History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia Part 62

Mr. Tyler studied the law under Mr. Robert Carter Nicholas, and while thus engaged formed an acquaintance with Thomas Jefferson which ripened into a friends.h.i.+p terminated only by death. The society of the ardent Jefferson fanned the flame of young Tyler's patriotism, and he became at an early day the advocate of independence. About the year 1774, having obtained his license, he removed to Charles City, where he took up his permanent abode. Successful in the practice of the law, he was after a brief interval elected a delegate from that county. He was re-elected for several years, his colleague for the greater part of that time being Benjamin Harrison, Jr., of Berkley, whom Mr. Tyler succeeded as speaker of the house of burgesses. After the lapse of many years Mr. Tyler's son, of the same name, succeeded General William Henry Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison, Jr., in the Presidency of the Union. Mr. Tyler, the revolutionary patriot, while a member of the a.s.sembly, contracted an intimate friends.h.i.+p with Patrick Henry, for whom he entertained an almost idolizing veneration. They corresponded for many years. Mr. Tyler partic.i.p.ated largely in the debates, and on all occasions exhibited himself a devoted patriot, and thoroughbred republican. In subsequent years he was governor of Virginia and judge of the United States district court. In private life his virtues won regard, in public his integrity and talents commanded the confidence of his country.

John Banister was the son of an eminent botanist, of the same name, who settled in Virginia toward the close of the seventeenth century, and devoted himself to the study of plants. In one of his botanical excursions, near the falls of the Roanoke, he fell from a rock and was killed. As a naturalist he was esteemed not inferior to Bartram. John Banister, the son, was educated in England, and bred to the law at the Temple. He was a burgess of the a.s.sembly, and afterwards a distinguished member of the convention of 1776. In the following year he was an active member of the a.s.sembly. He visited the headquarters of the American army about the time of the battle of Germantown. In 1778-9 he was a member of congress at York, and at Philadelphia, and in September visited headquarters as member of the committee of arrangement. He was one of the framers of the articles of confederation. In 1781 he was lieutenant-colonel of cavalry under General Lawson. The two other colonels in the brigade were John Mercer, afterwards governor of Maryland, and James Monroe, subsequently President of the United States.

Lawson's corps was dissolved when Leslie retired from Virginia, and thus the horse commanded by Colonel Banister was lost to the State, at a time when cavalry was so pressingly required. During the invasions which Virginia was subjected to, Colonel Banister was actively engaged in the efforts made to repel the enemy. Proprietor of a large estate, he suffered repeated and heavy losses from the depredations of the British.

At one time, it is said, he supplied a body of troops, on their way to the South, with blankets at his own expense.

A miniature likeness of him is said to be preserved by his descendants in Amelia County. Of an excellent and well cultivated mind, and refined manners, he was in private life amiable and upright, in public generous, patriotic, and enlightened. As a writer he may be ranked with the first of his day. A number of his letters have been published in the Bland Papers, and several, addressed to Was.h.i.+ngton, in Sparks' Revolutionary Correspondence.

Colonel Banister resided near Petersburg, at Battersea, which house he built. Chastellux visited it in 1781. Colonel Banister married, first, Mary, daughter of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Sr. Of this union there were three children; but this whole branch is extinct. Colonel Banister's second wife was Anne, sister of Judge Blair, of the federal court. There were two sons of this marriage: Theodorick Blair, and John Monro.

Theodorick Blair Banister married Signora Tabb. Children surviving, (1856:) Monro, Tudor, Yelverton, and two daughters. John Monro Banister married Mary B. Bolling. Children surviving: William C. Banister, the Rev. John Monro Banister, and three daughters.

FOOTNOTES:

[715:A] February 17th, 1781.

[716:A] In the pursuit, Was.h.i.+ngton advanced near thirty yards in front of his men. Three British officers observing this charged upon him. The officer on his right aimed a blow to cut him down, when an American sergeant intercepted it by disabling his sword arm. The officer on his left was about to make a stroke at him, when a waiter saved him by wounding the a.s.sailant with a ball from a pistol. The officer in the centre, believed to be Tarleton, now made a thrust at him, which he parried, upon which the officer retreated a few paces and then discharged a pistol at him, which wounded his horse.

[717:A] January 26th, 1781.

[719:A] March twenty-seventh.

[719:B] April eighteenth.

[720:A] April twenty-third.

[721:A] May ninth.

[721:B] Tenth.

[722:A] Hist. of England.

