Charles City Court House, Virginia

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Charles City Court House, Virginia

CHARLES CITY COURT HOUSE, VIRGINIA. 8 January 1781. From Westover, where he had withdrawn after his raid on Richmond from 5-7 January, Benedict Arnold sent John Simcoe with forty mounted men on a reconnaissance toward Long Bridge on the Chickahominy. Simcoe learned from prisoners that General Thomas Nelson was near Charles City Court House with a body of militia. An escaped slave guided the Rangers by a back route to the courthouse, where they surprised the guards in the dark and scattered some 150 militia. Two Americans were killed and a number captured; the rest fled to Nelson's camp a few miles away. Simcoe's losses, three wounded, were insignificant. Simcoe returned to Westover before dawn with his prisoners and a dozen captured horses.

SEE ALSO Arnold, Benedict; Nelson, Thomas; Simcoe, John Graves; Virginia, Military Operations in.

                              revised by Robert K. Wright Jr.

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