To James Madison from David Jameson, 10 March 1781
From David Jameson
RC (LC: Rives Collection of Madison Papers). Docketed by JM, “March 10 1781.”
Richmond March 10. 1781
Dr Sir
In my letter by last post I mentioned to you that I had been absent sometime looking into my affairs in the lower Country, as an apology for not writing.1 I forgot then to acquaint you that the Auditors have recd. the box of Papers, but have not opened it.2 We have recd. no intelligence from Gen. Greenes Camp since the Govrs. letter to the President of Congress by the Express.3 I please myself with the hope that Gen Greene will be enabled to give a good accot. of Ld Cornwallis. I have seen Mr Maury.4 Col Harrison is not yet returned.5 The Assembly propose emitting ten Million wch. Sum I am sorry to say I fear will not serve till May.6 Some G[entle]men here insinuate that Dr Franklin is alone blameable for the delay in the clothing &ca. so long expected from France. We are anxious to know the true reason7 Cap Maxwell who had been sent down the Bay with dispatches for the French Commodore was chased by two sloops & with difficulty got into Back River. while he contd. there (on the [?]th), he saw the Swift & two Sloops go out from Hampton Road and so station themselves in the Bay as to give Signals from the Capes up. Maxwell waited in hope of a favourable opporty of going out in quest of the French Ships. Neither he or any other person then knew they were gone back to Rhode Island.8 most heartily do I wish they were returned. I shall be quite uneasy till I hear they are again in our Bay. were they now in, I should not doubt of Arnolds Banditti, Ships and all, falling into theirs & our hands. If they do not appear soon I fear it will be difficult to keep our Militia in the Field. the Militia law is very defective and I am sorry to say too many avail themselves of its defects. while Maxwel lay with his Boat in Back River the British made the expedition mentd. in the Gazette9 A Midshipman & 7 sailors deserted from the Charon report that the Men on board the Fleet are at half allowance of provisions—that a quarrel subsisted between Cap Simonds & Arnold about the division of the plunder—that the Charon lay at the entrance of Eliz[abeth] River, that they had Vessels ready to sink in the Chanel that they had fire ships & floating batteries—that there were great dissentions among the land officers, the regulars held with Dundas & Simcoe, the provincials adhered to Arnold, that desertion prevailed, that a Fever raged among the Negroes wch. swept off great numbers of them.10
It is reported that letters have been intercepted between Arnold & Gen Gregory of N. Carolina who was stationed at the N. West landing—however if it is true (—I hope it is not—) I believe that pass will be kept secure, as a body of Men had been ordered there to reinforce Gregory, fearing Arnold might attempt to escape that way11 Adieu
D. Jameson
1. See Jameson to JM, 3 March 1781.
2. The reference here is to the box purchased for $30.00 in Philadelphia by JM “to enclose the [Account] Books of the Delegates sent to Virga.” (, II, 252).
3. Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Huntington, 3 March 1781 (, V, 91–92). Also see the Reverend James Madison to JM, 9 March 1781, n. 5.
4. Probably the James Maury who was part owner of the brig “Alert.” At this time, by authorization of Governor Jefferson in Council, David Ross, the commercial agent for the Commonwealth of Virginia, was seeking to charter ships to sail under flags of truce to Charleston, S.C., with tobacco to be sold there for the relief of American prisoners of war held by the British in that state. Ross chartered the “Alert” on 8 April (, V, 559 n., 590). How to afford relief to the prisoners in Charleston and New York City had been, and would continue to be, a frequent subject of discussion in Congress and with the British military authorities. See, for example, , XVIII, 1108; XIX, 27–28, 96–97; XX, 468; , II, 277–78.
5. Benjamin Harrison (Jameson to JM, 3 March 1781, n. 5).
6. See Jameson to JM, 3 March 1781, nn. 2 and 3; and the Reverend James Madison to JM, 9 March 1781, n. 9. In the regular May session “An act to empower the treasurer to emit a further sum of money” authorized a maximum of £20,000,000 (, X, 399–400, 430–31).
