delayed his departure to Virginia, however, where he had been sent to assist General Lafayette against British forces operating there, and the line's departure was delayed once more when the men complained about being paid in the nearly worthless Continental currency. On July 4, General Charles Cornwallis departed Williamsburg for Jamestown, planning to cross the James River en route to Portsmouth. Lafayette believed he could stage an attack on Cornwallis' rear guard during the crossing. Cornwallis anticipated Lafayette's plan and laid an elaborate trap. Wayne led a small scouting force of 500 at the 1781 Battle of Green Spring to determine the location of Cornwallis, and they fell into the trap; only a bold bayonet charge against the numerically overwhelming British enabled his forces to retreat. The action reinforced the perception among contemporaries that justified the moniker "Mad" to describe Wayne. During the Yorktown campaign, Wayne was shot in the leg; the lead musket ball was never removed from his leg. After the British under Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Wayne went farther south and disbanded the British alliance with Native American tribes in Georgia. With the goal of establishing peace between settlers and Native Americans, Wayne captured Creek troops early in his time in Georgia, releasing them in order to establish goodwill between the Creek people and the United States. After various skirmishes with Native Americans, Wayne became angered and disenchanted with establishing alliances with Native Americans and in one instance, executed thirty Creek people he captured in July 1783. He then negotiated peace treaties with both the Creeks and the Cherokees during a bout with malaria, for which Georgia purchased a rice plantation for 4,000 guineas and rewarded it to him. Wayne would suffer from complications related to malaria for the remainder of his life. Civilian life Pennsylvania In 1783, Wayne returned to Pennsylvania and was celebrated as a hero, deciding to enter politics with other conservative friends at the time. Initially a supporter of democracy, Wayne ultimately grew more authoritarian, believing that the United States should be an aristocracy, supporting the idea of a centralized government controlled by the "aristocratick" property owners, that their interests be maintained, and that the United States military would be controlled by the elites. He joined the Federalist Party since he believed he could secure a position among the American elite, aligning himself with the supporters of Washington, and like most federalists, he