to General Phillips also, from whom I had received letters on the subject. I cannot, in reason, believe that the enemy, on receiving this information, either from yourself or General Phillips, will venture to impose any new cruelties on our officers in captivity with them. Yet their conduct, hitherto, has been most successfully prognosticated by reversing the conclusions of right reason. It is, therefore, my duty, as well as it was my promise to the Virginia captives, to take measures for discovering any change which may be made in their situation. For this purpose, I must apply for your Excellency's interposition. I doubt not but you have an established mode of knowing, at all times, through your commissary of prisoners, the precise state of those in the power of the enemy. I must, therefore, pray you to put into motion any such means you have, for obtaining knowledge of the situation of Virginia officers in captivity. If you should think proper, as I could wish, to take upon yourself to retaliate any new sufferings which may be imposed on them, it will be more likely to have due weight, and to restore the unhappy on both sides, to that benevolent treatment for which all should wish."

The intermediate situation of Virginia had, hitherto, in a great measure, saved her interiour from the rava ges of invasion. The storm of war had spent its force on the more northern states, and was now beginning to burst with all its horrours upon the south, while Virginia was left to throw its aids in whatever quarter it was required.

In tracing these military operations, especially so far as the subject of these memoirs is connected with them,

we must derive much of our information from the Iucid and happy detail contained in the "Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence," a work to which we acknowledge previous obligations. This, with the correspondence of Mr. Jefferson himself, will be sufficient guides to every important event which occurred during his administration of the af fairs of Virginia. More acceptable companions we could not present to the reader, and any thing we might offer, would be dull and uninteresting to the instruction and entertainment they afford.

In the spring of 1780, says the biographical annalist, the ferocious Tarleton had made his appearance on the southern borders of Virginia, marking his path with unusual barbarity. Immediately after him, followed the main army and Lord Cornwallis. It was then time for this devoted state to exert herself. Troops were rapidly raised and sent off to the south, lines of communication established, and every preparation made to meet the enemy. It is needless to remark, that all the former habits and pursuits of the Governour, had been of a kind little likely to fit him for military command; but aware of the importance of energy and exertion, at such a crisis, he bent his mind to the new task which fortune had thrown upon him, with alacrity and ardour. "Our intelligence from the southward," writes Mr. Jefferson to General Washington on the eleventh June, "is most lamentably defective. Though Charleston has now been in the hands of the enemy a month, we hear nothing of their movements, which can be relied on. Rumours say that they are penetrating northward. To remedy this

defect, I shall immediately establish a line of expresses from hence to the neighbourhood of their army, and send thither a sensible, judicious person, to give us information of their movements. This intelligence will, I hope, be conveyed at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles in the twenty-four hours. They set out to their stations to-morrow. I wish it were possible that a like speedy line of communication could be formed, from hence to your Excellency's head quarters. Perfect and speedy information of what is passing in the south, might put it in your power, perhaps, to frame your measures by theirs. There is really nothing to oppose the progress of the enemy northward, but the cautious principle of the military art. North Carolina is without arms. They do not abound with us. Those we have are freely imparted to them; but such is the state of their resources, that they have not been able to move a single musket from this state to theirs. All the wagons we can collect here have been furnished to the Baron De Kalb, and are assembled for the march of two thousand five hundred men under General Stevens, of Culpepper, who will move on the nineteenth instant. I have written to Congress to hasten supplies of arms and military stores for the southern states, and particularly to aid us with cartridge paper and boxes, the want of which articles, small as they are, renders our stores useless. The want of money cramps every effort. This will be supplied by the most unpalatable of all substitutes, force. Your Excellency will readily conceive, that after the loss of our army, our eyes are turned towards the other, and that we comfort ourselves with the hope, that if any

aids can be furnished by you, without defeating operations more beneficial to the Union, they will be furnished. At the same time, I am happy to find that the wishes of the people go no further, as far as I have an opportunity of learning their sentiments.-Could arms be furnished, I think this state and North Carolina would embody from ten to fifteen thousand militia immediately, and more, if necessary. I hope ere long to be able to give you a more certain statement of the enemy's as well as our own situation." On July 2d, in a letter to the same, he writes: "I have received from the committee of Congress, at head quarters, three letters calling for aids of men and pro-visions. I beg leave to refer you to my letter to them, of this date, on those subjects. I thought it necessary, however, to suggest to you the preparing an arrangement of officers for the men; for though they are to supply our battalions, yet, as our whole line officers, almost, are in captivity, I suppose some temporary provision must be made. We cheerfully transfer to you every power which the Executive might exercise on this occasion. As it is possible you may cast your eye on the unemployed officers now within the state, I write to General Muhlenburg to send you a return of them. I think the men will be rendezvoused within the present month. The bill, indeed, for raising them is not actually passed, but it is in its last stage, and no opposition to any essential parts of it. I will take care to notify you of its passsge. I have, with great pain, perceived your situation; and the more so, as, being situated between two fires, a division of sentiment has arisen both in Congress and here, as to which the re

sources of this country should be sent. The removal of General Clinton to the northward must, of course, have great influence on the determination of this question; and I have no doubt but considerable aids may be drawn hence for your army, unless a larger one should be embodied in the south, than the force of the enemy there seems to call for."

The legislature had become fully aware of their danger, and adopted the most vigorous measures for the increase and support of the southern army. They conferred on the Governour new and extraordinary powers; and that officer exerted himself in every mode which ingenuity could suggest, to ward off the approaching danger.

While, however, all eyes were turned to the south, and the anxiety of expectation rested there, a sudden attack in another quarter was the more disastrous, as it was totally unforeseen.

Arnold, whose treachery seems to have increased the natural daring and recklessness of his temper, aware of the unprotected situation of Virginia on the seaboard, formed a plan for an attack on that quarter.— He set sail from New York, with sixteen hundred men, and, supported by a number of armed vessels, ascended James river, and landed about fifteen miles below Richmond. All the militia of the state that could be supplied with arms, had been already called out, and placed in the neighbourhood of Williamsburgh, under the orders of General Nelson. This event seemed to leave the Governour almost without re

source; he saw the enemy within a few miles of the capital of the state, which was entirely undefended;