John Banks of Goochland, who fought as a cavalryman under Colonel Bland

for two years, the well-known spy James Lafayette, who performed

invaluable work for Lafayette in the closing days of the war, or John de

Baptist, a sailor who served with distinction on the Dragon.

Peace did not bring freedom for the slaves in the services. The

state-owned slaves were resold. Free men who had enlisted in the service

were entitled to and did receive enlistment and pay bounties due all

soldiers. Slaves whose masters had offered them as substitutes had a more

difficult time. Some slave owners tried to reclaim them as slaves even

though the Virginia law explicitly permitted the enlistment only of free

men. Fortunately, Governor Benjamin Harrison was enraged by this

duplicity at what he called a repudiation of the "common principles of

justice and humanity" and prevailed upon the legislature "to pass an act

giving to these unhappy creatures that liberty which they have been in

some measure instrumental in securing for us."

Nevertheless, although white Virginians recognized the contradiction

between that liberty which they enjoyed and the slavery which existed

around them, they did not see a means whereby the ideal that all men were

created equal could become a practical reality. Unlike later generations,

however, the Revolutionary generation made no attempt to justify slavery

or to accept its extension. In 1778 Virginia became the first state to

prohibit the importation of slaves, and in 1782 passed a liberal

manumission law permitting masters to free their slaves without special

legislative act. Many took advantage of this law. Virginia also

determined that there should be no slavery in the western lands ceded to

the federal government. Jefferson saw to it that a prohibition against

slavery was written into the federal Land Ordinance of 1784 and the

Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Yet, what was earlier noted bears

repeating--the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence

were the beginning of a great governmental experiment, not the finished

product.

The British Move South, 1780-1781

The British shifted their armies southward in 1779, hoping to cut off the

lower southern states, break the morale of the rest of America, and force

a negotiated peace. Their principal hopes rested on exploiting loyalist

strength in the fiercely divided Carolinas where much of the fighting

since 1775 had been colonial against colonial, patriot against Tory. In

early 1780 General Henry Clinton sailed from New York with 8,000 troops,

outmaneuvered General Benjamin Lincoln, and captured Charleston. The

defeat was a severe blow to the Americans costing them their chief

southern seaport, several thousand Continentals and militiamen from the

Carolinas and Virginia, and Generals Lincoln and William Woodford.

Clinton sailed back to New York, leaving his troops with Lord Cornwallis.

The most daring of the British generals, Cornwallis decided to leave

Charleston and invade the Carolinas. With excellent support from Colonel

Banastre Tarleton, Lord Rawdon, and Major Patrick Ferguson he swept all

before him. Tarleton, the best cavalry officer in either army, and

Ferguson led partisan loyalist units. Tarleton's troopers, known as the

British Tory Legion, needed no introduction to Virginians. They had

slaughtered without quarter unarmed Virginians under Colonel Abraham

Buford in May 1780 at the Waxhaws, south of Charlotte, North Carolina.

From then on he was known as "Bloody Tarleton".

Congress elected Horatio Gates to replace Lincoln in the southern

command. Gates hurried south with several thousand Maryland, Virginia,

and North Carolina militiamen and Continental troops. Stumbling into

Cornwallis' army at Camden, South Carolina, he planned and executed a

faulty battle plan. Cornwallis executed perfectly and completely routed

Gates. For the only time in the war Virginia militiamen behaved badly,

fled the field, and were a major contributing factor to the disaster. Not

only did Gates lose 600 men, many of them battle-hardened Continentals,

he lost two outstanding officers, General Jean de Kalb, the tough German

officer, and Colonel Edward Porterfield from Virginia. Facing almost sure

defeat in the Carolinas, Congress replaced Gates with Nathaniel Greene of

Rhode Island, taking care not to embarrass the Englishman who had given

so much to Patriot cause.

Greene turned out to be the man to baffle Cornwallis. With a constantly

underequipped and often inadequate army he managed to keep Cornwallis at

bay. He was moved by one desire--to force Cornwallis into costly battles,

but never expose his whole army to capture. Flee if necessary, but be

able to fight another day. He was inventive and unorthodox. With an army

much smaller than Cornwallis' he divided it into thirds, plus compelling

Cornwallis to divide his own army. Greene knew that Cornwallis,

victorious as he might have been, was detached from Charleston and had to

live off the land. He would fight a war of attrition and wear Cornwallis

down. His strategy worked, although not without fateful moments. He had

great faith in his command officers and gave them considerable leeway.

They rewarded him with two stunning victories--King's Mountain, North

Carolina in October 1780 and Cowpens, South Carolina in January 1781.

King's Mountain was a unique battle for it was fought almost completely

between Americans, Major Ferguson and his South Carolina, New York, and

New Jersey Tories on the British side and North Carolina and Virginia

frontier riflemen under Colonels Isaac Shelby, fiery William Campbell,

and John Sevier for the United States. Although Ferguson's position from

the outset was nearly impossible, he refused to surrender, knowing what

was in store if he did. He was correct. The hatred which only the

Carolina civil war unleashed during the Revolution burst forth. Only the

intervention of Shelby and Campbell kept the frontiersmen from

annihilating Ferguson's Tories. As it was, the British lost 1,000 men,

700 of them captives. Ferguson was killed.

Cowpens was a personal victory for General Daniel Morgan who felt he had

been slighted by congress. Greene gave him a full command and sent him

off to find Tarleton. He found him at Cowpens, not too far from King's

Mountain. Morgan utilized his riflemen, light infantry, and cavalry and

Continental regulars in an unconventional manner. He thoroughly whipped

Tarleton, who up until that time had been invincible. Morgan's men killed

100 British, captured 800, and seized Tarleton's entire supply train.

The combination of King's Mountain and Cowpens completely disrupted

Cornwallis' plan and led him into the series of mistakes which ended at

Yorktown.[46]

[46] Ward, American Revolution, II, 792.

