British Occupation of Bollingbrook.

Skirmish at Osborne's.

Destruction of the American Flotilla

sions; and Mrs. Bolling was allowed the use of only the room in the rear of the east building. The soldiery often set fire to the fences which surrounded Bollingbrook, and the amiable lady was kept in a state of continual alarm, notwithstanding the efforts of the usually discourteous Phillips to soothe her. Arnold had apprised her of the irritability of that officer's temper, and by her mildness she secured his esteem and favor.1

a April,

On the morning of the twenty-sev

1781. enth,a Arnold, with one division of the army, consisting of the eightieth and seventysixth regiments and the Rangers, proceeded to

BOLLINGBROOK.

a place called Osborne's, a short distance from Petersburg, where, rumor asserted, the Americans had considerable stores, and near which was anchored a marine force to oppose the further progress of vessels coming up the James River. At the same time, General Philjips, with the other division, marched to Chesterfield Court House. The patriots at Osborne's were not advised of the approach of the enemy until they appeared in force. Arnold sent a flag to treat with the commander of the fleet for a surrender, but he boldly refused a conference

for such a purpose, saying, "I am determined and ready to defend the fleet, and will sink in the vessels rather than surrender them." He then caused the drum to beat to arms, and the militia on the opposite side of the river drew up in battle order. Arnold immediately advanc

ed with some artillery, routed the patriots, and drove the seamen to their shipping. The latter scuttled several of the vessels and

set fire to others to prevent their falling into the traitor's hands. One of the vessels returned the fire from the enemy's artillery with much spirit, but was finally disabled. The militia were driven from the opposite shore, and the whole fleet was either captured or destroyed. Two ships and ten

smaller craft were captured, and four ships, five brigan

tines, and a number of small ves

sels, were either burned or sunk."

The quantity of tobacco taken or destroyed, exceeded two thousand hogsheads.

followed by her mother, brother, and sister-in-law. The mother, a lady of fifty, has but little resemblance to her country women; she is lively, active, and intelligent; knows perfectly well how to manage her immense fortune, and what is yet more rare, knows how to make good use of it. Her son and daughter-inlaw I had already seen at Williamsburg. The young gentleman appears mild and polite; but his wife, of only seventeen years of age, is a most interesting acquaintance, not only from the face and form, which are exquisitely delicate, and quite European, but from her being also descended from Pocahunta [Pocahontas], daughter of King Powhatan." The engraving presents a view of Mrs. Bolling's houses, looking southwest. Campbell's Reminiscences of Bollingbrook, in the Southern Literary Messenger, January, 1840. NOTE. Explanation of the Plan.-A, B, the Queen's Rangers; C, the eightieth and seventy-sixth regiments; D, E, the British artillery, two six and two three pounders; F, Yagers; G, the American vessels H, the American militia.

1

It was to one of the prisoners, taken at this time, that Arnold put the question, "If the Americans

Troops of Arnold and Phillips. Depredations at Manchester and Warwick. La Fayette at Petersburg.

Death of Phillips.

Phillips and Arnold joined their divisions on the thirtieth, after having burned the barracks and a quantity of flour at Chesterfield Court House, and then pushed forward toward Richmond, where a large quantity of military stores were collected. At Manchester, opposite Richmond, they burned twelve hundred hogsheads of tobacco and other property, and were preparing to cross the river, when information reached them that La Fayette, with a body of Continental troops, had arrived the evening previous. The marquis had received orders at the head of Elk to go to Virginia and oppose Phillips and Arnold, and had made a forced march of two hundred miles in order to save the stores at Richmond. The depredators knew too well the spirit of the marquis to venture another marauding visit to Richmond while he was there, and, wheeling their columns, they proceeded down the river to Bermuda Hundred, at the mouth of the Appomattox, opposite City Point, and embarked. On their way, they passed through Warwick, a town on the James River, then larger than Richmond, where they destroyed ships on the stocks, a range of rope-walks, a magazine of flour, warehouses filled with tobacco and other merchandise, tan-houses filled with hides, and some flouring mills belonging to Colonel Carey, whose splendid mansion was near.' In one general conflagration, the thriving town, with all its industrial appurtenances, was destroyed."

a May 6.

The British fleet with the land forces then sailed down the James River, when, a little below Burwell's Ferry, they were meta by a boat from Portsmouth, bearing a messenger with intelligence for General Phillips that Cornwallis was on his way north, and wished to form a junction with him at Petersburg. The whole fleet was immediately ordered to return up the James River, and late at night, on the ninth,b the British army again entered Petersburg. So secret was their entrance, that ten American officers who were there to prepare boats for La Fayette to cross the river, were captured. Phillips was very sick of a fever on his arrival, and was carried to the house of Mrs. Bolling, where he died four days afterward.

b May, 1781.

