Spirit of 1775

Spirit of 1775. Beeline March to Cambridge. , On 11 June 1775, the Second Continental Congress authorized the raising of ten companies of riflemen in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to aid General George Washington at the British siege of Boston. The Berkeley County Committee of Safety selected Captain Hugh Stephenson to command and recruit one of the two Virginia companies. Within a week in the Shepherdstown area, Stephenson had raised 98 men. These riflemen were the first continental or regular troops of the rebelling colonies. Mustered by 22 June but delayed by acquisition of arms, the men drilled and organized for their trek. At his spring on 10 July, William Morgan gave a barbeque for the company. On 17 July, Stephenson's company rallied at Morgan's Spring and began the 600-mile beeline march to Cambridge. Covering the distance in 25 days, they arrived at Cambridge on 11 August. Before the Revolution ended in 1783, seven companies from the Shepherdstown area had served in the war. About 100 soldiers were from the town. At a gala barbeque fifty years later at Morgan's Spring, two of the five who survived from Stephenson's company attended. , (John E. Stealey III, Distinguished President, Emeritus of History, Shepherd University),

"… at the base of the hill…, a glorious spring leaps out into the sunlight… flowering over the smooth sides of an artificial reservoir, it runs rippling along, making merry music as it tumbles over its rocky bed into the placid waters of the lake… this is 'Morgan's Spring' " , My Ride to the Barbeque, 1860, Alexander Boteler)

, Boating and fishing were pastimes until the railroad was completed in 1879. Its gravel bed severed and covered portions of the marl marsh, affecting the flow of many springs that fed the lake. Today, Morgan's Spring still flows, only into a large pond, which is on private property.,

…each soldier furnished his own uniform of 'homespun' hunting shirt made of two linen, fringed around the neck and front, leather leggings, and mocassins. Each wore a bucktail in his hat, and had a tomahawk and scalping knife in his belt. 'Liberty or Death' was embroidered on the front of the hunting shirt. , Alexander Boteler, "They (riflemen) use a peculiar kind of musket called a rifle. It has a circular pattern of grooves within the barrel and carries a ball with a great exactness to great distance. They are the most accurate marksmen in the world." , John Adams, 1775 ,

, The Sheetz Rifle Company, on King Street, was located behind the present day corner restaurant. Three generations, from the late 1700s to the 1830s made these rifles. A drill ground for the riflemen was close to the present day Episcopal Church.,

In 1932 the Pack Horse Ford Chapter, N.S.D.A.R., erected a monument to commemorate the Virginia Riflemen. Located on SR 480 beside the 1730's entrance to Richard Morgan's plantation Falling Spring. It was located at the nearest access to the springs where Hugh Stephenson's soldiers started their 600 mile trek to Boston. "Morgan Springs was the popular name for Falling Spring among the soldiers and their descendants." , Pack Horse Ford Chapter, NSDAR 1932 program brochure