Battle of Green Spring The Battle of Green Spring took place near Green Spring Plantation in James City County , Virginia during the American Revolutionary War . On July 6 , 1781 United States Brigadier General " Mad " Anthony Wayne , leading the advance forces of the Marquis de Lafayette , was ambushed near the plantation by the British army of Earl Charles Cornwallis in the last major land battle of the Virginia campaign prior to the Siege of Yorktown . Following a month of marching and countermarching in central Virginia by Cornwallis and Lafayette , Cornwallis in late June moved to Williamsburg , where he received orders to move to Portsmouth and send some of his army to New York City . Lafayette followed Cornwallis fairly closely , emboldened by the arrival of reinforcements to consider making attacks on the British force . On July 4 , Cornwallis departed Williamsburg for Jamestown , planning to cross the James River en route to Portsmouth . Lafayette believed he could stage an attack on Cornwallis ' s rear guard during the crossing . Cornwallis anticipated Lafayette ' s idea , and laid an elaborate trap . General Wayne ' s forces were very nearly caught in the trap , and only a bold bayonet charge against the numerically overwhelming British enabled his forces to retreat . Cornwallis did not follow the victory with pursuit , instead following his plan to cross the river . The action reinforced the perception among contemporaries that justified the moniker " Mad " to describe Wayne , although opinion on the merits of his actions was divided . The battlefield has been partially preserved , and reenactments are sometimes staged . Background . In May 1781 , Earl Charles Cornwallis arrived in Petersburg , Virginia after a lengthy campaign through North and South Carolina . In addition to his 1 , 400 troops , he assumed command of another 3 , 600 troops that had been under the command of the turncoat Benedict Arnold , and was soon thereafter further reinforced by about 2 , 000 more troops sent from New York . These forces were opposed by a much smaller Continental Army force led by the Marquis de Lafayette , then located at Richmond . Following orders originally given to Arnold ' s predecessor in command , William Phillips ( who died a week before Cornwallis ' s arrival ) , Cornwallis worked to eliminate Virginia ' s ability to support the revolutionary cause , giving chase to Lafayette ' s army , which numbered barely 3 , 000 and included a large number of inexperienced militia . Lafayette successfully avoided engaging Cornwallis , who used his numerical advantage to detach forces for raids against economic , military , and political targets in central Virginia . After about one month of this activity , Cornwallis turned back to the east , marching for Williamsburg . Lafayette , whose force grew to number about 4 , 000 with the arrival of Continental Army reinforcements under General Anthony Wayne and additional experienced militiamen under William Campbell , followed Cornwallis . Buoyed by the increase in his troop strength , Lafayette also became more aggressive in his tactics , sending out detachments of his force to counteract those that Cornwallis sent on forage and raiding expeditions . One such foray led to a clash at Spencer ' s Ordinary , a crossroads not far from Williamsburg , in late June . When Cornwallis arrived at Williamsburg , he received orders from General Sir Henry Clinton to go to Portsmouth and prepare a detachment of troops to return to New York City . Pursuant to these orders , Cornwallis began moving south on the Virginia Peninsula on July 4 , planning to cross the wide James River at the Jamestown ferry . Lafayette followed , with advance units and most of his Continentals reaching Norrell ' s Mill , about from the ferry on July 5 . Lafayette saw an opportunity to attack the British force as it made the difficult crossing of the James . Cornwallis also recognized the possibility , and decided to lay a trap , hoping to capture a portion of Lafayette ' s army . He only sent his baggage train and John Graves Simcoe ' s Queen ' s Rangers across the river , and concealed his main force near the crossing . Cornwallis also sent men to " desert " to the Americans with information that most of the British force had crossed , leaving only a rear guard on the north side of the river . Prelude . The position where Cornwallis hid his army was well - chosen . To the left , impassable swampy terrain sloped down toward the river . To the right , there was more marshy ground and a few ponds . The access from the rest of the mainland toward the ferry was via a causeway from the Green Spring Plantation that was surrounded by marshlands that an advancing army would have to negotiate . The earl arranged his army in two lines , with the 76th and 80th regiments along with part of the 43rd and Banastre Tarleton ' s British Legion on the left , and the Brigade of Guards , and Hessian auxiliaries on the right . Both wings also included light infantry companies . Cornwallis left a small company of German jäger s and a few men from the Legion to give the appearance of a rear guard picket , and gave them specific orders to resist the American advance