USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 59
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William Lee, brother of Arthur, was born in Virginia, about the year 1737. Sent to London as Virginia's agent before the Revolution, he took up his residence there. Being a zealous whig, he was elected, in 1773, one of the sheriffs of London. At the commencement of the Revolution he retired to France, and afterwards was appointed by congress their commissioner at Vienna and Berlin. An able man, and an ardent and inflexible patriot, by communicating important intelligence, and by his diplomatic agency, he rendered invaluable services to his country. As a writer he was little inferior to Arthur.
During the year 1780 James Madison took his seat in congress. He was born in March, 1751, O. S., in the County of Caroline, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River, near Port Royal, the son of James Madison, of Orange County, and Nelly Conway, his wife. At the age of twelve young Madison was at school under Donald Robertson, a distinguished teacher in the neighborhood, and afterwards under the Rev. Thomas Martin, the parish minis- ter, a private tutor in his father's family. He was next sent to the College of New Jersey, of which Dr. Witherspoon was then president. Here Mr. Madison received the degree of bachelor of arts in the autumn of 1771. He had impaired his health at
* Arthur Lee's Life, i. 88.
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college by too close application; nevertheless, on his return home he pursued a systematic course of reading. Shortly after his return he signed resolutions of his county approving of Henry's proceedings in the affair of the gunpowder. He became a mem- ber of the convention in May, 1776, and it was during this ses- sion that the body unanimously instructed the deputies of Virgi- nia in congress to propose a declaration of independence. He did not enter into public debate during this session. At the next election he was defeated, his successful opponent being Colonel Charles Porter, who was subsequently his frequent colleague in the house of delegates. Mr. Madison was at the ensuing session appointed a member of the council of state, and this place he held till 1779, when he was elected to congress. While he was of the council Patrick Henry and Mr. Jefferson were governors. Mr. Madison's knowledge of French, of which Governor Henry was ignorant, rendered him particularly serviceable in the fre- quent correspondence held with French officers: he wrote so much for Governor Henry that he was called "the governor's secretary." Mr. Madison took his seat in congress in March, 1780, and continued a leading member until the fall of 1783, when his congressional term expired by limitation. Such was the commencement of the career of this man so illustrious for his genius, his learning, and his virtue, and who was destined to pass through every eminent station, and to fill all with honor to him- self and benefit to his country and the world. As a writer, a debater, a statesman, and a patriot, he was of the first order, and his name goes down to posterity one of the brightest of those that adorn the annals of the age in which he lived .*
* The Life of Madison, by the Honorable William C. Rives, is a recent import- ant addition to Virginia biography.
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CHAPTER XCVI.
1780.
Logan-Leslie's Invasion-Removal of Convention Troops.
IN the fall of 1779 Logan, the Indian chief, had again resumed his onslaughts on the banks of the Holston. In June, 1780, when Captain Bird, of Detroit, long the headquarters of British and Indian barbarity, invaded Kentucky, Logan joined in the bloody raid. He was now about fifty-five years of age. Not long after this inroad, Logan, at an Indian council held at Detroit, while phrenzied by liquor, prostrated his wife by a sudden blow, and she fell apparently dead. Supposing that he had killed her, he fled to escape the penalty of blood. While travelling alone on horseback he was all at once overtaken, in the wilderness between Detroit and Sandusky, by a troop of Indians, with their squaws and children, in the midst of whom he recognized his relative Tod-hah-dohs. Imagining that the avenger was at hand, Logan frantically exclaimed that the whole party should fall by his weapons. Tod-hah-dohs perceiving the danger, and observing that Logan was well armed, felt the necessity of prompt action; and while Logan was leaping from his horse to execute his threat, Tod-hah-dohs levelled a shot-gun within a few feet of him and killed him on the spot. Tod-hah-dohs, or the Searcher, originally from Conestoga, and probably a son of Logan's sister who lived there, was better known as Captain Logan. He left children, (two of whom have been seen by Mr. Lyman C. Draper;) so that in spite of Logan's speech some of his blood, at least collaterally, still runs in human veins. Logan's wife recovered from the blow given her by her husband, and returned to her own people .*
On the 2d of October, 1780, Major Andre was executed as a spy.
