page_title: Yorktown campaign
section_title: Cornwallis and Lafayette
hierarchical_section_title: Yorktown campaign / Cornwallis and Lafayette
context_page_description: The Yorktown or Virginia campaign was a series of military maneuvers and battles during the American Revolutionary War that culminated in the decisive Siege of Yorktown in October 1781. The result of the campaign was the surrender of the British Army force of General Charles Earl Cornwallis, an event that led directly to the beginning of serious peace negotiations and the eventual end of the war. The campaign was marked by disagreements, indecision, and miscommunication on the part of British leaders, and by a remarkable set of cooperative decisions, at times in violation of orders, by the French and Americans.
  The campaign involved land and naval forces of Great Britain and France, and land forces of the United States. British forces were sent to Virginia between January and April 1781 and joined with Cornwallis's army in May, which came north from an extended campaign through the southern states. These forces were first opposed weakly by Virginia militia, but General George Washington sent first Marquis de Lafayette and then Anthony Wayne with Continental Army troops to oppose the raiding and economic havoc the British were wreaking.
context_section_description: To counter the British threat in the Carolinas, Washington had sent Major General Nathanael Greene, one of his best strategists, to rebuild the American army in North Carolina after the defeat at Camden.  General Cornwallis, leading the British troops in the south, wanted to deal with him and gain control over the state.  Greene divided his inferior force, sending part of his army under Daniel Morgan to threaten the British post at Ninety Six, South Carolina.  Cornwallis sent Banastre Tarleton after Morgan, who almost wiped out Tarleton's command in the January 1781 Battle of Cowpens, and almost captured Tarleton in the process.  This action was followed by what has been called the "race to the Dan," in which Cornwallis gave chase to Morgan and Greene in an attempt to catch them before they reunited their forces.  When Greene successfully crossed the Dan River and entered Virginia, Cornwallis, who had stripped his army of most of its baggage, gave up the pursuit.  However, Greene received reinforcements and supplies, recrossed the Dan, and returned to Greensboro, North Carolina to do battle with Cornwallis.  The earl won the battle, but Greene was able to withdraw with his army intact, and the British suffered enough casualties that Cornwallis was forced to retreat to Wilmington for reinforcement and resupply.  Greene then went on to regain control over most of South Carolina and Georgia.  Cornwallis, in violation of orders but also in the absence of significant strategic direction by General Clinton, decided to take his army, now numbering just 1,400 men, into Virginia on April 25; it was the same day that Phillips and von Steuben fought at Blandford.
  Phillips, after Lafayette beat him to Richmond, turned back east, continuing to destroy military and economic targets in the area.  On May 7, Phillips received a dispatch from Cornwallis, ordering him to Petersburg to effect a junction of their forces; three days later, Phillips arrived in Petersburg.  Lafayette briefly cannonaded the British position there, but did not feel strong enough to actually make an attack.  On May 13, Phillips died of a fever, and Arnold retook control of the force.  This caused some grumbling amongst the men, since Arnold was not particularly well respected.  While waiting for Cornwallis, the forces of Arnold and Lafayette watched each other.  Arnold attempted to open communications with the marquis (who had orders from Washington to summarily hang Arnold), but the marquis returned his letters unopened.  Cornwallis arrived in Petersburg on May 19, prompting Lafayette, who commanded under 1,000 Continentals and about 2,000 militia, to retreat to Richmond.  Further British reinforcements led by the Ansbacher Colonel von Voigt arrived from New York shortly after, raising the size of Cornwallis's army to more than 7,000.
  Cornwallis, after dispatching General Arnold back to New York, then set out to follow General Clinton's most recent orders to Phillips.  These instructions were to establish a fortified base and raid rebel military and economic targets in Virginia.  Cornwallis decided that he had to first deal with the threat posed by Lafayette, so he set out in pursuit of the marquis.  Lafayette, clearly outnumbered, retreated rapidly toward Fredericksburg to protect an important supply depot there,  while von Steuben retreated to Point of Fork (present-day Columbia, Virginia), where militia and Continental Army trainees had gathered with supplies pulled back before the raiding British. Cornwallis reached the Hanover County courthouse on June 1, and, rather than send his whole army after Lafayette, detached Banastre Tarleton and John Graves Simcoe on separate raiding expeditions.
  Tarleton, his British Legion reduced by the debacle at Cowpens, rode rapidly with a small force to Charlottesville, where he captured several members of the Virginia legislature.  He almost captured Governor Jefferson as well, but had to content himself with several bottles of wine from Jefferson's estate at Monticello.  Simcoe went to Point of Fork to deal with von Steube
caption: Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton
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