More Information on Many W3R-related SitesThere are two ways to use this information:1) You may refer to the map to find the name of an item and look it up below. 2) You may Look the item up below and find its location on the map from the item's map cell letter (EW rows stacked from N to S) and sequence number within that cell (A5, etc): [*** THE MAP IS NOT YET DONE ***]
-- Christiana DE [N 39-39.915; W 075-39.547] To get here follow signs from I-95 near the Christiana Mall into town. This town has several buildings dating to the Revolution, but no museum or interpretive signs. Down Main St. to the left 0.1 miles is the Christina River (with one less "a" than the name of the town), where many tons of goods were taken off boats for overland shipment to Elkton MD and boat transportation from there to Baltimore and other ports. In Sept 1781 half of the U.S. Continentals and all the U.S. artillery in General Washington's army was shipped by boat from Trenton NJ to Christiana DE. -- Cooch's Bridge [N 39-38.450; W 075-44.159] -- The
-- DuPont Gunpowder Works [see Hagley Museum] --
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-- The Van Dyke House in New Castle was the site where Dorcas Van Dyke and Nicholas DuPont were married in 1824. General Lafayette attended the marriage during his tour of the United States forty years after the end of the American Revolution. The house is not on the W3R route, but it has a W3R plaque to commemorate the U.S-French alliance and the consequent exchange of people, commerce, and culture during the early years of the United States. --
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Flour Mills along the Brandywine RiverQuaker miller Joseph Tatnall has been called Delaware's first great industrialist. As early as 1774 his mills along the Brandywine River in Wilmington had a thriving trade with merchants in the West Indies. After the Battle of the Brandywine (on September 11, 1777) he became the chief supplier of flour for the Continental Army. Tatnall's support of the Continental forces led to his lifelong friendship with Generals George Washington, Lafayette, and Anthony Wayne.In mid-1781 Generals Washington and Rochambeau led the allied armies of the United States and France in an unusually rapid march from White Plains, New York, to Yorktown, Virginia, so as to trap a British army under General Cornwallis. American and French supply officers went south several days before the main divisions of troops in order to advertize for and to buy stores of food for the troops along the line of march. On August 24, 1781, French guineas (seven of them) first appeared James Lea's account book in Brandywine Village to pay for corn meal supplied by a William Brown. The entry adds, "44 bushels left. I am to sell to French Army. The cash to be paid to Samuel Baker in Second Street." Several families of millers from the surrounding area -- the Marshalls, the Tatnalls and the Leas -- became very prosperous from supplying the armies with flour. After the Revolution they built beautiful stone houses on Market Street in the area now known as Brandywine Village. Dr. James Thatcher, a prominent local physician, wrote that Brandywine Village had "eight very large and valuable stone mills where an immense quantity of wheat is ground and bolted [bagged]. The wheat is brought in vessels to the very door, and the flour taken off in return." Brandywine Village was one of the most important eigteenth-century milling centers in the Mid-Atlantic colonies. Today there remains a block of Brandywine blue rock and many elegant 18th-century houses made of brick and stone. For walking tour information contact Greater Brandywine Village at (302)-571-9050. --
-- Blocking the British Invasion in 1777:
Follow the route of the Continental Army in August 1777 as it marched
from Pennsylvania south along Philadelphia Pike, Market St, and Maryland Ave
and fortified the banks of the Red Clay Creek (west of Newport Gap Pike).
This blocked the shortest path to Philadelphia from the British invasion
force's landing site in Elkton MD. Visit the
-- General Washington established the first multi-state regiment of 1,000 soldiers (including 300 troops from the Delaware militia) and sent it west from Christiana on Old Baltimore Pike to harass a 9,000-man advancing British column in the Battle of Cooch's Bridge on 1777 Sept 3. The monument to that battle (surrounded by four cannon) is on Old Baltimore Pike 0.4 miles west of Rt 72 and 0.5 m east of Rt 896. You can park on a solid shoulder a hundred yards west of the monument, but traffic makes it hard to walk safely to the monument. The Cooch home is private property. -- When the British marched north from Newark up Paper Mill Road (Rt 72)
and Limestone Road (Rt 7) and Kaolin Road to Kennett Square PA
Washington moved his army north up Rt 100 to Chadds Ford.
The main armies finally clashed at the Battle of the Brandywine on Sept 11.
Visit the
-- The Chesapeake Bay Water Trail
National Historic Trail is part of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network,
which includes 150 parks, wildlife refuges, museums, sailing ships,
historic communities, trails and more.
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Lodging in the Northern Delaware![]() Wilmington:
Christiana:
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