It being evident that the entire subjugation of Virginia was a part of the plan of the British for the campaign of 1781, 5 Washington early turned his attention to that point, and concerted measures to avert the blow. La Fayette sought and obtained the honor of commanding the Continental forces destined for that theater of action. Washington gave him his instructions on the twentieth of February [1781.], and with about twelve hundred troops, detached from the forces then at New Windsor and Morristown, he marched southward. The first object of this expedition, as we have seen, was to co-operate with the French fleet against Arnold. That portion of the general plan failed, and the marquis, as we have observed, returned to the head of Elk. 6

General Phillips, in command of the united forces under Arnold and himself, landed at City Point on the twenty-fourth of April [1781.], where he remained until the next morning, when they marched directly upon Petersburg. On his way up the James River, he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, with the Queen’s Rangers, to attack a body of Virginia militia at Williamsburg, and to get possession of Yorktown. The expedition landed near Burwell’s Ferry, a little below Williamsburg, on the nineteenth [April, 1781.], at which place the Americans had thrown up some intrenchments. The Virginians fled at the approach of Simcoe, and General Phillips, with the army, landed. Simcoe marched that night toward Williamsburg. It was a night of tempest and intense darkness, and it was not until the morning of the twentieth that he entered the town. The militia also fled from Williamsburg, and the enemy took possession of the place. It being ascertained that a large garrison would be necessary for Yorktown, if taken, the project of its capture was abandoned, and the troops proceeded up the river. 7

Baron Steuben, with one thousand militia, had taken post near Blandford Church, and was ready to receive the British. Notwithstanding his force consisted of less than one third of the number of the enemy, he determined to dispute the ground. The British came in sight toward noon, and formed, with their line extended to the left, upon the plain near Blandford. Phillips and Simcoe reconnoitered, and having satisfied themselves that Steuben’s force was not very large, prepared to attack him. The ground was broken where the Americans were posted. A party of yagers passing through a gully behind an orchard, got upon the flank of the patrols, and fired with such effect as to cause their retreat to an eminence in their rear. Phillips now ordered his artillery to be secretly drawn up. As soon as it opened upon the Virginians, Lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie advanced in front, while Simcoe with his rangers, and Captain Boyd with light infantry, passed through the wood to turn their left flank. Steuben perceived this movement, and ordered his troops to fall back. It was now between three and four o’clock in the afternoon. Inch by inch the British made their way, the Virginians disputing their progress with pertinacity. The enemy were two hours advancing one mile, and when they reached the heights near Blandford Church, the Americans opened a fire upon them from their cannon on Archer’s Hill, on the north side of the Appomattox. Overmatched both by skill and numbers, Steuben retreated across the Appomattox, destroyed the bridge, and took post on Baker’s Hill, from whence he soon retired with his arms, baggage, and stores, to Chesterfield Court House, ten miles distant. The bridge was soon repaired, and the next day Abercrombie, with the light infantry and rangers, crossed over and occupied the heights where Steuben had been posted. Four hundred hogsheads of tobacco and the vessels in the river were burned, and other property was destroyed. The loss of the Americans in killed, wounded, and taken in this skirmish of nearly three hours, was between sixty and seventy; that of the enemy was probably about the same. 8

The British now prepared for offensive operations in the vicinity. Phillips and Arnold quartered at the spacious mansion of Mrs. Bolling, known as Bollingbrook, and yet standing upon East Hill, in the south part of the town. 9 Other officers also occupied the two mansions; and Mrs. Bolling was allowed the use of only the room in the rear of the east building. The soldiery often set fire to the fences which surrounded Bollingbrook, and the amiable lady was kept in a state of continual alarm, notwithstanding the efforts of the usually discourteous Phillips to soothe her. Arnold had apprised her of the irritability of that officer’s temper, and by her mildness she secured his esteem and favor. 10

