he could not hold
Richmond, Arnold returned to Portsmouth and went into winter quarters.

Recognizing the danger Arnold posed, Washington sent Lafayette south from
New York with 1,200 New England and New Jersey Continentals. Even after
joining his troops with the Virginia militia of Nelson, Muhlenberg, and
George Weedon, he could do little more than watch Arnold. Arnold had
already sent General William Philips, the former prisoner of war in
Charlottesville, against Petersburg. Meeting little opposition from the
Virginia militia as he destroyed tobacco and supplies in the town on
April 24, Philips went into Chesterfield county, burning militia barracks
and supplies. At the same time Arnold was burning more than 20 ships in
the James below Richmond.

Everything seemed to go wrong. The French fleet sent from Newport to
block Arnold at Portsmouth was routed by a British fleet off the Capes
and went back to Rhode Island. The British forces ravaged at will the
Virginia countryside along the James and Appomattox Rivers. Then Arnold
was joined on May 20 by Cornwallis who had marched northward from
Wilmington to meet him at Petersburg. There were now 7,200 British troops
in Virginia. Facing them was the young Marquis de Lafayette with 3,200
soldiers, 2,000 of them inexperienced Virginia militia. Total collapse of
Virginia seemed imminent.

Artfully, Lafayette kept his smaller army intact, moving westward along
the South Anna River, then northward over the Rapidan west of
Fredericksburg. There he was joined by General Anthony Wayne and his
Pennsylvanians. Cornwallis followed but could not draw Lafayette or
Wayne into battle. So he settled down at Elk Hill, the estate of Mrs.
Jefferson's father in Cumberland County. From there he sent Major John
Simcoe on a raid against General Steuben and the major munitions center
at Point of Fork on the James. At first Simcoe was unsuccessful; then
he tricked Steuben into withdrawing to the west, needlessly abandoning
the munitions.

At the same time Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to leave Lafayette in
Hanover County, take his cavalry, dash to Charlottesville, break up the
assembly then meeting there, and capture Jefferson. By hard riding on
the nights of June 3 and 4 Tarleton nearly made it to Charlottesville
undetected. But he stopped at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, where he
was spotted by militia Captain John Jouett, Jr. Guessing Tarleton's
mission, Jack Jouett rode madly through the nig