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The color guard of Virginia chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution waits to present the colors yesterday.
Samuel F. B. Morse's painting
This drawing shows French military leader the Marquis de Lafayette (left) as he stands |
By CLINT SCHEMMER
A little more than two centuries after the fact, the Marquis de Lafayette is finally getting an official nod in Orange County.
He helped keep the British from sawing America in half, a military feat that at least one historian says began in Orange. This weekend at Wilderness Corner, local residents and Virginia heritage groups paid homage to the French general's deeds, dedicating a state historical marker that tells part of the Revolutionary War tale.
"Without the French, we could not have won the war. It's that simple," Bill Simpson, the man behind the new marker, said in an interview yesterday.
Simpson, a Prince William County resident whose great-great-grandfather fought for the South in the Battle of Fredericksburg, said he hopes the roadside sign will help people understand that the region has a deeper history that encompasses two epochal conflicts. "It's not just about the Civil War," he said.
Lee Frame Jr., chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said he appreciates the effort. "It was some history I didn't know. And I'm pleased that we have this marker," Frame said. "It adds to the whole historical nature of this part of the county."
Frame was among the 30-plus people who attended Saturday's dedication of the new marker, which stands beside State Route 20 about a quarter mile south of State Route 3. In addition to Orange, participants came from Fredericksburg, Manassas, Richmond and Whitehall on the Middle Peninsula, among other localities.
The group prayed, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and stood at attention as the color guard of the Virginia chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution carried the U.S. and Virginia flags into place beside the marker as traffic flew past on the highway a few feet away.
It was all to recognize the contributions of Lafayette and his army, which camped nearby on bottomland along Wilderness Run on June 3, 1781. A couple of local citizens, who provisioned the Continental Army troops and fed Lafayette and his fellow officers, received mentions.
At Lafayette's request, landowner William Jones provided 2,355 pounds of beef from his plantation, where he later built Ellwood--which still stands--and from his brother Churchill's farm. The army's horses feasted on a field of William Jones' timothy hay.
Lafayette and his officers camped on a nearby knoll, about where another general--named Ulysses S. Grant--set up his headquarters in May of 1864. The Wilderness, Simpson noted, is where Grant first met Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in battle, launching the Overland Campaign that ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
"The beginning of the end for the [Civil War], the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary War, can be said to have started right here," he told a rapt audience on Saturday.
As for Lafayette, he and his men met up a few days later at Raccoon Ford with Pennsylvania regiments led by Brig. Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne, creating a force roughly equal in size to the British army led by Lord Cornwallis.
Lafayette's actions in the 1781 campaign, countering the fifth British invasion of Virginia, turned the tide against Cornwallis in the south, explained Simpson, a retired Navy officer who works in the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory at Quantico. That's what George Washington had sent him to Virginia to do.
Until then, the British high command had been intent on splitting the colonies, ceding the north to the American rebels but holding onto the south, with its fine ports and rich agricultural enterprises.
Lafayette's maneuvers kept at bay Cornwallis' shock troops, dragoons led by Banastre Tarleton, the daring cavalry officer who nearly captured Gov. Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and the Virginia General Assembly in Charlottesville.
"Lafayette knows he can't rescue Charlottesville," Simpson said. "But once Lafayette decides to turn south, from that point on, Cornwallis has lost the initiative."
The French general's efforts sent Cornwallis retreating to the Tidewater, where his army dug in on the heights above the York River.
That set the stage for the final American victory in the Battle of Yorktown, said Simpson, who is president of the Virginia chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Americans alive at the time never forgot what Lafayette and the French had done.
Decades later, President James Monroe--long past his youthful lawyering days in Fredericksburg--invited Lafayette to revisit his old stomping grounds. The general's triumphal 1824-25 tour took in all of the 24 states, with celebrations and fanfare at every stop.
Likewise, the general didn't forget those who had sustained him and his troops.
He returned to the vicinity on two occasions in 1824, visiting James Madison at Montpelier and breakfasting with William Jones at Ellwood, and was later fêted at Wilderness Tavern before traveling on to a reception in Fredericksburg, said Carolyn Elstner of the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield.
"This new marker helps us to tell this earlier history, which is not as well known as the Civil War period," Elstner said. "I think it was long overdue."
ON THE NET: sar.org/vassar tinyurl.com/orangemarkers fowb.org Clint Schemmer: 540/368-5029
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com
A good source for armchair travelers that's handy to have in your car is |
