In war, Albemarle, by her location, has been spared the disastrous distinction of great battles within her borders. Her share, however, in its sacrifice and loss has always been ardently assumed. At the approach of the Revolution her populace was deeply aroused. Her public men took active part in the momentous events which preceded the great rupture, and her hardy farmers were prompt to form companies of volunteers. One of these, a band of eighteen men, upon news of the removal of the powder by Lord Dunsmore [sic] in the spring of 1775, marched hastily to Williamsburg. How long they remained under arms is not known, but two months later, against the advice of the Speaker of the House, twenty-seven men under Lieut. George Gilmer proceeded again to the Capital. Dr. Woods tells us that soldiers from Albemarle fought in all the important battlefields of the war, and he also gives from the county records a valuable list of officers and privates.
It is true, however, that throughout the Colonies there was widespread disaffection during the Revolution-more than we now realize. In the lower counties of the State, wherever the British colors appeared men flocked, often by hundreds, to swear allegiance. Then, when the British passed on or retreated, these men or their families were exposed to the patriotic resentment of their neighbors. Many would recant for the second time. If the British then returned to that locality, their fate was a hard one. In some captured orders to Col. Balfour, Cornwallis says:
"I have ordered, in the most positive manner, that every militia man who has borne arms with us and afterwards joined the enemy, shall be immediately hanged."<a href="#1" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 1
Jefferson's Correspondence.">[1]
Albemarle, of course, had her share of these Tories. Though their names have not been generally preserved, we know that Thomas Meriwether of Clover Fields, who was married to Washington's cousin, was British in his sympathies, and so was the celebrated Parson Douglas<a href="#2" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 2
Parson Douglas came over from Scotland to teach in the family of Col. Monroe of Westmoreland; in later life he owned the Ducking Hole estate in Louisa. Monroe, Jefferson and other noted men were among his pupils. Douglas was a Royalist, and adored George III and his whole family. His old Bible, long treasured at Cismont. but now in the West, has records in his own hand, which are a curious intermixture of the births of the princes and princesses of the reigning family, those of his own household, and those of his negroes. George III is sandwiched between two negro babies-Violet's child Randie, and Tibbie's child Suckie. Minor Meriwether:Lineage of the Meriwethers and Minors.">[2] of Louisa, whose descendants are still prominent in this County. Chiles Terrell, too, and Francis Jerdone were suspected of this feeling. It is interesting to reflect that had the Revolution terminated in defeat for the Colonies, these and other forgotten men would now be our Colonial heroes.
In January, 1779, British and Hesian troops were sent by Congress as prisoners of war to an encampment near Charlottesville. Their route in Virginia lay through Little London, Fauquier Court House, Carter's Plantation, Orange and Walker's Plantation. Upon arrival the men were settled on the north bank of Ivy Creek, upon the plantation of Col. Harvie, the farm which they occupied having ever since been known as Tize Barracks. The superior officers sought quarters among the neighboring gentry for a distance of twenty miles around.
From Jefferson's correspondence we learn that in a short time the presence of these four thousand aliens caused excitement that amounted to panic among the populace. It was believed that the community could not furnish the needed quantity of food, and rumors of famine drove the inhabitants to petition Gov. Henry to remove the troops. This Jefferson warmly opposed, and he was successful in his representations of the desirability of the location. Lossing tells us that the paroled officers were kindly received and entertained in the neighborhood, and that at This Barracks they constructed a theatre, a coffee house and a cold bath.
In the distribution of these officers, Gen. Philips, the English officer-in-charge, was quartered at Blenheim, the plantation of Col. Carter in the Green Mountain neighborhood; and the Hessian General, Baron de Riedesel, doubtless on account of the presence of his family, was allowed to lease a plantation and settle himself in comfort. This plantation was Colle,<a href="#3" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 3
This interesting old dwelling was built for the Italian by Mr. Jefferson himself, who had been instrumental in persuading him to settle in Albemarle. The workmen were the slaves who at that time were building Monticello. The original house is still standing, though no longer occupied. Colle is the scene of some of the chapters of Janice Meredith.">[3] adjoining Monticello, where for some years an Italian gentleman named Mazzei had been experimenting with vine growing and wine making. He was just starting on a political mission to Europe, and his establishment was at once taken over by the Baron, who is said to have grazed his horses in the vineyards and demolished them within a week.
