The American Revolution     -     The Southern Campaign

Locating Boyd's Ferry The following land plat was created while the 1858 covered bridge was still in use over Dan River at South Boston and the ferry location was still common knowledge. Because the stone support columns for the bridge have never been removed they were recently used as the reference point for locating the ferry landing on the north side of the river. Notice the river depot. This was used to transfer batteau cargo, presumably tobacco, to the Richmond & Danville R.R. which was completed to South Boston in 1854. Ann Brownlee, president of the Trading Ford Historic District Preservation Association of Rowan County, North Carolina, visited the Boyd's Ferry site in South Boston on March 30, 2006. Trading Ford near Salisbury, North Carolina, was one of several river crossings of Gen. Nathanael Greene's colonial army on its retreat from Cowpens battlefield in South Carolina on their way to the Dan River crossing. Ann Brownlee and other enthusiasts of the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War all along this route are reviving the history of this little-known series of events know as the Retreat to the Dan, the Race to the Dan, and the Crossing of the Dan. The planned, permanent, interpretive exhibit in The Prizery, overlooking Boyd's Ferry, will bring new life to this story. Douglas Powell, local historian, discusses the Crossing of the Dan exhibit plans with Ann Brownlee on the top floor of The Prizery where it overlooks the original Boyd's Ferry site. Ann, with her GPS unit in-hand, records the ferry location for future map creating use. This is an early plat of where the Boyd's Ferry road was located south of the river and east of Lawson Creek. This plat was researched and contributed by Faye Royster Tuck and was published in her book "Yesterday - Gone Forever".      Back