* Brantz Mayer's Discourse on Logan and Cresap, 66.
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Beverley Robinson, a son of the Honorable John Robinson, of Virginia, president of the colony, removed to New York, and married Susanna, daughter of Frederick Philipse, Esq., who owned a vast landed estate on the Hudson. When the Revolu- tion commenced, Beverley Robinson desired to remain in retire- ment, being opposed to the measures of the ministry, and to the separation of the colonies from the mother country. The importu- nity of friends induced him to enter the military service of the crown, and he became colonel of the Loyal American Regiment. He was implicated in Arnold's treason, and accompanied Andre in the Vulture. Andre, when captured, was taken to Colonel Robinson's house, which had been confiscated, and then occupied by Washington. Robinson was sent by Sir Henry Clinton as a witness in behalf of Andre.
Prince William Henry, afterwards William the Fourth, was a guest of Colonel Robinson, in New York, during the revolu- tionary war. Several of his descendants, and those of Captain Roger Morris, have attained distinction. Among them Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, son of Colonel Beverley Robinson, was an officer of rank under Wellington, and saw hard service in the Peninsular war, and was dangerously wounded at the siege of St. Sebastians. In the war of 1812 he led the British in the attack on Plattsburg, under Prevost .*
On the twentieth of October, a British fleet, in accordance with intelligence which had been communicated by spies and deserters, made its appearance in the Chesapeake. General Leslie was at the head of the troops aboard. Having landed, they began to fortify Portsmouth. Their highest post was Suf- folk, and they occupied the line between Nansemond River and the Dismal Swamp. A person of suspicious appearance, endea- voring to pass through the country from Portsmouth toward North Carolina, was apprehended; and upon its being proposed to search him he readily consented, but at the same time he was observed to put his hand into his pocket and carry something toward his mouth, as if it were a quid of tobacco. Upon exami- nation it proved to be a letter, written on silk-paper, and rolled
* Sabine's Loyalists, 562.
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up in gold-beaters' skin, and nicely tied at each end, so as to be no larger than a goose-quill. The letter was as follows :-
"To LORD CORNWALLIS :-
"MY LORD,-I have been here near a week, establishing a post. I wrote to you to Charleston, and by another messenger by land. I cannot hear with certainty where you are. I wait your orders. The bearer is to be handsomely rewarded if he brings me any note or mark from your lordship. A. L.
"Portsmouth, Virginia, November 4, 1780."
It was a source of mortification to Governor Jefferson and other patriots that the State was unable to defend herself for want of arms. In compliance with the call of the executive, General Nelson made an effort to collect the militia of the lower counties, and to secure at least the pass at the Great Bridge; but his exertions were ineffectual, as the alarmed inhabitants made it their first business to secure their families and property from dan- ger. General Lawson, who had at this time raised a corps of five hundred volunteers to march to the aid of South Carolina, was called on to aid in defending his own State, and General Stevens was preparing to march with a detachment of the Southern army to her aid when* Leslie sailed for South Carolina to re-enforce Cornwallis. Leslie during his stay had abstained entirely from depredation and violence. Many negroes who had gone over to him were left behind, either from choice or from want of ship- room. The chief injury resulting from this invasion was the loss of cattle collected for the use of the Southern army. Another consequence of it was the removal of the troops of convention from the neighborhood of Charlottesville. They marched early in October, and crossing the Blue Ridge proceeded along the valley to Winchester, where they were quartered in barracks. Some of the men occupied a church, and about sixty were confined in jail, probably to prevent desertion. The troops were thence removed to Fredericktown, Maryland, and afterwards to Lancas- ter, Pennsylvania. The German troops of convention remained
* November fifteenth.
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longer in Albemarle: they were removed early in 1781, and quar- tered at Winchester, and the Warm Springs, in Berkley.
The assembly of Virginia was preparing, in the winter of this year, to weather, as well as possible, the storm which was gather- ing against her; but without Northern assistance she was hardly able to cope with the enemy. She wanted clothes, arms, ammu- nition, tents, and other warlike stores. Ten millions of paper dollars were issued from necessity, but it was evident that it would be as transient, as a dream at the present, and pernicious in its consequences; yet without it no resistance could be made to the enemy.
