24/02/2026
On his 33rd birthday, February 11, 1781, Colonel Edward Carrington was busy performing the greatest service he made in the cause of American independence—a service that may have determined the outcome of the war.
A lawyer from Virginia, Carrington had embraced the Patriot cause from the earliest days of the revolution, serving as an artillery officer in the Continental Army for the first five years of the war.
When Nathanael Greene took command of the southern American army in late 1780, he appointed Carrington as the army’s quartermaster general. It was likely not an assignment that Carrington found desirable. As Greene himself had protested when George Washington appointed him quartermaster of the army, “Nobody ever heard of a quartermaster in history.” But Washington knew how crucial the job was and he knew that Greene was the right man for it. And of course history now remembers that Greene’s brilliance in the role helped keep the American army alive, clothed, and fed during the some of the revolution’s darkest days. So General Greene knew as well as anyone how vitally important Carrington’s job would be. He had come to be impressed by the colonel’s diligence and attention to detail and he entrusted him with a mission that would eventually save the American army from destruction and help turn the tide of the war.
From the time he took command of the army, Greene planned carefully for all contingencies. Unlike his predecessor Horatio Gates, who hadn’t even planned for what to do in case he lost the next battle, Greene looked distantly into the future, like a master chess player. He instructed Carrington to scout the rivers of North Carolina and southern Virginia, to determine crossing points should retreats become necessary. Most importantly in light of future events, he instructed Carrington to make plans for how the American army could cross the Dan River, should that become necessary, and assuming the British to be in hot pursuit.
Those plans came to fruition in February 1781. On February 9 in Guilford County, North Carolina, Greene and his senior officers decided the American army was too weak to give battle to Cornwallis. Instead, they decided to retreat into Virginia, where the army could be rested, reprovisioned, and reinforced. But how to make it to and across the river with the British army in pursuit? Thanks to the work of Edward Carrington, Greene had a plan that might trick the Cornwallis long enough to allow them to pull it off.
From his scouting efforts Carrington had learned that only the westerly “upper” fords on the Dan River were fordable at that time of year, the “lower” fords being too deep to wade across. Any crossing at the lower fords would require boats. Of course, the British knew this too. They also thought they knew that there weren’t enough boats on the river to carry the army across quickly. What they didn’t know was that Carrington had for months been secretly gathering all the boats along the Dan River, keeping them carefully hidden from Tory spies. Carrington recommended that Greene march the army to the lower fords, where it could be ferried across the river on his makeshift flotilla.
To deceive the British, Greene sent 700 men under the command of Colonel Otho Holland Williams on a march toward the upper fords, decoying the British into thinking they were the entire American army, marching toward the only usable crossing points on the river. Cornwallis took the bait, and Williams led him to the north and west, while General Greene and the bulk of the army marched north and east, toward the lower fords, where Carrington’s boats were waiting.
By the time Cornwallis figured out that he was being duped, Greene and his army had made it safety. Williams then turned his light corps and dashed for the crossings, with Cornwallis nipping at this tail the entire way. It was a grueling and precarious race, but Williams made it across the river on Carrington’s boats, crossing on February 14, just ahead of his British pursuers. When the British arrived at the southern bank of the river, all they could do was look across in frustration at the boats tied to the opposite shore, and at the sentries jeering back at them. The Americans had won the Race to the Dan.
Acclaimed and praised for his success, Carrington went on to serve as Greene’s quartermaster general for the rest of the war. After the war he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and in 1807 he was the foreman of the jury that heard Aaron Burr’s treason trial.
At age 27, Edward Carrington had been in the crowd standing outside the windows of St. John’s Church in Richmond as the Second Virginia Convention met inside. There he listened as Patrick Henry delivered his famous “Liberty or Death” speech. After Henry’s dramatic conclusion, Carrington turned to his friends and said, “Boys, I want to be buried here! On this very spot!” Carrington died in October 1810 at age 62. He is buried on the very spot where he was standing when he heard Patrick Henry’s speech.
Edward Carrington was born on February 11, 1748, two hundred seventy-eight years ago today.
