Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/299

 scattered the legislature, and took a few of its members. Meanwhile Simcoe was sent to take or destroy some magazines and stores at Point of Fork, where the Rivanna and Fluvanna rivers unite to form the James. He found that the stores, which were under the guard of General Steuben, were on the south side of the James River. There was no ford, and Simcoe had but a few small boats. He, therefore, resorted to a stratagem. By drawing out his four hundred men in a long line, and half displaying and half concealing them, he succeeded in making Steuben believe that his command was the advanced guard of Cornwallis's main army. Not reflecting that with only a few skiffs in which to cross the river a whole army was hardly more formidable than a detachment, Steuben retreated, leaving a part of the stores behind him. Twenty-four men were, thereupon, set across the river, and while half of them kept watch the others destroyed the stores without being disturbed.

Lafayette retreated as far north as the Rappahannock, where Wayne joined him with reinforcements. The marquis then made a rapid march to the southward and westward and placed himself between the British army and the stores in the western part of the state. He was still too weak, however, to risk a battle. Cornwallis did not advance against him, but on the 15th of June turned towards the seaboard. This gave Lafayette an apparent advantage. He followed