S

The presence of La Fayette inspired the militia of Virginia with high hopes, and they flocked to his standard in considerable numbers. When informed of the return of the British fleet, he suspected the object to be a junction with Cornwallis at Petersburg. It was known that the earl had left Wilmington, and was on his way to Virginia. The marquis immediately pressed forward to take possession of the town before the arrival of Phillips and Arnold. He was too late, and after cannonading the British quarters, particularly Bollingbrook, from Archer's Hill, and thoroughly reconnoitering the place, he returned to Osborne's, should catch me, what would they do with me?" The soldier promptly replied, "They would bury with military honors the leg which was wounded at Saratoga, and hang the remainder of you upon a gibbet.” 1 Anburey, one of the officers who surrendered to Gates at Saratoga, in his Travels in America (ii., 312), speaks highly of Colonel Carey's hospitality. 2 Gordon, iii., 205; Girardin, 460; Jefferson, i., 420.

3 William Phillips, it will be remembered, was one of Burgoyne's general officers, who was made prisoner at Saratoga. He commanded the "Convention Troops," as those captives were called, while on their march to Virginia. On being exchanged, he was actively engaged at the South until his death. He was possessed of an exceedingly irritable temper, which often led him into difficulty. He was very haughty in his demeanor, especially toward the Americans, whom he affected to hold in great contempt. While lying sick at Petersburg, he dictated a letter to Governor Jefferson, and addressed it to "Thomas Jefferson, Esq., American governor of Virginia ;" and when speaking of the American commander-in-chief, he called him "Mr. Washington." General Phillips was buried in the old Blandford church-yard, where his remains yet repose. His disease was bilious fever.

4 La Fayette was probably not aware that General Phillips was dying at Bollingbrook, or he would not have cannonaded it. British writers have charged La Fayette with inhumanity. Anburey (ii., 446) says, A circumstance attended Phillip's death, similar to the inhumanity that the Americans displayed at the interment of General Frazer." He further asserts, that a flag was sent to the marquis, acquainting him with the condition of Phillips, but that he paid no attention to it, and continued the firing. He said a ball went through the house, just as Phillips was expiring, when the dying man exclaimed, “My God! 'tis cruel they will not let me die in peace." This assertion proves its own inconsistency. The cannonade occurred on the tenth, and General Phillips did not die until the thirteenth.*

* Campbell says that, according to tradition, Arnold was crossing the yard when the cannonade commenced. He hastened

The State in Danger.

Retirement of Governor Jefferson.

Entrance of Cornwallis into Virginia.

Monticello.

and there crossed the James River to the easterly side. Arnold took the chief command, on the death of General Phillips, and just one week after that event, a Cornwallis, a May 20, with a large force, entered Petersburg. That officer, after fighting the battle with 1781. General Greene at Guilford Court House, had retired to Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River. Perceiving the advantages to be derived by invading Virginia at separate points, he ordered General Phillips, as we have seen, to return up the James River, while he hastened to enter the state from the south and form a junction with him at Petersburg. He marched directly north, nearly on a line with the present rail-road from Wilmington, and reached the Roanoke at Halifax, seven miles below the Great Falls, where he crossed, and entered Virginia. Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, with a corps of one hundred and eighty cavalry and sixty mounted infantry, was sent forward as an advance guard to disperse the militia and overawe the inhabitants. The outrages committed by some of these marauding troops were pronounced by Stedman, an officer of Cornwallis's army, "a disgrace to the name of man." Simcoe had been sent by Arnold to take possession of the fords on the Nottaway and Meherrin Rivers, the only considerable streams that intervened, and the two armies, unopposed, effected a junction at Petersburg, where Cornwallis assumed the command of the whole.

Virginia now seemed doomed to the alternative of submission or desolation. On the seventh of May, the Legislature, uneasy at the proximity of General Phillips and his army, adjourned to meet at Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, on the twenty-fourth. There, eighty-five miles from Richmond, in the bosom of a fertile and sheltered valley, on the banks of the Rivanna, they hoped to legislate undisturbed. Mr. Jefferson, the governor, feeling his incompetency, on account of his lack of military knowledge, to administer the affairs of the state with energy, declined a re-election on the first of June, and indicated General Nelson, of Yorktown, as a proper successor. At his elegant seat, called Monticello (Little Mountain), situated three miles southeast of Charlottesville, far from the din of actual hostilities, Jefferson sought repose for a season in the bosom of his family. His dream of quiet was soon broken, as we shall presently perceive.

