And Then There Were Thirteen with Dr. Henry Lumpkin was an instructional series debuted by SCETV in the mid-1970s. The 20-episode series featured lectures by Dr. Henry Lumpkin of the University of South Carolina Department of History filmed on actual battle sites and campaign areas of the American Revolution in South Carolina.
In this action-packed episode, Professor Lumpkin takes us to the York and James Peninsula, where we learn about the British and French fleets, their commanders, decisions made and the outcome of the naval confrontation, but first the professor reviews the events that transpired before.
After Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis fell back to coastal Wilmington with his damaged army. He knew that Greene had marched south into South Carolina, and realized that he could not get through the terrain to help Lord Rawdon in Camden before the Americans struck. Cornwallis decided to march north on the coast of North Carolina, to the York and James peninsula. Cornwallis's thoughts were to let Greene go and carry the war into Virginia and he planned to fight and defeat the small American army and then systematically destroy all stores collected by the Marquis de la Lafayette. After this, he would retire to the coast and wait for instructions from Sir Henry Clinton.
The British army in Virginia was already greatly superior to the American force, was now reinforced by two British regiments and two battalions of German mercenaries. As soon as this intelligence reached him, Lafayette met with General Anthony Wayne who was marching with 800 men of the Pennsylvania Line sent by George Washington in the way of reinforcements.
The British followed Lafayette as far as Hanover county, destroying public stores wherever they found them. Lord Cornwallis could not catch the fast moving Marquis and turned his attention on taking the General Assembly of Virginia, which was meeting in a guarded section of Charlottesville. Banastre Tarleton and his well-trained army was ordered to strike at Charlottesville and surprise the legislators sitting there. On his way, he captured twelve wagons containing arms and clothing destined for Nathanael Greene's army in South Carolina. These Tarleton burned and moving swiftly on, swept through the guards and seized seven members of the assembly. Governor Thomas Jefferson, being warned of Tarleton’s approach, escaped to the mountains.
Tarleton continued to find and destroyed stores destined for the American troops in the field. He then rode down to the Rivanna River and met with Colonel John Simcoe of the Queen’s Rangers to coordinate his movements with him. Colonel Simcoe attempted to stop General Von Steuben from crossing the Fluvanna River but failed.
Next, we learn about Banastre Tarleton's deception and the battle of Green Spring, where the Marquis Lafayette barely escaped a trap. The Americans suffered significant losses and the battle might have been won decisively by the British, but nightfall was fast approaching. Meanwhile, Henry Clinton ordered Cornwallis to fortify Yorktown and Gloucester across the James River as the only site capable of affording protection to major war vessels.
The British lost two of their courier vessels to enemy fire, and the intelligence they received was rife with misinformation. Once at the capes, Admiral Thomas Graves made the decision for the British fleet to remain in battle formation, essentially in single file and his decisions set the stage for the British naval defeat and land battle which was to follow.
Learn more about the land battle at Yorktown in Siege of Yorktown, Part Two.
Side Notes
- Charles Cornwallis
- Nathanael Greene (1742 - 1786)
- Francis Rawdon - Rawdon, an Irish-Anglo army officer and politician, served the British Army capably during the American Revolution, capping his successful career with a decade as Governor-General of India.
- Yorktown, Virginia - Battlefield. Rivers and Streams. (Rivanna and Fluvanna)
- William Phillips (1731 - 1781)
- Marquis de Lafayette - In June 1778, following the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Lafayette returned to France hoping to win more support for the United States. But while he was feted as a hero, he was not placed at the head of the French army. Count Rochambeau was chosen instead. By the summer of 1781, Lafayette was back in the United States. Washington sent him to Virginia to stop British raids along the James River. When Cornwallis' forces arrived in Virginia, Lafayette harassed the British general until Washington and Rochambeau could lay siege to him at Yorktown. In October 1781, there was no prouder soldier at Cornwallis' surrender than Lafayette.
- Henry Clinton - From his headquarters in New York, Clinton maintained active communication with Cornwallis, the commander of the southern army. Clinton was well aware of the challenges faced by the British during the Southern Campaign. Sensing Cornwallis’s doom in the fall of 1781, Clinton attempted to reinforce him at Yorktown, but he was too late. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
- General Anthony Wayne served as an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. His military exploits earned him the nickname "Mad Anthony".
- George Washington - Biography.
- Banastre Tarleton nicknamed "Bloody Ban" by Patriots, Banastre Tarleton became infamous in the southern states during the American Revolution. His conduct illustrated and exacerbated the problems the British faced in pacifying the population of the Carolinas.
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Graves Simcoe (1752 - 1806) was a British soldier and statesman who became the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario).
- Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Baron de Steuben - General von Steuben rejoined the Continental Army on April 27, 1779, and he served throughout the remainder of the war. He was instructor and supply officer for General Nathanael Greene's southern army, which fought the key battles that led to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Steuben commanded of one of the three divisions in the Continental Army at Yorktown. In 1783, he helped demobilize the army, and resigned his commission in 1784.
- Richard Butler Commissioned July 20, 1776, Richard Butler served as a major in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel less than a year later and his regiment served in Daniel Morgan's command of riflemen. As part of this unit, Butler fought at the Battles of Saratoga and Monmouth. Later promoted to colonel of the 2d Pennsylvania Battalion, he fought at the Battles of Stoney Point and Yorktown.
- Admiral Sir George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB (1718 – 1792) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator. He is best known for his service in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. It has often been claimed that Rodney pioneered the tactic of breaking the line, though this is disputed.
- Battle of Green Spring - Virginia, July 6, 1781.
- Comte de Grasse (1722 -1788)
- Sir Peter Parker, born in Ireland, part of a naval lineage, Parker was the father of Vice-Admiral Christopher Parker, the grandfather of Captain Sir Peter Parker, and the uncle of Admiral Sir George Parker. His grandson and namesake served under Sir George Cockburn in the Chesapeake during the War of 1812 and was mortally wounded on the night of August 30, 1814 when he led a party ashore in Maryland.
- Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (1724 - 1816) was a British admiral who served during the Seven Years’ War and the American and the French Revolutionary wars.
- Thomas Graves (1725 - 1802) Once the American Revolution began, Graves was sent to patrol and regulate trade in the West Indies. In 1779, Graves was promoted to Rear Admiral and returned to England for his next assignment. In 1780, Grave officially entered the American Revolution alongside Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot. In May 1781, Graves received instruction to aid General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia. When Graves sailed to Yorktown, he did not find the French or colonial fleet; supplied with false information, he sailed north to conjoin forces with Samuel Hood.
- Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725 – 1807) none of Rochambeau’s exploits had a greater impact on world history than his role in the American Revolution, when he brought some 5,500 French troops to America in 1780 to join the Continental Army and fight alongside Gen. George Washington to win freedom from British rule for the thirteen American colonies.
- Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot (1711-1794) naval officer and colonial administrator.
- Yorktown Wrecks is an expansive archaeologically sensitive area of Virginia's York River, in whose waters significant naval remnants of the American Revolutionary War are located. As a result of surveys conducted in the 1970s, at least ten sunken vessels sunken or scuttled around the time of the 1781 Siege of Yorktown have been identified. In the days preceding the siege, American and French naval forces sank a number of British vessels off Yorktown, and General Charles Cornwallis ordered the scuttling of other ships. At the end of the siege and the British surrender, at least twenty-six British vessels were unaccounted for, and are believed to lie in the York River.
