Cornwall’s Headquarters Marker

Cornwallis's Headquarters Marker
Next to the Hunter-Lawrence-Jessup House
58 North Broad St.
Map / Directions to the Cornwallis's Headquarters Marker
Map / Directions to all Woodbury Revolutionary War Sites

After the Battle of Red Bank, which occurred three miles from here on October 22, 1777, some seriously wounded Hessian soldiers were sent to Woodbury. (Hessians were German mercenary soldiers who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War.) They were cared for at the Friends Meeting House (See next entry) and the Deptford School House, which stood at the site where the Woodbury Public Library is now located. Those that died were buried in a strangers burial ground on nearby Wood Street. That cemetery was condemned circa 1915, and the remains and stones were moved two-and-a-half miles from here to the Old Deptford Strangers Burial Ground. [1]

A month after the Battle of Red Bank, British troops occupied Woodbury, and General Cornwallis set up headquarters on this street across from the Court House at the house of John Cooper from November 21-24, 1777.  Cooper himself was a patriot who was active in Revolutionary War era politics, and he had to flee his home when it was seized by Cornwallis. The Cooper house no longer stands. It was located where the PNC parking lot is, about 100 yards down North Broad St. [2] John Cooper is buried in the Woodbury Friends Meeting House cemetery. (See next entry.)