General
Leslie, had been transferred speedily to South Carolina, to meet the
exigencies of Cornwallis's campaign. The second, of sixteen hundred
troops under Benedict Arnold, left New York at the end of December,
and began its work on the banks of the James at the end of January,
1781. It advanced to Richmond, nearly a hundred miles from the sea,
wasting the country round about, and finding no opposition adequate to
check its freedom of movement. Returning down stream, on the 20th
it occupied Portsmouth, south of the James River; near the sea, and
valuable as a naval station.

Washington urged Commodore des Touches, who by de Ternay's death had
been left in command of the French squadron at Newport, to interrupt
these proceedings, by dispatching a strong detachment to Chesapeake
Bay; and he asked Rochambeau also to let some troops accompany the
naval division, to support the scanty force which he himself could
spare to Virginia. It happened, however, that a gale of wind just then
had inflicted severe injury upon Arbuthnot's squadron, three of which
had gone to sea from Gardiner's Bay upon a report that three French
ships of the line had left Newport to meet an expected convoy. One
seventy-four, the _Bedford_, was wholly dismasted; another, the
_Culloden_, drove ashore on Long Island and was wrecked. The French
ships had returned to port the day before the gale, but the incident
indisposed des Touches to risk his vessels at sea at that time. He
sent only a sixty-four, with two frigates. These left Newport on
February 9th, and entered the Chesapeake, but were unable to reach
the British vessels, which, being smaller, withdrew up the Elizabeth
River. Arbuthnot, hearing of this expedition, sent orders to some
frigates off Charleston to go to the scene. The French division, when
leaving the Bay, met one of these, the _Romulus_, 44, off the Capes,
captured her, and returned to Newport on February 25th. On the 8th
of March, Arnold reported to Clinton that the Chesapeake was clear of
French vessels.

On the same day Arbuthnot also was writing to Clinton, from Gardiner's
Bay, that the French were evidently preparing to quit Newport. His
utmost diligence had failed as yet to repair entirely the damage done
his squadron by the storm, but on the 9th it was ready for sea. On the
evening of the 8th the French had sailed. On the 10th Arbuthnot knew
it, and, having taken the precaution to move down to the entrance of
the bay, he wa