[722:B] Bollingbrook, deriving its name from the family of Bolling, who owned much of the land on which the town of Petersburg was built, consisted of two frame buildings, or wings, standing apart, it having been designed to connect them by a main building, which, however, was never done. The eastern tenement was burned down some years ago, and thus was lost an interesting memento of the Revolution. A representation of it may be seen in Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution."

CHAPTER XCIX.

1781.

Cornwallis at Petersburg--La Fayette retreats--Simcoe's Expedition--Tarleton's Expedition--Cornwallis marches toward Point of Fork--Devastations of the Enemy--Peter Francisco--La Fayette re-enforced by Wayne--Cornwallis retires--Followed by La Fayette--Skirmish at Spencer's Plantation--Action near Jamestown--La Fayette.

CORNWALLIS marched[726:A] from Wilmington for Petersburg. To facilitate the pa.s.sage of the rivers, two boats, mounted on carriages, accompanied the army. Tarleton led the advance. While the army was yet on the left bank of the Roanoke, Cornwallis, who had pa.s.sed it, upon overtaking Tarleton's detachment, ordered them to be dismounted and formed in line for the inspection of the inhabitants, to enable them to discover the men who had committed certain horrid outrages on the preceding evening.

A sergeant and a dragoon being pointed out as the offenders, were remanded to Halifax, condemned by a court-martial, and executed. His lords.h.i.+p was prompted to such acts of discipline not only by his moderation and humanity, but also by a desire to avoid any new exasperation of the people, and by a hope of alluring the loyalists to his standard. On the 19th of May, 1781, he reached Petersburg, and with the remnant of his Carolina army he now united the troops under Arnold, consisting of a detachment of royal artillery, two battalions of light infantry, the 76th and 80th British regiments, the Hessian regiment of the Prince Hereditaire, Simcoe's corps of cavalry and infantry, called the "Queen's Rangers," chiefly tories, one hundred yagers, and Arnold's American legion, likewise tories, the whole amounting to about two thousand five hundred men, which, together with the Carolina army, made his lords.h.i.+p's aggregate force at Petersburg about four thousand five hundred. The entire field force now under his command in Virginia was not less than seven thousand three hundred, including four hundred dragoons and seven or eight hundred mounted infantry. He received intelligence from Lord Rawdon of his having defeated Greene, at Hobkirk's Hill. Cornwallis remained three or four days at Petersburg.

Light troops and spies being despatched to discover La Fayette's position, he was found posted near Wilton, on the James River, a few miles below Richmond, with a thousand regulars and three thousand militia, the main body of them under command of General Nelson. La Fayette was expecting re-enforcements of militia and Wayne's Pennsylvania Brigade. In compliance with the orders of Governor Jefferson, continental officers were subst.i.tuted in the higher commands of the militia. Three corps of light infantry, of two hundred and fifty each, of select militia marksmen, were placed under command of Majors Call, Willis, and d.i.c.k of the continental line. La Fayette's cavalry comprised only the remnant of Armand's corps, sixty in number, and a troop of volunteer dragoons under Captain Carter Page, late of Baylor's Regiment. General Weedon, not now in service, owing to a diminution in the number of officers, was requested to collect a corps of militia to protect a manufactory of arms at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg.

Tarleton patroled from Petersburg as far as Warwick, and, surprising a body of militia, captured fifty of them. In the mean while General Leslie arrived at the mouth of the James with a re-enforcement sent by Clinton from New York. Cornwallis, upon receiving intelligence of it, ordered Leslie to repair to Portsmouth with the 17th British Regiment, two battalions of Ans.p.a.ch, and the 43d, to join the main army. His lords.h.i.+p now proceeded with his forces to Mac.o.c.ks, on the James, opposite to Westover, where, being joined by the 43d, he crossed over, the pa.s.sage occupying nearly three days, the horses swimming by aid of boats, the river there being two miles wide.

Arnold obtained leave to return to New York, "where business of consequence demanded his attendance." The British officers had found it irksome to serve under him. Cornwallis afterwards told La Fayette that as soon as he joined the army in Virginia, he took the first occasion to send Arnold down to Portsmouth, and expressed disgust at a.s.sociating with a person of his character.

