04/21/2026
Read for more on General Anthony Wayne joining forces with Lafayette.
On this day in 1781, General Lafayette and his force of about 1,200 Continentals crossed the Potomac and into Alexandria, Virginia. General Washington had dispatched Lafayette to Virginia in February, in response to Benedict Arnold’s invasion of the state in January, but things had not gone well. On March 16 the French navy had been defeated in the First Battle of the Capes and four days later British reinforcements had landed, significantly boosting the strength of the British force. With no hope of French reinforcements and greatly outnumbered by the British, Lafayette had withdrawn back north, intending to rejoin Washington’s army in New York. But on April 8, while at Head of Elk, Maryland (present day Elkton), he received a letter from Washington ordering him to take his men south and to unite with General Greene’s army in North Carolina. A few days later Lafayette received further instructions from Washington, authorizing him to stay in Virginia. At about the same time, he received a message from Greene, urging him to move against the British in Virginia, to keep them from joining Cornwallis in North Carolina. Upon reaching Baltimore on April 16, Lafayette learned that the British reinforcements that had joined Arnold in Virginia were commanded by General William Phillips and that Phillips had assumed overall command. Phillips had commanded the British artillery at the Battle of Minden in 1759, where Lafayette’s father was killed by a cannonball.
Eight days after crossing the Potomac, Lafayette and his men reached Richmond, followed a couple of days later by a letter from Washington authorizing Lafayette to return to New York if he preferred. He chose to remain in Virginia, taking command of the forces there commanded by General von Steuben and General Thomas Nelson.
On May 13, Phillips died of fever and Arnold reassumed command. Meanwhile, Cornwallis had made the surprising decision to march his army north to Virginia, rather than oppose Greene, who was pushing south. Cornwallis reached Petersburg on May 20, combined his forces with Arnold’s, and assumed command. Once again, Lafayette was greatly outnumbered.
For the next month Cornwallis and Tarleton raided across Virginia, with Lafayette sparring with them but too weak to give battle. On June 10, however, the tide turned again. General Anthony Wayne and his command of about 800 Continentals joined Lafayette, roughly equalizing the size of the contending armies. Lafayette immediately began to push east, and Cornwallis immediately began to fall back. Virginia militiaman John Carpenter recalled in his pension application that he “particularly remembers General Wayne who met the Virginia troops at Raccoon Ford. Wayne commanded the Pennsylvania troops. The Virginians were retreating until they were met by Wayne and then they became pursuers back to Richmond. Thence to Williamsburg. Thence to Yorktown.”
Of course it wasn’t as simple as that, but over the weeks to follow, Cornwallis would pull his army back to the coast, with Lafayette pursuing him. Acting on orders he received from his superior General Clinton, on August 1 Cornwallis began fortifying Yorktown. When he left that place it was as a paroled prisoner of war.
The painting is “Major General Marquis de Lafayette in the 1781 Virginia Campaign” by Don Troiani.
