The Whole Commanded by the Parricide Arnold

Here's a bit of infamy¹ you don't often hear about:

Toward the close of December, 1780, a fleet appeared within the capes of the Chesapeake, with a force detached by Sir Henry Clinton from New York, under command of the traitor Arnold. A frigate in advance having captured some small vessels, Arnold, with the aid of them, pushed on at once up the James...

Leaving a frigate and some transports at Burwell's Ferry, Arnold proceeded up the river to Westover. Here landing a force of less than eight hundred men, including a small party of badly mounted cavalry, he marched for Richmond at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. Nelson, in the mean while, with a handful of militia, badly supplied with ammunition, had marched up the right bank of the James River, but arrived too late to offer any opposition to the landing of the enemy. Arnold, at one o'clock of the next day after he marched from Westover, entered the infant capital without having encountered any resistance, although his route was very favorable for it. 

The energetic Simcoe, with a detachment, proceeded a few miles beyond Richmond and destroyed the foundry, emptied the contents of the powder magazine, struck off the trunnions of the cannon, and set fire to the warehouses and mills, the effect of the conflagration being heightened by occasional explosions of gunpowder. Many small arms and a stock of military supplies were destroyed, and five tons of gunpowder thrown into the river. At Richmond the public stores fell a prey; private property was plundered and destroyed; the soldiers broke into houses and procured rum; and several buildings were burnt. Part of the records of the auditor's office, and the books and papers of the council office shared the same fate.

Governor Jefferson used every effort in his power to remove the public stores, and part were rescued by being removed across the river at Westham. Late on the night of the fourth he went to Tuckahoe, and on the next day went down to Manchester, opposite Richmond, where the busy movements of the enemy were in full view. When they advanced upon that place only two hundred militia were embodied—too small a number to make any resistance. 

The governor, having repaired to Colonel Fleming's, in Chesterfield, to meet Steuben, received there a message from Arnold, offering not to burn Richmond, on condition that British vessels should be permitted to come to it unmolested and take away the tobacco. The proposition was rejected.

Five years after Independence, traitor Benedict Arnold burned down Richmond.  Two-hundred fifty years after Independence, traitor Donald Trump burned down the United States.

Selah.

1 - Jefferson recounted events in his diary, and in a letter to Washington on January 10.