On the morning of the twenty-seventh [April, 1781.], Arnold, with one division of the army, consisting of the eightieth and seventy-sixth regiments and the Rangers, proceeded to a place called Osborne’s, a short distance from Petersburg, where, rumor asserted, the Americans had considerable stores, and near which was anchored a marine force to oppose the further progress of vessels coming up the James River. At the same time, General Phillips, with the other division, marched to Chesterfield Court House. The patriots at Osborne’s were not advised of the approach of the enemy until they appeared in force. Arnold sent a flag to treat with the commander of the fleet for a surrender, but he boldly refused a conference for such a purpose, saying, "I am determined and ready to defend the fleet, and will sink in the vessels rather than surrender them." He then caused the drum to beat to arms, and the militia on the opposite side of the river drew up in battle order. Arnold immediately advanced with some artillery, routed the patriots, and drove the seamen to their shipping. The latter scuttled several of the vessels and set fire to others to prevent their falling into the traitor’s hands. One of the vessels returned the fire from the enemy’s artillery with much spirit, but was finally disabled. The militia were driven from the opposite shore, and the whole fleet was either captured or destroyed. Two ships and ten smaller craft were captured, and four ships, five brigantines, and a number of small vessels, were either burned or sunk. 11 The quantity of tobacco taken or destroyed, exceeded two thousand hogsheads.

Phillips and Arnold joined their divisions on the thirtieth, after having burned the barracks and a quantity of flour at Chesterfield Court House, and then pushed forward toward Richmond, where a large quantity of military stores were collected. At Manchester, opposite Richmond, they burned twelve hundred hogsheads of tobacco and other property, and were preparing to cross the river, when information reached them that La Fayette, with a body of Continental troops, had arrived the evening previous. The marquis had received orders at the head of Elk to go to Virginia and oppose Phillips and Arnold, and had made a forced march of two hundred miles in order to save the stores at Richmond. The depredators knew too well the spirit of the marquis to venture another marauding visit to Richmond while he was there, and, wheeling their columns, they proceeded down the river to Bermuda Hundred, at the mouth of the Appomattox, opposite City Point, and embarked. On their way, they passed through Warwick, a town on the James River, then larger than Richmond, where they destroyed ships on the stocks, a range of rope-walks, a magazine of flour, warehouses filled with tobacco and other merchandise, tan-houses filled with hides, and some flouring mills belonging to Colonel Carey, whose splendid mansion was near. 12 In one general conflagration, the thriving town, with all its industrial appurtenances, was destroyed. 13

The British fleet with the land forces then sailed down the James River, when, a little below Burwell’s Ferry, they were met [May 6.] by a boat from Portsmouth, bearing a messenger with intelligence for General Phillips that Cornwallis was on his way north, and wished to form a junction with him at Petersburg. The whole fleet was immediately ordered to return up the James River, and late at night, on the ninth [May, 1781.], the British army again entered Petersburg. So secret was their entrance, that ten American officers who were there to prepare boats for La Fayette to cross the river, were captured. Phillips was very sick of a fever on his arrival, and was carried to the house of Mrs. Bolling, where he died four days afterward. 14

The presence of La Fayette inspired the militia of Virginia with high hopes, and they flocked to his standard in considerable numbers. When informed of the return of the British fleet, he suspected the object to be a junction with Cornwallis at Petersburg. It was known that the earl had left Wilmington, and was on his way to Virginia. The marquis immediately pressed forward to take possession of the town before the arrival of Phillips and Arnold. He was too late, and after cannonading the British quarters, particularly Bollingbrook, 15 from Archer’s Hill, and thoroughly reconnoitering the place, he returned to Osborne’s, and there crossed the James River to the easterly side. Arnold took the chief command, on the death of General Phillips, and just one week after that event [May 20, 1781.], Cornwallis, with a large force, entered Petersburg. That officer, after fighting the battle with General Greene at Guilford Court House, had retired to Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River. Perceiving the advantages to be derived by invading Virginia at separate points, he ordered General Phillips, as we have seen, to return up the James River, while he hastened to enter the state from the south and form a junction with him at Petersburg. He marched directly north, nearly on a line with the present rail-road from Wilmington, and reached the Roanoke at Halifax, seven miles below the Great Falls, where he crossed, and entered Virginia. Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, with a corps of one hundred and eighty cavalry and sixty mounted infantry, was sent forward as an advance guard to disperse the militia and overawe the inhabitants. The outrages committed by some of these marauding troops were pronounced by Stedman, an officer of Cornwallis’s army, "a disgrace to the name of man." 16 Simcoe had been sent by Arnold to take possession of the fords on the Nottaway and Meherrin Rivers, the only considerable streams that intervened, and the two armies, unopposed, effected a junction at Petersburg, where Cornwallis assumed the command of the whole.

