Valley Forge of the South

Valley Forge of the South. Chesterfield Courthouse Continental Army Barracks 1780-1781. In the wake of two successive Continental Army defeats - first General Lincoln's surrender of his Continental army at the Siege of Charleston, SC on May 12, 1780 and then the defeat of General Gates' Continental army at Camden, SC on August 16, 1780, it was decided Chesterfield Courthouse would become the new Continental Army hospital and general rendezvous for Virginia's new Continental recruits., In December 1780, General Nathaniel Greene, the newest commander of the Southern Department, directed General Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Steuben to organize and train the Continental battalions being raised in Virginia and transfer them to his army., The ground in front of you is where White and Black recruits from across Virginia were quartered, clothed, and trained alongside local women, who were contracted as cooks and laundresses. Steuben, reprising his role as the "drillmaster" of the Continental Army at Valley Forge, was once again seen in the snow training raw recruits to march and drill with their muskets., Throughout the winter of 1780-1781, a hospital, manufactories, storehouses, and eventually, as at Valley Forge, a town of 160 huts for quartering troops were located on these grounds. Virginia recruit Zepheniah Harrison was ordered to labor on the huts. He wrote: "...joined the army at Chesterfield Courthouse a short time before Christmas and helped to build a barrack there consisting of about one hundred and sixty Cabins expecting to remain there during the winter...", Despite the huts, conditions that winter were brutal for the troops and recruits stationed here. General Steuben's commandant of the barracks, Colonel William Davies, wrote to Governor Thomas Jefferson on January 25, 1781: "...all the troops...had by order of Baron Steuben come back to this station, from their utter inability to keep the field, from the want of almost every species of cloathing. Many men have not a remnanat of cloathing larger than a good napkin to cover their nakedness, and a number of these are dependent upon others for a part of a blanket to shelter them at night from the cold.", Despite the hardships, several hundred Virginia recruits were formed into Continental battalions, like those under Lt. Colonel Samuel Hawes and Lt. Colonel Thomas Gaskins. Hawes' men went on to fight in the battles of Guilford Courthouse, The Siege of 96, Eutaw Springs and numerous other fights that changed the course of the war in the South. Gaskins' Battalion stayed in Virginia with General Steuben, ultimately serving with him at the Siege of Yorktown in the Fall of 1781. There they entrenched closest to the British lines and helped force British General Cornwallis' army to surrender on October 19, 1781., The training depot here at Chesterfield Courthouse proved significant but short lived. On April 27, 1781, the forces of British General William Phillips marched through Chesterfield, capturing and burning the barracks, courthouse, and other buildings.