The force concentrated by Cornwallis amounted to eight thousand. La Fayette, hearing of this movement of the enemy, crossed the Chickahominy and retreated toward Fredericksburg, with a view of protecting the a.r.s.enal at Falmouth and of meeting Wayne. Cornwallis pursued with celerity, but finding La Fayette beyond his reach, gave out the chase, and encamped on the banks of the North Anna, in Hanover. La Fayette, who had been hotly pursued by Tarleton, retreated precipitately beyond Fredericksburg; and it was on this occasion that Cornwallis, in a letter, said of La Fayette: "The boy cannot escape me." The Marquis de Chastellux says: "All I learnt by a conversation with Mr. Bird[728:A]

was that he had been pillaged by the English when they pa.s.sed his house in their march from Westover in pursuit of Monsieur de la Fayette, and in returning to Williamsburg, after endeavoring in vain to come up with him. It was comparatively nothing to see their fruits, fowls, and cattle carried away by the light troops, which formed the van-guard; the army collected what the van-guard had left; even the officers seized the rum and all kinds of provisions without paying a farthing for them; this hurricane, which destroyed everything in its pa.s.sage, was followed by a scourge yet more terrible: a numerous rabble, under the t.i.tle of Refugees and Loyalists, followed the army, not to a.s.sist in the field, but to partake of the plunder. The furniture and clothes of the inhabitants were in general the sole booty left to satisfy their avidity; after they had emptied the houses, they stript the proprietors, and Mr. Bird repeated with indignation that they had taken from him by force the very boots from off his legs." "Mr. Tilghman, our landlord,[728:B] though he lamented his misfortune in having lodged and boarded Lord Cornwallis and his retinue without his lords.h.i.+p's having made him the least recompense, could not yet help laughing at the fright which the unexpected arrival of Tarleton spread among a considerable number of gentlemen who had come to hear the news, and were a.s.sembled at the court-house. A negro on horseback came full gallop to let them know that Tarleton was not above three miles off. The resolution of retreating was soon taken; but the alarm was so sudden and the confusion so great that every one mounted the first horse he could find, so that few of those curious gentlemen returned upon their own horses."

From his army encamped in Hanover, Cornwallis detached Simcoe with five hundred men, Queen's Rangers and yagers, with a three-pounder, the cavalry amounting to one hundred. The object of this expedition was to destroy the a.r.s.enal lately erected at the Point of Fork, and the military stores there. The Point of Fork is contained between the Rivanna and the James, in the County of Fluvanna. At the same time his lords.h.i.+p detached Tarleton with his legion, and one company of the 23d Regiment, with the design of capturing Governor Jefferson, and the members of the a.s.sembly, then convened at Charlottesville, and also of destroying military stores.

During the recent incursions of Phillips and Arnold a state a.r.s.enal had been established at the Point of Fork, and military stores collected there with a view to the prosecution of the war in the Carolinas. The protection of this post had been entrusted to Baron Steuben, who had acquired a knowledge of the military art under Frederick the Great.

Steuben's force consisted of between five and six hundred new levies, (originally intended for the Southern army,) and a few militia under General Lawson. Cornwallis informed Simcoe that the baron's force was only three or four hundred; but Simcoe held the earl's military intelligence in slight respect. Thus he says:[729:A] "He had received no advices from Lord Cornwallis, whose general intelligence he knew to be very bad." "The slightest reliance was not to be placed on any patroles from his lords.h.i.+p's army."

Lieutenant Spencer, with twenty hussars, formed Simcoe's advanced guard of chosen men mounted on fleet horses. Simcoe crossing the South Anna, pushed on with his usual rapidity by Bird's Ordinary toward Napier's Ford on the Rivanna. Cornwallis, with the main body, followed in Simcoe's route. No inhabitant of the country coming within view escaped capture. From some of the prisoners intelligence was obtained that Steuben was at the Point of Fork and in the act of crossing to the south side of the James. The baron adopted this measure in consequence of intelligence of Tarleton's incursion. Within two miles of Steuben's camp a patrol of dragoons appeared, was chased and taken; it consisted of a French officer and four of Armand's corps. The advanced men of Spencer's guard changed clothes with the prisoners for the purpose of attempting to surprise the baron at the only house at the Point of Fork. Just as Simcoe was about to give the order to his men to lay down their knapsacks in preparation for an engagement, the advanced guard brought in a prisoner, Mr. Farley, Steuben's aid, who had mistaken them for the patrol which had just been captured. He a.s.sured Simcoe that he had seen every man over the James before he left the Point of Fork, and this was confirmed by some captured wagoners. Simcoe's cavalry advancing, plainly saw the baron's force on the opposite side. About thirty of Steuben's people, collected on the bank where the embarcation had taken place, were captured. Simcoe, thus disappointed, employed stratagem to persuade the baron that the party was Earl Cornwallis' whole army, so as to cause the arms and stores that covered the opposite banks to be abandoned.

