During the summer campaign of 1781, Lord Cornwallis could move across Virginia almost at will. All that the marquis de Lafayette--who had command of the Continental army in the state--could do was to shadow Cornwallis's superior army, waiting for an opportunity. In early July, Cornwallis decided to shift his troops from the peninsula between the James and York rivers to the south bank of the James River. This move, Lafayette believed, provided just the opportunity he was looking for, and he decided to attack Cornwallis as the British army was in the middle of the crossing. Cornwallis, however, had anticipated Lafayette's reaction and held back most of his army to surprise the Continentals.

Lafayette ordered General Anthony Wayne to advance cautiously on what he thought was the British army's rear guard. Wayne's men skirmished with some British soldiers, who were constantly pulling back, suggesting that they were engaged in delaying tactics and had no larger support behind them. During the day, Lafayette reinforced Wayne until the latter commanded about 1,000 men. He also scouted along the river and discovered that most of Cornwallis's army was in front of Wayne, but he could not get word of this information to Wayne in time. In the early evening, Cornwallis sprung his trap and suddenly emerged with 3,000 men, whose presence had been covered by some hills and trees. Confronted by a force that outnumbered him three to one, and whose flanks on both the left and right stretched beyond his own, Wayne was in desperate straits. Rather than retreat, which could easily turn into a rout, or stand his ground and be overwhelmed--his left flank composed of riflemen was already dissolving--Wayne attacked. Continental troops advanced to within 70 yards of the British, and an intense 15-minute engagement followed before Wayne withdrew to the main body of Continentals who had formed a line at Green Spring Plantation a mile to the rear. This maneuver bought some crucial minutes, and with dark approaching, the British cavalry did not pursue the battered Continentals. Lafayette's situation remained precarious, and he pulled back further that night.

The British lost 75 killed and wounded; the revolutionaries had 28 killed and 128 wounded. Because of Wayne's brave reaction in attacking in the face of overwhelming odds, and because Cornwallis did not gain the complete triumph for which he had hoped, some commentators claim the revolutionaries won the battle. However, given Cornwallis's superior tactics, fewer casualties, and the fact that his men held the field, the British gained a marginal tactical victory.

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