At this place, the bold and happy resolution was taken to carry the war into South Carolina.

The motives which induced the adoption of this measure were stated by himself in a letter communicating his determination to the Commander-in-chief.  It would compel Lord Cornwallis to follow him, and thus liberate North Carolina, or to sacrifice all his posts in the upper parts of South Carolina and Georgia.

The Southern army amounted to about seventeen hundred effectives.  That of Lord Cornwallis is understood to have been still less numerous.  So impotent were the means employed for the conquest and defence of states which were of immense extent and value.

This unexpected movement gave a new aspect to affairs, and produced some irresolution in the British general respecting his future operations.  After weighing the probable advantages and disadvantages of following Greene into South Carolina, he decided against this retrograde movement and determined to advance into Virginia.

CHAPTER X.

Virginia invaded by Arnold....  He destroys the stores at Westham and at Richmond....  Retires to Portsmouth....  Mutiny in the Pennsylvania line....  Sir H. Clinton attempts to negotiate with the mutineers....  They compromise with the civil government....  Mutiny in the Jersey line....  Mission of Colonel Laurens to France....  Propositions to Spain....  Recommendations relative to a duty on imported and prize goods....  Reform in the Executive departments....  Confederation adopted....  Military transactions....  Lafayette detached to Virginia....  Cornwallis arrives....  Presses Lafayette....  Expedition to Charlottesville, to the Point of Fork....  Lafayette forms a junction with Wayne....  Cornwallis retires to the lower country....  General Washington’s letters are intercepted....  Action near Jamestown.

[Sidenote:  1781]

[Sidenote:  Virginia invaded by Arnold.]

The evacuation of Portsmouth by Leslie afforded Virginia but a short interval of repose.  So early as the 9th of December, 1780, a letter from General Washington announced to the governor that a large embarkation, supposed to be destined for the south, was about taking place at New York.  On the 30th, a fleet of transports under convoy, having on board between one and two thousand men, commanded by General Arnold, anchored in Hampton road.  The troops were embarked the next day on board vessels adapted to the navigation, and proceeded up James’ River under convoy of two small ships of war.  On the fourth of January they reached Westover, which is distant about twenty-five miles from Richmond, the capital of Virginia.

[Sidenote:  January 2.]

On receiving intelligence that a fleet had entered the capes, General Nelson was employed in raising the militia of the lower country; and on the 2d of January orders were issued to call out those above the metropolis and in its neighbourhood.