Virginia now seemed doomed to the alternative of submission or desolation. On the seventh of May, the Legislature, uneasy at the proximity of General Phillips and his army, adjourned to meet at Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, on the twenty-fourth. There, eighty-five miles from Richmond, in the bosom of a fertile and sheltered valley, on the banks of the Rivanna, they hoped to legislate undisturbed. Mr. Jefferson, the governor, feeling his incompetency, on account of his lack of military knowledge, to administer the affairs of the state with energy, declined a re-election on the first of June, and indicated General Nelson, of Yorktown, as a proper successor. At his elegant seat, called Monticello (Little Mountain), situated three miles southeast of Charlottesville, far from the din of actual hostilities, Jefferson sought repose for a season in the bosom of his family. His dream of quiet was soon broken, as we shall presently perceive.

MONTICELLO. 17

Cornwallis, unlike most of the other British generals, was seldom inert. Although, from the western part of the Carolinas to Wilmington, and from thence to Petersburg, he had journeyed nearly fifteen hundred miles in his marches and counter-marches, he did not halt long. Four days after his arrival, he marched down the James River to Westover, where he was joined by a regiment from New York. 18 He crossed [May 24, 1781.], and pushed on toward Richmond. La Fayette, with nearly three thousand troops, continental and militia, lay about half way between Richmond and Wilton. Cornwallis knew the inferiority of the marquis’s force to his own, and felt so sure of success that he wrote to the British secretary, from Petersburg, saying, "The boy can not escape me." La Fayette had wisdom as well as zeal, and instead of risking a battle at that time, he cautiously retreated northward, pursued by the earl. A retreat to avoid the engagement was not the only object to be obtained by La Fayette. Wayne was on his march through Maryland with a re-enforcement of eight hundred men, and a junction was important. Cornwallis was advised of the approach of these troops, and sought, by rapid marches, to outstrip La Fayette and prevent the union. But the marquis was too agile; and after pursuing him to the North Anna, beyond Hanover Court House, plundering and destroying a vast amount of property on the way, the earl halted and encamped. La Fayette passed through Spottsylvania county to the Raccoon Ford, on the Rappahannock, in Culpepper, where he was joined by General Wayne [June 10.].

Unsuccessful in his pursuit, Cornwallis now directed his attention to other points. In the southern part of Fluvanna county, at a place called Point of Fork, 19 on the James River, the Americans had an arsenal and a large quantity of military stores. Baron Steuben, with six hundred raw militia, had charge of this post. The dispersion of the Americans and the capture of the stores were objects of importance to Cornwallis, and for that purpose he sent Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe with his rangers, and other troops under Captain Hutchinson, to surprise the baron. At the same time, the earl dispatched Tarleton, with one hundred and eighty cavalry, and seventy mounted infantry under Captain Champagne, 20 to attempt the capture of Jefferson and the members of the Legislature at Charlottesville. Steuben was advised of the approach of Tarleton, and believing his post to be the object of the expedition, he conveyed his stores to the south side of the Fluvanna and prepared to withdraw his troops thither. Simcoe’s march was unknown, but when he arrived at the Point of Fork, he had nothing to surprise or capture, except about thirty Americans who were waiting the return of boats to cross the river. Simcoe, by an advantageous display of his force, and lighting numerous fires at night upon the hills along the Rivanna, deceived Steuben with the belief that the main army of Cornwallis was close upon him. Influenced by this idea, the baron hastily retreated during the night, leaving such stores behind as could not readily be removed. In the morning, Simcoe sent Captain Stephenson to destroy them, and also ordered Captain Wolsey to make a feigned pursuit upon the track of the retreating Americans.

In the mean while, Tarleton and his legion pushed forward with their accustomed speed, to catch the Virginia law-makers at Charlottesville. On their way toward the Rivanna, they destroyed twelve wagon-loads of clothing, destined for Green’s army in North Carolina. On reaching that stream, they dashed into its current, and before seven o’clock in the morning [June 4, 1781.] they were within ten miles of Charlottesville. There Tarleton detached Captain M‘Leod, with a party of horsemen, to capture Governor Jefferson, at Monticello, while himself and the remainder of his forces pushed on to the residence of two brothers, named Walker, where he understood many influential Virginians were assembled. Several of these were captured, among whom was Colonel John Simms, a member of the Legislature, and William and Robert, brothers of General Nelson. After partaking of a tardily prepared breakfast at Dr. Walker’s, 21 Tarleton pursued his rapid march, and rode up the hill into the village of Charlotte, under full gallop, expecting to take the legislators by surprise. He was disappointed. While passing through Louisa county, a Mr. Jouitte, suspecting Tarleton’s design, mounted a fleet horse, and reached Charlottesville in time to give the alarm. The delay for breakfast at Dr. Walker’s was sufficient to allow most of the members to mount fresh horses and escape. Only seven fell into the hands of the British.

