French cannon at Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, Sidney King Painting
French cannon at Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, Sidney King Painting
The Virginia elite decided over time, starting with the Proclamation of 1763 and the Stamp Act, that continued royal government was too great a threat. As Great Britain sought to extract revenue from the colonies to pay for the French and Indian War, leaders in 13 colonies recognized that British tax policies could expand without limits.
"Taxation without representation." barriers to continued western land speculation, limits on manufacturing raw products into saleable items, and barriers to trade with other nations would constrain the potential to grow or retain wealth in America. British policy had been designed to transfer wealth from Virginia to England since 1607. Seemingly without recognizing the hypocrisy, Tidewater planters started to complain in the 1760's that they were being converted into slaves of Great Britain.
In response to the Stamp Act, a young and new member of the House of Burgesses introduced five resolutions on May 29, 1765. The most radical of the Virginia Resolves, the fifth resolution, triggered calls of "treason" when Patrick Henry championed it. That resolution said:1
Thr resolution was approved initially by a 20-19 vote, and the House of Burgesses rescinded it the next day. The burgesses who had remained in town overnight after hearing Henry's stimulating oratory were more conservative. However, newspapers across the colonies published all five resolutions. The word spread that Virginia claimed Parliament lacked the power to impose a tax unilaterally.
The combined colonial response to the Stamp Act set a new precedent of close inter-colonial cooperation. Back in 1754, northern colonies had been forced by English officials to discuss a common response to war with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederation). The Albany Congress considered a plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin for all colonies except for Georgia and Delaware.
The seven colonies meeting in Albany, New York in July 1754 agreed to send representatives to a Grand Council, to be led by a president General appointed from London. After the commissioners returned to their seven colonies, none of them chose to take action on the proposed plan of union. The British military took the lead in dealing with the threats from the French and Native Americans, coordinating actions as needed. The colonies continued to operate as rivals with each other; they did not bond together at Albany and establish an alliance opposing the power of the King or Parliament.
In 1765, royal officials opposed the gathering in Philadelphia for the Stamp Act Congress. Nine colonies with a common opposition to royal authority sent representatives. No one attended for Virginia, because Governor Francis Fauquier dissolved the General Assembly before it could select representatives.
The Stamp Act Congress passed a Declaration of Rights and Grievances that included "no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures." Enough colonial merchants agreed to stop importing items from Great Britain to impress manufacturers across the Atlantic Ocean. Under the pressure from the business community worried about the loss of trade, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
The next major event was triggered by Parliament's effort to subsidize the East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the sale of tea to North America. Taxes on tea were reduced as part of the decision, but enforcement of tax collection was strengthened. Smugglers in Massachusetts, including the merchant John Hancock, recognized that tighter and tighter restrictions on trade would put them out of business.
An organized mob thinly disguised as Native Americans seized a ship in Boston's harbor in 1773 and dumped the cargo of tea into the water. In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament chose to punish the rebellious colony. Parliament closed the port of Boston, reduced dramatically the powers of the locally-elected government in Massachusetts, allowed British officials to transport Americans to England for trials far from a jury of peers, and forced the colony's residents to host British soldiers in their homes without pay.
Together, the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice, and the Quartering Act became known as the Coercive Acts. A fifth bill extended the boundaries of the Canadian province of Quebec down to the Ohio River. That blocked the claims of various speculators in Virginia to land grants in the Northwest Territory across the Ohio River, and empowered Catholics to hold public offices.
Leaders in all 13 colonies were alarmed by the "intolerable" behavior of Parliament. Destruction of the economy and freedoms of Massachusetts residents was clearly a threat to the other 12 colonies. Instead of intimidating the Americans, Parliament's reprisals united them and created a new perspective that all the colonies had overlapping common interests which bonded them to each other more tightly than to Great Britain.
To show solidarity with Massachusetts, on May 14, 1774 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a resolution calling for a day of "Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer" on June 1, which is when the closure of the port of Boston went into effect. Only the Royal Governor had the authority to declare days of fasting and prayer; the House of Burgesses was blatantly asserting local power to which it was not entitled.
On May 26, Lord Dunmore dissolved the Virginia legislature.
