Local SAR Chapter at Commemoration of the 1781 Crossing the Dan River

On Saturday, 17 February the 243rd Anniversary of the Crossing of the Dan River was held at the Prizery in South Boston on the south bank of the Dan River. The American Army in the South under the Command of General Horatio Gates suffered a major defeat at the hands of Lord Conwallis in Late 1780. General Washington relieved Gates with General Nathanial Greene. Roughly half of Greene's army engaged the British at the Battle of Cowpens, SC in January 1781. Under the command of Anthony Wayne the American Army routed the British, Capturing, wounding or killing 90% of the British Army under Major Tarleton. Infuriated, Lord Conwallis set out to catch the Americans as they conducted a strategic retreat north into North Carolina then Virginia to resupply and assemble additional troops. General Greene sent men ahead to build defensive works and to gather boats for a crossing of the Dan River. On February 14, 1781 the American Army crossed the Dan River, completing the task just as the British Army arrived at the south Bank of the Dan River with all boats on the north side of the rain swollen River.

Safely across the river the American Army retreated northward out of reach of Lord Cornwallis's Army. After some delay the British Army recovered boats, crossed the Dan and headed east to Yorktown. The rest as we say, is History when the American Army supported by the French Navy sealed the fate of the British with a blockade of Chesapeake Bay and siege of Yorktown.

The Sgt Maj John Champe Chapter was represented at the Commemoration by Ken Bonner, immediate Past President and present 3rd Vice President of the Virginia Society Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Bonner presented the Chapter wreath in honor of the men who crossed the Dan in February, 1781.