The troops which Cornwallis intended to join had been sent in detachments to Virginia during the winter and spring.  The first body had arrived early in January under the command of Arnold, and a general marauding and ravaging took place.  A little later General Phillips arrived with reinforcements and took command.  On May 13, General Phillips died, and a week later Cornwallis appeared at Petersburg, assumed control, and sent Arnold back to New York.

Meantime Washington, though relieved by Morgan’s and Greene’s admirable work, had a most trying and unhappy winter and spring.  He sent every man he could spare, and more than he ought to have spared, to Greene, and he stripped himself still further when the invasion of Virginia began.  But for the most part he was obliged, from lack of any naval strength, to stand helplessly by and see more and more British troops sent to the south, and witness the ravaging of his native State, without any ability to prevent it.  To these grave trials was added a small one, which stung him to the quick.  The British came up the Potomac, and Lund Washington, in order to preserve Mount Vernon, gave them refreshments, and treated them in a conciliatory manner.  He meant well but acted ill, and Washington wrote:—­

“It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their request, they had burnt my house and laid the plantation in ruins.  You ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy, and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them, with a view to prevent a conflagration.”

What a clear glimpse this little episode gives of the earnestness of the man who wrote these lines.  He could not bear the thought that any favor should be shown him on any pretense.  He was ready to take his share of the marauding and pillaging with the rest, but he was deeply indignant at the idea that any one representing him should even appear to ask a favor of the British.

Altogether, the spring of 1781 was very trying, for there was nothing so galling to Washington as to be unable to fight.  He wanted to get to the south, but he was bound hand and foot by lack of force.  Yet the obstacles did not daunt or depress him.  He wrote in June that he felt sure of bringing the war to a happy conclusion, and in the division of the British forces he saw his opportunity taking shape.  Greene had the southern forces well in hand.  Cornwallis was equally removed from Clinton on the north and Rawdon on the south, and had come within reach; so that if he could but have naval strength he could fall upon Cornwallis with superior force and crush him.  In naval matters fortune thus far had dealt hardly with him, yet he could not but feel that a French fleet of sufficient force must soon come.  He grasped the situation with a master-hand, and began to prepare the way.  Still he kept his