Commonwealth v. Caton (The Case of the Prisoners) also emerged from the turmoil of the Revolutionary war. During the spring and summer of 1781, the British army, which had operated in Virginia earlier in the war, invaded the state again. General William Phillips landed his troops, and marched to Petersburg, conducting raids as far west as Amelia. Benedict Arnold, having deserted the patriot cause and now serving as a British general, moved his troops up the James River, leaving a trail of destruction. General Cornwallis marched his large army into Virginia from the Carolinas, and dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to try to capture Virginia’s legislature along with its governor, and they chased the governor and members of the General Assembly across the mountains, capturing seven. Thomas Jefferson, then serving his last months as Virginia’s governor narrowly escaped by fleeing from Monticello to his plantation at Poplar Forest in southwest Virginia.