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spirit of opposition was as universal, as could have been wished for. There was no restraint on the numbers that embodied, but the want of arms.
The British at Portsmouth, lie close in their lines. The French squadron keep them in by water, and since their arrival, as they put it out of the power of the enemy to cut off our retreat by sending up Nansemond river, our force has been moved down close to their lines.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
TH: JEFFERSON.
LETTER XLVI. TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.
Richmond, March 8, 1781.
SIR,
I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from General Greene, dated High-rock ford, February 29th, (probably March the 1st,) who informs me, that on the night of the 24th, Colonel M Call surprised a subaltern s guard at Hart s mill, killed eight, and wounded and took nine prisoners, and that on the 25th, General Pickens and Lieutenant Colonel Lee routed a body of near three hundred tories, on the Haw river, who were in arms to join the British army, killed upwards of one hundred, and wounded most of the rest ; which had a very happy effect on the disaffected in that country.
By a letter from Major Magill, an officer of this State, whom I had sent to General Greene s head quarters, for the purpose of giving us regular intelligence, dated Guilford County March 2nd, 1 am informed that Lord Cornwallis, on his retreat, erected the British standard at Hillsborough, that numbers of disaffected, un der the command of Colonel Piles, were resorting to it, when they were intercepted by General Pickens and Lieutenant Colonel Lee, as mentioned by General Greene, and that their commanding offi cer was among the slain : that Lord Cornwallis, after destroying every thing he could, moved down the Haw river from Hillsbo rough : that General Greene was within six miles of him : that our superiority in the goodness, though not in the number of our cavalry, prevented the enemy from moving with rapidity, or fo raging. Having been particular in desiring Major Magill to inform
