etired to Richmond. The next morning
they burned some buildings of public and private property, with what
stores remained in them, destroyed a great quantity of private stores,
and about twelve o'clock, retired towards Westover, where they encamped
within the Neck, the next day.

The loss sustained is not yet accurately known. As far as I have been
able to discover, it consisted, at this place, of about three
hundred muskets, some soldiers' clothing to a small amount, some
quarter-master's stores, of which one hundred and twenty sides of
leather was the principal article, part of the artificers' tools, and
three wagons. Besides which, five brass four-pounders, which we had sunk
in the river, were discovered to them, raised and carried off. At
the foundery, we lost the greater part of the papers belonging to the
Auditor's office, and of the books and papers of the Council office.
About five or six tons of powder, as we conjecture, was thrown into the
canal, of which there will be a considerable saving by re-manufacturing
it. The roof of the foundery was burned, but the stacks of chimneys and
furnaces not at all injured. The boring mill was consumed. Within less
than forty-eight hours from the time of their landing, and nineteen from
our knowing their destination, they had penetrated thirty-three miles,
done the whole injury, and retired. Their numbers, from the best
intelligence I have had, are about fifteen hundred infantry, and as to
their cavalry, accounts vary from fifty to one hundred and twenty; and
the whole commanded by the parricide Arnold. Our militia, dispersed over
a large tract of country, can be called in but slowly. On the day the
enemy advanced to this place, two hundred only were embodied. They were
of this town and its neighborhood, and were too few to do any thing.
At this time, they are assembled in pretty considerable numbers on the
south side of James river, but are not yet brought to a point. On the
north side are two or three small bodies, amounting in the whole to
about nine hundred men. The enemy were, at four o'clock yesterday
evening, still remaining in their encampment at Westover and Berkeley
Neck. In the mean while, Baron Steuben, a zealous friend, has descended
from the dignity of his proper command, to direct our smallest
movements. His vigilance has in a great measure supplied the want of
force in preventing the enemy from crossing the river, which might
have been very fatal. He has been