Cornwallis, unlike most of the other British generals, was seldom inert. Although, from the western part of the Carolinas to Wilmington, and from thence to Petersburg, he had journeyed nearly fifteen hundred miles in his marches and counter-marches, he did not halt long. Four days after his ar

MONTICELLO.<

1 American War, ii., 385. It is just to the memory of Cornwallis to say, that the enormities committed were without his sanction. Near the Roanoke, a sergeant and private of Tarleton's legion violated the person of a young girl, and robbed the house where she lived. The next morning Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to draw up his men in line. Some country people pointed out the miscreants. They were tried by a court-martial, found guilty, and hung on the spot. This example had a good effect.

2 This venerated mansion is yet standing, though somewhat dilapidated and deprived of its former beauty by neglect. The furniture of its distinguished owner is nearly all gone, except a few pictures and mirrors, otherwise the interior of the house is the same as when Jefferson died. It is upon an eminence, with many aspen-trees around it, and commands a view of the Blue Ridge for one hundred and fifty miles on one side, and on the other one of the most beautiful and extensive landscapes in the world. Wirt, writing of the interior arrangements of the house during Mr. Jefferson's life time, records that, in the spacious and lofty hall which opens to the visitor on entering, "he marks no tawdry and unmeaning ornaments; but before, on the right, on the left, all around, the eye is struck and gratified by objects of science and taste, so classed and arranged as to produce their finest effect. On one side, specimens of sculpture, set out in such order into the house, and directed the inmates to go to the cellar for safety. General Phillips was taken there, followed by Mrs. Bolling and her family. An old negro woman, who was standing in the kitchen door, was killed by one of the balls.

Jefferson's Seal and Monument, and Inscriptions

Cornwallis's unsuccessful Pursuit of La Fayette. Expeditions Westward.

a May 24,

1781.

rival, he marched down the James River to Westover, where he was joined by a regiment from New York.' He crossed,a and pushed on toward Richmond. La Fayette, with nearly three thousand troops, continental and militia, lay about half way between Richmond and Wilton. Cornwallis knew the inferiority of the marquis's force to his own, and felt so sure of success that he wrote to the British secretary, from Petersburg, saying, "The boy can not escape me." La Fayette had wisdom as well as zeal, and instead of risking a battle at that time, he cautiously retreated northward, pursued by the earl. A retreat to avoid the engagement was not the only object to be obtained by La Fayette. Wayne was on his march through Maryland with a re-enforcement of eight hundred men, and a junction was important. Cornwallis was advised of the approach of these troops, and sought, by rapid marches, to outstrip La Fayette and prevent the union. But the marquis was too agile; and after pursuing him to the North Anna, beyond Hanover Court House, plundering and destroying a vast amount of property on the way, the earl halted and encamped. La Fayette passed through Spottsylvania county to the Raccoon Ford, b June 10. on the Rappahannock, in Culpepper, where he was joined by General Wayne.b Unsuccessful in his pursuit, Cornwallis now directed his attention to other points. In the southern part of Fluvanna county, at a place called Point of Fork, on the James River, the Americans had an arsenal and a large quantity of military stores. Baron Steuben, with six hundred raw militia, had charge of this post. The dispersion of the Americans and the capture of the stores were objects of importance to Cornwallis, and for that purpose he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe with his rangers, and other troops under Captain Hutchinson, to surprise the baron. At the same time, the earl dispatched Tarleton, with one hundred and eighty cavalry, and seventy mounted infantry under Captain Champagne,* to attempt the capture of Jefferson and the members of the Legislature at Charlottesville, as to exhibit at a coup d'ail the historic progress of that art, from the first rude attempts of the aborigines of our country, up to that exquisite and finished bust of the great patriot himself, from the master-hand of Carracci. On the other side, the visitor sees displayed a vast collection of specimens of the Indian art, their paintings, weapons, ornaments, and manufactures; on another, an array of fossil productions of our country, mineral and animal; the polished remains of those colossal monsters that once trod our forests, and are no more; and a variegated display of the branching honors of 'those monarchs of the waste' that still people the wilds of the American Continent." In a large saloon were exquisite productions of the painter's art, and from its windows opened a view of the surrounding country, such as no painter could imitate. There, too, were medallions and engravings in great profusion. Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was

found, after his death, a very perfect impression in wax, of his famous seal, bearing his monogram and the motto, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. That impression is in the present possession of Mr. Bancroft, the historian, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the privilege of making the annexed representation. I have endeavored to produce a perfect fac simile, so far as the pictorial art will allow, even to the fractures in the wax.

Monticello was a point of great attraction to the learned of all lands, when traveling in this country, while Jefferson lived. His writings made him favorably known as a scholar, and his public position made him honored by the nations.