as much as possible . Brigadier General " Mad " Anthony Wayne led Lafayette ' s advance company , about 500 men , out early on July 6 from Norrell ' s Tavern . When Wayne reached Green Spring , he surveyed the terrain and noted the presence of the British guards . When Lafayette came up with his main force , the two men decided to go ahead with the attack , but Lafayette ordered more troops forward from Norrell ' s Tavern around 1 pm . Some minor skirmishing took place while they awaited these troops . Wayne ' s 500 soldiers included 200 Virginia riflemen under Majors John Willis and Richard Call backed by additional light infantry led by John Francis Mercer , William Galvan , and McPherson . Colonel Walter Stewart ' s Pennsylvania Continental battalion formed the reserve . Lafayette sent forward two Pennsylvania Continental battalions under Colonels Richard Butler and Richard Humpton , and Major John P . Wyllys ' light infantry battalion . Beginning to suspect something was amiss , Lafayette held back the light infantry battalions of Colonels Francis Barber and Joseph Vose . The three - battalion reinforcement increased the size of the force Wayne ordered into the swamps around 3 : 00 pm to between eight and nine hundred men . Wayne ' s force now consisted of two companies of riflemen , one of dragoon s , and most of the Pennsylvania Line , and included three pieces of field artillery . As they moved out , Lafayette rode out toward a spit of land on the riverbank from which he might observe the action . Battle . Wayne ' s advance force and the British pickets then began an extended skirmish lasting nearly two hours . The British forces slowly retreated , suffering significant casualties under the persistent American advance . Wayne ' s riflemen performed particularly well , picking off several of the British commanding officers . However , the tables turned around 5 pm when the Americans reached an " abandoned " gun that Cornwallis had left in the road . Their seizure of the gun was the signal for the British counterattack , which began with a barrage of canister and grape shot , and was followed by an infantry charge . Lafayette , from his vantage point on the river , had spotted the main British force and realized that Wayne was entering a trap . However , he was not able to reach Wayne in time to recall him . He immediately began moving additional troops forward in an attempt to prevent the trap from closing on Wayne . In the meantime , the British charge had thrown the Americans into some confusion , and Wayne was concerned that a retreat would turn into a disorderly rout . Wayne reformed his line , ordered his artillery to fire a blast of grape shot , and then had the line charge the numerically overwhelming British with bayonets fixed . Wayne ' s audacious charge worked ; it successfully halted the British advance long enough for Lafayette ' s covering force to approach . Lafayette rode forward to assist in managing the American retreat , which began to crumble after Cornwallis personally led a countercharge . During the retreat , two of the American guns had to be abandoned because their horses were shot , and Lafayette was also unhorsed . As the sun was beginning to set , Cornwallis chose not to pursue the Americans , who retreated to Green Spring . Aftermath . British reports of casualties in the battle listed 5 officers and 70 enlisted men killed or wounded . American casualties were reported to number about 140 , including 28 killed . Cornwallis , satisfied with the victory , did not to pursue the retreating Americans , and instead crossed the James as planned and moved on to Portsmouth . There his arrangements to embark troops were countermanded by new orders from Clinton that instead ordered him to use his force to establish a fortified naval station . This Cornwallis chose to do at Yorktown , where he was compelled to surrender after a brief siege in October 1781 . Lafayette , in his dispatches and reports throughout the later stages of the Virginia campaign , painted Cornwallis ' s movements to Williamsburg and Portsmouth as a retreat . These reports bolstered Lafayette ' s reputation , and the battle , although a tactical setback , did not harm that reputation . General Wayne wrote of his decision to charge the full British force that it was " one of those prudent , tho ' daring manoeuvers which seldom fail of producing the desired effect ; the result in this Instance fully Justified it . " Lafayette publicly lauded Wayne ' s performance , but recorded privately that Wayne made tactical mistakes and the battle read well " in a gazette " . Militia general Peter Muhlenberg blamed the loss on " the impetuosity of our brother Brigadier . " Wayne biographer Paul Nelson opines that Americans of the day could " hardly decide after the battle whether to admire Wayne for his brave and impetuous character or to condemn him as a foolhardy adventurer . " Legacy . Portions of the Green Spring Plantation were purchased in 1966 by the National Park Service , and are now part of the Colonial National Historical Park . These holdings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 , and are , as of June 2010 , open only by special arrangement .