New Anthony Wayne Historic Marker Dedication at Noland’s Ferry
The largest troop movement through western Maryland during the Revolutionary War will be commemorated at an Historic Marker dedication on Thursday, May 28 at Nolands Ferry on the Potomac River in Frederick County.
The marker, entitled “Anthony Wayne’s Potomac Crossing,” is a cooperative venture between the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Sgt. Lawrence Everhart Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Other partners in the dedication ceremony are the Maryland Two Fifty Commission, the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Frederick County US Semiquincentennial Commission, and the Frederick and Carrollon Manor Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
The dedication ceremony will be held at the Nolands Ferry Picnic Area of the C&O Canal Park, Tuscarora, Maryland, reached via New Design Road about two miles south of MD Route 28. After the ceremony, MDOT will install the marker in its permanent location at the intersection of MD Route 28 and New Design Road.
The Nolands Ferry historic marker will be the second in Frederick County, and the third in western Maryland, after previous marker installations at the Bruceville Encampment site in Carroll County, and at the Monocacy River encampment site in the City of Frederick’s Riverside Park. A fourth marker is planned for a site near the Hessian Barracks in Frederick.
The May 28 ceremony will begin at 2:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For further information, contact Michael Moore at 301-676-9562, or Edward Spannaus at 301-969-8001.
The text of the marker is as follows: ANTHONY WAYNE’S POTOMAC CROSSING ON MAY 31, 1781, GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE AND AROUND 1,100 PENNSYLVANIA CONTINENTAL TROOPS, CROSSED THE POTOMAC RIVER AT NOLAND’S FERRY, LOSING 4 MEN TO DROWNING, ON THEIR WAY TO REINFORCE THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE IN VIRGINIA. THEY MET LAFAYETTE’S TROOPS SOUTH OF THE RAPIDAN RIVER NEAR CHARLOTTESVILLE ON JUNE 10TH. FACING LAFAYETTE’S AND WAYNE’S COMBINED FORCES, BRITISH GENERAL CHARLES CORNWALLIS WITHDREW TO YORKTOWN. HE SURRENDERED OCTOBER 19TH.
