River crossings during the American Revolution were common events. Historians, patriotic organizations and living history enthusiasts focus on several of these crossings with commemorations and reenactments. The most celebrated of all crossings is Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware on December 25, 1776. State parks, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recognize the crossing and events of late 1776 and early 1777 that helped to change the course of the Revolution. Lord Charles Cornwallis’s crossing of the Catawba River, in North Carolina, at Cowans Ford on February 1, 1781, initiated Nathanael Greene’s race to the Dan River in Virginia. Greene’s crossing of the Dan took place on February 15 of that year. Both Cornwallis’s and Greene’s crossings are commemorated annually although Cowan’s Ford now lies inside the secure area of the McGuire Nuclear Power Station and is not readily accessible. Another river crossing in Virginia that is celebrated annually is Anthony Wayne’s crossing of the Potomac on May 31, 1781, in route to reinforce Lafayette in countering the maneuvers of Lord Cornwallis. Of the crossings above, only Cornwallis’s crossing of the Catawba was opposed by enemy forces. Each of these crossings were part of a larger campaign.
An opposed crossing in Virginia of the lower James River by Patriot forces under command of Col. William Woodford, in November of 1775, is relegated to a footnote in the Revolution. This crossing was one of the first operations in a series of linked events that evolved into the campaign to remove royal colonial governance from the Colony and later State of Virginia. Just as Washington’s crossing of the Delaware changed the course of the Revolution in the middle colonies, Woodford’s crossing of the James River in November 1775 changed the course of the Revolution in Virginia.[1] Opposed river crossings are dangerous and risky operations, particularly for new untrained or inexperienced units, and Woodford’s force, unlike Cornwallis’s at Cowans Ford, suffered no losses in this crossing. One of the important elements in the success experienced during this crossing was the effective employment of rifles by skilled Patriot riflemen.
The Rifle vs. the Musket
The first ten companies authorized as part of the new Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, later increased to thirteen companies, were designated as rifle companies.[2] The decision to specifically authorize rifle companies was to provide the New England units forming around Boston, often referred to as the as the “Army of Observation” and armed primarily with short range, smooth bore weapons, with accurate long range infantry firepower, increasing the standoff distance because Patriot forces lacked artillery.[3] Rifles were plentiful in the backcountry of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and these original rifle companies were formed in the western and norther counties of the colonies where strong Patriot sentiments dominated. Virginia’s initial contribution was two rifle companies commanded by Daneil Morgan from Frederick County and Hugh Stephenson from Berkeley County. These two companies along with Maryland’s two companies and Pennsylvania’s nine provided a national character to the new Continental Army. All thirteen companies went into action around Boston by mid-August 1775.[4]
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