CHAPTER XCVII.
1780-1781.
Arnold's Invasion.
TOWARD the close of December, 1780, a fleet appeared within the capes of the Chesapeake, with a force detached by Sir Henry Clinton from New York, under command of the traitor Arnold. A frigate in advance having captured some small vessels, Arnold, with the aid of them, pushed on at once up the James. Attempt- ing to land at Burwell's Ferry, (the Grove Landing,) his boats were beaten off by one hundred and fifty militia of Williamsburg and James City, under Colonel Innes and General Nelson. Nel- son, on this occasion, retorted a verbal defiance in answer to a letter with which Arnold had ushered in his invasion .*
Leaving a frigate and some transports at Burwell's Ferry, Arnold proceededt up the river to Westover. Here landing a force of less than eight hundred men, including a small party of badly mounted cavalry, he marched for Richmond at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. Nelson, in the mean while, with a handful of militia, badly supplied with ammunition, had marched up the right bank of the James River, but arrived too late to offer any opposition to the landing of the enemy. Arnold, at one o'clock of the next day after he marched from Westover, entered the infant capital without having encountered any resist- ance, although his route was very favorable for it. The energetic Simcoe, with a detachment, proceeded a few miles beyond Rich- mond and destroyed the foundry, emptied the contents of the powder magazine, struck off the trunnions of the cannon, and set
* In a series of replies made by Mr. Jefferson to strictures thrown out upon his conduct of affairs at this juncture, the following occurs: "Query-Why publish Arnold's letter without General Nelson's answer ? Answer-Ask the printer. He got neither from the executive."
+ January 4th, 1781.
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fire to the warehouses and mills, the effect of the conflagration being heightened by occasional explosions of gunpowder. Many small arms and a stock of military supplies were destroyed, and five tons of gunpowder thrown into the river. At Richmond the public stores fell a prey ; private property was plundered and destroyed; the soldiers broke into houses and procured rum; and several buildings were burnt. Part of the records of the auditor's office, and the books and papers of the council. office shared the same fate.
Governor Jefferson used every effort in his power to remove the public stores, and part were rescued by being removed across the river at Westham. Late on the night of the fourth he went to Tuckahoe, and on the next day went down to Manchester, opposite Richmond, where the busy movements of the enemy. were in full view. When they advanced upon that place only two hundred militia were embodied-too small a number to make any resistance. The governor, having repaired to Colonel Fleming's, in Chesterfield, to meet Steuben, received there a message from Arnold, offering not to burn Richmond, on condi- tion that British vessels should be permitted to come to it unmo- lested and take away the tobacco. The proposition was rejected.
The inhabitants of Richmond were, for the most part, Scotch factors, who lived in small tenements scattered here and there between the river and the hill, some on the declivities, a few on the summit. Arnold withdrew from Richmond about mid-day on the sixth, encamped that night, as he had on the march up, at Four-mile Creek, and on the next day at Berkley and Westover.
Arthur Lee wrote, on the twenty-first of March, from Green- spring to Colonel Bland, as follows: "Most certainly you would have heard from me could I have found any conveyance but the tory-post the wisdom of our people has established, or could I have given you a pleasing account of the situation of our affairs here. But in truth, it is impossible to conceive a more hopeless state than what we are in. Laws without wisdom or justice, governments without system or order, complex and heavy taxes to raise money which is squandered away no one knows how, or wherefore, not half the troops being raised, or those which are raised being provided neither with arms, clothes, nor provisions.
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Twelve millions were spent in two months, and when the enemy came, there was neither man, horse, musket, cannon, wagon, boat, or any one thing in the world that could be found for our defence. In this situation it need not surprise you that Arnold, with a handful of bad troops, should march about the country, take and destroy what he pleased, feast with his tory friends, settle a regu- lar correspondence with them, which he carried on for some time in vessels sent up the river and unnoticed, till one happening to run aground discovered Mrs. Byrd's correspondence, which, however, will produce neither good to us nor injury to her. I have reason to think she will not be tried at all, means having been taken to keep the witnesses out of the way."
