The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9)

Richmond, November 26, 1780.

Sir,—The enemy, which lately invaded us, left our capes in the night of the 22d instant. What course they steered afterwards, is not known. Another fleet of transports, under the command of Admiral Rodney, fell down to the Hook on the 11th instant. As this, as well as the fleet, which lately left us, is destined for Charleston, we shall march from their present encampment all the forces who are so equipped as that they can proceed to distant service. With them, will go on between three and four hundred tents belonging to this State. Three hundred more are on the road from Philadelphia, and as many to follow. As Baron Steuben remains here to organize our forces, I shall be obliged, by special returns of the eighteen months' men, eight months' men, and three months' Militia, which have or shall come unto you as frequently as convenient. The Assembly being now met, will shortly, I hope, furnish us with money, so that we may be once more able to send supplies to the southward. We have collected here, at length, by impress principles, about thirty wagons, which have been delivered to the Continental Quarter-Master, to be sent on with stores to Taylor's Ferry.

I am, with great esteem, sir,

Your most obedient humble servant.

TO LT. JOHN LOUIS DE UNGER. 97

Richmond, November 30th, 1780.

Sir,—The letter which covers this, being of a public nature, I wished to acknowledge separately the many things personally obliging to me, expressed in your two letters. The very small amusement which it has been in my power to furnish, in order to lighten some of your heavy hours, by no means merited the acknowledgment you make. Their impression must be ascribed to your extreme sensibility rather than to their own weight. My wishes for your happiness give me participation in your joy at being exchanged, sensibly, however, alloyed by a presentiment of the loss I shall sustain, when I shall again be permitted to withdraw to that scene of quiet retirement, abstracted from which I know no happiness in this world. Your line of life must have given you attachments to objects of a very different nature. When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action, where laurels, not tarnished with the blood of my country, may be gathered, I shall urge sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier. On the other hand, should your fondness for philosophy resume its merited ascendancy, is it impossible to hope that this unexplored country may tempt your residence by holding out materials wherewith to build a fame, founded on the happiness and not the calamities of human nature? Be this as it may, whether philosopher or soldier, I wish you many felicities, and assure you that I am, with great personal esteem, Sir,

Your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

Richmond, December 15, 1780.

Sir,—I had the honor of writing to your Excellency on the subject of an expedition contemplated by this State, against the British post at Detroit, and of receiving your answer of October the 10th. Since the date of my letter, the face of things has so far changed, as to leave it no longer optional in us to attempt or decline the expedition, but compels us to decide in the affirmative, and to begin our preparations immediately. The army the enemy at present have in the south, the reinforcements still expected there, and their determination to direct their future exertions to that quarter, are not unknown to you. The regular force, proposed on our part to counteract those exertions, is such, either from the real or supposed inability of this State, as by no means to allow a hope that it may be effectual. It is, therefore, to be expected that the scene of war will either be within our country, or very nearly advanced to it; and that our principal dependence is to be on militia, for which reason it becomes incumbent to keep as great a proportion of our people as possible free to act in that quarter. In the meantime, a combination is forming in the westward, which, if not diverted, will call thither a principal and most valuable part of our militia. From intelligence received, we have reason to expect that a confederacy of British and Indians, to the amount of two thousand men, is formed for the purpose of spreading destruction and dismay through the whole extent of our frontier in the ensuing spring. Should this take place, we shall certainly lose in the South all aids of militia beyond the Blue Ridge, besides the inhabitants who must fall a sacrifice in the course of the savage irruptions.

There seems to be but one method of preventing this, which is, to give the western enemy employment in their own country. The regular force Colonel Clarke already has, with a proper draft from the militia beyond the Alleghany, and that of three or four of our most northern counties, will be adequate to the reduction of Fort Detroit, in the opinion of Colonel Clarke; and he assigns the most probable reasons for that opinion. We have, therefore, determined to undertake it, and commit it to his direction. Whether the expense of the enterprise shall be defrayed by the Continent or State, we will leave to be decided hereafter by Congress, in whose justice we can confide, as to the determination. In the meantime, we only ask the loan of such necessaries as, being already at Fort Pitt, will save time and an immense expense of transportation. These articles shall either be identically or specifically returned; should we prove successful, it is not improbable they may be where Congress would choose to keep them. I am, therefore, to solicit your Excellency's order to the commandant of Fort Pitt, for the articles contained in the annexed list, which shall not be called for until everything is in readiness; after which, there can be no danger of their being wanted for the post at which they are: indeed, there are few of the articles essential for the defence of the post.

