Sold – Signer Benjamin Harrison Fears For the American Cause in 1781

The years 1779 and 1780 were bleak ones for the Revolution. The British took Charleston and Savannah and had a substantial army in the Carolinas. Now British commander Clinton turned his attention to Virginia. On December 20, 1780, 27 British ships arrived in the Chesapeake Bay carrying an expeditionary force commanded by traitor and newly appointed British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. He was to concentrate on destroying any supplies or equipment that would be useful to the Continental Southern Army, which had been very active in the Carolinas by this time. Virginia’s governor, Thomas Jefferson, was unable to raise forces to resist Arnold’s ventures and could only appeal to General Washington for troops. After occupying Portsmouth and building a defensive fortified line with several redoubts around the town, Arnold’s force went up the James River and on January 5, 1781 took Richmond, burning a portion of the city. The same fate was in store for Petersburg.  Arnold’s force wrecked havoc and sowed destruction along the James River and Hampton Roads port towns. This was Virginia’s first serious taste of the war, as the main action had until then taken place further north and south. As the British raid continued into the spring, knowing that Lord Cornwallis’ large army was in North Carolina heading northward and that General Clinton was considering dispatching more redcoats from New York, the citizens of Virginia were fearful.

In February 1781, Washington, sensitive to the pleas of the Virginia Governor, ordered General Lafayette south with a force of some 1,200 troops. To join them a group of French ships headed for Virginia with an equal number of reinforcements. Lafayette arrived with a small party on March 14, but at sea the Royal Navy repulsed the French fleet, which left the theater of operations. Instead of help arriving by sea, on March 20 the British landed an additional force, meaning that Lafayette’s contingent would be outnumbered by almost three to one when they arrived. He considered that the loss of the sea lanes precluded his intended action and on April 3 returned to Maryland where his men were encamped awaiting transportation. He would not reach Virginia soil until the end of the month.  Patriots in Virginia had already been worried, but Lafayette’s departure was a blow that shook their confidence.

Benjamin Harrison was a prominent Virginia planter who served in the House of Burgesses from 1752-1775. The Virginia Revolutionary Convention then sent him to the Continental Congress, where he remained for two years and signed the Declaration of Independence. He left Congress to serve as Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1778 to December 1, 1781, when he took office as Governor of Virginia. His Berkeley plantation was on the James River and he was forced to evacuate it by Arnold’s raid. Harrison’s son William Henry and great-grandson Benjamin would become presidents of the United States. The Mr. Randolph spoken of is likely Edmund Randolph, then Virginia Attorney General. He was also a member of the Continental Congress and the fir Attorney General of the United States.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, Berkeley, Va., April 8, 1781, to Robert Morris, expressing Harrison’s concern over Arnold’s attacks and worries about the fate of the American cause. “When I had the pleasure of seeing you, I informed you that Bringhurst had promised to deliver you Mr. Randolph’s chariot in six weeks from that time and told him that you would receive it and pay him one-half of what he could justly claim. The time is now expired & as I have heard nothing from you, I apprehend that he again intends to disappoint me. If this should be the case, will you be so obliging as once more to remind him of his promise & let me know what Mr. Randolph is to expect, who wants the chariot much. The money you advance he will repay with particular thanks in any manner that will be agreeable to you.

“My distressed family is once more put to the scout, to get out of the way of Arnold, who it is said, has received a reinforcement and intends again to pay us a visit. I do not believe it myself, but we had better err on the safe side. Cornwallis has reached Cross Creek, Greene is not far behind him endeavoring once more to force him to battle. If he brings it about, God send it may end favourably, for depend on it my friend, victory is absolutely necessary for us, we are in want of every thing to carry on war and we have no way to procure them; they are only to be had with you, and in our present situation, we have nothing that you will take for them; this is a more serious matter than you may immagine. Something must be done or the jigg will soon be up in this part of the world; our allies must exert themselves; amusement will no longer do, our people talk loudly, they hear of fleets and armies but see them not, and let me acknowledge to you, I myself am full of doubts, and know not what all this means, but I will say no more.”