January the 9th, eleven o'clock. The wind is south-east, but almost nothing. The enemy remain in their last encampment, except embarking their horse.
January the 10th, at one o'clock, P. M. They embark infantry, and fall down the river, the wind having shifted a little north of west, and pretty fresh. Baron Steuben gets to Bland's Mills to-night, nine miles short of Hood's.
January the 11th, eight o'clock, A. M. The wind due west, and strong.
The papers and books of the Council since the revolution. The papers of the auditors, but not their books. Five brass field-pieces, four pounders, which had been sunk in the river, but were weighed by the enemy. About one hundred and fifty arms in the Capitol loft. About one hundred and fifty in a wagon on the Brook road. About five tons of powder, and some made ammunition at magazine. Some small proportion of the linens, cloths, &c., in the public store. Some quarter-masters' stores; the principal articles was one hundred and twenty sides of leather. Some of the tools in the artificers' shops. Foundry, magazine, four artificers' shops, public store, quarter-masters' store, one artificers' shop, three wagons.
The legislature was sitting when the entrance of the enemy into James river was made known. They were informed, without reserve, of the measures adopted. Every suggestion from the members was welcomed and weighed, and their adjournment on the 2d of January furnished the most immediate and confidential means of calling for the militia of their several counties. They accordingly became the bearers of those calls, and they were witnesses themselves, that every preparation was making which the exhausted and harassed state of the country admitted.
They met again at Richmond in May, and adjourned to Charlottesville, where they made a house on the 28th. My office of Governor expired on the 2d of June, being the fifth day of the session; and no successor had been appointed, when an enterprise on the 4th by Tarleton's cavalry drove them thence, and they met again at Staunton on the 7th. Some members attended there who had not been at Richmond at the time of Arnold's enterprise. One of these, George Nicholas, a very honest and able man, then, however, young and ardent, supposing there had been some remissness in the measures of the Executive on that occasion, moved for an inquiry into them, to be made at the succeeding session. The members who had been present and privy to the transactions, courted the inquiry on behalf of the executive. Mr. Nicholas, as a candid and honorable man, sent me, through a friend, a copy of the topics of inquiry he proposed to go into; and I communicated to him, with the same frankness, the justifications I should offer, that he might be prepared to refute them if not founded in fact. The following is a copy of both:--