Even when he suffered defeat or a stalemate, as he did at Guilford

Courthouse (Greensboro, North Carolina) in March 1781, Greene made

Cornwallis pay such a heavy price that the British general could not

afford the cost of victory. Wandering aimlessly after Greene across North

Carolina and unable to live off the barren countryside, Cornwallis

retreated eastward to Wilmington. There in the spring of 1781, with only

1400 of his original 3,000 troops left, he decided to move north and join

Benedict Arnold's troops who had invaded Virginia on December 30, 1781.

The Invasion of Virginia, 1781

Three times before the British had appeared in the Chesapeake. In 1777

Admiral Howe sent a fleet into the upper Bay to assist the grand attack

which was to take New York and Philadelphia simultaneously. He had

withdrawn without contact after Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga ruined the

scheme.

Admiral George Collier swept into Hampton Roads in May 1779, burned the

shipyard at Gosport, captured 130 ships, occupied Portsmouth, and raided

the countryside, doing $2,000,000 damage. Before he could be challenged

by General Thomas Nelson, Jr., and the Virginia militia he was gone. One

consequence of the raid was the loss of all future loyalist support for

the British. At Collier's arrival, the numerous Norfolk-Portsmouth

loyalists came out from under cover, only to be abandoned when the

British left after a few days. They never ventured forth again.

In October 1780 General Alexander Leslie descended upon Hampton Roads

with a substantial British force, fully intending to take Virginia out of

the war in coordination with Cornwallis' march through the Carolinas.

King's Mountain ended that plan. Needing reenforcements, Cornwallis

called Leslie southward. Again the British left the state.

Although Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, she was in a most difficult

position at the end of 1780. Her military resources were stretched to the

limit. Governor Jefferson had tried simultaneously to meet calls for

troops from Washington to the north and Greene to the south, while never

overlooking Clark to the west. Although roundly criticized for stripping

Virginia to aid other states, Jefferson well understood the crucial

nature of Greene's campaign. The only reserves he had left were

militiamen.

Of the estimated 55,000 to 60,000 Virginians who fought at some time

during the Revolution, as many as 35,000 were militia. Many were

short-term soldiers, fighting only three to six months at a time. Often

they were unprepared and untrained, not used to disciplined fighting,

good marksmen, but unskilled in the use of the bayonet. Often, and

unnecessarily disparaged, the militia was the backbone of the patriot

armies, appearing when needed, disbanding as soon as danger passed. In

Virginia they had been called out in 1777, in 1779, for a false rumor in

June 1780, and to meet Leslie in October 1780. In each case the enemy

disappeared. These British cat-and-mouse appearances may have lulled the

Virginians and Jefferson into a false sense of security, for the state

was unprepared for the real invasion Washington had warned was coming.

On December 30, 1780, Benedict Arnold, seeking the glory in the British

army he thought had been denied him by the Americans, sailed into the

Chesapeake with a small, well-disciplined British army. Whatever might be

said about Arnold's political ethics, few have criticized his command

performance with small forces. He was initially aided in Virginia by

Jefferson's caution which left Nelson's militia only half-mobilized. The

only other force was a small Continental regiment under Steuben.

Arnold sailed up the James to Westover, the estate of Tory William Byrd

III. From there he moved unopposed to Richmond, the official state

capital since April 1780. Throughout January 5 and 6 his men burned the

state buildings, destroyed the iron and powder factory at Westham, and

seized or burned all available state records. Knowing he could not hold

Richmond, Arnold returned to Portsmouth and went into winter quarters.

Recognizing the danger Arnold posed, Washington sent Lafayette south from

New York with 1,200 New England and New Jersey Continentals. Even after

joining his troops with the Virginia militia of Nelson, Muhlenberg, and

George Weedon, he could do little more than watch Arnold. Arnold had

already sent General William Philips, the former prisoner of war in

Charlottesville, against Petersburg. Meeting little opposition from the

Virginia militia as he destroyed tobacco and supplies in the town on

April 24, Philips went into Chesterfield county, burning militia barracks

and supplies. At the same time Arnold was burning more than 20 ships in

the James below Richmond.

Everything seemed to go wrong. The French fleet sent from Newport to

block Arnold at Portsmouth was routed by a British fleet off the Capes

and went back to Rhode Island. The British forces ravaged at will the

Virginia countryside along the James and Appomattox Rivers. Then Arnold

was joined on May 20 by Cornwallis who had marched northward from

Wilmington to meet him at Petersburg. There were now 7,200 British troops

in Virginia. Facing them was the young Marquis de Lafayette with 3,200

soldiers, 2,000 of them inexperienced Virginia militia. Total collapse of

Virginia seemed imminent.

Artfully, Lafayette kept his smaller army intact, moving westward along

the South Anna River, then northward over the Rapidan west of

Fredericksburg. There he was joined by General Anthony Wayne and his

Pennsylvanians. Cornwallis followed but could not draw Lafayette or

Wayne into battle. So he settled down at Elk Hill, the estate of Mrs.

Jefferson's father in Cumberland County. From there he sent Major John

Simcoe on a raid against General Steuben and the major munitions center

at Point of Fork on the James. At first Simcoe was unsuccessful; then

he tricked Steuben into withdrawing to the west, needlessly abandoning

the munitions.

At the same time Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to leave Lafayette in

Hanover County, take his cavalry, dash to Charlottesville, break up the

assembly then meeting there, and capture Jefferson. By hard riding on

the nights of June 3 and 4 Tarleton nearly made it to Charlottesville

undetected. But he stopped at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, where he

was spotted by militia Captain John Jouett, Jr. Guessing Tarleton's

mission, Jack Jouett rode madly through the night over the back roads

he knew well, and beat Tarleton's men to town. At Jouett's warning most

of the legislators fled over the Blue Ridge to Staunton, while Governor

Jefferson left Monticello southward to his summer home at Poplar

Forest, Bedford County. Seven members of the assembly, one of whom was

Daniel Boone, delegate from Kentucky County, were captured. Unable to

take them with him, Tarleton paroled them.

This was the low point of Jefferson's public career. His term had ended

officially on June 3 and since he had not intended to stand for

reelection, he did not go to Staunton. Some disgruntled delegates

wanted him censured. Instead a formal investigation in December 1781

ended with the senate and house presenting him with a unanimous vote of

commendation.

