Rochambeau Route — The March to Yorktown

In early September, seventeen eighty-one, the combined French and American armies paused near this spot along Poquessing Creek, camping overnight on their way to the decisive final campaign of the American Revolution. General George Washington and Lieutenant General Rochambeau led the force, and officers used the Red Lion Inn, formerly located here, as their command headquarters.

The march they were making, from the Hudson River all the way to Yorktown, Virginia, was one of the great strategic deceptions of the war. Washington let the British believe he was targeting New York while the real target was Cornwallis in Virginia. Moving through Bensalem Township along the old King's Path, the combined army covered the distance in weeks. Within two months of camping along this creek, they had compelled Cornwallis to surrender, effectively ending the war.