M‘Leod’s expedition to Monticello was quite as unsuccessful. The governor was entertaining several members of the Legislature, including the speakers of both Houses, and was not aware of the proximity of an enemy, until the invaders were seen coming up the winding road leading to his mansion. His wife and children were hurried off to Colonel Carter’s, six miles southward, whither Mr. Jefferson followed on horseback, making his way among the dark recesses of Carter’s Mountain. The speaker hurried to Charlottesville to adjourn the Legislature, to meet at Staunton on the seventh, 22 and then, with several others, mounted fleet horses and escaped. Mr. Jefferson had not been gone ten minutes when M‘Leod and his party rode up and found the mansion deserted. Books, papers, and furniture were untouched by the enemy, and not a particle of the governor’s property was destroyed, except a large quantity of wine in his cellar, drunk and wasted by a few soldiers, without the knowledge of their commander.

After destroying one thousand new muskets, four hundred barrels of powder, several hogsheads of tobacco, and a quantity of soldier’s clothing, Tarleton, with his prisoners, rejoined Cornwallis, who had advanced to Elk Hill, a plantation belonging to Governor Jefferson, near the Point of Fork. There the most wanton destruction of property occurred. They cut the throats of the young horses, carried off the older ones fit for service, slaughtered the cattle, burned the barns with the crops of the previous year, with all the fences on the plantations near, and captured many negroes. 23

One more prize attracted the attention of Cornwallis. At Albemarle Old Court House, above the Point of Fork, the Virginians had collected a large quantity of valuable stores, most of which had been sent from Richmond. The earl determined to capture or destroy them; La Fayette, who, after his junction with Wayne, had moved cautiously through Orange and the upper part of Louisa to Boswell’s tavern, near the Albemarle line, resolved to protect them. Tarleton was sent to force La Fayette either to hazard a battle with the whole British army, or abandon the stores. The marquis did neither. He had discovered a rough, unused road, leading directly to the Court House. Early in the evening he set his pioneers at work, and before morning his whole force had traversed the opened way, and, to the astonishment of Cornwallis, were strongly posted upon high ground, between the British forces and the American stores. Again baffled, the earl wheeled his army, and moved toward the eastern coast, closely watched and followed by the vigilant marquis. He entered Richmond on the seventeenth, and evacuated it on the twentieth. Steuben had now joined La Fayette, and Cornwallis, believing the strength of the Americans to be much greater than it really was, hastened to Williamsburg, where, under the protection of his shipping, and re-enforced by troops from Portsmouth, he encamped. 24 His subsequent movements, until his surrender at Yorktown, have been noticed in preceding chapters.

In a note on page 82 of the first volume of this work, I have given briefly the principal reasons why the captive army of Burgoyne was not allowed to go to England on parole. The action of Congress on the subject was technically dishonorable, and not in accordance with the letter and spirit of the convention signed by Gates and Burgoyne. So General Washington evidently thought when he wrote to General Heath respecting the detention of that body, and said, "By this step General Burgoyne will, it is more than probable, look upon himself as released from all former ties, and consequently at liberty to make use of any means to effect an escape." 25 The suspected perfidy of the British commander, the fact that the enemy often acted upon the principle that "faith was not to be kept with rebels," and the consideration that these troops, though they might not again "serve against America," would supply the places of soldiers at home who would, partially justified the bad faith of Congress. Having resolved to keep them here, the next consideration was their maintenance. The difficulty of procuring an ample supply of food in New England, and the facilities of a sea-coast for their escape, induced Congress to order them to be sent into the interior of Virginia. Sir Henry Clinton had been applied to [Sept., 1778.] for passports for American vessels to transport fuel and provisions to Boston for the use of the prisoners, but refused. Congress, therefore, directed [Oct. 15.] them to be removed to Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, Virginia. Pursuant to this direction, the whole body of captives, English and Germans, after the officers had signed a parole of honor 26 respecting their conduct on the way, took up their line of march from Cambridge and Rutland 27 on the tenth of November. Burgoyne having been permitted to return to England in May, the command of the convention troops devolved upon Major-general Phillips. Colonel Theodorick Bland, of the first regiment of light dragoons, was appointed by Washington to superintend the march of the captives; and Colonel James Wood was appointed to command at Charlottesville. It was a dreary winter’s journey of seven hundred miles, and occupied about three months in its accomplishment. 28 The Baroness Riedesel, in her charming Letters and Memoirs, gives graphic pictures of events on the way, and of her residence in and departure from Virginia. Anburey, a captive officer, also records many incidents of interest connected with the journey; and in his Travels, publishes a map of the Eastern and Middle States, on which is denoted, by colored lines, the direction of the march, and the extent of the paroles of the English and German prisoners after their arrival in Virginia. 29

