The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
Philosophy
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
Of the transfer of your corps from the general to the State line, and the
other facts in the memorial preceding my entrance on the administration
of the State government, June 2, 1779, I, of course, have no knowledge;
but public documents, as well as living witnesses, will probably supply
this. In 1780, I remember your appointment to a command in the militia
sent under General Stevens to the aid of the Carolinas, of which fact the
commission signed by myself is sufficient proof. But I have no particular
recollections which respect yourself personally in that service. Of what
took place during Arnold's invasion in the subsequent winter I have
more knowledge, because so much passed under my own eye, and I have
the benefit of some notes to aid my memory. In the short interval of
fifty-seven hours between our knowing they had entered James river and
their actual debarkation at Westover, we could get together but a small
body of militia, (my notes say of three hundred men only,) chiefly from
the city and its immediate vicinities. You were placed in the command
of these, and ordered to proceed to the neighborhood of the enemy, not
with any view to face them directly with so small a force, but to hang
on their skirts, and to check their march as much as could be done, to
give time for the more distant militia to assemble. The enemy were not
to be delayed, however, and were in Richmond in twenty-four hours from
their being formed on shore at Westover. The day before their arrival at
Richmond, I had sent my family to Tuckahoe, as the memorial states, at
which place I joined them about 1 o'clock of that night, having attended
late at Westham, to have the public stores and papers thrown across the
river. You came up to us at Tuckahoe the next morning, and accompanied
me, I think, to Britton's opposite Westham, to see about the further
safety of the arms and other property. Whether you stayed there to look
after them, or went with me to the heights of Manchester, and returned
thence to Britton's, I do not recollect. The enemy evacuated Richmond at
noon of the 5th of January, having remained there but twenty-three hours.
I returned to it in the morning of the 8th, they being still encamped
at Westover and Berkley, and yourself and corps at the Forest. They
re-embarked at 1 o'clock of the 10th. The particulars of your movements
down the river, to oppose their re-landing at different points, I do
not specifically recollect, but, as stated in the memorial, they are so
much in agreement with my general impressions, that I have no doubt of
their correctness, and know that your conduct from the first advance
of the enemy to his departure, was approved by myself and by others
generally. The rendezvous of the militia at the Tuckahoe bridge, and
your having the command of them, I think I also remember, but nothing
of their subsequent movements. The legislature had adjourned to meet at
Charlottesville, where, at the expiration of my second year, I declined
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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