Captain Hutchinson, with the 71st Regiment clothed in red, was directed to approach the banks of the James, while the baggage and women halted in the woods on the summit of a hill, where they made the appearance of a numerous corps, the woods mystifying their numbers, and numerous camp-fires aiding the deception. The three-pounder was carried down and one shot fired, by which was killed the horse of one of Steuben's orderly dragoons. The baron was encamped on the heights on the opposite sh.o.r.e, about three-quarters of a mile back from the river. He had pa.s.sed the river in consequence of intelligence of Tarleton's incursion, which he apprehended was aimed at him. The river was broad and unfordable, and Steuben was in possession of all the boats. Simcoe himself was now in an exposed position; but his anxiety was relieved when the baron's people were heard at night destroying their boats with great noise. At midnight they made up their camp fires. Soon after a deserter and a little drummer-boy pa.s.sed over in a canoe, and gave information that Steuben had marched off on the road by c.u.mberland Court-house toward North Carolina. The drummer-boy belonged to the 71st Regiment; he had been taken prisoner at the Cowpens, had enlisted in Morgan's army, and now making his escape happened to be received by a picket-guard which his own father commanded. On the following day, by aid of some canoes, Simcoe sent across the river Captain Stevenson with twenty light infantry, and Cornet Wolsey with four hussars, who carried their saddles with them. The infantry detachment were ordered to bring off such supplies as Simcoe might need, and to destroy the remainder. The hussars were directed to mount upon such straggling horses as they could find, and patrol in Steuben's wake. Both orders were executed; the stores were destroyed and Steuben's retreat accelerated. Simcoe in the mean while employed his men in constructing a raft by which he might pa.s.s the Rivanna. There was destroyed here a large quant.i.ty of arms, the greater part of them, however, out of repair, together with ammunition and military stores. The quant.i.ty and value of property destroyed were exaggerated by the enemy; as also was Steuben's force. Simcoe took away a mortar, five bra.s.s howitzers, and four long bra.s.s nine-pounders, all French, mounted afterwards at Yorktown. According to his opinion a small guard left by Steuben would have protected these stores. The disaster was probably owing to a want of accurate military intelligence. Simcoe held Steuben's military qualifications in high estimation; but his opinion of La Fayette was the reverse.

Mean while Tarleton, pa.s.sing rapidly along the road by Louisa Court-house, met with some wagons laden with clothing for the Southern army, and burnt them. Learning that a number of gentlemen, who had escaped from the lower country, were a.s.sembled, some at Dr. Walker's, the others at Mr. John Walker's,[731:A] Tarleton, instead of advancing at once upon Charlottesville, despatched Captain Kinloch with a party to Mr. John Walker's, while he proceeded with the rest to the doctor's mansion, where he surprised Colonel John Syme, half-brother to Patrick Henry, Judge Lyons, and some other gentlemen who were found asleep, it being early in the morning.[732:A] Captain Kinloch captured Francis Kinloch, his relative, a delegate to congress from South Carolina, together with William and Robert Nelson, brothers to General Thomas Nelson. There is a family tradition that when this Captain Kinloch was about to leave England, the ladies of his family begged him not to kill his cousin in America, and that he replied, "No, but I will be sure to take him prisoner," which playful prediction was now fulfilled.[732:B] A Mr. Jouitte, mounted on a fleet horse, conveyed intelligence of Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville, so that the greater part of the members of the a.s.sembly escaped.[732:C] Tarleton, after a delay of some hours, entered Charlottesville; seven of the delegates fell into his hands, and the public stores were destroyed. Captain McCleod, with a troop of horse, visited Monticello with a view of capturing Mr.

Jefferson; but he had about sunrise received information of Tarleton's approach. Some members of the a.s.sembly, and the speakers of both houses, who were his guests, hastened to Charlottesville; Mrs. Jefferson and her children hurried off in a carriage, and Mr. Jefferson followed afterwards on horseback, a few minutes before McCleod reached the house.

The magnificent panorama of mountain scenery visible there must have afforded him and his dragoons some compensation for the disappointment.

