1. Neither of the two letters has been found. Judging from Jameson’s absences from the meetings of the Virginia Council of State, he was at his home in Yorktown at least most of the time between 13 February and 3 March (Journals of the Council of State description begins H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond, 1931——). description ends , II, 292–300). See Jameson to JM, 10 March 1781.

2. That is, until the regular session of the General Assembly. The issuance of £10,000,000 in paper money had been authorized by the statute “for procuring a supply of money for the exigencies of the war,” enacted in December 1780 (Journal of the House of Delegates description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of Virginia, March 1781 Session in Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, XVII, No. 1 (January 1928). description ends , October 1780, pp. 46, 69; Journals of the Council of State description begins H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond, 1931——). description ends , II, 280–81; Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , X, 347–50).

3. On 23 January 1781 the Council of State, “taking into consideration the low State of the Treasury at this time, and the impossibility of carrying on the business of Government without money,” advised Governor Jefferson to call the legislature in special session on 1 March (Journals of the Council of State description begins H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond, 1931——). description ends , II, 278; Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (16 vols. to date; Princeton, N.J., 1950——). description ends , IV, 432–34). On 29 December 1780 the General Assembly had adopted a lengthy statute designed to recruit three thousand men for the continental line within fifty days (Journal of the House of Delegates description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of Virginia, March 1781 Session in Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, XVII, No. 1 (January 1928). description ends , October 1780, pp. 72, 74; Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , X, 326–37). Less than a week later the main provisions of this law became unrealistic, owing to the invasion of Virginia by the British force under Brigadier General Benedict Arnold.

4. Journals of the Council of State description begins H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond, 1931——). description ends , II, 297.

5. On 23 December 1780 the General Assembly chose Benjamin Harrison, speaker of the House of Delegates, to be a special envoy to Congress, General Washington, and Anne César, Chevalier de La Luzerne, the French minister, for the purpose of soliciting military and financial aid for Virginia. Harrison reached Philadelphia on 11 February and resumed his seat in the House of Delegates about a month later. Immediately upon convening in special session on 2 March 1781, the House of Delegates listened to Harrison’s letter resigning the speakership and then unanimously elected Richard Henry Lee to that office (Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (2 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , II, 269, 311; Journal of the House of Delegates, March 1781 description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used, unless otherwise noted, is the one in which the journals for 1777–1781 are brought together in one volume, with each journal published in Richmond in 1827 or 1828, and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , pp. 6, 22).

6. Taking advantage of the extensive damage caused by a storm to the British blockading fleet based in Gardiner’s Bay, Long Island, Captain Arnaud Le Gardeur de Tilly sailed from Newport to Chesapeake Bay with four French warships in the hope of capturing or destroying the enemy’s vessels there. After forcing the surrender of two privateers and a military supply ship in or near the Bay, he turned them over to General Thomas Nelson, Jr., at Yorktown. The fourteen-gun brig “Swift” was not among his spoils. On the return voyage to Newport, Tilly’s three largest ships captured the forty-four-gun frigate “Romulus,” on her way with clothing and £10,000 sterling to Arnold’s command, and with smallpox rife among her crew. Tilly arrived back in Narragansett Bay on 24 February with the “Romulus” and five hundred prisoners. The cutter “Guêpe,” which had become separated from the rest of Tilly’s little squadron, brought a privateer as a prize to Philadelphia (Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (2 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , II, 316; Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Sources, 1745–1799 (39 vols.; Washington, 1931–44). description ends , XVIII, 226, 393; Providence Gazette; and Country Journal, 3 March 1781; Pennsylvania Packet [Philadelphia], 6 and 13 March 1781; Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , IV, 271; Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (16 vols. to date; Princeton, N.J., 1950——). description ends , IV, 659).

7. Pursued by nearly three thousand British troops under Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis, the poorly equipped American force of about two thousand men, commanded by Major General Nathanael Greene, retreated during the first two weeks of February from northwestern South Carolina to Virginia, crossing the Dan River at Irwin’s Ferry. Unable to follow because of a lack of boats, and largely dependent for supplies upon a precarious line of communication stretching back over two hundred miles to Winnsboro, S.C., Cornwallis gave up his pursuit and moved southward. On 20 February Greene began to follow by sending a contingent of his small army back across the Dan River. At the time this letter was written, and until the Battle of Guilford Court House twelve days later, each army was apparently seeking to harass the other as much as possible without being drawn into a major battle (Benjamin Franklin Stevens, ed., The Campaign in Virginia, 1781: An exact Reprint of Six rare Pamphlets on the Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy … [2 vols.; London, 1888], I, 355–62; George Washington Greene, The Life of Nathanael Greene [3 vols.; New York, 1871], III, 155–88; Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution, ed. by John Richard Alden [2 vols.; New York, 1952], II, 766–80).

8. As directed by Congress on 6 February, the first drawing of the winning tickets in the lottery occurred on 2 April 1781 but was not completed for many months thereafter (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XIX, 123; XXI, 1200; Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (2 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , II, 290, n. 9).