[
498]
repairing to
Newport, persuaded the
French naval
Chap. XXV.} 1781. March 6. |
commander to send to the
Chesapeake ten ships of war to co-operate with him. They were followed by the British squadron, and twelve leagues east of the bay an action took place.
The
French were compelled to return to
Newport, while
Arbuthnot entered the
Chesapeake.
On the twenty-sixth of March,
General Phillips,
who brought from New York a re-enforcement of two thousand picked men, took the command in
Virginia.
All the stores of produce which its planters in five quiet years had accumulated were now carried off or destroyed.
Their negroes, so desired in the
West Indies, formed the staple article of plunder.
By a courier from
Washington,
Lafayette received information that
Virginia was about to become the centre of active operations, and was instructed to defend the state as well as the weakness of his means would permit.
His troops were chiefly from
New England, and dreaded the unwholesome and unknown climate of
lower Virginia.
Besides, they were destitute of every thing.
To prevent deser-
tion,
Lafayette, as soon as he found himself on the south side of the
Susquehanna, in an order of the day, offered leave to any of them to return to the north; and not one would abandon him. At
Baltimore he borrowed two thousand pounds sterling, supplied his men with shoes and hats, and bought linen, which the women of
Baltimore made into summer garments.
Then, by a forced march of two hundred miles, he arrived at
Richmond on the twenty-ninth of April, the evening before
Phillips 
