All the boasted fabric of royal government in the South had come down with a crash and the Tories who had supported it were having evil days.
While these events were happening farther south, Cornwallis himself, without waiting for word from Clinton in New York, had adopted his own policy and marched from Wilmington northward into Virginia.

Benedict Arnold was now in Virginia doing what mischief he could to his former friends.

In January he burned the little town of Richmond, destined in the years to come to be a great center in another civil war.

Some twenty miles south from Richmond lay in a strong position Petersburg, later also to be drenched with blood shed in civil strife.

Arnold was already at Petersburg when Cornwallis arrived on the 20th of May.