to
join General Greene's Army, then operating in South Carolina, but upon
Lord Cornwallis' rapidly transferring his forces to Virginia, this
order was changed, and Wayne was directed to reinforce Lafayette.
This he did at Fredericksburg in June. The enemy seemed intent upon
destroying all military stores they could reach, and for this purpose
continually sent raiding parties through the State. The efforts of
Wayne were ever put forth to suppress these raids. Believing, on July
6, 1781, that Cornwallis's forces were divided by the James River,
Wayne was sent forward to attack them at Green Springs. He found a
great force of the British Army in his front. Too late to retreat,
Wayne with true soldierly instinct, having faith in the courage and
discipline of his men, boldly charged a force five times as large as
his own, threw them into disorder and safely brought his men away
under cover of the enemy's confusion.

Cornwallis hastened to Yorktown, the investiture and siege of which
Wayne aided in furthering, first, by occupying the ground south of the
James River to prevent the enemy's reaching North Carolina; and then
in opening the first parallel with six regiments on October 6, 1781. A
few days afterward he, with two battalions, covered the Pennsylvania
and Maryland troops while they began the second parallel. Wayne, with
the Pennsylvania regiments, supported the French troops in the attack
of the 14th, and was present at the surrender on the 19th.
Notwithstanding a wound in the fleshy part of the leg, early in the
siege, caused by a sentry mistaking him, Wayne remained active, and
participated in the glory of the capture of Cornwallis and his army.
This operation over, Wayne joined the army of General Nathaniel
Greene, in South Carolina, in January, 1782, and was instrumental in
quelling the disturbances in that section. A very large force of
Indians threatened the destruction of his command on the night of June
23, 1782. These Indians were skilfully handled by a noted Creek Chief,
as well as by a British officer. They surrounded Wayne's forces and
held his artillery. Wayne fiercely attacked, using only the bayonet,
and so impetuous was his onslaught, that he broke the lines of the
Indians, and routed them completely. The dead body of the Creek
leader, who, it is said, was felled by Wayne's own sword, was found on
the ground the next day.

Wayne commanded the forces that took possession of Savannah and
Charleston, a