The
May meeting of the American Revolution Round Table of Richmond was held on May
27, 2026, in the Heilman Dining Center, at the University of Richmond.
The
evening’s presentation by speaker John R. Maass centered on John’s latest book
about the Battle of Spencer’s Ordinary, which occurred on June 26, 1781, and
the Battle of Green Spring which occurred on July 6, 1781. Both engagements
were direct preludes to the final major land engagement of the American
Revolutionary War, the Battle at Yorktown.
John
is an education specialist at the National Museum of the United States Army. He
received a BA in history from Washington and Lee University, and a Ph.D. from
the Ohio State University in early U.S. history and military history. His most
recent books are From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the
Revolutionary War published by Osprey Publishing and The Battles of
Spencer's Ordinary and Green Spring, 1781 published by Westholme
Publishing. The books are available on Amazon.
Henry
Clinton, the British Commander-in-Chief in America from 1778 to 1782, had given
British Army Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis instructions to, first and
foremost, preserve the gains made by taking Charleston, and only then engage in
offensive moves. After pacifying both South and North Carolina, Clinton
expected Cornwallis, as the lead commander of the British "Southern
strategy," to move into Virginia, subdue American resistance, and cutoff
the sources of supplies being provided to American troops by their French
allies.
Nathanael
Greene was appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army in the South in
December 1780. He was tasked with luring Cornwallis away from his coastal bases.
His strategy was to engage the British in small skirmish guerrilla warfare and,
if possible, get Cornwallis to divide his forces.
Daniel
Morgan took command of a corps aiming at slowing Cornwallis’ advance to the
north. Morgan gradually moved northward hoping to draw Cornwallis’ following
troops closer. On January 17, 1781, Morgan turned his troops to confront the
British troops at Cowpens, South Carolina and were victorious over the force
under British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, Commandant of the British
Legion of cavalry and light troops.
Outraged
by the loss at Cowpens, Cornwallis and Tarleton began to chase Nathaniel Greene
and Daniel Morgan’s troops to free hundreds of British prisoners and to keep
them from reuniting in what became known as the “Race to the Dan” River in
Virginia. Cornwallis failed to reach the
American forces in time, and his failure ultimately led to a battle between
Cornwallis and Greene at Guildford Court House on March 15, 1781.Guilford
Courthouse is considered a victory for the British because Greene’s forces eventually
retreated from the battlefield, but Greene’s army inflicted such heavy casualties
(estimated to be 25%) on Cornwallis’ troops that Greene won a strategic victory
with casualties estimated to be 30%. As a result, Cornwallis was no longer in a
position to pursue Greene further north and he withdrew toward Wilmington, North
Carolina to rest and resupply his army.
Lord
Charles Cornwallis came to the decision to abandon the Carolinas and make an
unauthorized move into Virginia. He decided to carry the war north into
Virginia’s Lower Peninsula: to destroy the American’s logistics support, that
was centered around Richmond, Petersburg (Blandford), and Prince George County Court
House; and, move his resupply point to Virginia’s Tidewater region on April 25.
Washington
had ordered the Marquis de Lafayette to re-form his force to go south to
Virginia to link up with troops commanded by Major General Steuben, to keep an
eye on Cornwallis’ movements. Lafayette reached Richmond with a Continental
Army detachment of about 1,200 troops on April 29, 1781. The combined force was
to try and trap British forces commanded by Benedict Arnold, with French ships
preventing his escape by sea. This became known as the Yorktown Campaign.
Cornwallis
reached Petersburg on May 20, coming from Wilmington, North Carolina, bringing
the British force up to 5,300 men.
Lafayette
shadowed Cornwallis as he moved his army of redcoats and Hessians toward
Williamsburg from central Virginia. Lafayette avoided fighting a battle against
Cornwallis far superior force. After being reinforced in early June, he
followed the redcoats more closely, looking for long awaited opportunities to
strike.
In
June 1781, Cornwallis received orders from London to proceed to the Chesapeake
Bay and to oversee construction of a port that would establish a military base
of operations in the region.
On
June 11 and 15, apparently in reaction to the Franco-American threat to New
York City, Clinton requested Cornwallis to fortify either Yorktown or
Williamsburg and establish a base of operations there, while sending any troops
he could spare back to New York. Cornwallis received these letters at
Williamsburg on June 26. He and an engineer had inspected Yorktown, which he initially
found to be defensively inadequate, until he learned that French ships were
unloaded supplies to the Americans in exchange for tobacco as payment. At that
time, Yorktown was the number one tobacco port in the colonies. He wrote a
letter to Clinton indicating that he would move troops to Portsmouth in order
to send them north with transports available there.