The assembly elected Thomas Nelson, Jr., radical patriot, wealthy

merchant from Yorktown, and commander of the Virginia militia, to be

governor. Nelson served only five months, compelled by ill health to

resign in December. In those five months Virginia went from the depths of

despair to the glories of Yorktown. Nelson was succeeded by Benjamin

Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

On June 15 Cornwallis left his camp at Elk Hill, sacking the plantation

as he departed. He moved eastward toward the coast where he could better

coordinate his movements with those of Clinton in New York. Clinton was

under heavy pressure from Washington and French General Rochambeau.

Heading for Williamsburg, Cornwallis plundered the countryside as he

went. Reaching Williamsburg, he received orders from Clinton to send

3,000 men to New York. Leaving Williamsburg for his ships at Portsmouth,

he maneuvered Lafayette and Wayne into a reckless battle near Jamestown

on July 6. Beating Wayne badly, Cornwallis had Lafayette at his mercy,

but could not follow up for a complete victory.

At this point indecision by Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British

army, caused a fatal error. He had ordered Cornwallis to send the men to

New York; then he countermanded that order and wanted them shipped to

Philadelphia; then to New York again. Finally learning that Admiral de

Grasse with a major French fleet had left France for America, he

suggested Cornwallis move across the James from Portsmouth and find a

suitable site on the peninsula for both an army and the British fleet. He

suggested Old Point Comfort. His proposal was examined by Cornwallis and

rejected as undefendable. Cornwallis settled on Yorktown with its high

bluff and good port.

Yorktown, September-October, 1781

The news that Admiral de Grasse and the French fleet had cleared France

presented Washington with an opportunity he had to exploit. Washington

and Rochambeau took counsel and concluded an assault on Clinton in New

York was not a certain success. Cornwallis was a better bet. They decided

to leave Clinton in New York believing he was about to be attacked by a

large army and move quickly southward to Virginia. Coordinating their

arrival with that of de Grasse in the Chesapeake, they would snare

Cornwallis at Yorktown.

For once in the war a grand American plan went off without a hitch.

Washington and Rochambeau left New York on August 21, getting away

without detection by Clinton. Simultaneously Lafayette moved his troops

south of Cornwallis to block an escape into the Carolinas. On August 30

de Grasse with his great fleet of 24 major ships, 1,700 guns, 19,000

seamen, and 3,000 troops reached the Capes. He had disembarked his troops

before a smaller British fleet arrived to challenge him. On September 5

the French fleet drove the English back to New York. Cornwallis was

trapped.

Carefully Washington, Rochambeau, and de Grasse plotted the siege of

Yorktown. When the formal siege began on September 28, Washington had an

army of nearly 16,000 men including 7,800 fresh, disciplined, and

well-equipped French troops. The 8,800 Americans included 3,000 Virginia

militia commanded by Governor Nelson and veteran Generals Weedon, Robert

Lawson, and Edward Stevens. The bulk of Washington's Continentals were

from Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Cornwallis had about 7,000

men, many of whom had been in the field since February, 1780.

At the beginning Cornwallis abandoned his weaker outer defenses, which

Washington immediately turned into artillery battery positions. Once the

siege began in earnest on October 6, the allied artillery pounded the

British into submission. Parallel trenches were dug close to the British

lines. On the night of October 14 a combined attack by Americans under

Colonel Alexander Hamilton and the French took the two redoubts which

were the keys to the sagging British defenses. On the 16th Cornwallis

attempted to escape across the York River to Gloucester Point and then

north to New York and Clinton. A sudden storm scattered his boats and

barges. With that Cornwallis recognized the utter hopelessness of his

position and on the 17th signalled Washington for terms of surrender.

Washington replied that only complete surrender was acceptable.

Cornwallis agreed. There was no choice. At 2 p.m. on October 19, 1781,

Cornwallis' army of 7,247 stacked arms and surrendered to the Americans

while a British regimental band played the now famous military march,

"The World Turned Upside Down." Cornwallis, pleading illness was not

present. He was later to go on to a distinguished career as

governor-general of India.

Fighting went on spasmodically in the Carolinas and in the West for some

time. But everyone knew the war was over. The British people no longer

wanted to fight what had become a world war involving the Dutch, French,

and Spanish, as well as the Americans. When he heard the news from

Yorktown, Lord North supposedly cried out, "Oh God! It is all over."

And it was. On March 4, 1782, the House of Commons voted for peace.

Commissioners for both sides meeting in Paris agreed on terms on November

30, 1782. The formal treaty was ratified on September 3, 1783. The United

States of America existed in law as well as in fact.

What had begun as an attempt by Britain to balance her budget after the

victorious French and Indian War ended with an independent United States.

She also gave Florida back to the Spanish who returned Louisiana to the

French. Perhaps wiser men than George Grenville and George III might have

prevented the separation. Probably not. Thomas Paine put it so simply and

so persuasively, "An Island was not meant to rule a continent."

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Appendix

A Chronology of Selected Events in Virginia

1763-1783[47]

[47] The chronology of selected events in Virginia 1763-1783 was

taken from William W. Abbot's publication entitled, A VIRGINIA

CHRONOLOGY 1585-1783, "To pass away the time", Williamsburg,

Virginia, 1957. Permission for use of this material has been

granted by the publisher.

May 10, 1763. After the news of the signing of the Peace of Paris

on February 10, 1763, came to Virginia, the Virginia regiment was

disbanded.

May 28, 1763. The defeat of the French in America introduced new

stresses and strains in the British Empire. Differences between the

colonies and Mother Country began to appear immediately and with

increasing frequency and intensity. The Bland Report of 1763 made to the

House of Burgesses revealed one point of conflict between the two.

Virginia had in part financed her contribution to the recent war by

issuing paper money backed by taxation. The British merchants, creditors

of the colonial planters, feared inflation and were bitterly attacking

the policy of printing paper money in the colonies. Defending Virginia's

actions, the Bland Report presented the American argument for paper

money. The British merchants carried the day to their own hurt by

securing an Act of Parliament in 1764 forbidding the future issue of

paper currency in the colonies.

