The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-04-17
TO CELEBRATE HISTORI-
CAL EVENT in HAIR
FORD COUNTY

The Historical Society of Hartford
Comfy is planning the celebration on
May 2, of the Sesqui-C Centennial of
Lafayett's having crossed the Sus-
quehanna River in 1881, and having
Iquelled a mutiny at the old Rigbie
house near Conowingo in Hartford
county.
At the beginning Of 1881 the
American Army was in desperate
condition. Arnold had turned trail
tor; the Pennsylvania and New
Jersey troops had mutinied; Rocham-
beau and the French fleet were de-
laying at Newport, R. l., and Wash
ington was watching Gen. Clinton in
New York, afraid to attack him WITH
out the aid of the French.
With this state of affairs, Wash
ington detached 1900 Northern
troops, under Gen. Lafayette, with
the idea of capturing the traitor
Arnold, who was then ravaging
Virginia, to checkmate CORVALLIS
with a far superior force, and to join
Gen. Greene, who was then in the
south.
With the example of the mutinies
of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey
troops, the lack of shoes, clothing
and supplies and the actual desertion
of nine of his Rhode Island Com
panies at Elkton at the beginning of his
march, Lafayett was DESTROYS of
Having as many rivers as possible
behind us, to prevent desertion. "
After having impressed every avail
able wagon and team in Cecil county,
by authority both of Washington and
Governor Lee of Maryland, he made
the fording of the Susquehanna at
Bald Friar with these wagons and
teams.
On the night of Friday, April 10,
1881, while he and his officers were
at supper in the old Rigbie house,
word was brought them that
mutiny among the remaining of his
1900 troops was brewing. A coun-
Gil was Immediately held in this old
room of the Rigbie manson, and it
was decided first of all that Walter
Pigot, a spy who was incarcerated
in Col. Rigbie's jail, should be
hung in the morning, and procla-
nation was issued to the soldiers
assembled in the sight of the spy
swinging from branch of tree in
front of the house, which Lafayette
reports to Washington as follows:
''On my arrival on this side of the
Susquehanna / made an order for
the troops wherein / endeavored to
throw a kind of infamy upon deser-
ton. Since then desertion has been
lessend. 1t had been announced in
general orders that the detachment
was intended. to fight an enemy far
superior in number under difficult
ties of every sort. That the general
was, for his part, determined to en-
counter them, might dispense with
the danger and crime of desertion,
as everyone of them who should
apply to headquarters, for pass to
join their corps in the north might
be sure to obtain it Immediately"
AS result of this, not one deserted.
Had Lafayett's diplomacy failed
in carrying his troops with him to
occupy Gen. CORVALLIS along the
James River in Virginia during the
summer months of 1881, gradually
driving him down to Yorktown and
preventing his escape to North Caro-
lima, Washington, Rochambeau and
de Grasse might have arrived too
late, at the end of September, and
the Battle of Yorktown in October,
1881, might never have been fought.
The crossing of the Susquehanna
at Bald Friar by Lafayette and his
troops was matter of great diff
Guilty, owing to the rocky bed of the
river at that point. The Journal of
Baron de Closon, which is one of the
valued possessions of the Library OF
Congress, describes this crossing as
adiabolique."
The scow in which Lafayette was
making the crossing struck upon a
rock near the Hartford county shore,
and Aquila Beaver came to the rescue
and carried Lafayette on his sholders
to dry land. When Lafayette re-
l. A-.o~soo &c kho nr,tocf of