Mrs. Maria Byrd, of Westover, was a sister of Thomas Willing, Esq., director of the Bank of North America, and partner of Robert Morris, and a strenuous opponent of American independence. A sister of Mrs. Byrd married Captain Walter Sterling, of the British navy. Samuel Inglis, Esq., some time resident in Virginia as factor of the house of Willing & Morris, under the firm of Inglis & Willing, was a decided opponent of inde- pendence. He married the daughter of William Aitcheson, Esq., of Norfolk, a Scotch tory, and was brother of Captain Inglis, of the British navy.t
Simcoe, patroling in the night, surprised a party of militia at Charles City Court-house, where, after some confused firing, the militia fled with small loss; some few attempting to escape, were drowned in a mill-pond. Sergeant Adams, of Simcoe's Regi- ment, was mortally wounded, and dying shortly afterwards, was buried at Westover, wrapped in some American colors taken a few days before at Hoods. Nelson, re-enforced at Holt's Forge by a party of Gloucester militia under Colonel John Page, finding his force not exceeding four hundred men, retreated. On that nightt the British embarked at Westover, and dropped down the James to Flower-de-Hundred. Here Simcoe was detached with
* MS. letter of Arthur Lee in my possession.
f MS. of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. Arnold's visits to Westover are referred to in Edgehill, a novel, by James E. Heath, Esq.
# January tenth.
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a force to dislodge some militia at Bland's Mills, and after advancing about two miles, the advance guard, in a dense wood, were fired on by some Americans posted at the forks of the road in front. The British lost twenty men killed and wounded; but, charging, put the militia to flight.
Arnold sending a detachment ashore at Fort Hoods, a skirmish ensued with two hundred and forty men in ambuscade, under Colonel George Rogers Clarke. The enemy lost seventeen killed and thirteen wounded at the first fire, when Clarke being charged, found it necessary to retreat. John Marshall was present at this affair. The enemy dismantled the fort and carried off the heavy artillery. Nelson, in the mean time, by a forced march, reached Williamsburg just before the fleet came to off Jamestown. Arnold, however, landed part of his forces at Cobham, on the opposite side of the river, and marched down, his ships keeping pace with and occasionally re-enforcing him. On the next day Nelson paraded about four hundred militia at Burwell's Ferry to oppose the landing of the enemy. Re-enforcements arriving, augmented his force to twelve hundred; but the enemy was now beyond their reach. Colonel Griffin and Colonel Temple, with a party of light horse, had hovered near the enemy's lines at West- over, and followed the fleet as it went down the river. In this party were Colonels William Nelson, Gregory Smith, Holt Richardson, Major Buller Claiborne, General Lincoln's aid, and Majors Burwell, Ragsdale, and others, together with a number of young gentlemen. Arnold returned to Portsmouth on the twentieth of January without having encountered any serious interruption.
Thus it happened that while the regular troops of Virginia were serving at a distance in other States, the militia, after a five years' war, was still so unarmed and undisciplined that no effective resistance was made to this daring invasion.
About the time when Arnold reached Portsmouth, some of his artillery-men, foraging on the road toward the Great Bridge, were attacked, their wagons captured and their officer wounded. Simcoe, with a handful of yagers and Queen's Rangers, was detached for the purpose of recovering the wagons. Ferrying across to Herbert's Point they advanced about a mile, when "an
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artillery-man, who had escaped and lay in the bushes, came out and informed him that Lieutenant Rynd lay not far off. Simcoe found him shockingly mangled and mortally wounded; he sent to a neighboring farm for an ox-cart, on which the unfortunate young gentleman was placed. The rain continued in a violent manner, which precluded all pursuit of the enemy; it now grew more tempestuous, and ended in a perfect hurricane, accompanied with incessant lightning. This small party slowly moved back toward Herbert's Ferry; it was with difficulty that the drivers and attendants on the cart could find their way; the soldiers marched on with bayonets fixed, linked in ranks together, cover- ing the road. The creaking of the wagon and the groans of the youth added to the horror of the night; the road was no longer to be traced when it quitted the woods, and it was a great satis- faction that a flash of lightning, which glared among the ruins of Norfolk, disclosed Herbert's house. Here a boat was procured, in which the unhappy youth was conveyed to the hospital-ship, where he died the next day."*
* Simcoe, 171.
