Revolutionary Weekend 2006 - Story

ALONG THE BALTIMORE PIKE IN DELAWARE
AUGUST 1781
Seen here is Lauzon's Legion camped along the pike in Delaware. The old mill house is still standing today and the fields around the stream remain open. The availability of water for the over 220 horses was essential to any area chosen as a camp.

 What's the Story?

Soon to be designated a National Historic Trail, the W3R (Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route) celebrates & commemorates the allied French & American troops that walked and sailed from Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia to defeat British General Cornwallis in October, 1781. 

Memories of September 11, 1777, the date of the disastrous Battle of Brandywine in nearby Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, were still vivid in the hearts and minds of Delaware residents four years later.  Preceding the Battle of Brandywine, British General Cornwallis had occupied the Cooch House on Old Baltimore Pike.  Immediately following the tremendous American losses at Chadds Ford, Wilmington, Delaware became an occupied city.

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route links New Castle County's 18th Century Sites into a linear story that tells how in September 1781, Delaware's residents supported more than 1,200 soldiers and draft animals who had been walking more than 620 miles from Rhode Island to Virginia as they entered Delaware, coming by row barges and marching slowly down Philadelphia Pike into Wilmington, Newport Pike through Newport and Stanton, and Old Baltimore Pike from historic Christiana, past Cooch's Bridge to Iron Hill.

Delaware's Blue Hens were already in the south with General Lafayette when these allied French and American troops moved through New Castle County.  Area residents rushed to prepare for the arrival of an army more than five times bigger than the entire population of 18th century Wilmington, Delaware.  Baggage trains, camp followers, and livestock streamed down the Kings Highway, needed food, fodder, supplies and shelter. Thanks to the combined efforts of American & French forces and the everyday folks who supported them, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781.

After Cornwallis was defeated, many of the allied troops straggled back north, passing once again through Delaware. Among those headed north were mounted soldiers, the Hussars, under the leadership of the Duc de Lauzun. Approximately 550 Hussars, grenadiers, chasseurs, and cannoneers affiliated with Lauzun's Legion wintered over in Wilmington, Delaware. The Wilmington Academy (now the site of the Grand Opera House) functioned as their winter barracks.  Nearly 300 horses were stabled behind the Academy.  Lauzun's surgeon, Joseph Eugene Phillippe Cappelle remained behind, marrying a local woman.  Dr. Cappelle became a founding member of the Delaware Academy of Medicine and is buried at Old Swedes.