The burgesses remembered how Governor Fauquier had been successful in dissolving the House of Burgesses in 1765 and blocking them from taking action. They alsio remembered their response to Governor Botetourt in 1769. He too had dissolved the legislature, after it had passed an in-your-face resolution stating "That the sole Right of imposing Taxes on the Inhabitants of this his Majesty's Colony and Dominion of Virginia, is now, and ever hath been, legally and constitutionally vested in the House of Burgesses."
In 1769 the burgesses did not go home. Instead, they gathered at the Raleigh Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street, just a few yards away from their official chamber in the Capitol building. The now-former burgesses, in a legally-unsanctioned meeting, established a non-importation plan that was effective enough with similar efforts in other colonies to pressure the Parliament.
Back in England, Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts that had created the taxes on imported goods - with one exception. The tax on tea was left in place. Avoiding the tax was one reason John Hancock and others were smuggling tea before the East India Company was granted a monopoly which was going to be enforced by the Royal Navy.
In 1774, the Virginia burgesses decided again that dissolution did not mean the legislators had to go home. Instead, they met on May 27. Once again they chose to meet in the largest private space that was readily available, the Raleigh Tavern.
In another extra-legal meeting comparable to 1769, the remaining burgesses passed resolutions to denounce the closing of the port, called for a continental congress of all colonies, and agreed to establish another non-importation association to impose economic pain on British merchants.
By a curious quirk of timing, that same evening there was a ball given in the name of the House of Burgesses at the Governor's Palace to honor Lady Dunmore. Some of the burgesses who had been at Raleigh Tavern in the morning of May 27, 1774 also attended the entertainment. They socialized with Governor Dunmore despite their political differences.
After the party, 25 burgesses remained in Williamsburg. They shared among themselves letters which arrived from other colonies calling for a boycott on trade with Britain. To implement a non-importation association, those burgesses issued a call for elections to an independent convention, not a meeting of the House of Burgesses. County sheriffs who oversaw those elections ignored the fact that they were not authorized by Governor Dunmore.
The elections were also a time for some counties to approve resolutions that articulated grievances and called for action against British authority. The Fairfax Resolves, written primarily by George Mason and George Washington, ended up being widely circulated to other colonies and used as a guide to defining American rights.
The First Virginia Convention met in Williamsburg in August, 1774. That happened to be at a time when Governor Dunmore had left town, so there was no direct confrontation.
Governor Dunmore was the leader of the colonial militia forces in Virginia at the start of the American Revolution. In 1774, he sought to build public support for the British government and divert dissatisfied Virginians from revolutionary thought by launching what became known as "Lord Dunmore's War" against the Shawnee.
He spent five months on the western edge of the colony before returning in December, 1774. On January 18, 1775, he hosted a party with members of the still-dissolved House of Burgesses to celebrate the christening of his ninth child (a daughter he named Virginia) at the Governor's Palace. The Royal Governor intended to stay in the colony, convince the unhappy settlers to accept the policies issued by officials in London, and continue to increase his personal wealth.
The British governor's efforts were not successful. While he was away from Williamsburg dealing with the Shawnee, many in Virginia's House of Burgesses had been radicalized. Suspicion of British intentions was commonplace, and the perception grew that Parliament was not going to revise its approach and adopt policies that were acceptable in North America.
A Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September-October, 1774 to coordinate an intercolonial approach to the Intolerable Acts. All colonies except Georgia participated. Virginia sent a well-respected delegation. Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, was elected president of the Congress. The Massachusetts delegation consciously promoted the visibility of the Virginians, in recognition that more colonies would join in an effective response to the Intolerable Acts.
The First Continental Congress in 1774 adopted the Articles of Association, which required local enforcement of economic sanctions against Great Britain. The many Committees of Safety began creating the political and administrative infrastructure for government, independent of royal control, almost two years before the Declaration of Independence would be adopted.
By April 1775, residents in Williamsburg appointed guards to watch the brick "magazine" where the colony's muskets and gunpowder were stored. On the very windy night of April 20, 1775, however, the volunteer watchers abandoned their posts. Dunmore took advantage of the opportunity. He had 20 sailors and marines from the schooner Magdalen land at Burwell's Ferry, near the modern Kingsmill Resort. They walked four miles to Williamsburg, opened the locked gates of the magazine using keys provided by Lord Dunmore, and started to remove the half-barrels of gunpowder weighing 65 pounds each.
