The Battle of Spencer's Ordinary was an inconclusive skirmish that took place on 26 June 1781, late in the American Revolutionary War. British forces under Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe and American forces under Colonel Richard Butler, light detachments from the armies of General Lord Cornwallis and the Marquis de Lafayette respectively, clashed near a tavern (the "ordinary") at a road intersection not far from Williamsburg, Virginia. Lafayette had been shadowing Cornwallis as he moved his army toward Williamsburg from central Virginia. Aware that Simcoe had become separated from Cornwallis, he sent Butler out in an attempt to cut Simcoe off. Both sides, concerned that the other might be reinforced by its main army, eventually broke off the battle. Background In May 1781, Lord Charles Cornwallis arrived in Petersburg, Virginia after a lengthy campaign through North and South Carolina. In addition to his 1,400 troops, he assumed command of another 3,600 troops that had been under the command of the turncoat Benedict Arnold, and was soon thereafter further reinforced by about 2,000 more troops sent from New York. These forces were opposed by a much smaller Continental Army force led by the Marquis de Lafayette, then located at Richmond. Following orders originally given to Arnold's predecessor in command, William Phillips (who died a week before Cornwallis' arrival), Cornwallis worked to eliminate Virginia's ability to support the revolutionary cause, and gave chase to Lafayette's army, which numbered barely 3,000 and included a large number of inexperienced militia. Lafayette successfully eluded engaging Cornwallis for about one month, who used his numerical advantage to detach forces for raids against economic, military, and political targets in central Virginia. Cornwallis then turned back to the east, marching for Williamsburg. Lafayette, whose force grew to number about 4,000 with the arrival of Continental Army reinforcements under General Anthony Wayne and additional experienced militiamen under William Campbell, followed Cornwallis. Buoyed by the increase in his troop strength, Lafayette also became more aggressive in his tactics, sending out detachments of his force to counteract those that Cornwallis sent on forage and raiding expeditions. These detachments were composed of select units taken from a variety of regiments. Among those that were commonly in the army's advance guard were a combined cavalry and infantry unit from Pennsylvania under Captain William McPherson, and companies of Virginia riflemen under Majors Richard Call and John Willis. Lafayette, once he was joined by Wayne