CHAPTER XCVIII.
1781.
Greene, Commander of Southern Army-Morgan's Victory at Cowpens-Arnold at Portsmouth-Battle of Guilford-Re-enforced by Phillips-The Enemy at Petersburg-Devastations-Phillips proceeds down James River-Returns to Petersburg-His Death-Succeeded by Arnold-Simcoe-Virginia Navy- John Tyler-John Banister.
IN accordance with a resolution of congress, passed in Novem- ber, 1780, General Gates was superseded, and Washington, who was required to appoint an officer to fill the vacant post, selected General Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island. He reached Char- lotte, the headquarters of the Southern army, early in December. About this time Lee's legion was ordered into South Carolina, to a point west of the Catawba. Cornwallis, whose headquarters were at Winnsborough, detached Tarleton in pursuit of Morgan, who retreated to the Cowpens, and resolved to risk a battle there. Tarleton leaving his baggage behind him well guarded, started, with his accustomed celerity, at three o'clock in the morning,* in pursuit. Before day Morgan received intelligence of his ap- proach, and prepared for action. He drew up his regulars and Triplett's corps, reckoned not inferior to them, and about four or five hundred men, under Howard, on an eminence in an open wood. In their rear, on the declivity of the hill, Lieutenant- Colonel Washington was posted with his cavalry and some mounted Georgia militia as a reserve; and with these two corps Morgan remained in person. The front line was composed of militia, under Pickens. Major McDowell, with a battalion of North Carolina volunteers, and Major Cunningham, with a battalion of Georgia volunteers, were advanced about one hundred and fifty yards in front of this line. Morgan's whole force amounted to eight hundred men. Soon after the troops were disposed, the
* February 17th, 1781.
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British van appeared in sight, and Tarleton forming his line of battle, his troops rushed forward to the attack, shouting. Mor- gan's first line soon retreated into the rear of the second. The British advanced in spite of a firm resistance; Tarleton ordered up his reserve, and Howard's infantry being outflanked, Morgan rode up and directed that corps to retreat over the summit of the hill, about one hundred yards, to the cavalry. The British, now confident of victory, pressed on, in some disorder, and when the Americans halted, were within thirty yards of them. At Howard's order, his men turning, faced the enemy, and poured in, unex- pectedly, a deadly fire. Howard, perceiving that the enemy's ranks were thrown into some confusion, ordered a charge with the bayonet, and the British line was broken. The cavalry on their right was at the same time routed by Washington. Howard and Washington pressed their advantage until the artillery and greater part of the infantry surrendered; but Washington pur- suing too eagerly, received a temporary check, and sustained a heavier loss in this part of the action than in any other. How- ever, the infantry advancing to support him, Tarleton resumed his retreat .*
In this battle one hundred British, including ten commissioned officers, were killed; twenty-nine commissioned officers and five hundred privates made prisoners. A large quantity of arms and baggage and one hundred dragoon horses fell into the hands of the victors. Morgan lost less than eighty men in killed and wounded.
Tarleton retreated toward Cornwallis, whose headquarters were now twenty-five miles distant. In this action Cornwallis had lost one-fifth of his number and the flower of his army. But Greene was not strong enough to press the advantage; and Morgan,
* In the pursuit, Washington 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 assailant 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.
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apprehensive of being intercepted by Cornwallis, abandoned the captured baggage, interring the arms, and leaving his wounded under the protection of a flag, hastened to the Catawba, which he recrossed on the twenty-third. The prisoners were sent by Gene- ral Greene, under escort of Stevens' brigade of Virginia militia to Charlottesville.
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In the mean while Arnold, ensconced, like a vulture, was pre- vented from planning new schemes of devastation by apprehen- sions that he now began to entertain for his own safety .* Richard Henry Lee wrote: "But surely, if secrecy and despatch were used, one ship-of-the-line and two frigates would be the means of delivering Arnold and his people into our hands; since the strongest ship here is a forty-four, which covers all their opera- tions. If I am rightly informed, the militia now in arms are strong enough to smother these invaders in a moment if a marine force was here to second the land operations."
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