Governor Dunmore knew that illegal, illegitimate militias known as Independent Companies were being formed. He justified his seizure of the colony's gunpowder by referencing the rebellious activities of the Virginians, particularly because:2
the Magazine in Williamsburg stored gunpowder, which Lord Dunmore removed in April 1775
The governor also claimed he was ensuring a slave insurrection could not use the gunpowder, but the colonists recognized he was disarming them. Local residents quickly discovered what was happening, but the sailors and marines had time to load 15 of the 18 half-barrels into a wagon and return safely to the Magdalen. Patrick Henry led militia on an unauthorized march to the capital city; violence was avoided by a face-saving compromise when the royal Receiver General paid for the value of the gunpowder.
Back in England, the Prime Minister Lord North had Parliament pass a "conciliatory proposal" to restore the relationship with the colonies and end the unhappy disputes between the colonies and the Mother Country. To respond to the proposals, Governor Dunmore had to call the House of Burgesses into session again. Peyton Randolph returned from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to preside again as Speaker of the House of Burgesses.
While the burgesses were discussing Lord North's proposal, Lord Dunmore fled the Governor's Palace. He reached safety on the H.M.S. Fowey on June 8, 1775.
The House of Burgesses adopted its reply on June 10, repeating that only the colonial legislatures had the right of taxation. Rather than reject Lord North's proposal outright, the House of Burgesses said an official response must come from all the colonies together through the Continental Congress. The reply had to be delivered to Lord Dunmore on the British warship, since he was no longer in residence at the Governor's Palace.
the House of Burgesses kept meeting until almost a month after Lord Dunmore fled Williamnsburg
Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, May 6, 1776
Dunmore then sought to spark civil war among the colonists, with the hope that the Loyalists would fight the rebels and allow him to reoccupy the Governor's Palace.
Lord Dunmore fled Williamsburg on June 8, 1775 and took refuge on a British warship
Source: Library of Congress, Flight of Lord Dunmore
He also sought to weaken the patriots by recruiting their enslaved men to flee to the British lines. Their absence from Virginia plantations would reduce the ability of the rebellious Americans to labor needed to construct fortifications, or to produce food and supplies needed by the Virginia militia. Governor Dunmore issued a proclamation in 1775 offering freedom to black men who would fight for the British, and formed the Ethiopian Regiment with 800-2,000 formerly enslaved Virginians.
Dunmore's strategy failed in part because the Loyalists were threatened seriously by rebels who lived nearby. Dunmore created a base of operations at Norfolk after he fled Williamsburg, but the British lost control of the city after being defeated in battle at the Great Bridge crossing over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. Dunmore had Norfolk shelled on January 1, 1776. His attempt to destroy the city succeeded only because the Virginians chose to complete the burning of Norfolk, preventing the British from returning and re-establishing a military base there.
The American rebels destroyed Norfolk because they could not establish their own base there. They lacked the troops to defend the site, which was exposed to easy cannonading and assault from a British fleet, and the small boats in the Virginia Navy was no match for the British Navy.
a civilian wounded in the January 1, 1776 bombardment of Norfolk petitioned the General Assembly for aid in October, 1776
Source: Library of Virginia, The UnCommonwealth blog, Two Revolutionary War Petitions (March 9, 2022)
Governor Dunmore then established a base at Gwynn's Island. The Virginians attacked it on July 9, 1776, and the British sailed away.
Dunmore moved to St. George's Island, in Maryland at the mouth of the Potomac River. Maryland militia slipped onto the island and destroyed the well, along with some of his water casks. HMS Fowey and the rest of the British fleet sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay in August, 1776.3
For almost the next three years, there were no British forces in Virginia. During that time, there were not enough Loyalists concentrated in one place to create their own army, seize control of a part of Virginia, and create a parallel government to Virginia's revolutionary conventions and ultimately the new state government. The British chose to patrol the Chesapeake Bay and intermittently block American ships rather than try to occupy Portsmouth, in part because the shipping channel at Portsmouth was shallow. In 1781, after Lord Cornwallis led a British army through Virginia, he chose to make his base at Yorktown because Norfolk was not available and the Elizabeth River at Portsmouth was too shallow.
To avoid capture when British ships were on patrol at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay between 1776-1781, Virginians loaded cargo at Franklin's South Quay on the Blackwater River. Those small ships then traveled down to the Albemarle Sound, and through inlets in the Outer Banks to reach the Atlantic Ocean.
