About

During the cagey maneuvers of veteran British and American forces in Virginia leading up to the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, troops under the Marquis de Lafayette and Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis faced off in a short but bloody battle on the banks of the James River on July 6. Discover the story of the Battle of Green Spring during the Revolutionary War with military historian and Museum educator John Maass and learn how this close-range battle nearly destroyed a contingent of the Patriots’ Army only three months before the war’s culminating military operation.

John R. Maass is an education specialist at the National Museum of the United States Army. He received a Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in early U.S. and military history. His recent book is “From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War” (2025).