in the absence of significant strategic direction by General Clinton, decided to take his army, now numbering just 1,400 men, into Virginia on April 25; it was the same day that Phillips and von Steuben fought at Blandford. Phillips, after Lafayette beat him to Richmond, turned back east, continuing to destroy military and economic targets in the area. On May 7, Phillips received a dispatch from Cornwallis, ordering him to Petersburg to effect a junction of their forces; three days later, Phillips arrived in Petersburg. Lafayette briefly cannonaded the British position there, but did not feel strong enough to actually make an attack. On May 13, Phillips died of a fever, and Arnold retook control of the force. This caused some grumbling amongst the men, since Arnold was not particularly well respected. While waiting for Cornwallis, the forces of Arnold and Lafayette watched each other. Arnold attempted to open communications with the marquis (who had orders from Washington to summarily hang Arnold), but the marquis returned his letters unopened. Cornwallis arrived in Petersburg on May 19, prompting Lafayette, who commanded under 1,000 Continentals and about 2,000 militia, to retreat to Richmond. Further British reinforcements led by the Ansbacher Colonel von Voigt arrived from New York shortly after, raising the size of Cornwallis's army to more than 7,000. Cornwallis, after dispatching General Arnold back to New York, set out to follow General Clinton's most recent orders to Phillips. These instructions were to establish a fortified base and raid rebel military and economic targets in Virginia. Cornwallis decided that he had to first deal with the threat posed by Lafayette, so he set out in pursuit of the marquis. Lafayette, clearly outnumbered, retreated rapidly toward Fredericksburg to protect an important supply depot there, while von Steuben retreated to Point of Fork (present-day Columbia, Virginia), where militia and Continental Army trainees had gathered with supplies pulled back before the raiding British. Cornwallis reached the Hanover County courthouse on June 1, and, rather than send his whole army after Lafayette, detached Banastre Tarleton and John Graves Simcoe on separate raiding expeditions. Tarleton, his British Legion reduced by the debacle at Cowpens, rode rapidly with a small force to Charlottesville, where he captured several members of the Virginia legislature. He almost captured Governor Jefferson as well, but had to content himself with several bottles of wine from Jefferson's estate at Monticello. Simcoe went to Point