The C&O Canal Companion: Updated Edition

C&O Canal > The Endless Mountains > Cox's Plantation

Notes on "Cox's Plantation" at the Mouth of the Little Cacapon

Reference in C&O Canal Companion:
Historical Sketch, p. 6-7 and Canal Guide Mile 159.5

To be added

Mile 159.5 :

From the riverbank, the mouth of the Little Cacapon River is visible on the West Virginia side of the Potomac. This was the site of Cox's Plantation, a prominent way-station for travelers coming through western Virginia. General Braddock's two regiments crossed here on their way to Cumberland (then known as Will's Creek) in 1755. They had come about 15 miles from "Enoch's" at the Forks of the Cacapon, crossing one stream "19 times in 2 miles," and camped at Cox's. (Interestingly, George Washington had surveyed both of these properties for "Friend Cox" and Henry Enoch just five years earlier in 1750.)

On May 8th, Halkett's 48th Regiment was ferried upstream to Town Creek and marched from there on an inland road to their next encampment at Oldtown (mile 166.7). The 44th Regiment arrived at Cox's several days later.

Sources:

Photo taken by author, April 28, 2002.
The surveys for Enoch and Cox are included in a listing of Washington's land surveys from 1749-1752 in Volume 1 of the Colonial Series, The Papers of George Washington, University Press of Virginia, 1983. [see pages 8-37]
The "Seaman's Journal" indicates that the Potomac crossing was made on May 8th, with an 8-mile march to "Jackson's," and then on to Cresap?s Oldtown. (This account is referred to as the "Seaman's Journal" because it describes the activities of a small party of Commodore Keppel's seamen who accompanied the expedition to handle some of the logistics, including the "float" across the Potomac at Cox's--the keeper of the journal is thought to be Lieutenant Charles Spendelow.)
Enoch's was at the "Forks of Cape Capon," according to the entry of May 5th in the "Seaman's journal." In his journal, Captain Cholmsley's batman refers to this stopping-place for Dunbar's 48th Regiment as "Kennetts," also on the 5th. Halkett's Orderly Book dates the 44th Regiment's stay at the "waters of Cape Capen" on May 8-10, with a subsequent encampment "between Enoxes & Coves" on May 11th.

Also on the Web:

See Notes on Braddock's Road in this collection for a complete list of sources on Braddock's Road.
For other way-stations on Braddock's route, see Williamsport, Oldtown, Fort Cumberland, and Routes West in this collection.