From a military perspective, George Washington's greatest success was his ability to keep an army in the field. He lacked the resources to defeat the British, but he kept the British from defeating the Americans. According to historian Woody Holton:4
Richard Henry Le and other Virginians were leaders in the Continental Congress calling for independence, but the state experienced little damage from British troops until 1779
Source: National Archives, Lee Resolution (1776)
British troops returned during a raid in May, 1779 by Commodore George Collier and Major General Edward Mathew. They destroyed the Gosport Shipyard at Portsmouth, but the raid was followed by another British abandonment after just two weeks.
the British captured the Gosport Shipyard at Portsmouth and burned it in 1779
Source: Library of Congress, Part of the Province of Virginia (1791)
On September 23, 1780, volunteers and members of the militia mustered together in Abingdon. They marched south the next day, joining others in the Overmountain Men to cross the Blue Ridge and fight the British Army moving north from Charleston. On October 7, the Americans defeated British Major Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist militia at Kings Mountain. That battle was the first to disrupt the British "southern strategy." Lord Cornwallis won pyrrhic victories and suffered other defeats in North Carolina, ultimately causing him to move north into Virginia.5
the Overmountain Men started marching towards Kings Mountain after mustering in Abingdon, so the modern Overmountain Trail starts there
Source: National Park Service, Southern Campaign of the American Revolution Parks in South Carolina
Southwest Virginians mustered at Abingdon in September, 1780 and marched across the Blue Ridge as part of the Overmountain Men
Source: National Park Service, Abingdon Muster Grounds
Major General Alexander Leslie arrived in Hampon Roads with over 2,000 troops in October, 1780. His attack was just a diversion to disrupt supplies and support Lord Cornwallis's campaign in the Carolinas. Leslie left after only a month in the area.
General Benedict Arnold returned at the end of December, 1780, followed by General William Phillips and finally Lord Cornwallis. Arnold established a base at Portsmouth, but as British troops marched across the state they stayed in one place only briefly. Loyalists who committed to support the invading army were exposed to retaliation as soon as the troops moved on.
British forces under Benedict Arnold reached Richmond in January, 1781
Source: Leventhal Map Collection, Boston Public Library, Skirmish at Richmond Jan. 5th. 1781
On February 22, 1781, General Arnold held a public assembly in Princess Anne County to get 400 local residents to swear a new oath of allegiance to the British government. They were willing to drink and eat what Arnold supplied for the event, and willing to mouth the words in the required oath, but they were just going through the motions.
Captain Johann Ewald, commanding Hessian forces, challenged one uncommitted Loyalist to raise troops locally in order to maintain control over the county. Ewald promised that the British would provide uniforms and weapons as needed. The Princess Anne resident replied to Ewald:6
Ewald replied initially, frustrated that his Hessians were risking their lives to assist the Loyalists unwilling to risk anything:7
Cornwallis entered Virginia after crossing South Carolina and North Carolina, before choosing Yorktown as the deepwater port where he would be resupplied by ships of the Royal Navy sailing from New York
Source: Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, Campaigns of 1781 (Plate 160h, digitized by University of Richmond)
Later, Ewald recognized that Loyalists were wise to keep a low profile. He was surprised to discover that the response he heard was convincing, and provided a clear rationale for not overtly supporting the British cause. The Marquis de Lafayette articulated the same perspective in a letter to the Continental Congress, which was alarmed that Cornwallis was marching through North Carolina into Virginia without meeting formal resistance:8
Lord Cornwallis chased General Nathaniel Green to the Dan River, before marching back into North Carolina and then fighting at Guilford Courthouse
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)
General William Phillips brought 2,000 more soldiers to Portsmouth from New York in March, 1781 with directions by Sir Henry Clinton to take command from Benedict Arnold. Expanding the war effort in Virginia would reduce the number of troops who could be sent south into the Carolinas, and interdict supplies which could support George Washington's army around New York.
Phillips sailed out of Portsmouth on April 18, 1781. He seized Williamsburg, then destroyed the Virginia State Navy base on the Chickahominy River. He crossed the James River and captured Petersburg, then destroyed the barracks at Chesterfield Court House and captured ships and supplies at Osborne's Landing. General Phillips raided Richmond again, this time destroying the cannon foundry at Westham upstream of the city.
In April, Lieutenant General Charles Earl Cornwallis was in Wilmington, North Carolina, south of General Phillips. Cornwallis had marched north from Charleston, which the British had captured in 1780. He had arrived at Wilmington after a series of battles across the Carolinas in which the English won most engagements other than Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780 and Cowpens on January 17, 1781. However, the British army always lost soldiers and no reinforcements arrived from Charleston or New York.
