Background
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.
Lafayette successfully eluded engaging Cornwallis for about one month, who used his numerical advantage to detach forces for raids against economic, military, and political targets in central Virginia. Cornwallis then turned back to the east, marching for Williamsburg. Lafayette, whose force grew to number about 4,000 with the arrival of Continental Army reinforcements under General Anthony Wayne and additional experienced militiamen under William Campbell, followed Cornwallis. Buoyed by the increase in his troop strength, Lafayette also became more aggressive in his tactics, sending out detachments of his force to counteract those that Cornwallis sent on forage and raiding expeditions. These detachments were composed of select units taken from a variety of regiments. Among those that were commonly in the army's advance guard were a combined cavalry and infantry unit from Pennsylvania under Captain William McPherson, and companies of Virginia riflemen under Majors Richard Call and John Willis.
Lafayette, once he was joined by Wayne and Campbell, wanted to engage elements of Cornwallis' army without necessarily facing its full strength. As Cornwallis approached Williamsburg, Lafayette and Wayne received word that Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe and his Loyalist regiment of Queen's Rangers were returning from a raid to destroy boats and forage for supplies on the Chickahominy River. Simcoe's full force included, in addition to the Rangers, a few companies of Hessian jägers led by Captains Johann Ewald and Johann Althaus. On the night of the 25 June, Wayne sent most of the advance guard under Colonel Richard Butler, including McPherson, Call, and Willis, to intercept Simcoe's force. A forward party of about 50 dragoons and 50 light infantry under McPherson caught up with advance companies of Simcoe's force near Spencer's Ordinary, a tavern at a road intersection about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Williamsburg.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Spencer's Ordinary
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