y to defend the States bordering on it, and that they
will please to favor me with the earliest intelligence of
every circumstance that is to influence the measures either
offensive or defensive.

I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and very
humble servant,

P. HENRY.[296]

By the early spring of 1779, it became still more apparent that the
purpose of the enemy was to shift the scene of their activity from the
middle States to the South, and that Virginia, whose soil had never
thus far been bruised by the tread of a hostile army, must soon
experience that dire calamity. Perhaps no one saw this more clearly
than did Governor Henry. At the same time, he also saw that Virginia
must in part defend herself by helping to defend her sister States at
the South, across whose territories the advance of the enemy into
Virginia was likely to be attempted. His clear grasp of the military
situation, in all the broad relations of his own State to it, is thus
revealed in a letter to Washington, dated at Williamsburg, 13th of
March, 1779:--

"My last accounts from the South are unfavorable. Georgia is
said to be in full possession of the enemy, and South
Carolina in great danger. The number of disaffected there is
said to be formidable, and the Creek Indians inclining
against us. One thousand militia are ordered thither from
our southern counties; but a doubt is started whether they
are by law obliged to march. I have also proposed a scheme
to embody volunteers for this service; but I fear the length
of the march, and a general scarcity of bread, which
prevails in some parts of North Carolina and this State, may
impede this service. About five hundred militia are ordered
down the Tennessee River, to chastise some new settlements
of renegade Cherokees that infest our southwestern frontier,
and prevent our navigation on that river, from which we
began to hope for great advantages. Our militia have full
possession of the Illinois and the posts on the Wabash; and
I am not without hopes that the same party may overawe the
Indians as far as Detroit. They are independent of General
McIntosh, whose numbers, although upwards of two thousand, I
think could not make any great progress, on account, it is
said, of the route they took, and the lateness of