A body of sixteen hundred men under Benedict Arnold had ravaged the country of the James and burned Richmond in January of this same year.

In the hopes of capturing Arnold, Lafayette had been sent to Virginia with a nucleus of twelve hundred troops, and on the evening of the 8th of March the French squadron at Newport sailed, in concerted movement, to control the waters of the bay.

Admiral Arbuthnot, commanding the English fleet lying in Gardiner's Bay,[145] learned the departure by his lookouts, and started in pursuit on the morning of the 10th, thirty-six hours later.

Favored either by diligence or luck, he made such good time that when the two fleets came in sight of each other, a little outside of the capes of the Chesapeake, the English were leading[146] (Plate XII., A, A).

They at once went about to meet their enemy, who, on his part, formed a line-of-battle.