Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/235

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LETTER LV.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Richmond, May 9, 1781 SIR,

Since the last letter which I had the honor of addressing to your Excellency, the military movements in this state, except a very late one, have scarcely merited communication.

The enemy, after leaving Williamsburg, came directly up James river and landed at City Point, being the point of land on the southern side of the confluence of Appamattox and James rivers. They marched up to Petersburg, where they were received by Baron Steuben, with a body of militia somewhat under one thou sand, who, though the enemy were two thousand and three hundred strong, disputed the ground very handsomely, two hours, during which time the enemy gained only one mile, and that by inches. Our troops were then ordered to retire over a bridge, which they did in perfectly good order. Our loss was between sixty and seventy, killed, wounded and taken. The enemy s is unknown, but it must be equal to ours ; for their own honor they must confess this, as they broke twice and run like sheep, till supported by fresh troops. An inferiority in number obliged our force to withdraw about twelve miles upwards, till more militia should be assembled. The enemy burned all the tobacco in the warehouses at Petersburg, and its neighborhood. They afterwards proceeded to Osborne s, where they did the same, and also destroyed the residue of the public armed vessels, and several of private property, and then came to Manchester, which is on the hill opposite this place.

By this time, Major General Marquis Fayette having been ad vised of our danger, had, by forced marches, got here with his detachment of Continental troops ; and reinforcements of militia having also come in, the enemy finding we were able to meet them on equal footing, thought proper to burn the warehouses and tobacco at Manchester, and retire to Warwick, where they did the same. Ill armed and untried militia, who never before saw the face of an enemy, have, at times, during the course of this war, given occasions of exultation to our enemies, but they af forded us while at Warwick, a little satisfaction in the same way. Six or eight hundred of their picked men of light infantry, with General Arnold at their head, having crossed the river from War wick, fled from a patrole of sixteen horse, every man into his boat as he could, some pushing North, some South, as their fears drove