October 7, 1763. Another cause for colonial resentment at war's

end was the King's proclamation closing the trans-Allegheny west to

settlement.

December, 1763. One consequence of the Parsons' Causes was the

sudden emergence of young Patrick Henry on the political scene. When the

court of Hanover county decided in favor of Reverend James Maury, the

defendants called on Henry to plead their cause before the jury which was

to fix the amount of damages. By appealing to the anti-clerical and even

lawless instincts of the jury and by doing it with unmatched oratorical

skill, Patrick Henry won the jury to his side and made himself a popular

hero in upcountry Virginia.

October 30, 1764. Many Burgesses arrived early for the October

December session of the General Assembly "in a flame" over the Act of

Parliament proposing a Stamp tax on the American colonists. The committee

of correspondence had been busy during the summer communicating with the

agent in London, and the Burgesses were ready to take action against the

proposed tax.

December 17, 1764. The House of Burgesses and the Council agreed

upon an address to the Crown and upon memorials to the House of Commons

and to the House of Lords. The three petitions stressed the sufferings

such a tax would cause war-weary Virginians and also opposed the levy on

constitutional grounds. They argued that the colonial charters and long

usage gave the Virginia House of Burgesses the sole right to tax

Virginians and that the fundamental constitution of Britain protected a

man from being taxed without his consent. These arguments, elaborated and

refined, were to be the heart of the colonial contentions in the

turbulent days ahead.

May 29, 1765. The arguments of the Virginia Assembly went

unheeded. On February 27, 1765, Parliament decreed that the stamp tax

should go into effect on November 1. The General Assembly was in session

when news of the passage of the Stamp Act came to Virginia, and on May 29

the House went into the committee of the whole to consider what steps it

should take. Burgess Patrick Henry presented his famous resolutions which

fixed at the outset the tenor of colonial opposition to the stamp tax.

The House adopted by a close vote on the 30th five of Henry's seven

resolutions, and all seven were given wide circulation throughout the

colonies.

October 30, 1765. On the day before the stamp tax was to go into

effect, George Mercer, the collector, arrived in Williamsburg with the

stamps. Williamsburg was filled with people in town for the meeting of

the General Court, and Governor Fauquier had to intervene to protect

Mercer from the insults of the mob. On November 1, the courts ceased to

function and all public business came to a virtual halt.

February 8, 1766. Foreshadowing the judicial review of a later

day, the Northampton county court declared the Stamp Act unconstitutional

and consequently of no effect.

March 13, 1766. A number of the inhabitants of the town and

environs of Norfolk assembled at the court house and formed the Sons of

Liberty. The Sons of Liberty usually appeared hereafter at the forefront

of any anti-British agitation in the colonies.

1766. Richard Bland published his famous An Inquiry into the Rights of

the British Colonies in which he took a rather advanced

constitutional position in opposition to parliamentary taxation of the

American colonies.

May 11, 1766. At the height of the Stamp Act crisis, the dominant

group in the House of Burgesses was shaken by a scandal involving the

long-time Speaker and Treasurer of the Colony, John Robinson, who died on

this day leaving his accounts short by some 100,000 pounds.

June 9, 1766. Governor Fauquier announced by public proclamation

the repeal of the Stamp Act (March 18, 1766). Although repeal brought a

wave of reaction against the agitation of the past months and a strong

upsurge of loyalty to Great Britain, the leaders of Virginia, and of the

other colonies, had consciously or not moved to a new position in their

view of the proper relationship between the Colony and the Mother

Country. The failure of the rulers of Britain to appreciate and assess

properly the changed temper of the colonists lost for them the American

empire.

November 6, 1766. The General Assembly of 1766-1768 met: November

6-December 16, 1766 and adjourned to March 12-April 11, 1767, and then

met in a final session, March 31-April 16, 1768.

January, 1768. The Virginia Gazette began to publish John

Dickenson's letters from a "Pennsylvania Farmer." These letters did a

great deal to clarify, in the minds of many, the American position with

regard to the Parliamentary claim of the right of taxation in the

colonies.

March 3, 1768. Governor Fauquier died.

March 31, 1768. News of the passage of the Townshend Acts and of

the suspension of the New York legislature was already causing a wave of

indignation in Virginia when the General Assembly met in March. Having

taken under consideration the circular letter of the Massachusetts

legislature opposing the Townshend Acts and various petitions to the same

effect, the House of Burgesses prepared petitions to the Crown and to

both Houses of Parliament, and on April 14 adopted all three unanimously.

The House then sent word to the other colonial Assemblies of its action

and congratulated the Massachusetts House "for their attention to

American liberty."

August 12, 1768. In a move to strengthen the hand of the Virginia

Governor and at the same time to conciliate the Colony, the King made

Fauquier's replacement, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, Governor

of Virginia in the place of Jeffrey Amherst. Not since the time of

Governor Nicholson had the Governor himself come out to Virginia.

October 26, 1768. Lord Botetourt arrived in Williamsburg.

May 8, 1769. The Governor, Lord Botetourt, opened the first and

only session of the General Assembly of 1769 (May 8-17) with a

conciliatory speech; but, obviously unmoved, the House of Burgesses set

about with remarkable unanimity to restate their position with regard to

Parliamentary supremacy. The House also denounced the reported plan for

transporting colonists accused of treason to England for trial. On May

16, the House adopted resolutions to this effect and then on the next day

unanimously approved an address to the Crown.

May 17, 1769. The House resolutions of the 16th caused Lord

Botetourt to dissolve the General Assembly. Dissolution blocked the

planned adoption of George Mason's proposal for forming an association

with the other colonies for the purpose of suspending the importation of

British goods. But the Burgesses got around this by meeting in their

private capacity at the house of Anthony Hays. This was a momentous step.

The meeting made Speaker Peyton Randolph the moderator and appointed a

committee to present a plan for association.

May 18, 1769. The Burgesses adopted the report of the committee

calling for a boycott on English goods to force the repeal of the

Townshend Acts and invited the other colonies to join the association.

November 7, 1769. The General Assembly of 1769-1771 met November

7-December 21, 1769, and adjourned to May 21-June 28, 1770; and then it

met in a final session July 11-20, 1771.