The troops were, at first, all stationed at Charlottesville. That town then contained only a court-house, one tavern, and about a dozen houses. These were crowded with the English officers, and many sought quarters on neighboring plantations. The soldiers suffered dreadfully. Not expecting the captives before spring, barracks were not erected, and the only shelter that was vouchsafed them, after their fatiguing march through mud and snow, were a few half-finished huts in the woods. These, not half covered, were full of snow, and it was three days before they were made habitable. No provisions had arrived for the troops, and for a week they subsisted upon corn meal made into cakes. The officers, by signing a parole, were allowed to go as far as Richmond for quarters, and in a short time both officers and soldiers were rendered quite comfortable. General Phillips made his quarters at the plantation of Colonel Carter, 30 and General Riedesel and his family resided upon the estate of Mr. Mazzei, an Italian gentleman at Colle, a few miles distant from Charlottesville. 31 Mr. Jefferson, who was then at Monticello, did every thing in his power to render the situation of the officers and troops as pleasant as possible. To the former, the hospitalities of his mansion and the use of his choice library were freely proffered; and when, in the spring of 1779, it was proposed to remove the troops to some other locality, he pleaded earnestly, and argued forcibly, in a letter to Governor Henry [March 27.] against the measure, on the grounds of its inhumanity, expense, and general inexpediency. For these attentions, the officers and troops often expressed their warmest gratitude toward Mr. Jefferson. The kindness of Colonel Bland, on their march, also excited their affection, and made him a favorite.

Early in the spring, comfortable barracks for the troops were erected, under the direction of Colonel Harvey. They were upon the brow and slopes of a high hill, on Colonel Harvey’s estate, five miles from Charlottesville. They cost the government about twenty-five thousand dollars. A large portion of the land was laid out into gardens, fenced in and planted. General Riedesel spent more than five hundred dollars for garden seeds for the German troops, and when autumn advanced there was no scarcity of provisions. According to Mr. Jefferson, the location was extremely healthy. 32 It being the universal opinion that they would remain prisoners there until the close of the war, the officers spent a great deal of money in the erection of more suitable dwellings, and in preparing rough land for cultivation. They settled their families there, built a theatre, a coffee-house, and a cold bath; and in general intercourse with the families of neighboring gentlemen, and the pursuits of music and literature, their captivity was made agreeable to them, and profitable to the province. 33 Notwithstanding this apparent quiet on the surface, there was turbulence below. Captivity under the most favorable circumstances is galling. A large number deserted, and made their way to British posts at the North. On one occasion nearly four hundred eluded the vigilance of their guards, and escaped. When, in October, 1780, General Leslie with a strong force took possession of Portsmouth, great uneasiness was observed among the British troops, and just fears were entertained that they might rise upon and overpower their guard, and join their countrymen on the Elizabeth River. The Germans were less impatient, for they were enjoying life better than at home; 34 yet it was thought expedient to remove the whole body of prisoners to a place of greater security. Accordingly, the British were marched across the Blue Ridge [Nov. 20, 1780.], at Wood’s Gap, and through the Great Valley to Fort Frederick, in Maryland; 35 the Germans followed soon afterward, and were quartered at Winchester (then containing between three and four hundred houses), in the northern part of Virginia. Deaths, desertion, and partial exchanges had now reduced their numbers to about twenty-one hundred. Afterward they were removed to Lancaster, and some to East Windsor, in Connecticut. In the course of 1782, they were all dispersed, either by exchange or desertion. A large number of the Germans, remembering the perfidy of their rulers at home, and pleased with their national brethren who were residents here, remained at the close of the war, and many became useful citizens.