I hope your Excellency will think yourself justified in lending us this aid, without awaiting the effect of an application elsewhere, as such a delay would render the undertaking abortive, by postponing it to the breaking up of the ice in the lake. Independent of the favorable effects, which a successful enterprise against Detroit must produce to the United States, in general, by keeping in quiet the frontier of the northern ones, and leaving our western militia at liberty to aid those of the South, we think the like friendly office performed by us to the States, whenever desired, and almost to the absolute exhausture of our own magazines, give well-founded hopes that we may be accommodated on this occasion. The supplies of military stores, which have been furnished by us to Fort Pitt itself, to the northern army, and, most of all, to the southern, are not altogether unknown to you. I am the more urgent for an immediate order, because Colonel Clarke awaits here your Excellency's answer by the express, though his presence in the western country, to make preparations for the expedition, is so very necessary if you enable him to undertake it. To the above, I must add a request to you to send for us to Pittsburg, persons proper to work the mortars, &c., as Colonel Clarke has none such, nor is there one in this State. They shall be in the pay of this State, from the time they leave you. Any money necessary for their journey, shall be repaid at Pittsburg, without fail, by the first of March.

At the desire of the General Assembly, I take the liberty of transmitting to you the enclosed resolution; and have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem and regard, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

Richmond, January 10, 1781.

Sir,—It may seem odd, considering the important events which have taken place in this State within the course of ten days, that I should not have transmitted an account of them to your Excellency; but such has been their extraordinary rapidity, and such the unremitted attention they have required from all concerned in government, that I do not recollect the portion of time which I could have taken to commit them to paper.

On the 31st of December, a letter, from a private gentleman to General Nelson, came to my hands, notifying, that in the morning of the preceding day, twenty-seven sail of vessels had entered the capes; and from the tenor of the letter, we had reason to expect, within a few hours, further intelligence; whether they were friends or foes, their force, and other circumstances. We immediately despatched General Nelson to the lower country, with powers to call on the militia in that quarter, or act otherwise as exigencies should require; but waited further intelligence, before we would call for militia from the middle or upper country. No further intelligence came until the 2d instant, when the former was confirmed; it was ascertained they had advanced up James River in Wanasqueak bay. All arrangements were immediately taken, for calling in a sufficient body of militia for opposition. In the night of the 3d, we received advice that they were at anchor opposite Jamestown; we then supposed Williamsburg to be their object. The wind, however, which had hitherto been unfavorable, shifted fair, and the tide being also in their favor, they ascended the river to Kennons' that evening, and, with the next tide, came up to Westover, having, on their way, taken possession of some works we had at Hood's, by which two or three of their vessels received some damage, but which were of necessity abandoned by the small garrison of fifty men placed there, on the enemy's landing to invest the works. Intelligence of their having quitted the station at Jamestown, from which we supposed they meant to land for Williamsburg, and of their having got in the evening to Kennons', reached us the next morning at five o'clock, and was the first indication of their meaning to penetrate towards this place or Petersburg. As the orders for drawing militia here had been given but two days, no opposition was in readiness. Every effort was therefore necessary, to withdraw the arms and other military stores, records, &c., from this place. Every effort was, accordingly, exerted to convey them to the foundry five miles, and to a laboratory six miles, above this place, till about sunset of that day, when we learned the enemy had come to an anchor at Westover that morning. We then knew that this, and not Petersburg was their object, and began to carry across the river everything remaining here, and to remove what had been transported to the foundry and laboratory to Westham, the nearest crossing, seven miles above this place, which operation was continued till they had approached very near. They marched from Westover at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th, and entered Richmond at one o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th. A regiment of infantry and about thirty horse continued on, without halting, to the foundry. They burnt that, the boring mill, the magazine and two other houses, and proceeded to Westham; but nothing being in their power there, they retired to Richmond. The next morning, they burned some buildings of public and private property, with what stores remained in them, destroyed a great quantity of private stores, and about twelve o'clock, retired towards Westover, where they encamped within the neck the next day.

The loss sustained is not yet accurately known. As far as I have been able to discover, it consisted, at this place, of about three hundred muskets, some soldiers' clothing to a small amount, some quarter-master's stores, of which one hundred and twenty sides of leather was the principal article, part of the artificers' tools, and three wagons. Besides which, five brass four pounders which we had sunk in the river, were discovered to them, raised and carried off. At the foundry we lost the greater part of the papers belonging to the Auditor's office, and of the books and papers of the Council office. About five or six tons of powder, as we conjecture, was thrown into the canal, of which there will be a considerable saving by re-manufacturing it. The roof of the foundry was burned, but the stacks of chimneys and furnaces not at all injured. The boring mill was consumed. Within less than forty-eight hours from the time of their landing, and nineteen from our knowing their destination, they had penetrated thirty-three miles, done the whole injury, and retired. Their numbers, from the best intelligence I have had, are about fifteen hundred infantry; and, as to their cavalry, accounts vary from fifty to one hundred and twenty; the whole commanded by the parricide Arnold. Our militia, dispersed over a large tract of country, can be called in but slowly. On the day the enemy advanced to this place, two hundred only were embodied. They were of this town and its neighborhood, and were too few to do anything. At this time they are assembled in pretty considerable numbers on the south side of James River, but are not yet brought to a point. On the north side are two or three small bodies, amounting in the whole, to about nine hundred men. The enemy were at four o'clock yesterday evening still remaining in their encampment at Westover and Berkeley neck. In the meanwhile, Baron Steuben, a zealous friend, has descended from the dignity of his proper command to direct our smallest movements. His vigilance has, in a great measure, supplied the want of force in preventing the enemy from crossing the river, which might have been very fatal. He has been assiduously employed in preparing equipments for the militia as they should assemble, pointing them to a proper object, and other offices of a good commander. Should they loiter a little longer, and he be able to have a sufficient force, I still flatter myself they will not escape with total impunity. To what place they will point their next exertions we cannot even conjecture. The whole country on the tide waters and some distance from them is equally open to similar insult. I have the honor to be, with every sentiment of respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS

