8276. TARLETON (Colonel Bannastre ), Raid on Monticello.—
Colonel Tarleton,
with his regiment of horse, was detached
by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson
(whom they thought still in office) [as Governor]
and the Legislature now sitting in Charlottesville.
The Speakers of the two houses, and
some other members of the Legislature, were
lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello. Tarleton,
early in the morning, when within ten
miles of that place, detached a company of
horse to secure him and his guests, and proceeded
himself rapidly with his main body to
Charlottesville, where he hoped to find the
Legislature unapprized of his movement. Notice
of it, however, had been brought, both to
Monticello and Charlottesville, about sunrise.
The Speakers, with their colleagues returned to
Charlottesville, and with the other members of
the Legislature, had barely time to get out of
his way. Mr. Jefferson sent off his family to
secure them from danger, and was himself still
at Monticello making arrangements for his own
departure, when a Lieutenant Hudson arrived
there at half speed, and informed him that the
enemy were then ascending the hill at Monticello.
He departed immediately, and knowing
that he would be pursued if he took the high
road, he plunged into the woods of the adjoining
mountain, where, being at once safe, he proceeded
to overtake his family. This is the famous
adventure of Carter's Mountain, which
has been so often resounded through the
slanderous chronicles of federalism. But they
have taken care never to detail the facts, lest
these should show that this favorite charge
amounted to nothing more than that he did not
remain in his house, and there singly fight a
whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be
taken prisoner. Having accompanied his family
one day's journey, he returned to Monticello.
Tarleton had retired after eighteen
hours' stay in Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson
then rejoined his family, and proceeded with
them to an estate he had in Bedford, about
eighty miles southwest, where, riding on his
farm sometime after, he was thrown from his
horse, and disabled from riding on horseback
for a considerable time. But Mr. Turner finds
it more convenient to give him this fall in his
retreat from Tarleton, which had happened
some weeks before, as a proof that he withdrew
from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which
Don Quixote would not have practiced.—
Invasion of Va. Memorandum. Washington ed. ix, 223.
(M.
1781)
