Kids in this country learn about Paul Revere, the Boston man who warned British troops were coming on the eve of the revolutionary war, but they don’t always hear about the Virginia man who made a similar heroic ride. The year was 1781, and soldiers had occupied Richmond, forcing Governor Thomas Jefferson and the General Assembly to meet in Charlottesville.
“They’re well away from harm, they think, and the British commander, Cornwallis, instructs Banastre Tarleton, his cavalry guy, to make a surprise raid and bag the entire Virginia government.”
Jeff Looney is editor of Thomas Jefferson’s papers at Monticello. He explains that an Albemarle County patriot – Jack Jouet – overheard the plan at a Louisa tavern where the Brits were drinking. That night, Jouet lit out for Charlottesville to warn the legislature. At first, its members were reluctant to leave.
“I guess they’d had false alarms, but eventually he persuades them, and they head out of town. A few of them don’t leave and are captured, and one of the ones who’s captured, interestingly enough, was none other than Daniel Boone.”
Boone was held in a coal cellar overnight – then released as the British marched on to Monticello where Jefferson was preparing his escape.
“He thinks he’s got plenty of time, so he’s packing his papers and getting ready, and he goes up on top of Montalto and looks down at the town and doesn’t see anything, so he thinks, ‘Great, we’re still good,” but he drops something and goes back to get it and takes one more look, and he sees the sunlight glinting off of the swords and bayonets of the British," Looney says. "He realizes he doesn’t have much time at all. At this point he has already sent his family on to safety, but he gets on his horse and escapes with minutes to spare before the British arrive.”
The story thrilled Wendy Smith and Barbara Grogan – leaders of the Albemarle County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
“At the time, Jefferson was the acting governor of Virginia, and this was the third invasion that the British had in Virginia. The first two times they really hadn’t done a whole lot other than pillage and plunder. In order to end the war, they wanted to conquer Virginia.”
And the prospect of capture by Tarleton was unnerving.
“Tarleton was known as the butcher. He had absolutely no mercy for any of the patriots who came up against him.”
When Tarleton reached Monticello, Grogan says, he demanded Jefferson’s slaves tell him where their master had gone.
“Milton Hemmings and Caesar, who were enslaved workers inside the home, refused to say anything, and Tarleton said, ‘If you don’t say something to me, this is the end of you.” He held his gun up, and Milton Hemmings stood there and said nothing. In the meantime, Caesar had taken all the silver down and was hiding it below in the cellar, and he stayed there for three days.”
Meanwhile, Jefferson met up with his wife Martha and their two kids in Nelson County – along the Rockfish River at a point near Schuyler.
That’s where Smith and Grogan placed an historic marker near the site of Joplin’s Ordinary -- an inn where the Jeffersons spent the night before traveling on to their small home near Lynchburg – Poplar Forest.
It would be nice to conclude that Thomas Jefferson lived happily ever after, but historian Jeff Looney says this whole episode was a blow to his reputation.
“He feels there is a taint on him for having escaped that way. There are unspoken charges of being a coward, and being a coward for a Virginia gentleman is something you can’t bear. There is a motion in the legislature to launch an investigation into his time as governor, which wounded him greatly. Late in life he’s still rehashing what happened there and basically trying to live it down.”
Today, of course, we applaud Jefferson’s daring escape from the British, and after a successful term as the nation’s third president, his legacy is also secure.
