Passing Blackburn House

Passing Blackburn House. . , Moving an army in 1781 wasn't easy. It took hundreds of wagons and ships to move the French and American armies from New York to Virginia in an attempt to trap the British under General Cornwallis at Yorktown. Crossing Prince William County, the wagons faced swamps and narrow dirt roads., On September 12, General Washington ordered Colonel Henry Lee of Leesylvania to fix the road through "impassable" hills from several fords and the Occoquan Ferry to Dumfries. Citizen soldiers, the militia, were called out for this "laborious and fatiguing Duty." In less than seven days Col. Lee optimistically said they had made a good road out of these paths., [Captions:] , Rippon Lodge Before Being Renovated in the 1920s , The armies passed here going to Yorktown. A familiar sight to Prince William militiamen as one of their officers, Lt. Col. Thomas Blackburn, lived there. , From the Prince William County Historic Preservation Collection , A Covered Wagon in Philadelphia , Hundreds of similar wagons made up the American and French supply trains. , Courtesy of the Philadelphia Free Library, Lauzun's Hussars were the first to pass through Prince William, on September 17th. The last of the wagon trains crossed into Stafford County on the 29th. They did so on the roads improved by the Prince William County militia, including this one, King's Highway. These average citizens called to duty with pick and shovel helped clear the way for victory at Yorktown., A Hussar of Lauzun's Legion , They helped guard the wagon train and would fight alongside the Virginia militia in Gloucester. , Painting by Bruce Bassett-Powell, image courtesy of Uniformology