In his speech to the Assembly on the first day of its meeting, Lord

Botetourt pacified the Virginians momentarily with information from Lord

Hillsborough that His Majesty's administration contemplated no new taxes

in America and in fact intended the repeal of the Townshend Acts.

June 22, 1770. During the May-June session of the General

Assembly, the gentlemen of the House of Burgesses joined with a large

group of merchants to take action against the duty on tea retained when

the Townshend Acts were repealed. The Burgesses and merchants formed a

new association to replace the ineffective one of 1769. This time,

committees in each county were to take proper steps to see that the terms

of the association were abided by.

June 27, 1770. The members of the House of Burgesses agreed

unanimously to a new petition to the King asking for his interposition to

prevent Parliament levying taxes in America.

October 15, 1770. Lord Botetourt of necessity had often opposed

the colonists in their quarrel with the British Parliament, but he had

done so without losing their affection and respect. On October 15, 1770,

he died. William Nelson, president of the Council, then acted as Governor

until the fall of 1771 when Governor Dunmore arrived.

October 12, 1771. John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, dissolved the

General Assembly of 1769-1771 after coming to Virginia on September 25,

1771. Dunmore, Virginia's last British Governor, was an unperceptive and

timorous man, a man who could do nothing to still the coming storm that

rent an Empire.

February 10, 1772. The General Assembly of 1772-1774 met February

10-April 11, 1772; March 4-15, 1773; and May 5-26, 1774, when it was

dissolved. Meeting in an interlude of relative peace between Britain and

her colonies (1770-1773), the Assembly in its spring session of 1772

proceeded in a routine fashion and the Burgesses found no occasion to try

the mettle of the new Governor.

March 4, 1773. Governor Dunmore for the first time found reason to

complain of the General Assembly in its March meeting of 1773. He was

miffed by an implied rebuke of the House of Burgesses for his handling of

counterfeiters; but he had better reason to be disturbed by another

development. On March 12, the House revived its committee of

correspondence and extended its functions. As proposed by a

self-constituted meeting at the Raleigh Tavern and headed by Richard

Henry Lee, the House instructed its new committee of correspondence to

inquire into the Gaspée affair, to keep in touch with the

legislatures of the other colonies, and to correspond with the London

agent. A key factor in the transfer of power which was to come shortly,

the plan of a committee of correspondence was quickly adopted in the

other colonies. Before proroguing the Assembly on March 15, Governor

Dunmore signed the last Acts assented to by the royal Governor of

Virginia.

May 24, 1774. The May meeting of the Assembly was uneventful until

the news of the Boston Port Acts stirred up a hornets' nest in the House

of Burgesses. The House expressed alarm and promptly declared June 1, the

day the Acts were to go into effect, a day of fasting and prayer. Two

days later, May 26, Governor Dunmore dissolved the General Assembly of

1772-1774. One consequence of interrupting the Assembly before any

legislation had been completed was to put an end to civil actions in the

courts for the lack of a fee bill, which pleased many a debt-ridden

colonist.

May 27, 1774. On May 25, the day after the news of the Boston Port

Acts, Richard Henry Lee had ready his proposals for calling a Continental

Congress, but when he delayed presenting them to the House so as not to

invoke dissolution, he lost the opportunity of having the House of

Burgesses act upon them. The day after Dunmore had dissolved the

Assembly, the members of the House met in the Apollo room of the Raleigh

Tavern. After denouncing the "intolerable" Acts, they instructed the

committee of correspondence to write to the other colonies and propose a

Continental Congress.

May 30, 1774. Twenty-five Burgesses who were still in town met to

consider a packet of letters fresh from Boston. Massachusetts proposed

that all of the colonies suspend all trade with Britain. The Burgesses

agreed to send out notices to the members of the "late House" for a

meeting on August 1, 1774. During the next two months, the inhabitants in

the various counties met to elect delegates to the August Convention and

to prepare resolutions condemning the Boston Port Acts. Feeling was

running high and sympathy for Boston took the form of an outpouring of

gifts for the unfortunate city. Jefferson's Summary View published

at this time was intended as a guide for the August Convention, but it

was too advanced for the moment in its outright denial of all

Parliamentary authority in America.

August 1, 1774. With the meeting of the August Convention,

Virginia took a big step toward revolution and began to build an

extra-legal framework which would take over the functions of government

when British authority collapsed. The Convention agreed to import no more

from Britain after November 1 and to export no more after August 10,

1775. It chose as delegates to the Continental Congress Peyton Randolph,

Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland,

Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. The Convention instructed each

county to appoint a committee of correspondence. The amazing

effectiveness with which the committees organized the counties helps to

explain Virginia's smooth transition from colony to commonwealth.

1775. With an estimated population of 550,000, Virginia had 61 counties

on the eve of the Revolution. Ten of these were formed since the

departure of Governor Dinwiddie in 1758: Fauquier in 1759; Amherst and

Buckingham in 1761; Charlotte and Mecklenburg in 1765; Pittsylvania in

1767; Botetourt in 1770; and Berkeley, Dunmore, and Fincastle in 1772.

March 20, 1775. Peyton Randolph, moderator of the August

Convention, called for a meeting at Richmond in March. The March

convention, dominated by members of the House of Burgesses, approved the

work of the Continental Congress, but foremost in the minds of the

delegates was the problem of defense. After Henry's "Give me liberty or

give me death" speech, the delegates made provisions for developing a

military establishment. What they in fact did was to undermine the

regular militia through the formation of "Independent Companies" in the

counties. The revolutionary government which was evolving became a little

more clearly defined when the Convention instructed each county to elect

two delegates to sit in future Conventions.

April 20, 1775. Lord Dunmore watched the events of 1774-1775 with

helpless alarm. Particularly frightening for him was the formation of the

"Independent Companies" in the spring of 1775. On the night of April 20

he took the precaution of having the small store of arms and ammunition

in the magazine at Williamsburg removed and placed on H.M.S. Fowey

in the York River. On the morning of the 21st, the people of Williamsburg

learned what the Governor had done during the night and were vastly

excited. An incredible wave of fury spread through the Colony and

everywhere men took up arms. All the pent up passion of the past months

was turned against the unfortunate Governor.

