Escape from Monticello: the damage done

Fawn Brodie (An Intimate History, p. 146) has succinctly described Jefferson’s retreat from Monticello and its effect on his future career:

His behavior was cool, and could certainly be described as brave, but the flight over Carter’s Mountain was eventually turned by Jefferson’s enemies into a legend of military ineptness and cowardice. The fact that everyone in the Virginia civil government was fleeing—“Governor, council, everybody scampering,” in the words of Betsey Ambler—did not serve to spare Jefferson abuse in his presidential years.  And the charge of cowardice, like an evil shadow, would follow him throughout his life. 

It is impossible to overstate the damage that this period, with its many trials, failures, tragedies, and humiliations, inflicted on Jefferson's psyche.  The Virginia assembly’s final report in December exonerating him, and their resolution of thanks, did not remove the sting. "It is unfortunate for our peace that unmerited abuse wounds,” he wrote later, “while unmerited praise has not the power to heal."