It was comparatively nothing to see their fruits, fowls, and cattle
carried away by the light troops, which formed the van-guard; the army
collected what the van-guard had left; even the officers seized the rum
and all kinds of provisions without paying a farthing for them; this
hurricane, which destroyed everything in its passage, was followed by a
scourge yet more terrible: a numerous rabble, under the title of
Refugees and Loyalists, followed the army, not to assist in the field,
but to partake of the plunder. The furniture and clothes of the
inhabitants were in general the sole booty left to satisfy their
avidity; after they had emptied the houses, they stript the proprietors,
and Mr. Bird repeated with indignation that they had taken from him by
force the very boots from off his legs." "Mr. Tilghman, our
landlord,[728:B] though he lamented his misfortune in having lodged and
boarded Lord Cornwallis and his retinue without his lordship's having
made him the least recompense, could not yet help laughing at the fright
which the unexpected arrival of Tarleton spread among a considerable
number of gentlemen who had come to hear the news, and were assembled at
the court-house. A negro on horseback came full gallop to let them know
that Tarleton was not above three miles off. The resolution of
retreating was soon taken; but the alarm was so sudden and the confusion
so great that every one mounted the first horse he could find, so that
few of those curious gentlemen returned upon their own horses."

From his army encamped in Hanover, Cornwallis detached Simcoe with five
hundred men, Queen's Rangers and yagers, with a three-pounder, the
cavalry amounting to one hundred. The object of this expedition was to
destroy the arsenal lately erected at the Point of Fork, and the
military stores there. The Point of Fork is contained between the
Rivanna and the James, in the County of Fluvanna. At the same time his
lordship detached Tarleton with his legion, and one company of the 23d
Regiment, with the design of capturing Governor Jefferson, and the
members of the assembly, then convened at Charlottesville, and also of
destroying military stores.

During the recent incursions of Phillips and Arnold a state arsenal had
been established at the Point of Fork, and military stores collected
there with a view to the prosecution of the war in the Carolinas. The
protection of this post had been entrusted to Baron Steuben, who had
acquired