The battles drained Cornwallis' army without destroying the capacity of the Americans to maneuver in the Carolinas. General Nathanael Greene skillfully escaped being trapped as he retreated north from Cowpens.
In early February 1781, Cornwallis thought he was in position to block Greene from crossing the Dan River. The British and their Hessian allies were at what is now Winston-Salem; Greene was at what is now Greensboro about 20 miles to the east. To reach fords of the upper Dan River that were shallow enough for an army to cross, Greene needed to march north - where Cornwallis could intercept him and force a major battle.
However, Greene had his men collect boats along the Dan River. His dragoons led by Col. Otho Williams, including cavalry commanded by "Lighthorse Henry" Lee, screened his movements and left the British unclear about the best opportunity to intercept him. The American army actually marched northeast, away from Cornwallis. Greene successfully ferried his army across the river at Irvin's Ferry and Boyd's Ferry. The Americans won the three week, 250-mile "Race to the Dan," but by just 12 hours after heavy marching by both sides:9
Nathaniel Greene's army moved northeast, away from Cornwallis, and won the "Race to the Dan"
Source: National Park Service, An accurate map of North and South Carolina
He camped at what is now South Boston, keeping all the boats on the north bank of the river so Cornwallis could not reach him. After resupply, he then headed south to challenge Cornwallis. The battle fought at Guilford Courthouse on March 14, 1781, was technically a British victory because the American army had retreat from the battlefield, but British losses were significant. Cornwallis chose to march to Wilmington to resupply.
In Wilmington, Cornwallis announced plans to return to Charleston and defend South Carolina and Georgia, but changed his mind. He preferred to wage offensive rather than defensive warfare, and was did not desire to return to the brutality of the Loyalists and American Rebels fighting a civil war in the Carolinas. There was no potential for glory or satisfaction in a war of attrition.
The potential for Cornwallis' small army to conquer Virginia and establish a Loyalist government there was thin, but at least he could stay on the offensive there. He might fight Continental Army units and Virginia militia in standard battles, capture territory at least briefly, and potentially interrupt enough supplies headed south that the British forces remaining at Camden, Ninety-Six and Augusta would be in a stronger position to hold their territory.
Cornwallis marched north from Wilmington, leaving on April 25, 1781. His superior, Sir Henry Clinton in New York, had directed Cornwallis to suppress the rebellion in South Carolina while General William Phillips would assist in Virginia by interrupting supplies from there. Clinton planned to withdraw troops from their disruption efforts in Virginia to reinforce his army in New York, where he expected the French to strike.
Cornwallis did not seek permission from Clinton to ignore his orders; he simply notified the Commander-in-Chief that he was moving into Virginia. Cornwallis did notify General William Phillips of his planned move, and shared his pessimism regarding the likelihood of either military or political success in Virginia:10
Source: American Battlefield Trust, The Revolutionary War in the North: Animated Battle Map
Source: American Battlefield Trust, The Revolutionary War in the South: Animated Battle Map
Phillips went to Petersburg in expectation of meeting Cornwallis there, but Phillips died from malaria or typhus before Cornwallis arrived. The general's body was buried secretly in the cemetery at Blandford Church; the exact location is still unknown.
Lord Cornwallis marched from Wilmington, North Carolina to Petersburg to combine forces with General William Phillips
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)
Col. Banastre Tarleton seized the ships and supplies at Osborne's Landing on April 27, 1781
Source: Huntington Library, Journal of the operations of the Queen's Rangers (Colonel John Simcoe, 1782)
After arriving in Petersburg, Cornwallis sidelined Benedict Arnold by sending him back to New York. Col. Banastre Tarleton, in his 1787 memoirs, diplomatically described Cornwallis' removal of a person he did not want in his army:11
The British forces moved from Petersburg towards Richmond, seeking to defeat the Marquis de Lafayette before he could unite with reinforcements coming from Pennsylvania. The British had complete military dominance thanks to their superior numbers (over 7,000 men) and especially their cavalry. Lafayette had only a few men on horses, and struggled to even monitor the movements of Cornwallis' forces.