The following interesting glimpse of their life in Albemarle is taken from the letters of Madame de Riedesel, who for three years, with her three small daughters, had braved the severities of life in the field; having followed the army from Canada to its defeat at Saratoga, and then on the long march which brought them to Virginia. Of their arrival she says:
"It snowed so much that we were obliged to have four men on horseback, before our carriage, to clear Their the road.-The travelling was dangerous, the roads Arrival being almost impassable, and we suffered besides not only from cold but from want. When only a day's journey from the place of our destination, we had, for our last meal, tea, and a peace of bread and butter for each. This was tile end of our little stock, and we could here procure nothing except some fruits which a peasant gave us. At noon we reached a house, where we begged for some dinner, but all assistance was denied us. Our hostess said that she needed the maize for her black people. 'They work for us,' she added, 'and you come to kill us.'
"The place of our destination was Colle, in Virginia. We had travelled, in about three months, six hundred and twenty-eight miles.-The troops were at Charlottesville, three hours ride from us, and the road thither ran through a fine wood. At first tiley suffered many privations; they were billeted in block houses, without windows or doors, and but poorly protected from the cold.<a href="#4" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 4
These buildings cost the Government upwards of $75,000. Jefferson says the barracks were unfinished for want of laborers, and the spell of weather, the worst ever known within the memory of man.">[4] But they went diligently to work to construct better dwellings, and in a short time tile place assumed the appearance of a neat little town. In the rear of each house they had trim gardens and enclosed places for poultry. They wanted nothing but money."<a href="#5" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 5
This privation did not extend to the officers, as Jefferson tells of one who "to my knowledge, has paid to one person, $3,670, for articles to fix himself commodiously." He also says "I expect our circulating money is, by the presence of these troops at the rate of $30,000 a week, at the least." Baron de Riedesel spent over $500-Jefferson says $l,000 in seed for the Barracks.">[5]
Of her life at Colle she writes:
"We had turkeys weighing fifty pounds, and perfectly tame, but on the approach of spring they flew off to hatch their eggs, which they had laid in the woods. We had given them up for lost, when suddenly they returned with a numerous brood.-We had a large house built for us, which cost us a hundred guineas and was quite elegant.-The negroes sold us their little stock of poultry and vegetables. Every week we seilt an ox and two swine to the slaughter house. Thus with respect to provisions we had nothing to wish for, but we suffered much by the heat during the summer; we lived in contumal apprehension of rattlesnakes, and our fruit trees were destroyed by three kinds of insects.
"Sometimes also we had tremendous thunderstorms. The woods were, besides, often wasted by the fires of negroes and herdsmen; indeed, nobody here seems to care much for trees- Whole forests are sometimes burnt down to redeem land for the purposes of agriculture.-The heat was so great, even during the night, that we were obliged to sleep with open windows."
According to tradition, at the time of her life in Albemarle Madame de Riedesel had much embonpoint, and a handsome face. She rendered herself an object of wonder to the long-skirted and beplumed equestriennes of the neighborhood by riding in boots and astride, in what then was delicately called "the European fashion." A sun-stroke which Baron de Riedesel suffered, in consequence of working in his garden without a hat while the thermometer was at 103 degrees, resulted in their being sent to a health resort in Maryland. From there they were ordered north, spending several years as prisoners in America and Canada. Two daughters, born during this period, were named America and Canada, in honor of their places of birth.
A diary kept by Capt. Anburey, of the British forces, gives in spirited fashion his opinion of the region.
"Never was a district so destitute of every comfort, provisions were not to be purchased for ten days; the officers subsisted upon salt pork, and Indian corn made into cakes; not a drop of any kind of spirit: many officers, to com fort themselves put red pepper into water, to drink by way of cordial.
"The fences and enclosures in this province are different from those to the northward; here they are composed of what is termed fence rails.-From a mode of constructing these enclosures in a zig zag form, the New-Englanders have a saying, when a man is in liquor, he is making Virginia fences.
"The country is so much covered with woods, that you travel a long time without seeing an habitation. You can hardly conceive the difficulty in finding the proper roads; when one is bad, they make another in a different direction; added to which the planters, sans cerenzonie, turn a road to suit their own convenience, and render it more commodious to their plantation. If perchance you meet an inhabitant and enquire your way, his directions are. if possible, more perplexing than the roads themselves.
"Having given a pretty good sketch of these back settlers, I am going to Richmond to purchase some liquor and necessaries to render our situation a little comfortable in this dreary region of woods and wretchedness."
However, the private troops (and in especial the Hessians, who as mercenaries had no consoling prospect of peace,) liked the district so well that desertions were a constant anxiety to their officers. At one time nearly four hundred eluded the vigilance of the guards, and escaped. Many of these are said to have reached the fastuesses of the Ragged Mountains, where by intermarriage they became an integral part of our mountain population.