While Tarleton was in the neighborhood of Charlottesville, some British and Hessian prisoners of the convention troops cantoned with the planters, joined him. The prisoners of distinction, whom he had captured, were treated with lenity, being detained only a few days on their parole not to escape; "the lower cla.s.s were secured as prisoners of war." The prisoners of note were released at Elkhill, a plantation of Mr. Jefferson's, where Cornwallis for ten days made his headquarters.

This plantation was laid waste by the enemy. Wherever his lords.h.i.+p's army went, plantations were despoiled, and private houses plundered.

During the six months of his stay in Virginia she lost thirty thousand slaves, of whom the greater part died of small-pox and camp fever; and the rest were s.h.i.+pped to the West Indies, Nova Scotia, etc. The devastations committed during these six months were estimated at upwards of thirteen millions of dollars.[733:A]

Peter Francisco, a soldier of the Revolution, celebrated for his physical strength and personal prowess, lived long in the County of Buckingham, Virginia, and died there. His origin is obscure: he supposed that he was a Portuguese by birth, and that he was kidnapped when an infant, and carried to Ireland. He had no recollection of his parents, and the first knowledge that he retained of himself was of being in that country when a small boy. Resolving to come to America, he indented himself to a sea-captain for seven years, in payment of his pa.s.sage. On arriving in Virginia he was indented to Anthony Winston, Esq., of Buckingham, and labored on his estate until the breaking out of the Revolution. Being then at the age of sixteen he obtained permission to enlist in the army. At the storming of Stony Point he was the next, after Major Gibbon, to enter the fortress, and he received a bayonet wound in the thigh. He was present in the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth, the Cowpens, Camden, and Guilford Court-house. In the last-mentioned action, where he belonged to Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton's dragoons, his strong arm levelled eleven of the enemy. His bravery was equal to his strength.

During the year 1781, while reconnoitring alone, and stopping at a house in Amelia, now Nottoway, he was made prisoner by a detachment of Tarleton's dragoons. But availing himself of a favorable opportunity, when one of the British was stooping to take off his silver shoe-buckles, Francisco wounded him with his own sword, and another, and by a ruse frightened off the rest of the party, who fled, leaving their horses, although Tarleton's corps was in full view. This exploit was ill.u.s.trated by an engraving, published in 1814, a favorite ornament of the drawing-room. Peter Francisco was in height six feet and one inch: his weight was two hundred and sixty pounds: his strength Herculean. He used a sword of extraordinary size. His complexion was that of a native of the south of Europe, his eye dark, his whole appearance ma.s.sive, unique, and remarkable. An excellent portrait of him was made by Harding. John Randolph, of Roanoke, brought the attention of congress to Peter Francisco's military services in an interesting memoir, and applied for a pension for him. He was in old age made sergeant-at-arms to the house of delegates.[734:A]

The condition of affairs in Virginia in the summer of 1781 was gloomy, humiliating, apparently almost desperate. After a war of five years the State was still unfortified, unarmed, unprepared. But it was asked, did not every Virginian possess a gun of some kind, and was it not with such arms that the battles of Bunker Hill and of the Cowpens were fought?

Virginia had entered upon the war when she was already loaded with debt, and exhausted by her Indian war, and by her non-importation policy, before the war began. Intersected by rivers, she was everywhere exposed to the inroads of the enemy; and a dense slave population obstructed the prompt movement of the militia. The darkness of the future was relieved by a single ray of hope derived from the uncertain rumors of the sailing of a French fleet for America; but frequent disappointment rendered hope of help from that quarter precarious. The bulk of the people were staunch whigs and well affected to the French alliance; but they were growing despondent, and some were even beginning to fear that France was prolonging the war so as to weaken America as well as Great Britain, and to render the new confederation dependent upon its allies. With the aid of a superior French fleet there could be no doubt of the successful issue of the war; without that aid, there was too much reason to fear that the people could not be kept much longer firm, in so unequal a contest.

La Fayette, joined by Wayne's brigade, eight or nine hundred strong, marched toward Albemarle old court-house, where some magazines remained uninjured by the British, and he succeeded in saving them from Tarleton's grasp. La Fayette at this place was joined by Colonel Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, with his riflemen. Cornwallis, in accordance with advices from Clinton, retired to the lower country, and was followed by La Fayette, who had, in the mean time, above Richmond been re-enforced by Steuben with his new levies and some militia.

