When Cornwallis advanced to attack La Fayette at Richmond, La Fayette was not there but had slipped away and was able to use rivers and mountains for his defense.
Cornwallis had more than one string to his bow.

The legislature of Virginia was sitting at Charlottesville, lying in the interior nearly a hundred miles northwest from Richmond, and Cornwallis conceived the daring plan of raiding Charlottesville, capturing the Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and, at one stroke, shattering the civil administration.

Tarleton was the man for such an enterprise of hard riding and bold fighting and he nearly succeeded.

Jefferson indeed escaped by rapid flight but Tarleton took the town, burned the public records, and captured ammunition and arms.

But he really effected little.