About this time Rochambeau had sent a few vessels to annoy the British in the Chesapeake; but, besides capturing the "Romulus",—a 44-gun ship,—they did little, and returned to Newport. Washington now proposed that the two armies should unite in an attempt to capture the traitor. To this end he detached Lafayette with the light infantry,—a picked corps of about twelve hundred men from the New England and New Jersey lines,—to act in unison with a force of the same size which Rochambeau detached from his army. Lafayette, for a time concealing his destination by a feigned attack on Staten Island, reached Annapolis in safety. Leaving his troops there, to be brought the rest of the way by the French fleet when it should arrive, Lafayette proceeded to Suffolk. He found Muhlenberg, with the militia, at that place, guarding the approaches to Portsmouth. But the French were not fortunate, since their departure from Newport was so long delayed that the fleet arrived off the Capes of the Chesapeake only to find Arbuthnot guarding the entrance. In the fight which followed, both sides claimed the victory. But all the advantages of victory were on the side of the British, as Destouches' ships were so badly cut up that he was obliged to return to Newport. Success now being improbable, Lafayette returned to his troops, and the march to the North was begun. At the Head of Elk new orders were found, directing him to return to the South and place himself under the orders of Greene. The cause of this radical change in plan was the reinforcement of two thousand men under Phillips which Clinton had sent to Virginia.
Phillips arrived on March 25, and took command. Towards the end of April, the British to the number of twenty-five hundred landed at City Point on the James River. Steuben, who was then at Petersburg, took up a strong position at Blandford, where the enemy found him on the morning of April 25. He was soon obliged to retreat. The enemy then marched to Petersburg, and destroyed a large amount of tobacco and other valuable property. The 27th saw them at Osborn's, where they captured, after some show of resistance, a fleet of merchant vessels.
When Phillips and Arnold arrived at Richmond they found that Lafayette was before them. The young Frenchman had reached Baltimore on the 17th of April. Purchasing on his own credit shoes and clothes suited to a Virginia summer, he made a forced march, and threw himself into Richmond twenty-four hours in advance of the British. Not wishing to attack him in such a strong position, Phillips retired down the river, followed by the Americans. On the 7th of the next month (May, 1781), the British commander received word from Cornwallis that he would join him at Petersburg. Suddenly ascending the river, he reoccupied that town on the night of the 9th. On the 13th Phillips died, and a week later Cornwallis arrived and assumed command, Arnold returning to New York.
Then followed a series of marches, the design of the British commander being to cut Lafayette off from Wayne, who was marching to his support. But Lafayette moved with too great celerity. Early in June the desired junction of the Americans was made near Raccoon Ford, on the Rapidan. Meantime, while Lafayette was out of reach, Cornwallis sent out two expeditions. The first, under Simcoe, operated against Steuben, at that time guarding the stores at the Point of Fork. The Prussian veteran, mistaking Simcoe's detachment for the main army, abandoned the stores and retired with great precipitation. The second expedition, led by Tarleton, was designed for the capture of the civil rulers of Virginia, but a Virginia Paul Revere warned them of their danger in time, and they made good their escape,—though it is said that Jefferson, then resting from the fatigues of the session at Monticello, had but five minutes to spare. But the raid, successful, or not, had no importance, although popular writers are wont to dwell upon it.
STEUBEN.
From Du Simitière's Thirteen Portraits, London, 1783. Cf. Harper's Mag., lxiii p. 336, and the lives of Steuben.—Ed.
With Wayne and his Pennsylvanians, in addition to his own Light Infantry, Lafayette felt strong enough again to oppose the enemy in the field. By a well-executed movement through an unknown and long-disused road, the young marquis placed himself between Cornwallis and Albemarle Old Court House, whither the stores had been removed from Richmond. Cornwallis, instead of attacking him, retired down the James, Lafayette following at a distance of about twenty miles. On the 25th of June the British were at Williamsburg, the Americans being not far off, at Bottom's Bridge. While at Williamsburg, Cornwallis sent Simcoe to destroy some boats and stores which had been collected on the Chickahominy. Lafayette, on his part, detached Butler of the Pennsylvania line, with orders to attack Simcoe on his return. A partial engagement ensued at Spencer's Ordinary, which ended in Simcoe's being able to continue his retreat.
It can hardly be said that this retrograde movement on the part of the British was due to the presence of Lafayette, although his presence undoubtedly contributed toward making Cornwallis desirous of getting into communication with Clinton. It is probable, too, that Cornwallis hoped to be so strongly reinforced that the conquest of the State during the coming autumn would be assured. But Clinton, believing, from intercepted despatches, and from the movements of the Americans, that Washington was meditating an attack on New York, instead of complying with Cornwallis's desires, ordered him to send a portion of his own troops to New York.
