Spencer's Tavern, Virginia

SPENCER'S TAVERN, VIRGINIA. 26 June 1781. (virginia military operations.) When reinforcements joined Lafayette, Cornwallis retreated slowly through Richmond, arriving at Williamsburg on 25 June, where he would remain until 4 July. Lafayette followed at a respectable distance, remaining wary of a trap, and on 26 June was at Tyree's Plantation, some 20 miles from Williamsburg. Meanwhile, Simcoe had separated from the main British column on 23 June with his Queen's Rangers, one light three-pounder, and some Hessian jägers to destroy rebel stores on the Chickahominy River. Lafayette countered by detaching Colonel Richard Butler with his Pennsylvania Regiment, Majors Call and Willis with a body of Virginia riflemen, and Major William McPherson with 120 mounted troops to intercept Simcoe on his return. After an all-night march, they surprised Simcoe seven miles northwest of Williamsburg at Spencer's Tavern (or Ordinary). At sunrise McPherson had mounted 50 light infantrymen double with 50 of his dragoons to speed up the pursuit, and this detachment closed in for a brief hand-to-hand action while the main bodies came forward. Simcoe's Rangers drove McPherson back, but Call and Willis came up and were hotly engaged with Simcoe's infantry when his dragoons hit their flank and pushed them back on Butler's Pennsylvania Continentals. Simcoe briefly had the advantage in the confused fighting that followed, but fearing that Lafayette's entire army might be at hand, he took the first opportunity to break off the action and fall back to Williamsburg. Since Cornwallis was moving forward with a strong reinforcement, Butler was equally anxious to see this skirmish end.

The Americans lost nine men killed, 14 wounded, and 13 missing. Cornwallis reported 33 casualties; this figure is accepted by historians, although Lafayette thought the enemy lost 60 men killed and 100 wounded. A more reasonable calculation put Simcoe's losses at 11 dead and 26 wounded). Simcoe describes the action in detail and claims it was a sizable engagement won by his generalship (Simcoe, Operations of Queen's Rangers, 236; Johnston, Yorktown, 56 n.), yet he left the field and his wounded in the hands of the enemy. In point of fact it tended to bolster American morale and provided Cornwallis with a reason to decline Clinton's request to transfer men back to New York.

                        revised by Robert K. Wright Jr.