The W3R
The W3R National Trail is a 680 mile Historic Trail which French Allied troops and Continental soldiers traveled from Rhode Island to Virginia under the command of General George Washington and French General Rochambeau.
On the morning of 19 April 1775, a column of British soldiers marching toward the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, found their advance barred by a small band of seventy-seven colonial militiamen. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Americans began to disperse, when suddenly a single shot rang out. The American War of Independence had begun.” [Reference: March To Victory, Dr. Robert Selig]
On September 5th, 1781, at the town
of Marcus Hook, Pa. (Chester County, Pa.), a Revolutionary soldier
encampment is highlighted as a point of interest. “Here,
General George Washington receives word that the French Admiral
de Grasse’s fleet (28 ships and 3, 000 soldiers) had arrived
safely in the Chesapeake Bay. Not only is General Washington ecstatic,
but until their arrival in Marcus Hook, the allied armies had
marched on hope alone that de Grasse would do what he had written
in the letter that had reached them in White Plains on August
14, 1781”
[Reference: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 9]
“On 17 October, 1781, Lord
Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, Virginia to a combined
force of Americans and French headed by General George Washington
and General Rochambeau”
[Reference: March To Victory, Dr. Robert Selig]
“It is important to note that
during this war, the march of soldiers through American towns
had a solidifying impact on American communities along the route.
The small community of Marcus Hook, willingly laid aside local
and regional prejudices in order to provide logistical support
to the troops, minimize the potential for civil-military friction,
and pave the way for decisive victory at Yorktown as well as the
creation of an independent American republic.”
[Reference: March To Victory, Intro., Jeffery J. Clarke, Chief
of Military History]