April 28, 1775. At the height of the excitement over the powder

magazine affair, news came from the northward that colonials had engaged

British regulars at Concord and Lexington.

May 3, 1775. Thoroughly frightened, Lord Dunmore made a public

proclamation on May 3 in which he attempted to justify his actions of

April 20 and to pacify the people. Beyond being pacified, the people

cheered Patrick Henry who marched upon Williamsburg with the Hanover

Independent Company and stopped short of the town only because Governor

Dunmore sent him 300 pounds to pay for the powder taken from the public

magazine.

June 1, 1775. Fortified with Lord North's conciliatory proposals,

Dunmore made his last bid to regain control of the colony by recalling

the General Assembly to Williamsburg on June 1, 1775. The Burgesses

refused to re-open the courts as Dunmore asked; they approved the

proceedings of the Continental Congress and the colonial Conventions

without a dissenting vote; and then they allowed Jefferson to reply to

North's proposal in terms of his Summary View of the year before.

June 8, 1775. Lord Dunmore wrote the Assembly that he considered

Williamsburg no longer safe for him and his family and that he had taken

up residence in the Fowey in the York River. When the General

Assembly refused to do business with him there and proceeded to operate

independently of the Governor, royal government in Virginia was virtually

at an end. The General Assembly adjourned itself on June 24 to October

12, 1775, and then to March 7, 1776, and finally to May 16, 1776, but a

quorum never appeared.

July 17, 1775. The July Convention completed the transfer of power

from the royal government to the revolutionists. It sought to legalize

its control by providing for the proper election of its members. The

Convention became the successor of the colonial General Assembly. When

the rumor went about on August 16 that Dunmore was going to attack

Williamsburg, the Convention appointed a Committee of Public Safety of 11

members. This Committee acted as the executive of the Colony until after

the adoption of the constitution in 1776. The Convention also set up the

basic structure for the defense establishment and for taxation.

November 7, 1775. The main threat to the revolutionary regime in

1775 came from Lord Dunmore who remained at Norfolk with his small fleet

and a detachment of British regulars. Despite the "chicken stealing"

raids of the ships in the late summer and fall, the Committee of Public

Safety made no move against Dunmore until after he had declared martial

law on November 7 and it had become apparent that disaffection was

growing in Norfolk.

December 1, 1775. The December Convention acted as the legislative

body for the government of Virginia.

1776. Hampden-Sydney, a school for men, was founded under the auspices of

the Hanover Presbytery.

January 1, 1776. The provincial forces skirmished with Dunmore's

at Great Bridge on December 9 and took Norfolk on December 14. The guns

of Dunmore's ships set Norfolk afire on January 1, 1776, and colonial

troops, with connivance of officers, added to the conflagration by

setting fire to the houses not hit by the ships. Lord Dunmore finally

sailed away in May, 1776.

May 6, 1776. The revolutionary Convention met for the last time in

May and June of 1776. It proceeded to draw up a constitution for

Virginia, which it adopted on June 28. It incorporated in the

constitution George Mason's famous Bill of Rights and provided that the

legislature should dominate the new government.

May 15, 1776. The Convention adopted Richard Henry Lee's

resolution instructing the delegates to the Continental Congress to urge

the Congress "to declare the United Colonies free and independent

States."

June 29, 1776. The Convention chose Patrick Henry to be the first

Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. A skilled agitator, a great

orator, and a radical-turning-conservative, Henry made but an indifferent

Governor.

July 8-9, 1776. At the battle of Gwynn's Island, Dunmore's fleet

was so severely damaged that he soon left the coast of Virginia, never to

return.

1776. During the Revolution, nineteen counties were formed:

Monongalia, Ohio, and Yohogania in 1776; Henry, Kentucky, Montgomery,

Washington, Fluvanna, and Powhatan in 1777; Greenbrier, Rockbridge,

Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Illinois in 1778; Fayette, Jefferson, and

Lincoln in 1780; Greensville in 1781; and Campbell in 1782.

October 7, 1776. The first session of the new legislature was

dominated by Thomas Jefferson, who replaced Henry as the leader of the

more radical elements in Virginia. Jefferson began a needed revision of

the laws. In the next two decades, the colonial codes and laws were

adapted to the needs of an independent state. In this same session, he

also secured the abolition of primogeniture and entail, humanized the

criminal code, and began his attack upon the church establishment.

July 4, 1778. George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia. On the

strength of this victory, the Virginia legislature created Illinois

county, thus providing the first American administrative control in the

Northwest Territory.

February 25, 1779. The dramatic capture of Vincennes by George

Rogers Clark on this date secured the Northwest Territory from British

control.

May 9, 1779. For the first three years of the Revolutionary War,

Virginia was spared invasion because the British were concentrating their

efforts in the northern colonies; but on May 9, 1779, Admiral Sir George

Collier anchored in Hampton Roads with a British fleet. After capturing

Portsmouth with little trouble, he sent out raiding parties and then

departed. Naval stores in large quantity and thousands of barrels of pork

were destroyed.

June 1, 1779. Thomas Jefferson was elected Governor to replace

Patrick Henry. Weakened by a conservative shift in opinion and unable to

cope with invasion which came in 1780, Governor Jefferson left office

with a tarnished reputation, June 12, 1781. He was replaced by Thomas

Nelson who served only until November 30, 1781. Benjamin Harrison was the

last of the war Governors.

April, 1780. The capital was moved from Williamsburg up to

Richmond.

October, 1780. The British recaptured Portsmouth, this time

primarily for the purpose of establishing communication with General

Cornwallis in South Carolina. General Leslie remained in Portsmouth with

his 3000 men for one month.

January 5, 1781. The third and most serious British attack upon

Virginia was carried out by General Benedict Arnold who sailed through

the Capes on December 30, 1780. Instead of stopping at Portsmouth, he

continued on up the James to capture Richmond, the new capital, on

January 5, 1781. After Arnold had set up his headquarters at Portsmouth,

two attempts to launch a sea and land attack against him failed to

materialize. Cornwallis marched into Virginia in late spring and in May

crossed the James and entered Richmond. During the summer of 1781, the

main achievement of Lafayette and the continental forces in Virginia was

to avoid destruction.

