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Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007 Number 51 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007

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Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007 Number 51 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007 Number 51 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007 Number 51 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2007 Notes from the Director 3 Virginia Landmarks Register: 89 New Listings 5 Curator’s Corner: Artifacts from DHR’s Collections: 40 The Walter Aston Site By Robert Taft Kiser When It’s Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: 44 Historic Restoration at Shirley Plantation By Michael Pulice Tracing the Yorktown Campaign of 1781–82 By Robert A. Selig Part I: The Revolutionary War Road and Transportation Survey 47 in Virginia Part II: Designating a National and Virginia Washington– 52 Rochambeau Trail Survey and Cost Share Program 56 New Preservation Easements Protect 23 Historic Properties 62 39 New Historical Highway Markers 69 Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program 72 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2801 Kensington Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23221 www.dhr.virginia.gov Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, Director Notes on Virginia is published annually by the Department of Historic Resources. Editor: Randall B. Jones. VLR entries compiled by DHR historian Kelly Spradley-Kurwoski. Photographic research and technical assistance: Alison Snow and Arthur Striker at DHR, Tim Skirven, James Madison University. Maps: Cathy Wright, DHR. Additional assistance in preparation: Ann Andrus, Francine Archer, Camille Bowman, David Edwards, Joanie Evans, Karen Hostettler, John Kern, Calder Loth, Mike Pulice, Pam Schenian, Sue Smead, Elizabeth Tune, Randolph Turner, and Marc Wagner. Designer: Judy Rumble, Virginia Office of Graphic Communications, Department of General Services. Photographs are from the DHR Archives, unless otherwise indicated. Notes on Virginia is a free publication; to subscribe, contact DHR. Recent issues, as well as this one, are posted on the DHR website. Tracing the Yorktown Campaign of 1781–82 Part I: The Revolutionary War Road and Transportation Survey in Virginia By Robert A. Selig uring the Yorktown Campaign of the Revolutionary War, when American and DFrench armies marched down the East Coast toward ultimate victory, General George Washington coming from Baltimore arrived in Virginia on September 9, 1781, crossing the Potomac River on Joshua George’s ferry. It took about 20 minutes for Washington to make the crossing, at a location overshadowed today by the Francis Scott Key Bridge between Georgetown, in D.C., and Rosslyn, in Arlington. Late that afternoon, Washington rode on to his home at Mt. Vernon. The next day, Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, the This historical highway marker, erected in 1998, near commanding officer of French forces on the the intersection of Oronoco and Washington Streets in American mainland, joined Washington there. Alexandria commemorates the supply trains’ encamp- One day later, on September 11, the chevalier ment and the Washington–Rochambeau Route. The de Chastellux arrived with his retinue at Mt. sign states: Most of the American and French armies Vernon as well. And on September 12 the three set sail from three ports in Maryland—Annapolis, generals continued their journey, which took Baltimore, and Head of Elk—in mid-Sept. 1781 to besiege the British army in Yorktown. The allied sup- them to Williamsburg on September 14. ply-wagon train proceeded overland to Yorktown, its Washington, itinerary divided into segments called “Marches.” Its Rochambeau, and “Fourth March” was from Georgetown to Alexandria; Chastellux were the wagons took two days, 24-25 Sept., to cross the but the vanguard of Potomac and reunite in Virginia. The Alexandria camp thousands more was roughly a half-mile in area, located north of men and beasts Oronoco Street and bisected by Washington Street. The train left Alexandria on 26 Sept. (Photo: Author) that followed, making September On September 19, almost 100 wagons of the 1781 a busy month American wagon train crossed the Potomac and for ferry operator rolled to a camp three miles short of Alexandria. Joshua George. On Five days later, on September 24, 110 more wag- the evening of ons of the French, drawn by 660 oxen and accom- September 15, for panied by about 30 Continental soldiers, also Comte de Rochambeau (1725– instance, almost began traversing the Potomac at Joshua George’s 1807) commanded 5,800 French 300 hussars of Georgetown ferry. It was already late in the after- troops during the Yorktown Lauzun’s Legion, noon of September 25 when the last wagons rolled Campaign. He was a profession- with about 1,000 eight miles to their camp in Alexandria. al soldier with 37 years of serv- horses and 175 Meanwhile, more than one hundred small ves- ice and more comfortable in camp than in Versailles ball- wagons, reached sels carrying Washington’s approximately 2,700 rooms. Rochambeau enjoyed a Georgetown after a troops and about 1,000 French grenadiers and reputation of being level-headed, 21-mile ride from chasseurs made