In the fall of 1780, when the British occupied Portsmouth, great uneasiness was observed among the British prisoners, and it was feared that they miglit rise upon the guards and attempt to join their countrymen. Jefferson wrote from Richmond:
"Some deserters were taken yesterday, said to he of the British Convention Troops, who had found means to get to the enemy at Portsmouth, and were seventy or eighty miles on their way back to the Barracks, when they were taken."
For these reasons, the camp was broken up in November of that year. The British officers had purchased "some of the finest horses within the State," which they took with them. The men were niarclled, by way of Woods' Gap and the Valley, to Winchester and Maryland. Death, desertion and exchange had reduced their numbers to about twenty-one hundred. Afterwards they were taken north for shipment, but the ranks gradually melted away, until there were none left to embark.
Among the paroled officers quartered in the neighborhood of the prisoners was a young Englishman who was billeted at The Farm. He was in declining health, and had become a great favorite with the townspeople. It was his habit to take a daily walk on the hills above the Rivanna, and upon returning from one of these he remarked that he had seen a magnificent tree and a view of surpassing beauty. "I have stuck in the ground a stick there, and if I should die while here that is the place where I should like to be buried." A few weeks later he died, and was buried in his chosen spot. Around this grave the Lewis burial ground, now on the western edge of Riverview Cemetery, was made, and more than a century later the site was selected as a cemetery by the City, doubtless for the same reasons that had attracted the young stranger. Though the soldier's tree has now fallen, and no stone marks the spot, our older citizens can remember when a walk to the "British Soldier's grave" was popular with the young people of the village.
Some six months after the removal of the Convention troops, the people of Albemarle were again brought into contact with the enemy-though in a painfully different fashion. Owing to the invasion of Virginia by the British under Cornwallis, it was considered unsafe to continue the government at Richmond, and on May 24, 1781, the Legislature was adjourned to meet again in Charlottesville. It was in pursuit of this distinguislied prey that Cornwallis despatched his "hunting leopard," Tarleton, with a troop of 180 cavalry, and 70 mounted infantry under Captain Champagne. This dreaded legion bore a name for treachery in the field, bloody inhumanity in action, and wild excesses in the hour of victory, it being Tarleton's policy to reward valor in the field by a shocking license toward the populace. British historians, statesmen and officers protested with generous horror against this conduct, which, however, continued to he tolerated by his superior officer.
Leaving the British encampment on the North Anna, near Hanover Courthouse, on June 3rd, 1781, Tarleton advanced swiftly towards Charlottesville, reaching Louisa Courthouse at eleven P. M. of the same day. Here he halted for only three hours, and pushed on again through the night. His route lay near Castle Hill and Belvoir; the residences of Dr. Thomas Walker and of Mr. John Walker, his son. These gentlemen were entertaining members of the Legislature; the houses were surprised and surrounded in the early morning of the 4th, and host and guests were alike taken prisoner. We are told that the commander of the troops at Belvoir? was a Captain Francis Kinloch, and among his prisoners was his American cousin of the same name. A halt of a few hours was made at Casile Hill<a href="#6" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 6
The spot near Castle Hill where the British troops rested is still known as "Tarleton's Wood"">[6] for breakfast, and to this slight detention the Legislature is said to have owed its escape.
As it chanced, John Jouett, captain in the militia and a citizen of Charlottesville, was in the Cuckoo tavern in Louisa when the legion swept by on the main road. Suspecting their destination, he quickly mounted his fine horse, and riding furiously by a disused and shorter route, he covered the forty-odd miles in time to give warning several hours before the arrival of the enemy. This was the famous "Jack Jouett's ride," which in dash, courage, and political importance surpassed that of New England's Paul Revere.
Randall says that Jouett stopped at Monticello "a little after sunrise," and gave information to the Governor of Tarleton's approach. The speakers of the two Houses and several other members were guests there. They "breakfasted at leisure," and the members then went in to Charlottesville, where the House hastily adjourned to re-convene in Staunton.
