Battle of Spencer's Ordinary

Detail from a 1781 French map prepared for Lafayette depicting his and Cornwallis's movements. The clash at Spencer's is marked by "le 26 Juin".

Date	26 June 1781
Location	James City County, near Williamsburg, Virginia
Result	Inconclusive

Belligerents

United States

Great Britain

Hesse-Kassel

Commanders and leaders

Richard Butler

John Graves Simcoe

Strength

570

400

Casualties and losses

9 killed
14 wounded
32 captured

11 killed
25 wounded

Great Britain

The Battle of Spencer's Ordinary was an inconclusive skirmish that took place on 26 June 1781, late in the American Revolutionary War. British forces under Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe and American forces under Colonel Richard Butler, light detachments from the armies of General Lord Cornwallis and the Marquis de Lafayette respectively, clashed near a tavern (the "") at a road intersection not far from Williamsburg, Virginia.

Lafayette had been shadowing Cornwallis as he moved his army toward Williamsburg from central Virginia. Aware that Simcoe had become separated from Cornwallis, he sent Butler out in an attempt to cut Simcoe off. Both sides, concerned that the other might be reinforced by its main army, eventually broke off the battle.

In May 1781, Lord Charles Cornwallis arrived in Petersburg, Virginia after a lengthy campaign through North and South Carolina. In addition to his 1,400 troops, he assumed command of another 3,600 troops that had been under the command of the turncoat Benedict Arnold, and was soon thereafter further reinforced by about 2,000 more troops sent from New York. These forces were opposed by a much smaller Continental Army force led by the Marquis de Lafayette, then located at Richmond. Following orders originally given to Arnold's predecessor in command, William Phillips (who died a week before Cornwallis' arrival), Cornwallis worked to eliminate Virginia's ability to support the revolutionary cause, and gave chase to Lafayette's army, which numbered barely 3,000 and included a large number of inexperienced militia.

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