George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

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Chapter 25:

Campaign in Virginia.

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1781.

Clinton had himself resolved to hold a station in

Chap. XXV.} 1781. Jan. 2.

the Chesapeake Bay, and on the second of January, 1781, Arnold, with sixteen hundred men, appeared by his order in the James river. The generous state had sent its best troops and arms to the southern army. Nelson had received timely orders from Governor Jefferson to call out the militia of the low country; but, in the region of planters with slaves, there were not freemen enough at hand to meet the invaders; and Steuben, thinking Petersburg the object of attack, kept his small force on the south side of the river. Arnold offered to spare Richmond if he might unmolested carry off its stores of tobacco; the proposal being rejected with scorn, on the fifth

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and sixth, all its houses and stores, public and private,

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were set on fire. In the hope of capturing Arnold and his corps, Washington detached Lafayette with about twelve hundred rank and file to Virginia; and,