In the mean time, Tarleton and his legion pushed on with their accustomed speed.<a href="#7" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 7
Gen. Green had urged the concealment of horses against the British advance. His warning however was in vain, and the finest stables in Virginia had mounted this cavalry. Irving refers to their "race horses."">[7] Before reaching the Rivanna, they met and destroyed twelve wagon-loads of clothing. destined for the American army in North Carolina. On reaching the river, a company was despatched, under a Capt. McLeod,<a href="#8" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 8
The old negro at Afonticcijo who points out the hoof-print of Tarleton's horse in the hall there, is only exercising his histrionic instinct. During the raid Tarleton did not ascend the mountain.">[8] to surprise Monticello by way of the Secretary's Ford, while the remainder dashed through the river and up the hill by the road which then led from near the present Woolen Mills, along the general course of the C. & 0. tracks. They expected to find the Legislature in morning session. The retiring members had barely left town,-they were pursued and seven of them were captured.<a href="#9" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 9
There is possibly some confusion here between the prisoners taken at Castle Hill and Belvoir, and those on the Staunton road.">[9]
Among those who fled was Gen. Stevens, who had been compelled to retire from the army by a wound, and who had then become a member of the House of Delegates.
"Attired as usual in the plain dress of a Virginia farmer, and mounted by chance on a shabby horse, he was soon overtaken by the dragoons. But a little way ahead was more attractive game-a horse-man in a scarlet coat and military hat and plume, and probably therefore an officer of rank. The soldiers spurred on without noticing Stevens, who soon turned aside and escaped. The showy gentleman was no officer, but the same Mr. Jouett, who had an eccentric habit of wearing such habiliments. After he had coquetted with his pursuers long enough, lie gave his fleet horse the spur, and was speedily out of sight."<a href="#10" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 10
Randall's Life of Jefferson.">[10]
At Monticello, all had been hastily arranged for flight. The family had collected their possessions, and Jefferson had secured his most important papers. After nearly two hours of this activity, a Mr. Hudson rode up and stated that the British were ascending the Mountain. At once Jefferson sent off his wife and children by carriage, under the care of a young gentleman, and escorted by servants. Their destination was Enniseorthy, fourteen miles distant, the seat of Col. Coles in the Green Mountain neighborhood. Jefferson then took his telescope and proceeded by a cross path to a point between Mnticello and Carter's Mountain.
Hearing no tramp of approaching cavalry, he walked a short distance up Carter's Mountain to a rock from which he could obtain a good view of Charlottesville. Observing nothing unusual in the town, he supposed the alarm premature, and concluded to return to his house to complete the care of his papers. After walking a few rods, he discovered that his light ivalking sword had slipped from its sheath. Returning for this, another glance showed him the streets of the village swarming with dragoons. (The uniform of the legion being white, faced with green, and the infantry's being red, they would have been easily distinguishable at that distance.) His horse had been brought to the gap between the mountains; he mounted and rode swiftly off to overtake his family, learning later that Captain McLeod was already at that time in possession of Monticello.
It is said that two trusted slaves were engaged in secreting plate and other valuables under the wooden floor of the portico, at the instant of McLeod's arrival. A glimpse of white through the trees gave Uninjured warning, and the one on the outside hastily closed the opening, leaving his comrade imprisoned below, where with rare fidelity he remained without food or light for eighteen hours. The reason for Tarleton's leniency at Monticello has never been known, but it is a fact that he gave "strict orders that nothing should be injured," and that these orders were scrupulously observed by the troops. "He behaved very genteelly with me," was Jefferson's comment, he having expected that as Governor of the State his home would be the target for especial malice.
In Charlottesville, also, Tarleton's record was one of surprising restraint. Returning from their futile pursuit of the lawmakers, his men destroyed stores in the town amounting to 1000 new muskets, 400 barrels of powder, several hogsheads of tobacco and a quantity of soldier's clothing. A more serious loss was the destruction of the County records, which were preserved in the Courthouse and covered an interesting period of local history.
Of Tarleton's stay at The Farm, one characteristic anecdote has been preserved. It was his custom, when on an expedition, to share the hardships of his men, sleeping always on the floor and wrapt in his horseman's cloak, while a saddled horse stood at the door. On the morning of the 5th, he rose early, and clad only in shirt, pantaloons and boots, had begun to shave, when the report of a shot was heard. It came from the direction of Monticello, and was so re-echoed as to sound like an irregular fire from several muskets. Before the sound had half died away, Tarleton, bareheaded, his face well lathered, and with drawn sabre, was spurring fiercely in the direction of the reports, and shouting to his dragoons to mount and follow. "A more soldierly man in action," concludes Randall, "never drew a blade in battle."