Richmond, January 15, 1781.

Sir,—As the dangers which threaten our western frontiers the ensuing spring, render it necessary that we should send thither Colonel Crocket's battalion, at present on guard at Fredericktown, but raised for the western service, I thought it necessary to give your Excellency previous information thereof, that other forces may be provided in time to succeed to their duties. Captain Reid's troop of horse, if necessary, may be continued a while longer on guard.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS

Richmond, January 15, 1781.

Sir,—I received some time ago from Major Forsyth, and afterwards from you, a requisition to furnish one half of the supplies of provision for the Convention troops, removed into Maryland. I should sooner have done myself the honor of writing to you on this subject, but that I hoped to have laid it before you more fully than could be done in writing, by a gentleman who was to pass on other public business to Philadelphia. The late events in this State having retarded his setting out, I think it my duty no longer to postpone explanation on this head.

You cannot be unapprised of the powerful armies of our enemy, at this time in this and the southern States, and that their future plan is to push their successes in the same quarter, by still larger reinforcements. The forces to be opposed to these must be proportionably great, and these forces must be fed. By whom are they to be fed? Georgia and South Carolina are annihilated, at least as to us. By the requisition to us to send provisions into Maryland, it is to be supposed that none are to come to the southern army from any State north of this; for it would seem inconsistent, that while we should be sending North, Maryland and other States beyond that, should be sending their provisions South. Upon North Carolina, then, already exhausted by the ravages of two armies, and on this State, are to depend for subsistence those bodies of men who are to oppose the greater part of the enemy's force in the United States, the subsistence of the German, and of half the British Conventioners. To take a view of this matter on the Continental requisitions of November the 4th, 1780, for specific quotas of provisions, it is observable that North Carolina and Virginia are to furnish 10,475,740 pounds of animal food, and 13,529 barrels of flour, while the States north of these will yield 25,293,810 pounds of animal food, and 106,471 barrels of flour.

If the greater part of the British armies be employed in the South, it is to be supposed that the greater part of the American force will be sent there to oppose them. But should this be the case, while the distribution of the provisions is so very unequal, would it be proper to render it still more so, by withdrawing a part of our contributions to the support of posts northward of us? It would certainly be a great convenience to us, to deliver a portion of our specifics at Fredericktown, rather than in Carolina; but I leave it to you to judge, whether this would be consistent with the general good or safety. Instead of sending aids of any kind to the northward, it seems but too certain that unless very timely and substantial assistance be received from thence, our enemies are yet far short of the ultimate term of their successes. I beg leave, therefore, to refer to you whether the specifics of Maryland, as far as shall be necessary, had not better be applied to the support of the posts within it, for which its quota is much more than sufficient, or, were it otherwise whether those of the States north of Maryland had not better be called on, than to detract anything from the resources of the southern opposition, already much too small for the encounter to which it is left. I am far from wishing to count or measure out contributions by the requisitions of Congress. Were they ever so much beyond these, I should readily strain them in aid of any one of our sister States. But while they are so far short of those calls to which they must be pointed in the first instance, it would be great misapplication to divert them to any other purpose; and I am persuaded you will think me perfectly within the line of duty, when I ask a revisal of this requisition.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir,

Your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS

Richmond, January 17, 1781.

Sir,—I do myself the honor of transmitting to your Excellency a resolution of the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, entered into in consequence of the resolution of Congress of September the 6th, 1780, on the subject of the Confederation. I shall be rendered very happy if the other States of the Union, equally impressed with the necessity of that important convention, shall be willing to sacrifice equally to its completion. This single event, could it take place shortly, would overweigh every success which the enemy have hitherto obtained, and render desperate the hopes to which those successes have given birth.

I have the honor to be, with the most real esteem and respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE VIRGINIA DELEGATES IN CONGRESS

Richmond, January 18, 1781.