The
Battle of Spencer's Ordinary took place on June 26, 1781 when light detachments
from both armies clashed near a tavern at a road intersection not far from
Williamsburg. British Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe and his Loyalist
regiment of Queen's Rangers with Hessian Jägers were returning from a raid to
destroy boats and forage for supplies on the Chickahominy River. Simcoe was
convoying seized cattle and decided to rest before joining Cornwallis’ main
army. An advance guard under Captain William McPherson of Pennsylvania
Continentals caught up with advance companies of Simcoe's force near Spencer's
Ordinary. In the ensuing action, Simcoe's cavalry charged McPherson's
formation, breaking it up. Simcoe ordered Jägers and light infantry into the
woods on the right to flank the arriving enemy column. When the advance guard
under Colonel Richard Butler arrived, Simcoe ordered an infantry charge.
Butler's men scattered into the nearby woods. A cavalry charge was ordered by
Simcoe and a field cannon was fired. Butler's men were forced back believing a
larger British force was arriving. Both sides, concerned that the other might
be reinforced by its main army, eventually broke off the battle. Reported
losses of wounded, killed and captured varied considerably.
The
location of the battle is now within the grounds of James City County's Freedom
Park in Williamsburg.
The
Battle of Green Spring took place near the Green Spring Plantation in James
City County, Virginia, on July 6, 1781. American Brigadier General
"Mad" Anthony Wayne, leading the advance forces of the Marquis de
Lafayette, was ambushed near the plantation by Cornwallis’ army in the last
major land battle of the Virginia campaign prior to the Siege of Yorktown.
British
forces were considerably hampered by the delay in communications between
Clinton and Cornwallis and their lack of clarity. On July 4, Cornwallis began
moving his army toward the Jamestown ferry, to cross the James River and march
to Portsmouth. Lafayette's scouts observed the motion, and Lafayette thought the
British force would be vulnerable during the crossing. Lafayette advanced his
army to the Green Spring Plantation, and, based on intelligence that only the
British rear guard was left at the crossing, he sent General Anthony Wayne
forward to attack the rear guard on July 6. They skirmished all afternoon with
the British. But Cornwallis had laid a clever trap. Sending only his baggage
and some troops to guard it, he sent "deserters" to falsely inform
Lafayette of the situation while concealing his main force near the crossing
point.
American
reinforcements arrived in the late afternoon. Only a portion of these
reinforcements were sent to join Wayne. Lafayette rode to the river where a
tongue of land enabled him to see the true strength of the British force.
Wayne's troops advanced towards the trap's trigger, an abandoned British
cannon, that Cornwallis had left in the road. Wayne’s seizure of the gun was
the signal for the British counterattack, which began with a barrage of
canister and grape shot, and was followed by an infantry charge. The sudden
appearance of the British army stunned Wayne's command. Lafayette was not able
to reach Wayne in time to recall him. The British line overlapped both flanks
of the Americans. Wayne was concerned that a retreat would turn into
a disorderly rout. He reformed his line, ordered his artillery to fire a blast
of grape shot, and then had the line charge the numerically overwhelming
British with bayonets fixed.
Wayne's
audacious bayonet charge worked; it successfully halted the British advance
long enough for Lafayette's covering force to approach. Lafayette rode forward
to assist in managing the American retreat, which began to crumble after
Cornwallis personally led a counter-charge. Wayne's men, against heavy numbers,
made a brave fight. General Wayne’s troops managed to escape the trap, but with
significant casualties and the loss of two field pieces.
With
darkness falling upon the field, and in spite of Tarleton's urgings, Cornwallis
declined to pursue the fleeing Americans. Instead, he resumed his movement to
Portsmouth, still looking for an appropriate base of operations.
After
Cornwallis reached Portsmouth, new orders arrived from Clinton that
countermanded the previous ones which, in the most direct terms, ordered him to
establish a fortified deep-water port, using as much of his army as he thought
necessary. Nevertheless, having inspected Portsmouth and finding it even less
favorable than Yorktown, Cornwallis wrote to Clinton informing him that he
would fortify Yorktown.
Lafayette
had blockaded the land routes out of Yorktown while the French fleet prevented
the arrival of British relief fleets into the York River setting the scene for the
Battle at Yorktown.
Communications
between the British Commander-in-Chief and his lead commander can be read at Clinton's
and Cornwallis' correspondence during the Campaign in North America 1781.
Fred Sorrell
Secretary