Upon the 5th, Tarleton, with his prisoners, withdrew from the County, his movements being hastened by heavy rains which threatened to flood the Rivanna, and by information of the gathering of the local militia.<a href="#11" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 11
Woods says there were 200 militia in Charlottesville under Capt. John Martin, son-in-law of old David Lewis. These withdrew before Tarleton, but were doubtless among the "mountain militia" which later re-inforced Lafayette before Scottsville.">[11] He joined Cornwallis at Elk Hill, a plantation which was the property of Jefferson at Point of Fork, now known as Columbia. Here the ravage was unchecked-barns and fences were all burned, the growing crops were destroyed in the fields, horses and cattle were carried off, and those too young for use were slaughtered, even the young blooded colts having their throats cut. The place was left a wilderness, but the injury which Jefferson most deeply felt was the fate of thirty slaves who were carried off by the troops. These poor victims were herded with others dying of smallpox and putrid fever. Being later deserted, for weeks afterwards they were creeping home to perish in the comfortable quarters which Jefferson had set aside for them. Five of the negroes who had not been carried off, also contracted the disease and died.
Capt. John Jouett, Jr., the hero of the Raid, was a son of the proprietor of the old Swan tavern. The site of this building is now occupied by the Red Land club of Charlottesville, and bears a com memorative tablet placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The old landlord is believed to be buried somewhere on these premises, but the son emigrated early to Kentucky, where he became a successful politician and the intimate friend of President Andrew Jackson. (His son, Matthew Harris Jouett, the celebrated painter, was a Captain in the War of 1812, and the father of Admiral James Jouett. "Jack Jouett's" twelfth child was named Thomas Jefferson, perhaps in memory of the father's dramatic ride.) Jouett's service to the State of Virginia was suitably recognized by the General Assembly, which in 1786 presented him with an elegant sword.<a href="#12" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 12
Article Daily Progress, Feb. 16th, 1924.">[12] It is an odd fact, however, that popular fancy, at the time, did not seem taken by his exploit. We do not find little Jouetts among the next generation-Tarleton was already an Albemarle name, so that its use as a Christian name has no significance.
For safety, a large quantity of valuable stores had been collected by the State government at Albemarle Old Courthouse, near Scott's Ferry (the present Scottsville). In order to destroy these, Cornwallis again despatched Tarleton to invade Albemarle. To Lafayette belongs the honor of its protection,. and it is interesting to picture these youthful officers engaged in a struggle in which some personal rivalry may haye added to their professional zeal. There was but four years' difference in their ages, Lafayette having been only nineteen when in 1777 he landed on our shores and was made a Major-general. His idealistic and enthusiastic type of mind suited well with his years, and perhaps helped to fasten upon him the nick-name of "The Boy," by which he was generally known in the British army. Tarleton, on the other hand, with his boundless ambition, callous temper and cynical heart. was the complete man of the world, and it is only through the calendar that we perceive his youth. (We are told that in appearance Banastre Tarleton was below middle size, strong, stout and heavily built, and that at will he could assume the elegance of manner to which he was born.)
Hastening to the rescue, Lafayette moved cautiously from Culpeper through Orange and. the upper part of Louisa, to Boswell's Tavern, near the Albemarle line. Tarleton, however, swiftly obtained a position of such strength that it seemed for Lafayette a choice between a hopeless battle and the aban donment of the stores. But The Boy was equal to the crisis.
"There was a rough road, long disused, leading from a few miles below Boswell's to a point on Mechunk Creek; forthwith Lafayette set to work his pioneers and axmen; the road was opened, the army passed along it, and the next morning, to the astonishment of Tarleton, his adversary was encamped in an impregnable position on the Creek, and just between the British army and the stores at Albemarle Courthouse! The enemy was once more baffled, changed his front, and marched slowly towards the eastern coast.
"An incident during the opening of 'The Marquis's Road,' happily illustrated the commingled geittlenian and soldier of Lafayette's character. Full of zeal, he was dashing at a swift gallop along the line, when his horse struck a private at work, and felled him to the earth. The Marquis instantly dismounted. 'Soldier, are you hurt?' he said. The man, who had risen uninjured, replied that he was not. 'I ask your pardon,' said Lafayette, and waving his hand with a smile, he was soon out of sight."<a href="#13" class="toolTip" title="Footnote: 13
Howison's History of Virginia. There is a well-founded tradition that Gen. Sumter of South Carolina, hero of the Revolution, was born in Albemarle, in a humble home in the Priddy's Creek section.">[13]
Authorities:
Gilmer Genealogy; Woods' History of Albemarle; Jefferson's Correspondence; Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution; Madame de Riedesel, Letters and Memoirs: Anburey's Letters of a British Officer; Randall's Life of Jefferson; Howe's History of Va.; Washington Irving's George Washington; Howison's History of Va.