Part Four: Caroline Patriots Lie in Unmarked Graves
By Ed Simmons, Jr.
cpreporter@lcs.net
In January of 1780, the fifth year of the Revolutionary War, Brigadier General William Woodford with a number of Caroline men of the Virginia Brigade began a long, arduous winter march south from Morristown, New Jersey to Charleston, South Carolina to aid an American army commanded by General Benjamin Lincoln which was under siege by the British. Five years earlier, Woodford had led the 2nd Virginia Regiment to victory at Great Bridge, where British officers killed in the battle were buried at his direction with full military honors.
Later promoted to brigadier and given command of the 3rd Virginia Brigade, Woodford marched north to join General Washington's Continental Army, fighting at Brandywine in 1777 where he was wounded. The following winter he endured alongside Caroline troops at Valley Forge, and the following spring they fought with distinction at the Battle of Monmouth. The mission to Charleston, however, was an American disaster. Seven hundred Virginians survived the march from New Jersey, and only days after they entered the city's defenses early that April, General Lincoln was forced to surrender his force of 5,000. By now Woodford, an exhausted captive, was gravely ill, most likely with malaria. As was the custom with captured officers, Lincoln and other American officers were paroled, and Lincoln would later receive Cornwallis' sword at Yorktown.
But the British refused to release Woodford, most likely due to resentment over his vanquishing them at Great Bridge. Nearing death, Woodford was taken onboard the prison ship Packet and brought north to New York Harbor. He lingered on, not meeting his death until November, when British soldiers, returning the honor he had shown them, buried him with full military honors in Trinity Churchyard, New York City, on Nov. 13, 1780. Most likely there was a wooden board marking his grave, but it has long vanished and the church has no record of where he lies. To this day, the Revolutionary War hero from Caroline has no memorial stone. Nor is the fate known of other Caroline men captured at Charleston. Most died, presumably, because prisoner conditions were severe.
In recent years, Judge Jere Willis of Fredericksburg, who is a General Woodford descendant, sought to have a plaque mounted at Trinity Church to honor and remember his forbearer. Due to overcrowding, however, the church denied permission. Inquiries are now underway to honor General Woodford and his men with a plaque and a memorial stone to be located in Caroline. Bowling Green Mayor David Storke, assisting Judge Willis and his wife Barbara, has volunteered to provide a tombstone.
Watch for developments in The Caroline Progress.