shed, Arnold was detached through Osbornes
to Warwick, between which place and Richmond, a respectable naval
force, consisting of small armed vessels, had been collected with the
intention of co-operating with the French fleet against Portsmouth;
and a few militia were stationed on the northern bank of the river to
assist in defending the flotilla.

[Sidenote: April 30.]

The crews of the vessels, on receiving a fire from a few field pieces
ordered by Arnold to the bank, scuttled them, escaped to the opposite
shore, and dispersed with the militia. Philips marched with the
residue of the army to Chesterfield court house, the place of
rendezvous for the new levies of Virginia, where he destroyed the
barracks with a few public stores; after which he joined Arnold in the
neighbourhood of Warwick, and marched without interruption to
Manchester, a small town on the southern bank of James River,
immediately opposite to Richmond; where, as was the general practice,
the warehouses were set on fire, and all the tobacco consumed.

On the preceding evening, the Marquis de Lafayette, who had made a
forced march from Baltimore, arrived with his detachment at Richmond;
and that place, in which a great proportion of the military stores of
the state were then collected, was saved, for the time, from a visit
which was certainly designed.

The regular troops composing this detachment were joined by about two
thousand militia, and sixty dragoons. Not thinking it adviseable to
attempt the passage of the river in the presence of so respectable an
army, General Philips retired to Bermuda Hundred, a point of land in
the confluence of the James and Appomatox, [Transcriber's Note: sic]
at which place he re-embarked his troops, and fell down the river to
Hog Island.

The Marquis fixed his head quarters on the north of Chiccahominy,
about eighteen miles from Richmond; where he remained until a letter
from Lord Cornwallis called Philips again up James River.

When that nobleman determined on marching from Wilmington into
Virginia, he signified his wish that the British troops in that state,
should take their station at Petersburg.

On receiving this letter, Philips proceeded to comply with the request
it contained. As soon as the fleet moved up the river, Lafayette
returned to the defence of Richmond. Having, on his arrival, received
intelligence that Lord Cornwallis was marching northward, and finding
Philips landed at Brandon on the sout