Gentlemen,—I enclose you a Resolution of Assembly, directing your conduct as to the navigation of the Mississippi.

The loss of powder lately sustained by us (about five tons), together with the quantities sent on to the southward, have reduced our stock very low indeed. We lent to Congress, in the course of the last year (previous to our issues for the southern army), about ten tons of powder. I shall be obliged to you, to procure an order from the board of war, for any quantity from five to ten tons, to be sent us immediately from Philadelphia or Baltimore, and to enquire into and hasten, from time to time, the execution of it. The stock of cartridge-paper is nearly exhausted. I do not know whether Captain Irish, or what other officer, should apply for this. It is essential that a good stock should be forwarded, and without a moment's delay. If there be a rock on which we are to split, it is the want of muskets, bayonets and cartouch-boxes.

The occurrences, since my last to the President, are not of any magnitude. Three little rencounters have happened with the enemy. In the first, General Smallwood led on a party of two or three hundred militia, and obliged some armed vessels of the enemy to retire from a prize they had taken at Broadway's, and renewing his attack the next day with a four-pounder or two (for on the first day he had only muskets), he obliged some of their vessels to fall down from City Point to their main fleet at Westover. The enemy's loss is not known; ours was four men wounded. One of the evenings, during their encampment at Westover and Berkeley, their light horse surprised a party of about one hundred or one hundred and fifty militia at Charles City Court House, killed and wounded four, and took, as has been generally said, about seven or eight. On Baron Steuben's approach towards Hood's, they embarked at Westover; the wind which, till then, had set directly up the river from the time of their leaving Jamestown, shifted in the moment to the opposite point. Baron Steuben had not reached Hood's, by eight or ten miles, when they arrived there. They landed their whole army in the night, Arnold attending in person. Captain Clarke (of Kaskaskias) had been sent on with two hundred and forty men by Baron Steuben, and having properly disposed of them in ambuscade, gave them a deliberate fire, which killed seventeen on the spot, and wounded thirteen. They returned it in confusion by which we had three or four wounded, and our party being so small and without bayonets, were obliged to retire, on the enemy's charging with bayonets. They fell down to Cobham, whence they carried all the tobacco there (about sixty hogsheads); and the last intelligence was, that on the 16th, they were standing for New-ports-news. Baron Steuben is of opinion, they are proceeding to fix a post in some of the lower counties. Later information has given no reason to believe their force more considerable than we at first supposed. I think, since the arrival of the three transports which had been separated in a storm, they may be considered as about two thousand strong. Their naval force, according to the best intelligence, is the Charon, of forty-four guns, Commodore Symmonds, the Amphitrite, Iris, Thames, and Charlestown frigates, the Forvey, of twenty guns, two sloops of war, a privateer ship and two brigs. We have about thirty-seven hundred militia embodied, but at present they are divided into three distant encampments: one under General Weeden, at Fredericksburg, for the protection of the important works there; another under General Nelson, at and near Williamsburg; and a third under Baron Steuben, at Cabin Point. As soon as the enemy fix themselves, these will be brought to a point.

I have the honor to be, with very great respect, gentlemen, your most obedient servant.

To – 98

Richmond, January 21, 1781.

Sir,—Acquainted as you are with the treasons of Arnold, I need say nothing for your information, or to give you a proper sentiment of them. You will readily suppose, that it is above all things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now sheltered. On his march to and from this place, I am certain it might have been done with facility by men of enterprise and firmness. I think it may still be done, though perhaps not quite so easily. Having peculiar confidence in the men from the western side of the mountains, I meant, as soon as they should come down, to get the enterprise proposed to a chosen number of them: such whose courage and whose fidelity would be above all doubt. Your perfect knowledge of those men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, induces me to ask you to pick from among them proper characters, in such numbers as you think best, to reveal to them our desire, and engage them to undertake to seize and bring off this greatest of all traitors. Whether this may be best affected by their going in as friends, and awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise, is left to themselves. The smaller the number the better, so that they be sufficient to manage him. Every necessary caution must be used on their part, to prevent a discovery of their design by the enemy, as, should they be taken, the laws of war will justify against them the most rigorous sentence. I will undertake, if they are successful in bringing him off alive, that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them. And to men, formed for such an enterprise, it must be a great incitement to know that their names will be recorded with glory in history, with those of Vanwert, Paulding, and Williams. The enclosed order from Baron Steuben will authorize you to call for and dispose of any force you may think necessary, to place in readiness for covering the enterprise and securing the retreat of the party. Mr. Newton, the bearer of this, and to whom its contents are communicated in confidence, will provide men of trust to go as guides. These may be associated in the enterprise or not, as you please. But let that point be previously settled, that no difficulties may arise as to the parties entitled to participate of the reward. You know how necessary profound secrecy is in this business, even if it be not undertaken.