* Campbell's Reminiscences of Bollingbrook, in the Southern Literary Messenger, January, 1840.
* Note.—Explanation of the Plan.—A, B, the Queen's Rangers; C, the eightieth and seventy-sixth regiments; D, E, the British artillery, two six and two three pounders; F, Yagers; G, the American vessels; H, the American militia.
** It was to one of the prisoners, taken at this time, that Arnold put the question, "If the Americans should catch me, what would they do with me?" The soldier promptly replied, "They would bury with military honors the leg which was wounded at Saratoga, and hang the remainder of you upon a gibbet."
Troops of Arnold and Phillips.—Depredations at Manchester and Warwick.—La Fayette at Petersburg.—Death of Phillips.
Phillips and Arnold joined their divisions on the thirtieth, after having burned the barracks and a quantity of flour at Chesterfield Court House, and then pushed forward toward Richmond, where a large quantity of military stores were collected. At Manchester, opposite Richmond, they burned twelve hundred hogsheads of tobacco and other property, and were preparing to cross the river, when information reached them that La Fayette, with a body of Continental troops, had arrived the evening previous. The marquis had received orders at the head of Elk to go to Virginia and oppose Phillips and Arnold, and had made a forced march of two hundred miles in order to save the stores at Richmond. The depredators knew too well the spirit of the marquis to venture another marauding visit to Richmond while he was there, and, wheeling their columns, they proceeded down the river to Bermuda Hundred, at the mouth of the Appomattox, opposite City Point, and embarked. On their way, they passed through Warwick, a town on the James River, then larger than Richmond, where they destroyed ships on the stocks, a range of rope-walks, a magazine of flour, warehouses filled with tobacco and other merchandise, tan-houses filled with hides, and some flouring mills belonging to Colonel Carey, whose splendid mansion was near. * In one general conflagration, the thriving town, with all its industrial appurtenances, was destroyed. **
The British fleet with the land forces then sailed down the James River, when, a little below Burwell's Ferry, they were metMay 6 by a boat from Portsmouth, bearing a mes sage with intelligence for General Phillips that Cornwallis was on his way north, and wished to form a junction with him at Petersburg. The whole fleet was immediately ordered to return up the James Elver, and late at night, on the ninth,May 1781 the British army again entered Petersburg. So secret was their entrance, that ten American officers who were there to prepare boats for La Fayette to cross the river, were captured. Phillips was very sick of a fever on his arrival, and was carried to the house of Mrs. Bolling, where he died four days afterward. ***
The presence of La Fayette inspired the militia of Virginia with high hopes, and they flocked to his standard in considerable numbers. When informed of the return of the British fleet, he suspected the object to be a junction with Cornwallis at Petersburg. It was known that the earl had left Wilmington, and was on his way to Virginia. The marquis immediately pressed forward to take possession of the town before the arrival of Phillips and Arnold. He was too late, and after cannonading the British quarters, particularly Bollingbrook, **** from Archer's Hill, and thoroughly reconnoitering the place, he returned to Osborne's,
* Anburey, one of the officers who surrendered to Gates at Saratoga, in his Travels in America (ii., 312), speaks highly of Colonel Carey's hospitality.
** Gordon, iii., 205; Girardin, 460; Jefferson, i., 420.