The remains of Mr. Jefferson lie in a small family cemetery, by the side of the winding road leading to Monticello. Over them is a granite obelisk eight feet high, and on a tablet of marble inserted in its southern face

is the following inscription, which was found among Mr. Jefferson's papers after his death:

"HERE LIES BURIED

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE;

OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM;

AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA."

This was the forty-third regiment. The convoy also brought another regiment, and two battalions of Anspachers, to strengthen the garrison at Portsmouth. Arnold, despised by Cornwallis, who no longer needed his services, was sent to New York on the first of June.

2 This locality is at the confluence of the Fluvanna and Rivanna rivers, two great branches of the James River.

3 From the stables of the planters Cornwallis procured excellent horses, on which these and other troops were mounted.

Expedition of Simcoe against Steuben.

Attempt to Capture Jefferson and the Legislators.

Destruction of Property.

Steuben was advised of the approach of Tarleton, and believing his post to be the object of the expedition, he conveyed his stores to the south side of the Fluvanna and prepared to withdraw his troops thither. Simcoe's march was unknown, but when he arrived at the Point of Fork, he had nothing to surprise or capture, except about thirty Americans who were waiting the return of boats to cross the river. Simcoe, by an advantageous display of his force, and lighting numerous fires at night upon the hills along the Rivanna, deceived Steuben with the belief that the main army of Cornwallis was close upon him. Influenced by this idea, the baron hastily retreated during the night, leaving such stores behind as could not readily be removed. In the morning, Simcoe sent Captain Stephenson to destroy them, and also ordered Captain Wolsey to make a feigned pursuit upon the track of the retreating Americans.

In the mean while, Tarleton and his legion pushed forward with their accustomed speed, to catch the Virginia law-makers at Charlottesville. On their way toward the Rivanna, they destroyed twelve wagon-loads of clothing, destined for Green's army in North Carolina. On reaching that stream, they dashed into its current, and before seven o'clock in the morninga they were within ten miles of Charlottesville. There Tarleton de- a Jan. 4, tached Captain M.Leod, with a party of horsemen, to capture Governor Jefferson, 1781. at Monticello, while himself and the remainder of his forces pushed on to the residence of two brothers, named Walker, where he understood many influential Virginians were assembled. Several of these were captured, among whom was Colonel John Simms, a member of the Legislature, and William and Robert, brothers of General Nelson. After partaking of a tardily prepared breakfast at Dr. Walker's,' Tarleton pursued his rapid march, and rode up the hill into the village of Charlotte, under full gallop, expecting to take the legislators by surprise. He was disappointed. While passing through Louisa county, a Mr. Jouitte, suspecting Tarleton's design, mounted a fleet horse, and reached Charlottesville in time to give the alarm. The delay for breakfast at Dr. Walker's was sufficient to allow most of the members to mount fresh horses and escape. Only seven fell into the hands of the British.

M Leod's expedition to Monticello was quite as unsuccessful. The governor was entertaining several members of the Legislature, including the speakers of both Houses, and was not aware of the proximity of an enemy, until the invaders were seen coming up the winding road leading to his mansion. His wife and children were hurried off to Colonel Carter's, six miles southward, whither Mr. Jefferson followed on horseback, making his way among the dark recesses of Carter's Mountain. The speaker hurried to Charlottesville to adjourn the Legislature, to meet at Staunton on the seventh, and then, with several others, mounted fleet horses and escaped. Mr. Jefferson had not been gone ten minutes when McLeod and his party rode up and found the mansion deserted. Books, papers, and furniture were untouched by the enemy, and not a particle of the governor's property was destroyed, except a large quantity of wine in his cellar, drank and wasted by a few soldiers, without the knowledge of their commander.

After destroying one thousand new muskets, four hundred barrels of powder, several hogsheads of tobacco, and a quantity of soldier's clothing, Tarleton, with his prisoners, rejoined Cornwallis, who had advanced to Elk Hill, a plantation belonging to Governor Jefferson, near the Point of Fork. There the most wanton destruction of property occurred. They cut the throats of the young horses, carried off the older ones fit for service, slaughtered the

He was

1 Observing a delay in the preparation of breakfast, Tarleton impatiently demanded the reason. informed by the cook that his subalterns had already devoured two breakfasts. A guard was placed at the kitchen door, and it was not until a third breakfast was cooked that Tarleton was able to obtain his meal.

The members of the Legislature were terribly frightened, and were not at ease even at Staunton. On the morning when they convened, Colonel Brookes, with a small company of mounted Virginians, rode into Staunton at a rapid pace, bearing a message from Baron Steuben. The members, believing them to be a part of Tarleton's legion, took to their heels, and it was some time before they could be coaxed back to their duties. On the twelfth they elected General Nelson governor of the state.