The American Revolution: The Race to the Dan (1781)

 

General Nathanael Greene

The legendary “Race to the Dan”, was one of the most dramatic episodes of the American Revolutionary War.

 In December of 1780, the British Army under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis was on the verge of victory in the Southern theater of war. Cornwallis had captured Charleston and had destroyed an American army at the Battle of Camden (South Carolina). 

General Washington sent the able General Nathanael Greene to North Carolina to retrieve the situation. Although outnumbered, Greene was both aggressive and smart, as he fought a guerilla campaign against the British.

On December 21, 1780, Greene sent General Daniel Morgan, a Virginian, into South Carolina with one wing of his army to harry the enemy. Morgan set a clever trap.

He allowed the British under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to pursue his force until out of range of Cornwallis’ main army. He then turned and decisively defeated Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens.

Morgan utterly smashed Tarleton’s force and retreated north into North Carolina with huge numbers of prisoners as well as much needed weapons and supplies.

General Greene re-united the two wings of his army in North Carolina as an enraged Lord Charles Cornwallis set out after the Americans with the bulk of his forces, intent on recapturing the prisoners taken by Daniel Morgan and smashing the Americans for good.

Greene’s objective now was to keep his smaller army out of the reach of the British.

The Dan River, was a significant natural barrier near the boundary of North Carolina and Virginia. If the Americans could reach the Dan, they could prevent the British from crossing.

The “Race for the Dan” was on.

The Americans pushed the prisoners forward as rapidly as possible. The British burned their slow moving supply wagons and pursued with remarkable speed, sometimes being only a few hours behind the Americans. Both sides were playing for high stakes.

On February 14, 1781, the American army reached Boyd’s Ferry on the Dan River.   Anticipating the arrival of General Greene’s army, a flotilla of small boats had been assembled to carry men, supplies and cannon to safety. When the British arrived, they could only look with frustration at the impassable river.

Treasure Legends of Virginia

Westover Plantation in the American Revolution

William Byrd III

 

Charles City County - Westover Plantation: At the time of the Revolution this was the home of William Byrd III. Byrd inherited a large fortune which he turned into a very small fortune, through his lavish lifestyle and addiction to gambling. On July 6, 1774, Byrd made his will, disposing of an estate that “thro’ my own folly and inattention to accounts the carelessness of some entrusted with the management thereof and the villainy of others, is still greatly encumbered with debts which embitters every moment of my life.”

   Byrd deplored the “frantic patriotism” sweeping Virginia and urged moderation and continued loyalty to the king. On July 30, 1775, he wrote offering his service to the king. In November 1775, however, he changed his mind after Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, offered freedom to slaves who ran away and joined the fight against the Virginia revolutionaries.

   This was too much for Byrd, who now sought appointment as colonel of the 3^rd Virginia Regiment. This came to nothing, as did his attempt to persuade the Continental Congress to appoint him as a Major General. In early January 1777, the embittered Byrd killed himself at Westover.

   During Benedict Arnold’s 1781 raid on Richmond, the British made Westover their base of operations for a week. William Byrd’s widow, Mary Willing Byrd, was a cousin of Benedict Arnold’s wife, Peggy Shippen.

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The Declaration of Independence and Slavery

 

In 1776, Jefferson was chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence, putting forward the arguments of the colonies for declaring themselves free and independent states.

The Declaration is regarded as a charter of universal liberties, proclaiming that all men are equal in rights, regardless of birth, wealth, or status; that those rights are inherent in each human, a gift of the Creator, not a gift of government, and that government is the servant and not the master of the people.

Although slavery, practiced in all thirteen colonies at the time, made a mockery of Jefferson’s poetic vision, no less a figure than Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, wrote:

 “All honor to Jefferson – to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”

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Yorktown - Victory Monument

 

Yorktown - Victory Monument: The cornerstone of this monument was laid on October 19, 1881, to mark the centennial of the surrender of the British at Yorktown. The monument to Alliance and Victory was completed on August 12, 1884. A figure of Liberty stood atop the monument. On July 29, 1942, during the darkest days of World War II, lightning struck the Liberty statue, sheering off the arms and head. The body was shattered, and the base of the monument damaged. Some thought this was an omen predicting the end of America.  But America did not end and, after victory in World War II was achieved, the monument was restored to its former glory in 1956, spurred on by the efforts of the Sons of the American Revolution.

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The Story of "Yankee Doodle"

 

One foppish high fashion style of dress that made its way from England to Virginia was the so called“Macaroni”.  One contemporary observer wrote:

 “They indeed make a ridiculous figure, with hats an inch in the brim, that do not cover, but lie upon the head, with about two pounds of fictitious hair, formed into what is called a club, hanging down their shoulders…. Their legs are at times covered with all colours of the rainbow; even flesh-coloured and green silk stockings are not excluded….Such a figure, essenced and perfumed, with a bunch of lace sticking out under (the) chin, puzzles the common passenger….”

In 1774, Virginian James Mercer claimed that items had been stolen from him by a “profound knave” named William Foster Crosby, whom he described as “(dressed) like a Macaroni”

During the Revolution British soldiers sang the ditty “Yankee Doodle” mocking Americans as simpletons who thought if you stuck a feather in your cap you were the embodiment of high fashion.  Americans adopted the song as a song of defiance.  By 1781, “Yankee Doodle” had become a song of national pride.

 

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

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Who Were the Slaves of the Founding Fathers?

The Continental Soldier (American Revolution)

 

The average age of the Continental soldier was 22, although soldiers varied in age from 15 to 70.

Continental soldiers came from many different backgrounds and included African Americans and Native Americans.  By 1780 persons of color made up as much as fifteen percent of the Continental Army.  Some estimate range as high as twenty five percent.

To fill the ranks, Congress assigned yearly quotas to each state, which offered recruiting inducements such as bounties and land grants.  States that were unable to fill positions with volunteers resorted to sending members of the state militia, originally only mustered to serve within the boundaries of the state, to serve with the Continental Army.

In 1779, the Continental Congress established the blue uniform coat as the color for the Army, but shortages of dye meant that many regiments wore brown or green coats until the end of the war.

     Who Were the Slaves of the Founding Fathers?