The rebellious Virginia leaders in the General Assembly fled Richmond on May 10, headed west to reconvene on May 24 in Charlottesville. A quorum of members was finally available on May 28, when the legislature reconvened in (probably) Scottsville at the former Albemarle County Courthouse. Jefferson's second one-year term expired at the start of June and he had declined to serve any longer, but the legislature did not elect his replacement on May 28.12
Cornwallis decided that he could not cross the North Anna River and catch Lafayette before General "Mad" Anthony Wayne would arrive with the Pennsylvania reinforcements. Cornwallis also decided that the supplies stored by the Virginians at two locations to his west were more significant that the material at Fredericksburg and Hunter's Iron Works at Falmouth.
Taking advantage of Lafayette being on the other side of the North Anna River, Cornwallis split his army. He sent Colonel John Simcoe and his Queens Rangers to seize an important supply base at the mouth of the Rivanna River, ordered Col. Banastre Tarleton to race west from Hanover Court House to Charlottesville, and marched with the rest to a planned reunion at Thomas Jefferson's Elk Hill plantation in Goochland County.
At Point of Fork (the site of the old Monacan town of Rassawek, near modern-day Columbia), Baron von Steuben moved all the supplies and boats away from Colonel John Simcoe to the south side of the James River. Von Steuben was fooled into thinking all of Cornwallis' army had arrived, and the American rebels fled. The British were able to cross the river unopposed and destroy the stockpile.13
under Colonel John Simcoe, the Queen's Rangers (American Tories) captured Baron von Steuben's supply base at Point of Fork (modern-day Columbia) on June 5, 1781
Source: Huntington Library, Journal of the operations of the Queen's Rangers (Colonel John Simcoe, 1782)
Col. Banastre Tarleton led a raid to Charlottesville with his British Legion to destroy supplies there and also to capture the General Assembly. As British cavalry were riding up the hill at Monticello on June 4, Thomas Jefferson fled in the other direction. He retired to property he owned in Bedford County where he later constructed Poplar Forest.
Opponents, primarily supporters of Patrick Henry, quickly accused Jefferson of mismanaging the Virginia response to the invasions by Arnold, Phillips, and Cornwallis, and of personal cowardice for his flight. Jefferson responded that the state always lacked the resources to counter the British, particularly a navy to stop them from crossing rivers:14
The legislators who escaped Tarleton went further west to Staunton and reassembled in Trinity Church. While meeting in Staunton, the General Assembly elected Thomas Nelson Jr. as the next governor.15
General Cornwallis dispatched troops under Col. Tarleton to Charlottesville and under Col. Simcoe to the Point of Fork on the James River
Source: British Library, MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at Petersburg on the 20.th of May, til their arrival at Portsmouth on the 12.th of July 1781
After being rejoined by Simcoe and Tarleton, Cornwallis marched his army east from Elk Hill back to Williamsburg. There he receive a message from Gen. Henry Clinton in New York, who feared attack by the combined forces under General George Washington and the French under the Count de Rochambeau. Clinton demanded Cornwallis detach a force from his unchallenged marches through Virginia and send them to New York. To supply the troops and to ensure adequate fortifications to protect his remaining force, Cornwallis started to move to the British base at Portsmouth.
That required crossing the James River again. The British Navy brought up ships, and the army moved to Jamestown Island in order to be ferried across to Cobham.
That is where Lafayette finally sent Wayne's troops to attack Cornwallis. Lafayette thought he was dealing with only the rear guard because Tarleton had arranged for him to capture a false deserter with that "intelligence," but Cornwallis had disguised his movements and outnumbered the Americans. Wayne managed to retreat back to Green Spring Plantation, the former home of Governor Culpeper. The British victory was the largest infantry engagement to occur in Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.
After crossing to the south bank, Tarleton was sent west to Bedford County to interdict and destroy supplies intended for the General Greene's army in the Carolinas. The British Legion left Cobham on July 9, 1781, passing through Petersburg and Prince Edward Courthouse (now Worsham, near Hamden-Sydney college south of Farmville). During the raid, the cavalry rested in the middle of the day to avoid exhausting the horses.
British intelligence was faulty; the American supplies had been shipped to the Carolinas a month earlier. Tarleton chose a different route back to reach Portsmouth, since General Wayne had moved his units to Petersburg. Fortunately for the British, no Americans contested their crossing over the Blackwater River, where a defended position could have blocked the ford.
