Raid of Richmond

The Richmond Campaign

British map of the attack on Richmond, January 5th 1781

Date	January 1- January 19, 1781
Location	present-day Richmond, Virginia, and the surrounding area.
Result	British Victory, and severe damage to Richmond.

Belligerents

United States

Great Britain

Commanders and leaders

Strength

Around 200 Virginia Militiamen

1,600 troops of the Loyalist American Legion

Casualties and losses

Unknown, presumably heavy.

Unknown, possibly medium.

Thomas Jefferson

Sir Henry Clinton

The Richmond Campaign was a group of British military actions against the capital of Virginia, Richmond, and the surrounding area, during the American Revolutionary War. Led by American turncoat Benedict Arnold, the Richmond Campaign is considered one of his greatest successes while serving under the British Army, and one of the most notorious actions that Arnold ever performed.

Clinton hoped that sending an American-born commander to Richmond would convince more Loyalists in the area to join the British cause, which would subsequently give the British Army the upper hand in the Southern Theatre of the war.

Prior to the beginning of the raid, Thomas Jefferson, the then-Governor of Virginia, had moved the capital of Virginia from Williamsburg to Richmond, because of its strategically central, defensible location. In the event of an attack, Jefferson moved all of the town's military supplies to a foundry five miles outside of Richmond. Little did Jefferson know how big of an attack would soon follow.

From the 1st to the 3rd of January, Arnold's fleet sailed up the James River, laying waste to plantations and settlements along the way. On the 4th of January, the British reached their destination, Westover Plantation, where they would ready themselves for the assault against Richmond. In the afternoon, Arnold and his men disembarked on foot towards Richmond.

The following day, Arnold's force of Loyalist "green-coats", consisting of infantry, dragoons, and artillery, arrived at Richmond, which was defended by about 200 militiamen. Surprisingly enough, most Virginia militiamen had not bothered to defend their capital because they had already served their time in battle, and thought that their duty was up. Upon seeing the group of Virginia militiamen, Colonel John Graves Simcoe, of the Queen's Rangers, ordered a detachment of soldiers to confront them. The militiamen fired a weak musket volley at the advancing British, and then broke and ran into the woods, with the Loyalist detachment chasing after them. Jefferson, seeing his militiamen dispersed, and no other plausible way to defend Richmond, quickly ordered the mass-evacuation of most military supplies from the city, and promptly fled in his carriage, along with the rest of Virginia's government officials and his family.

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Wikipedia