July 25, 1781. Cornwallis, marching from Richmond, reached

Williamsburg on June 25. He remained there until July 5, when he moved

toward the James River where transports awaited to take him to the Surry

side. Before he was able to make the crossing, he was attacked by

Lafayette, at Green Spring. After successfully repelling the American

forces, he crossed the river and pushed on to Portsmouth. In August he

crossed Hampton Roads and marched to Yorktown, which he fortified.

August 30, 1781. The stage was being set for the destruction of

Cornwallis's army when the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse sailed

through the Virginia Capes on August 30, 1781. General Washington was

hurrying with his army from New York and Lafayette was bringing up his

troops preparatory to bottling up Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula

where he had encamped with his army.

September 5, 1781. One avenue of escape for Cornwallis's army was

shut off when De Grasse assured French control of the river and bay by

repulsing the British fleet commanded by Admiral Graves.

September 28, 1781. The surrender of Cornwallis became only a

matter of time when Washington brought his army up to reenforce the

besieging forces of Lafayette.

October 19, 1781. General Cornwallis surrendered his army at

Yorktown. With the aid of the French, General Washington had won for the

colonies their independence. The independence of America became official

with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.

October 20, 1783. Virginia, agreeing to the terms of Congress,

ceded her claims to territory north of the Ohio, and the deed passed

March 1, 1784. Virginia was shrunken to the limits contained in the

present States of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Declaration of Independence

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people

to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,

and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal

station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a

decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should

declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal;

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;

that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to

secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their

just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of

government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the

people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government,

laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in

such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and

happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long

established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and

accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to

suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by

abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train

of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a

design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is

their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for

their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these

colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter

their former systems of government. The history of the present King of

Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all

having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over

these states. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the

public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing

importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be

obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to

them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large

districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of

representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and

formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,

uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records,

for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with

manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others

to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation,

have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State

remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from

without and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that

purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing

to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the

conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent

to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their

offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of

officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the

consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to,

the civil power.

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to

our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to

their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them by a mock trial from punishment, for any murders

which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province,

establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its

boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for

introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and

altering fundamentally, the powers of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested

with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection,

and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and

destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to

complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with

circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most

barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas,

to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their

friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to

bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages,

whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all

ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the

most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by

repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act

which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have

warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to

extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of

the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed

to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by

the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would

inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have

been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore,

acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them,

as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war--in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in

General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World

for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by authority of

the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare, That

these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent

States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown,

and that all political connection between them and the State of Great

Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and

independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace,

contract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other acts and

things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of

this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine

Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and

our sacred honor.

Suggested Questions for Exploring Virginia's

Role in the Winning of Independence

Questions may serve to identify a problem or topic, and also serve as a

means to dissect and analyze the topic. The narrative section of this

publication entitled, THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA, 1763-1783,

deals with selected aspects of questions contained in this

section. However, in order to expand the scope and understanding of

Virginia's role in the winning of independence, as well as to provide an

improved perspective for students to see new meaning in familiar events,

the following questions have been prepared for the classroom teacher.

1. How did the "Intellectual Awakening" in Europe reflect the changing

image of man in relation to economic organization, religious reforms,

political activities, and social changes? How did this intellectual

ferment influence the American Revolution and the "American Experience"?

2. How will a study of the following topics establish a framework for an

inquiry into the Colonial Period?

(a) Historical forces which gave rise to exploration and which were

influencing European civilization centuries before Columbus' journey.

(b) Various reasons for colonization and objectives and methods of

colonization for different nations.

3. What contributions will an analysis of the emergence of capitalism

(with its wage system, market economy, banking structure, and corporate

organization) and the impetus which capitalism provided for

colonization make to the development of insights into the nature of

European society and the Colonial Period?

4. How did capitalism influence the American Revolution and how was

capitalism influenced and/or changed by the American Revolution?

5. Was there a discrepancy between the objectives of the European

colonizers and the growth and development of the Virginia colony? In what

ways can a study of Virginia illustrate the beginnings of the "American

Experience"?

6. How will a study of the acceptance, rejection, or modification of

European ideas and institutions by the colonies establish a framework

for analyzing the unique nature of the "American Experience"? How

"American" were the colonies? How "American" was the Revolution?

7. What environmental factors influenced colonial settlements? How will a

study of these factors help to explain the differences which developed in

the thirteen colonies? (Example: economic differences) What was the

influence of environment in the colony of Virginia? How would these

differences influence the nature of the participation of the thirteen

colonies in the Revolution?

8. How did the Colonial Period provide a foundation for the "American

Experience" by the development of a system of free enterprise and a

constitutional democracy?

9. From an analysis of the "Colonial Mind", how can insights be gained

and relationships established for patterns of national character,

cultural institutions, religious thought, and educational practices?

10. How did the first representative assembly at Jamestown reflect the

needs of a group of people for government? What factors were involved in

the formation of this representative assembly? In what ways will a study

of the formation of this government serve as a basis for comparing and

contrasting other efforts at establishing governments at a later date?

11. What distinctive political, intellectual, and economic modes of life

began to develop in the different colonies? How will a study of the

similarities and differences help to explain the character of the

American Revolution and the "American Experience"? What was the nature of

these developments in Virginia and why?

12. What early experiences did the colonies have which led them to

formulate the type of state constitutions which they adopted? What

foundations were being established which would be reflected in the years

ahead? What was the nature of Virginia's first state constitution?

13. In an analysis of the art, music, architecture, literary works, and

other means of expression in the Colonial Period, how can an awareness

and perspective be developed which will allow for an involvement with a

"people and their times"? How do man's varied forms of expression reflect

"the spirit of an era"? What is the role of primary sources in developing

empathy for a period?

14. In what ways did the "European Enlightenment" influence American

thought after 1700? What were the significant contributions of American

writers to colonial thought and political maturity?