Over the course of 15 days, the cavalry rode over 400 miles. There were no significant engagements, and few supplies were destroyed. Fine Virginia horses were captured, but Tarleton later judged that the British had been more damaged by the long, hot ride than the Virginians:16
One of the tall tales of the Revolutionary Way is of the superhuman strength of Peter Francisco. He was an impressively-large man, perhaps 6'6" tall. Supposedly he single-handedly pulled an 1,100 pound cannon off its carriage and brought it safely to a wagon during the battle of Camden.
During Tarleton's Bedford raid, nine of Tarleton's cavalry made Francisco their prisoner. When one demanded that he hand over the silver buckles on his shoes, Francisco reportedly grabbed the soldier's sword, wounded him, and forced the other eight to flee while leaving their horses behind.
Perhaps the most accurate element of the story is the behavior of the tavern keeper. Francisco reported that he helped the British by giving one a gun to shoot Francisco. The tavern keeper was a loyalist, for at least that moment. Not all Virginians were strong supporters of the patriot cause, especially when surrounded by British troops.17
Peter Francisco, an unusually strong and courageous man, became an American hero for his fighting against the British
Source: Library of Congress, Peter Francisco's gallant action with nine of Tarleton's cavalry in sight of a troop of four hundred men
After Tarleton left on the Bedford raid, Cornwallis took the rest of his army along the path of modern Route 10 to Suffolk and on to Portsmouth. He received new orders directing him to stay north of the James River and to secure Old Point Comfort as a base for the British Navy. After determining it was not the best place to establish a base and wait for resupply from New York, he moved the British Army by ship to Yorktown in August, 1781. The British destroyed the fortifications at Portsmouth to prevent them from being used by Lafayette.18
the British sailed from Portsmouth to Yorktown in August, 1781 in anticipation of getting resupplied there
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)
The ultimate fate of the British army at Yorktown was determined by a naval battle in the Atlantic Ocean. At the Battle of the Capes, a French fleet blocked the British ships coming from New York from entering the Chesapeake Bay. When Washington and Rochambeau arrived with American and French troops, Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown without the expected reinforcements or supplies.
His surrender to a united force of French and American troops in October, 1781, was a catastrophe for the enslaved men and women who had chosen to abandon their Virginia homes and follow the British. During the four months of marching across the state, Cornwallis encouraged enslaved people to leave their masters and follow him. Cornwallis learned from his Carolina experience, and did not expect Virginia's Tories to re-establish control and govern after his army had moved on. He did not try to win the hearts and minds of white Virginians by returning slaves. Instead, he sought to impose economic pain on the rebels and force the colony into submission, and to the enslaved population "freedom wore a red coat" in 1781.
After Cornwallis surrendered, George Washington ordered that the free blacks within the British lines be separated from the enslaved blacks. Those who were judged to be escaped slaves were returned to their masters.19
Yorktown brought most, but not all, fighting to an end. On the western frontier, British officers worked with Native Americans to launch two major assaults in 1782.
On August 19, 50 British soldiers and 300 Native Americans clashed with 182 Kentucky militiamen at the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky. The Americans had been pursuing the British/Native American force which had attacked Bryan's Station and, after failing to capture it, headed north to cross the Ohio River.
Daniel Boone warned the Kentucky militia that they were following a too-obvious trail, and an ambush lay ahead. Other leaders chased on anyway, to avoid accusations of cowardice. Boone followed, commenting:20
Boone was correct. About 1/3 of the Kentuckians - including Boone's son Israel - died that day.21
In the other assault by British rangers and Native American warriors, Fort Henry was surrounded in September, 1782. The defenders inside the fort at Wheeling were just the local residents, who raced inside just before the raiders appeared. A few other Virginians, including the family of Ebenezer Zane, fled to the nearby blockhouse where the gunpowder was stored.
The fort's defenders repelled two attacks on the first night, but ran low on gunpowder by morning. Elizabeth Zane ran from the fort to the blockhouse, filled her apron with gunpowder, and raced back to the fort under fire from the attackers. That enabled the defenders to continue their resistance. The attackers had brought only enough supplies for a few days, and soon abandoned the siege.22
The American retaliation came in November, 1782. George Rogers Clark led an army into Ohio and burned five Shawnee villages, in the Northwest Territory to which Virginia had only recently ceded its claims to the Continental Congress. The Shawnee retreated rather than fight, but the expedition is often described as the "last battle" of the American Revolution.23
It took four months for the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown to finally convince Parliament that the war in North American could not end in a British victory, with restoration of the colonies as subservient to London officials. Three times Parliament voted on ending the war.
