low him, and
thus liberate North Carolina, or to sacrifice all his posts in the
upper parts of South Carolina and Georgia.

The Southern army amounted to about seventeen hundred effectives. That
of Lord Cornwallis is understood to have been still less numerous. So
impotent were the means employed for the conquest and defence of
states which were of immense extent and value.

This unexpected movement gave a new aspect to affairs, and produced
some irresolution in the British general respecting his future
operations. After weighing the probable advantages and disadvantages
of following Greene into South Carolina, he decided against this
retrograde movement and determined to advance into Virginia.

CHAPTER X.

Virginia invaded by Arnold.... He destroys the stores at
Westham and at Richmond.... Retires to Portsmouth.... Mutiny
in the Pennsylvania line.... Sir H. Clinton attempts to
negotiate with the mutineers.... They compromise with the
civil government.... Mutiny in the Jersey line.... Mission
of Colonel Laurens to France.... Propositions to Spain....
Recommendations relative to a duty on imported and prize
goods.... Reform in the Executive departments....
Confederation adopted.... Military transactions....
Lafayette detached to Virginia.... Cornwallis arrives....
Presses Lafayette.... Expedition to Charlottesville, to the
Point of Fork.... Lafayette forms a junction with Wayne....
Cornwallis retires to the lower country.... General
Washington's letters are intercepted.... Action near
Jamestown.

[Sidenote: 1781]

[Sidenote: Virginia invaded by Arnold.]

The evacuation of Portsmouth by Leslie afforded Virginia but a
short interval of repose. So early as the 9th of December, 1780, a
letter from General Washington announced to the governor that a large
embarkation, supposed to be destined for the south, was about taking
place at New York. On the 30th, a fleet of transports under convoy,
having on board between one and two thousand men, commanded by General
Arnold, anchored in Hampton road. The troops were embarked the next
day on board vessels adapted to the navigation, and proceeded up
James' River under convoy of two small ships of war. On the fourth of
January they reached Westover, which is distant about twenty-five
miles from Richmond, the capital of Virginia.

[Sidenote: January 2.]

On receiving intelligence that a fleet