Returning to Petersburg, we ascended to Bollingbrook, and just as the sun came up from the distant hills, I sketched the view on page 339. At nine o’clock, after receiving minute directions respecting my future route for a hundred miles, I took the reins and started for the Roanoke. For the first sixteen miles, to the banks of Stony Brook, the country is sandy and quite level, and the roads were fine. I crossed that stream at Dinwiddie Court House, the capitol of the county of that name, where, a few days before, Society, by the use of a sheriff and strong cord, had strangled William Dandridge Eppes, for the murder of a young man. The first murder was sufficiently horrid; the second was doubly so, because Christian men and women and innocent children saw it done in cool blood, and uttered not a word of remonstrance or reprobation! It had evidently been a holiday for the people; and all the way from Petersburg to the Meherrin, it was a stock subject for conversation. A dozen times I was asked if I saw "the hanging;" and a dozen times I shuddered at the evidence of the prevailing savagism in the nineteenth century, even in the heart of our republic. But the gallows is toppling, and another generation will be amazed at the cruelty of their fathers.

I crossed the Nottaway into Brunswick county, at Jones’s Bridge. The river is narrow, and lying in a deep bed, its current is often made swift by rains. Such was its condition when I passed over; for rain had been falling since midnight, and when I resumed my journey, it was mingled with snow and hail, accompanied by a strong northwest wind. All day the storm continued, but happily for me I was riding with the wind, and kept dry beneath my spacious wagon top. The red clay roads prevailed, occasionally relieved by a sandy district covered with pines, beautified by an undergrowth of holly and laurel. 36 My goal was Gee’s Bridge over the Meherrin River, which I expected to reach by three o’clock in the afternoon, but a divergence into a wrong road for the space of three or four miles, delayed my arrival there until sunset. Nor was delay the only vexation, for, to regain the right road, I had to wheel and face the driving storm until I was thoroughly drenched. In this condition I was obliged to travel a red clay road four miles after crossing the Meherrin, to obtain lodging for the night.

Gee’s Bridge was a rickety affair, and was used only when the Meherrin, which is similar in volume and current to the Nottaway, was too much swollen to allow travelers to ford it. On its southern side, the road ascends at an angle of forty-five degrees, and, to make it passable, is filled with small bowlders near the bridge, and logs laid transversely up the steeper portion. For the use of this bridge, the stones and logs, the traveler is taxed a "levy" at the top of the hill by the overseer of Gee’s plantation. 37 At dark I reached the house of Dr. Gregory, who entertains strangers, and under his comfortable roof I rested, after a most wearisome day’s travel for man and horse. The doctor was absent, and I passed an hour after supper with his overseer, an intelligent young man from New London, Connecticut. He had peddled wooden clocks through that region, and having sold many on credit, he settled there eight years before to collect his dues. He hired himself as an overseer, and there he yet remained, full of faith that he would ultimately collect all that was due to him. From him I obtained a good deal of information respecting the husbandry of Lower Virginia; the sum of his testimony was, "The people seem to try how soon they can wear out the soil, and then abandon it."

The storm was over in the morning [Dec. 28, 1848.], and a cold, bracing air came from the north. Ice skimmed the surface of the pools by the road side, and all over the red earth the exhalations were congealed into the most beautiful creations of frost-work I ever beheld. There were tiny columns an inch in height, with gorgeous capitals like tree-tops, their branches closely intertwined. These gave the surface the appearance of a crust of snow. Art, in its most delicate operations, never wrought any thing half so wonderful as that little forest, created within the space of an hour, and covering tens of thousands of acres. The road was wretched, and it was almost two hours past meridian when I reached St. Tammany, on the Roanoke, a small post station in Mecklenburg county, about eighty miles from Petersburg, and about thirty below the confluence of the Dan and Staunton. The Roanoke is here almost four hundred yards wide, with an average depth of about thirteen feet, and a strong current. 38 I crossed upon a bateau, propelled by means of a pole worked by a single stout negro. When the stream is much swollen, three or four men are necessary to manage the craft, and even then there is danger. After ascending the southern bank, the road passes over a marsh of nearly half a mile, and then traverses among gentle hills. Two miles from the river I passed some fields of cotton not yet garnered, and the wool, escaped from the bolls, looked like patches of snow upon the shrubs. These were the first cotton plantations I had seen. I was surprised to learn that the cotton harvest may begin in September, and yet, at the close of December, much, here and elsewhere at the South, was in the fields, and injured by exposure to the taints produced by rains. Better husbandry seemed to prevail on this side of the Roanoke, and neat farm-houses gave the country a pleasing appearance of thrift. I was now on one of the great routes of travel from Central Virginia to Hillsborough, the seat of the Provincial Congress at the opening of the war of the Revolution. It was also the great route of emigration from Virginia when the wilderness upon the Yadkin was first peopled by white men. I had intended to follow the track of Greene and his army while retreating before Cornwallis in the spring of 1781, but in so doing I should omit other places of paramount interest. That track lay between forty and fifty miles northwest of my route to Hillsborough.