On December 12, 1781, a motion to end the war was defeated by a 220-179 vote. Another vote on February 22, 1782 ended with a majority still in support of continuing hostilities, but the vote was 194-193. Five days later, with 65 more members of Parliament in attendance, the decision to end the war was adopted by a 234-215 vote.
Negotiating a treaty took 18 more months. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war and acknowledged American independence, was signed on September 3, 1783. Article Seven said:24
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783
Source: Iowa Historical Society, Treaty of Paris
By the end of the war, the death toll from disease was far greater than from actual fighting. According to historian Woody Holton:25
in 1781, Cornwallis marched from North Carolina to meet General William Phillips in Petersburg
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781
in 1781, Lafayette (yellow line) could only shadow the British (red line) as they chose to raid Richmond and destroy supplies throughout Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781
Cornwallis concentrated forces at Petersburg in April 1781, crossed the James River to Westover Plantation and captured Richmond, then embarked at Bermuda Hundred to sail back to the British base at Portsmouth
Source: Library of Congress, Campagne en Virginie du Major General M'is de LaFayette : ou se trouvent les camps et marches, ainsy que ceux du Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis en 1781
after an American victory at Cowpens, General Daniel Morgan and General Nathaniel Greene managed a strategic retreat across the Carolinas and crossed the Dan River before General Cornwallis
Source: Internet Archive, A School History of the United States, from the Discovery of America to the Year 1878 (p.196)
highway historical markers highlight Revolutionary War events in eastern Virginia
route of Comte de Rochambeau's army through Northern Virginia, 1781 and 1782
Source: Library of Congress, Cote de York-town - Boston: Marches de l'armee
Lord Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, with the expectation that reinforcements would arrive from New York before his base could be captured through a siege by French and America armies
Source: Library of Congress, Plan of Yorktown and Glucester [sic], Virginia, October 1781
re-enactors at the Yorktown Victory Monument
Source: Joint Base Langley-Eustis
most military activity in Virginia occurred in 1780-81, after Cornwallis moved north from Charleston
Source: Library of Congress, The comprehensive series, historical-geographical maps of the United States (1919)
the Continental Congress was responsible for uniforms and other supplies needed by soldiers in the Continental Army
Source: Library of Congress, Infantry: Continental Army, 1779-1783 (by Henry Alexander Ogden, 1897)
units not in the Continental Army chose their own form of dress
Source: Library of Congress, Independent company organizations (by Henry Alexander Ogden, c.1891)
Blandford Church in Petersburg - burial site of Major General William Phillips, who captured the city in 1781
in 1781, Col. Banastre Tarleton raided as far west as Bedford and Charlottesville and Lord Cornwallis marched up to the North Anna River
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)
Bedford was not safe from the British in 1781
Source: Library of Congress, The marches of Lord Cornwallis in the Southern Provinces (by William Faden, 1787)
Cornwallis's surrender in 1781 was negotiated in the Moore House outside the town of Yorktown by subordinates - Cornwallis and Washington did not meet there in person to sign terms of capitulation
Source: Historical collections of Virginia, The Moore House, Yorktown (p.530)
the Moore House in Yorktown was damaged during the Civil War
Source: The Photographic History of the Civil War, The Scene of Yorktown's Only Surrender (p.268)
the French army marched through Fairfax County in 1781 towards Yorktown, and camped there again in 1782 when headed back north
Source: Library of Congress, Amérique campagne. - Camp a Colchester (Rochambeau Map Collection, 1782)
 Yorktown Victory Monument |
 Yorktown Grace Church |
 Yorktown fascine (1781 sand bag) |
 Yorktown "Fox" cannon |
 NPS visitor center (Yorktown Battlefield) |
 Thomas Nelson house (Yorktown) |
 Nelson House 1781 cannonball (fake...) |
 Yorktown mural (Read Street) |
Cornwallis (red line) marched up from Charleston and across much of Virginia in 1781 before reaching Yorktown
Source: Library of Congress, Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 (Hart-Bolton American history maps, 1917)
the road south of Wolf's Ford, where French artillery crossed the Occoquan River in 1781, was known as Telephone Road in 1901
Source: Library of Congress, Map of northern Virginia (1894); Map of Prince William County, Virginia