15. What impact did writers have on the American Revolution?

16. How will an analysis of the factors which produced the movement for

the American Revolution illustrate the idea that historical causation is

complex and multiple? What was the nature of the movement in Virginia?

17. What was significant about colonial cooperation in resisting British

measures? In what areas was there cohesiveness and what were the factors

which contributed to the development of this situation? What was the

nature of the movement in Virginia?

18. By what means can the concept of liberty be studied so as to develop

an understanding of the "seeds of revolution which were inherent in the

Colonial Period" and to develop an insight into liberty as a force which

would permeate all periods of United States history? How can this theme

of liberty be integrated so as to serve to link all facets of the

"American Experience" to a common chain? What role do ideas play in a

study of history?

19. How will a study of the ideas and institutions of the Colonial

Period, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution

establish a framework for inquiring into the natural rights philosophy,

the justification of the Revolution, and the principal components of our

modern day social, political, and economic system? How can Virginia serve

as one illustrative study of these factors?

20. In what ways did the colonial rebellion become an avenue for

nationalism?

21. How will a study of the American Revolution illustrate self-interest

versus concern for principle?

22. Can the American Revolution be termed a social movement? What were

the effects on the institutions of society?

23. How did the Founding Fathers exemplify the young nation's aspiration?

24. In what ways can one account for the impact of the Declaration of

Independence on modern day political thought?

25. Why is it that the state constitutions are often considered one of

the most important developments in the aftermath of the Revolution? How

did these constitutions reflect the "spirit of the American Revolution"

and the foundations of the Colonial Period? How could a case study of

Virginia during this period illustrate these developments?

26. How can the Colonial Period serve as a foundation for developing

those threads which are inherent in a study of Virginia and United States

history? How can the following themes be used to coordinate various

aspects of the American Revolution and the "American Experience"?

a. Nature and influence of geography

b. Economic themes

c. Intellectual themes

d. Nature and composition of society

e. Manifestation of political ideas

Suggested Student Activities

Student activities and other learning experiences are dependent upon the

objectives selected by the teacher, the abilities and needs of the

students, materials and resources available, and the organizational

pattern of the course. The suggested student activities in this

publication have been prepared to serve as a catalyst for developing

appropriate programs and learning experiences in exploring Virginia's

role in the winning of independence. Suggested activities include:

... Select one word concepts, such as liberty, freedom, power, justice,

that may be derived from great documents of the period and write an essay

on what the term meant when the document was written and what it means

today.

... Through research have students write an essay describing the

personalities of great Virginians such as Washington, Jefferson, and

others, and compare them with their contemporaries.

... Role-play Virginians who made outstanding contributions to the

development of America.

... Compare the American Revolution with other revolutions in the world

so as to ascertain similarities and differences.

... Given the Proclamation of 1763, students could draw the western

boundary of Virginia on a current topographic map. What have been the

different boundaries of Virginia? Why?

... From copies of selected estate assessments and wills from local

courthouses, a number of activities could be developed.

A confirmation or refuting of hypotheses of what artifacts or

personal property would be found in homes and on farms during this

historical period may be suggested. Occupations can be suggested by

the list of personal property. e.g. What percent of the people were

self-sufficient on the frontier?

Early industries and occupations can be compared with current

industries and occupations for the same area. e.g. What public

demands are reflected in continuing industries?

Students may draw interior scenes of homes showing artifacts listed

in the inventories. e.g. Do articles listed together say something

about the use of a room?

Scenes may be painted of homesteads, depicting personal property

listed in estate assessments and the inventory may be listed beside

the painting. e.g. What do "Folk Art" paintings and other art forms

tell us about the period?

Religious commitment can be inferred from wills. e.g. What role did

religion play in the life of a person during this time?

How do wills reflect the status of humans in a household. e.g. How

were males, females, indentured servants, and slaves treated in

wills?

Photos and slides of restored rooms can be compared with selected

inventories. e.g. Are restorations in agreement with the written

records?

... Students could assume a role and write a seven-day diary describing a

week in each season.

... Write lyrics portraying the spirit and events of the times and put

the lyrics to music using a melody of the period.

... Using primary sources, have students research information on various

accounts of what happened at Lexington. The research may include:

An account of a member of the British force

Report of the captain of the Lexington Minutemen

Letter(s) of the British expedition leaders

... Have student research information on Indian tribes, their location,

and their impact of life in Virginia.

... Select a date between the period 1763-1783, and have students find

out the following about their town, city, or county.

What was the town, city, or county like then?

Where did the first settlers of your town come from?

What are the most famous streets in town? Who are those named for?

What, if any, battles were fought in or near your town?

What is the town's most famous landmark?

... Prepare a cross word puzzle using such words as:

liberty

justice

freedom

equality

democracy

representative

independence

unalienable

... Research styles of dress worn during the period 1763-1783. Contrast

functions of dress, costumes, and the like with today's living and style

of dress.

... Have the students prepare a research paper of changes in the culture

of the country then and now and their impact on families and individuals.

... Have students develop a colonial Almanac to include such items

as information about the tides, the weather, changes of the moon,

anniversaries of historical events, recipes, folk tales, jokes, health

hints, and advice in the form of proverbs. (A review of the most popular

Almanac of this time, Poor Richard's Almanac, may assist

students with this project.)

... Students may prepare a film depicting an historical event which

occurred in or near the town, city, or county in which they live.

... Have students construct a painting depicting a famous scene or event

of the Revolutionary period.

... Students may collect artifacts of the period for display and

discussion of colonial life styles.

... Have students develop an architectural blueprint for restoring an

18th Century home, including grounds of the gentry, planter, or

frontiersman.

... Research the role of black churches in Virginia between 1763-1783.

This should be followed by classroom discussion.

... Research the role of contributions of the "common" man in the making

of Colonial America.

Students may choose to review the roles and contributions of such

groups as the farmer, shopkeeper, cabinet maker, and others.

Have students identify the contributions of other social groups in

the making of Colonial America.

... Compare the customs and mores of blacks in Virginia from 1763 through

1783 and 1953 through 1973.

... Construct a bulletin board listing the colonies vertically and

significant events under specific years horizontally.