Cornwallis halted for a few days at Richmond; Simcoe being posted at Westham; Tarleton at the Meadow Bridge. La Fayette's army amounted to four thousand five hundred, of whom one-half were regular; and of these, fifteen hundred were veterans; he was still inferior to his lords.h.i.+p in numbers, by one-third, and very deficient in cavalry. Cornwallis, leaving the picturesque hills of Richmond on the 20th of June, 1781, reached Williamsburg on the twenty-fifth. La Fayette followed, and pa.s.sing Richmond arrived at New Kent Court-house on the day after the British general had left it. La Fayette took up a position on Tyre's plantation, twenty miles from Williamsburg. Cornwallis having detached Simcoe to destroy some boats and stores on the Chickahominy, he performed the service with his accustomed promptness. La Fayette discovering Simcoe's movement, detached Colonel Butler, of the Pennsylvania line, in quest of him. Butler's van consisted of the rifle corps under Majors Call and Willis and the cavalry; the whole detachment, not exceeding one hundred and twenty effectives, was led by Major McPherson, of Pennsylvania. Having mounted some infantry behind the remnant of Armand's dragoons, he overtook Simcoe, on his return, near Spencer's plantation, about six miles above Williamsburg, at the forks of the roads leading to that place and to Jamestown. The ground there, in Simcoe's phrase, was "admirably adapted to the chicanery of action." The suddenness of McPherson's attack threw the yagers into confusion, but they were firmly supported by the Queen's Rangers, to whom the alarm was given by trumpeter Barney, exclaiming: "Draw your swords, Rangers; the rebels are coming!" Barney himself captured a French officer. Call and Willis having now joined McPherson, a warm conflict ensued; and Simcoe found occasion for all his resources. The advanced party of Butler's corps was repulsed, and fell back in confusion upon the continentals, and Simcoe, satisfied with this advantage, retired. Both parties claimed the advantage in this rencontre, the loss of the British being eleven killed and twenty-six wounded; that of the Americans was not reported, except that three officers and twenty-eight privates were made prisoners; the number of their killed and wounded probably exceeded that of the British.[736:A]

Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe considered this action as "the climax of a campaign of five years." Major McPherson was unhorsed, but crept into a swamp, and so escaped. Simcoe, after retreating two miles toward Williamsburg, met Cornwallis with the advance of his army coming to his relief. Colonel Butler, the American commander in this affair, was the same who afterwards fell at St. Clair's defeat.

Late in June, Cornwallis, with an escort of cavalry under Simcoe, visited Yorktown for the purpose of examining the capabilities of that post; and his lords.h.i.+p formed an unfavorable opinion of it. The party was ineffectually fired at from Gloucester Point, and returned on the same day to Williamsburg. After halting here nine days, Cornwallis[736:B] marched, and encamped near Jamestown Island, for the purpose of crossing the James and proceeding to Portsmouth. The Queen's Rangers pa.s.sed over the river in the evening of the same day to cover the baggage which was now transported. La Fayette, as Cornwallis had predicted, now advanced with the hope of striking at the rear-guard only, of the enemy, supposing, upon imperfect intelligence, that the main body had already crossed. Accordingly, about sunset[736:C] La Fayette attacked Cornwallis near Greenspring, and after a warm conflict was compelled to retreat, having discovered that he was engaged by the main body of the British. Of the continentals one hundred and eighteen were killed, wounded, or taken. Some cannon also fell into the hands of the enemy. The British state their loss at five officers and seventy privates killed and wounded. Cornwallis now crossed the James unmolested and marched[737:A] for Portsmouth.

La Fayette, re-enforced by some dragoons from Baltimore, retired to a strong position near the head of York River. The militia had already been discharged.

FOOTNOTES:

[726:A] April twenty-fifth.

[728:A] Landlord of the Ordinary in New Kent.

[728:B] At Hanover Court-house.

[729:A] Simcoe's Journal, 226.

[731:A] Belvoir, about seven miles from Charlottesville, and the residence of the late Judge Hugh Nelson. The house has been burnt down.

[732:A] It is said that as one of the gentlemen, who was rather _embonpoint_, and who in this emergency had found time to put on nothing but his breeches, ran across the yard in full view of the British dragoons, they burst into a fit of laughter at so extraordinary a phenomenon.

[732:B] Francis Kinloch, of Kensington, South Carolina, meeting, in pa.s.sing, with Eliza, only daughter of Mr. John Walker, who was also at Philadelphia attending congress, is said to have fallen in love with her at first sight, she having at the moment just come from her hair-dresser, and he afterwards married her: and Eliza, only daughter of that union, became the wife of the late Judge Hugh Nelson, United States Minister at Madrid.