7. Arthur Lee had informed Congress that Benjamin Franklin was censurable for preventing the frigate “Alliance” from bringing much-needed clothing and other supplies from France (, XIX, 13–14). Following John Paul Jones’s arrival in Philadelphia in February 1781, Congress renewed its two earlier directives to the Board of Admiralty to examine the evidence bearing upon the subject at issue. In its report of 28 March, the Board declared that the reason why “the cloathing and military stores” had not come “in season, hath not been owing in any measure to a want of the closest attention to that business, either in the Minister Plenipotentiary of these States, or to Captain Jones, who have on the contrary made every application and used every effort, to accomplish that purpose, but that it was owing to Captain Landais’ taking the Command of the Alliance, contrary to the express orders of Doctor Franklin, and proceeding with her to America” (, XVII, 495; XVIII, 977; XIX, 175, 316–18; , II, 149 n.).
8. Jameson refers to the Tilly expedition late in February (Jameson to JM, 3 March 1781 and n. 6). On 16 February the Governor in Council directed Captain James Maxwell (1735–1795) of Norfolk, Va., commissioner of the Virginia navy, to “prepare our armed Vessels for cooperating with the french naval force, just arrived in our bay, in an enterprize (should they attempt it) against the British enemy at Portsmouth; and to examine the different armed vessels in James river, & report such as in his Opinion may be serviceable in the enterprize” (Journals of the Council of State, II, 294; , IV, 630–31; V, 25, 132). Back River, an arm of Chesapeake Bay, formed part of the northern boundary of Elizabeth City County.
9. Virginia Gazette (Richmond, Dixon and Nicolson), 10 March 1781. See the Reverend James Madison to JM, 9 March 1781.
10. The similarity between these news items about the British and the information in a letter of 6 March to Governor Jefferson from Colonel James Innes at Williamsburg (, V, 73–74) permits little doubt that Jefferson had shown the letter to Jameson or to the Council of State. The “Charon,” equipped with forty-four guns and a crew of about 280 sailors, was under the command of Captain Thomas Symonds. She evidently was anchored near Norfolk and Portsmouth in the Elizabeth River. According to Innes, the quarrel between Symonds and Arnold was over tobacco and other goods captured by the British ships under Symonds before Arnold’s troops disembarked from them in Virginia early in January. The Queen’s Rangers, led by Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe (1752–1806), was perhaps the most formidable unit of the invading force. Jameson’s report of the enemy’s dissensions and other difficulties may have been accurate but, as perhaps might be expected, they go unmentioned in Arnold’s dispatches to Major General Sir Henry Clinton (Benjamin F. Stevens, ed., Campaign in Virginia, I, 322–26, 329, 339–40).
11. Isaac Gregory (ca. 1740–1800) of Camden County, who had risen to the rank of brigadier general in the North Carolina militia by 1781, commanded Virginia and North Carolina troops near Great Bridge, a few miles south of Norfolk. After his arrest on suspicion of engaging in a treasonable correspondence with Benedict Arnold, Gregory was fully exonerated by a court-martial and returned to his command. Decisive in leading to his acquittal was a letter written to an American officer by Lieutenant Colonel Simcoe, affirming on his honor as a soldier and a gentleman that Gregory’s alleged dispatches to Arnold had been forged within the British lines (Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, A Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers, from the End of the Year 1777, to the Conclusion of the Late American War [Exeter, England, 1787], p. 125, and letter in appendix, no pagination). From 1778 to 1796 Gregory served for ten terms in the state Senate and advocated the adoption of the federal Constitution in the state Convention of 1788 (Jesse Forbes Pugh, Three Hundred Years along the Pasquotank: A Biographical History of Camden County [Old Trap, S.C., 1957], pp. 92–97).