N hour before meridian I left the old church-yard at Jamestown, and sauntered along the pebbly shore back to the little punt in which I was to reach the mainland. I picked up two or three Jamestown diamonds, and a small brass key of antique form, which lay among the pebbles, and then left that interesting spot, perhaps forever. The day was very warm, and I was glad to get within the shadow of the pine forests which skirt the road almost the whole way from Jamestown to Williamsburg, a distance of four miles and a half. Not a leaf stirred upon the trees, and the silence of solitude prevailed, for the insects had gone to their winter repose, and the birds had finished their summer carols.
A mile and a half from Jamestown, I crossed the Powhatan Creek, a sluggish stream which finds its way into the James River through a fen in the rear of Jamestown Island. On its northern bank, a few yards from the road, are the remains of a fortification, which was thrown up by Cornwallis in the summer of 1781. The embankments and ditches are very prominent. Neighborhood tradition calls them the remnant of Powhatan's fort. In this vicinity two engagements took place between the Royalists and Republicans in June and July, 1781. The first occurred at the forks of the road, one of which makes a circuit to the Chickahominy, the other leads to Williamsburg. The place is known in history as Spencer s Ordinary, from the circumstance that a man named Spencer kept a tavern at the forks. Let us see what the pen of history has recorded.
In the spring of 1781, Cornwallis left Wilmington, in North Carolina, and marched into Virginia, to join the invading forces under Phillips and Arnold at Petersburg. After attempts to capture stores in the heart of Virginia, and finding the forces of La Fayette, Wayne, and Steuben rapidly increasing, the earl thought it prudent to return toward the sea-shore. He accordingly retreated to Richmond, and from thence across the Chickahominy to Williamsburg and Jamestown, and then down the James River to Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. From the stables and pastures of the planters he took the fine horses which they had refused to Greene, * and well mounted his cavalry. In his retreat he was closely pursued, and greatly annoyed by La Fayette and Wayne, with about four thousand men. **
Cornwallis reached Williamsburg on the 25th of June. (a) Informed that the Americans had some boats and stores on the Chickahominy River, he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with his Rangers, and a company of Yagers, under Major Armstrong and Captain Ewald, to destroy them, and to collect all the cattle they could find. *** La Fayette,
* Greene, then in command of the Southern army, had left Steuben in Virginia to collect troops, horses, and stores, and send them to him at the South.
** There were 2100 regulars, of which number 1500 were veteran troops, who had experienced service at the North.
*** Simcoe found but little to destroy on the Chickahominy, and returning, halted at Dandridge's, within three, miles of the Diesckung Creek, a branch of the Chickahominy. The next morning they marched to the creek, repaired the bridge sufficiently to pass over, and then utterly destroyed it. They then marched to Cooper's Mills, nearly twenty miles from Williamsburg. Simcoe was anxious concerning his safety, for he could not gain a word of reliable information respecting La Fayette's movements. He promised a great reward to a Whig to go to the marquis's camp and return with information by the next morning, when his detachment should march. The Whig went; but instead of returning with information for Simcoe, he piloted Wayne, with a considerable force, to the place of the Rangers' encampment. The fires were yet burning, but the coveted prize had departed an hour before.—See Simcoe's Military Journal.
Simcoe's Expedition.—Engagement between the advanced Guards of the Belligerents.—Battle at Spencer's Ordinary.
with great circumspection, had kept about a score of miles in the rear of the royal army while pursuing Cornwallis. He was at Tyre's plantation, about twenty miles from Williamsburg, when informed of Simcoe's expedition, and immediately detached Lieutenant-colonel Percival Butler, a brave officer of the Pennsylvania line, to intercept that partisan on his return. * Butler's detachment consisted of a corps of Continental troops, two rifle corps, under Majors Call and Willis, and about one hundred and twenty horsemen, under Major M'Pherson. Simcoe accomplished his purpose without opposition, and was hastening back to Williamsburg with a quantity of cattle procured from the planters, when he was overtaken at Spencer's Ordinary by M'Pherson and his dragoons, and a very severe skirmish ensued. Both parties were ignorant of the real strength of each other, and maneuvered with caution.