The pine forests now became rare, and the broken country was diversified by well-cultivated plantations, and forests of oaks, chestnuts, gum, and a few catalpas. Toward evening I arrived at Nut Bush Post Office, in Warren county (formerly a part of Granville), a locality famous in the annals of that state as the first place in the interior where a revolutionary document was put forth to arouse the people to resist the government. 39 The postmaster (John H. Bullock, Esq.) owned a store and an extensive tobacco plantation there. Under his roof I passed the night, in the enjoyment of the most cordial hospitality, and was warmly pressed to spend several days with him, and join in the seasonable sports of turkey and deer hunting in the neighboring forests. But, eager to complete my journey, I declined, and the next morning, notwithstanding another strong northeast gale was driving a chilling sleet over the land, I left Nut Bush, and pushed on toward Oxford. The staple production of this region appears to be tobacco; and drying-houses and presses composed the principal portion of the outbuildings of the plantations. 40

The morning of the thirtieth [Dec., 1848.] was clear and warm, after a night of heavy rain. I left Oxford early, resolved to reach Hillsborough, thirty-six miles distant, at evening. But the red clay roads, made doubly bad by the rain, impeded my progress, and I was obliged to stop at the house of a Yankee planter, four miles short of Hillsborough. In the course of the day, I forded several considerable streams, all of them much swollen, and difficult of passage, for a stranger. The Flat Creek, near Oxford, a broad and shallow stream, was hub-deep, and gave me the first unpleasant experience of fording. A few miles further on, I crossed the Tar River, over a long and substantial bridge. This is a rapid stream, and now its muddy and turbulent waters came rushing like a mountain-torrent, bearing large quantities of drift-wood in the midst of its foam. 41 Soon after crossing the Tar, I forded a small tributary called the Cat Tail Creek. It was not more than two rods wide, but was so deep that the water dashed into my wagon, and the current lifted it from the ground, for a moment. The Knapp-of-Reeds was broader, and but a little less rapid and dangerous; and when, at three o’clock, I crossed the Flat River, I came very near being "swamped." A bridge spanned the stream, but the ground on either side is so flat that, during floods, the river overflows its banks and expands into a lake. I reached the bridge without difficulty, but, when leaving it, found the way much impeded by drift-wood and other substances that came flowing over the banks. Charley was not at all pleased with these frequent fordings, and the masses of drift alarmed him. While my wagon-hubs were under water, and he was picking his way carefully over the submerged stones, a dark mass of weeds and bushes came floating toward him. He sheered suddenly, and for a moment the wagon was poised upon two wheels. I was saved from a cold bath by springing to the opposite side, where my weight prevented its overturning, and we were soon safe upon firm land. This was the last contest with the waters for the day, for the next stream (the Little River) was crossed by a bridge, a good distance above the less rapid current. Between the Flat and the Little Rivers, and filling the whole extent of four miles, was the immense plantation of Mr. Cameron, a Scotch gentleman. This plantation extends parallel with the rivers, a distance of fifteen miles, and covers an area of about sixty square miles. It is well managed, and yields abundant crops of wheat, corn, oats, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, and other products of the Northern and Middle States. One thousand negroes were upon it, under the direction of several overseers. Its hills are crowned with fine timber, and I observed several large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle upon the slopes. It is probably the largest landed estate in the Carolinas, perhaps in the Union.