their way down the Chesapeake able to compromise for the sake Snowden’s Iron Bay, followed by 15 French vessels carrying the of mission, and willing to work Works in Maryland remainder of Rochambeau’s army, some 4,000 with fellow officers—all charac- and crossed the officers and men. By September 26, Washington’s teristics that were crucial for Potomac. and Rochambeau’s forces had joined up with the cooperation with the Americans. (Library of Congress) approximately 2,700 Continental officers and men Notes on Virginia 2007 47 A cartoon by the English cartoonist James Gillray published in London in April 1782. The rattlesnake, symbol of victorious American forces (the American flag featured a snake before adopting the stars and stripes), is coiled around the British forces of Burgoyne and Cornwallis at Yorktown. The verse below it reads, “Britons in Yankeean Plains / Mind how ye March & Trench, / The Serpent in the Congress reigns, / As well as in the French.” (Library of Congress) under the French general marquis de Lafayette. The Siege of Yorktown was the final phase of Since late April, General Lafayette’s men had a combined American and French military cam- been harassing British forces under General Lord paign that had begun in the spring of 1781 in New Cornwallis who, coming from North Carolina, had England, when Washington met with Rochambeau entered Virginia that same month. By early in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in May to plan a August, however, Cornwallis was entrenching his concerted strategy against the British. In July, army in Yorktown and Gloucester. Washington received word while in White Plains, On September 28, the combined forces of New York, from General Lafayette in Virginia that close to 6,000 Continental Army troops, 3,300 General Cornwallis was entrenching his army Virginia militia, 4,900 French officers and soldiers along the York River in Yorktown and Gloucester. under Rochambeau, as well as 3,300 men under Washington saw an opportunity. In conference the marquis de St. Simon who had come to with Rochambeau, he wrote, “I am of Opinion, Virginia on the fleet of Admiral de Grasse, that under these Circumstances, we ought to throw marched from their staging areas in Williamsburg a sufficient Garrison into W[est] Point [New York]; and around Gloucester Court House to Yorktown leave some Continental Troops and Militia to cover and Gloucester Point. There they laid siege to the Country contiguous to New York, and transport some 4,300 British regulars, 2,000 German the Remainder (both French and American) to auxiliaries, and 700 Loyalists supporters of King Virginia, should the Enemy still keep a Force George III. What followed is well known: On 19 there; the Season and other Circumstances will October, General Lord Cornwallis’ forces marched admit of late Operations in that Quarter.” out of Yorktown and on toward prisoner-of-war The march of American and French forces camps in Maryland and Pennsylvania. along the East Coast—starting in Rhode Island— The War of Independence on the American and into Virginia between June and September mainland was over. 1781 was an enormous logistical undertaking that 48 Notes on Virginia 2007 succeeded only because of the contributions made (2005); and most recently, Herman O. by thousands of patriots along the way. In Benninghoff’s The Brilliance of Yorktown: A Virginia, winning the war in 1781 spurred a March of History, 1781 Command and Control, colony-wide effort that directly involved more Allied Style (2006)—there is virtually nothing than half of the state’s present-day counties. The available that tells the story of how these thou- siege of Yorktown by Franco-American forces in sands of men and their animals got to Yorktown. October, and the winter quarters of French forces This void of information about such an important in the Commonwealth until their departure in July phase in the history of the Revolutionary War 1782 constitute singular events in the history of has helped lead in Virginia to the current Virginia and the U.S. Never before or after have “Revolutionary War Road and Transportation friendly forces, be they French or those of any Survey,” a project sponsored by the Department of other (non-Native American) nation, marched, Historic Resources in cooperation with (currently) fought, and died on American soil. And never 17 jurisdictions and funded through the depart- before—and not again until the Civil War 80 years ment’s Cost Share and Survey Program, which later—did such large numbers of men and animals matches state to local funding (see p. 56 for more travel the roads of Virginia. information about the program). Yet while there are numerous books on the Virginia’s Revolutionary War survey victory at Yorktown—Henry P. Johnston’s The comes at the eleventh hour: for the very roads that Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of American and French armies traveled, the loca- Cornwallis (1881); Thomas Fleming’s Beat the tions where they camped, the sites of fords and Last Drum: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 (1963); ferries they used to cross rivers, and the mansions Burke Davis’ The Campaign That Won America, and huts that they visited—these places that still The Story of Yorktown (1970); William H.
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