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Hello all, Eric Rivenus with the most notorious

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Each week I interview an author or historian about a historical true crime, tragedy, or disaster.

Subject matter ranges from gun slingers to gilded age murder to gangsters to to pirates, to wild prison breaks.

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Cheers and have a safe tomorrow. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 282 Lafayette in Virginia.

Now we last left Virginia in episode 278

when British General Benedict Arnold sailed from New York to the Chesapeake

and then sailed up the James River for a raid on Richmond.

After Arnold's raid, he turned to his primary mission

which was to establish a defensible naval port at Portsmouth.

Arnold's efforts to build up the defenses there seem to drag on for several months.

Arnold seemed more interested in scouring the countryside to scatter any concentrations of militia and pillage the countryside for any prizes.

Arnold's January raid on Richmond had greatly raised Patriot concerns about being able to protect the state.

Theoretically, Governor Thomas Jefferson had over 50,000 Virginia militia to call up for the defense of the state.

In reality, almost none of the militia could turn out in time to stop the raid, and even given time after the raid, it seemed unlikely that Virginia could raise a credible force to confront the British Army at Portsmouth.

When Arnold struck, Continental General Baron von Steuben had been in Virginia

attempting to raise more soldiers to send to Nathaniel Green's army in North Carolina.

Stuyben had only been able to raise a few hundred soldiers in Virginia, which he had sent to Green.

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