822 Revolutionary Soldiers Cross Dix Ferry

Dix Ferry on Dan River played an important role during the Revolutionary War.

Danny Ricketts and Herman Melton at the site of Dix's Ferry March 1993

A Court of Claims was held at Pittsylvania Courthouse on the 18th day of March 1782 for “adjusting claims for property impressed or taken for Publick Service” during the Revolutionary War. Present on that day were James Roberts, John Dix, William Witcher, Reuben Payne, John parks, Jeremiah White, Daniel Hankins Sr., and Samuel Short, Esquire. There were many claims submitted by Capt. John Dix for ferrying hundreds of wagons, horses and cows across Dan River at his ferry. Two more courts of claims were held in October of 1782.

The first entry for John Dix is “For ferriage for 12 Wagons with 4 horses, Continental Troops @ 2/6” for a total of one pound and 10 Shillings.

*Other entries are for supplies: “For 20 bushels of Oats @ 2/, four bushels of corn @ 15/ and passage of 18 horses @9/ for Continental Troops” for a total of three pounds and one shilling. *One entry is “For the ferriage of 77 Continental Troops. One wagon & Team 2/6 and two riding horse” for a total of two pounds seven and a half shillings.

*For one high priced musket “impressed for State Troops” the claim is for seven pounds.

*The same charge of seven pounds for one ferry boat “impressed for Continental Troops and Lost.” This is probably one of the boats taken down Dan River to Irvin’s and Boyd’s Ferries for General Green’s crossing of the Dan while being pursued by Lord Cornwallis.


The many claims by John Dix in 1782 for the previous year, according to my count, were a total of 822 soldiers and officers of the State and Continental troops, 79 wagons, 61 horses, and 21 head of cattle. These troops were a diversion to mislead and delay the British under Lord Cornwallis away from the main army who crossed the Dan River downstream in Halifax County.

The tactic was entirely successful in allowing General Nathaniel Green’s American troops to cross the flooded Dan River before the British could overtake them. When Lord Cornwallis and his men arrived at the Dan River all the boats were on the other side. The retreated to the south.

In March of 1993, we rediscovered the site of Dix's Ferry by researching deeds in the courthouse. George Dix, a lineal descendant of John Dix is left of Herman Melton and I in this photo.

Also with the team that day was Ralph McCormack, whose wife is a Dix descendant and Bernard Baker who published an article entitled "Historians Find Dix Ferry Site" ( Danville Register & Bee Wednesday March 3, 1993). I believe it was Leon Townsend who was along and behind the camera.

Pittsylvania’s Finest Horse Killed By British Cannonball

Finest Horse Killed By British Cannonball

Dix's Ferry was located four miles down Dan River from where Danville was established in 1793. In colonial times, before the Revolutionary War,Capt. John Dix owned 165 acres surrounding the original 25-acre of Danville and 903 acres at the ferry.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, John Dix, who operated Dix’s Ferry on Dan River in Pittsylvania County, was appointed captain of militia. His son William Dix became an ensign in February of 1777 and was promoted to captain in October of that year.

A traveler sketched this map of Dix's Ferry on Dan River. The two-story house described in 1771 is shown. A note states that "Dan River Dividing Virginia from North Carolina." The line is very near the ferry crossing.

A soldier, Hugh Barr (O’Barr) stated that on April 10, 1780, he “enlisted in the U.S. Army at the home of John Dix as a drummer at Dix Ferry, four miles below the big falls with Capt. William Dix.” “Not liking his situation as drummer as had been anticipated, he was permitted by Capt. Dix to relinquish his then new situation and to shoulder a musket and take his station in the ranks as a private soldier.” The company marched from Dix’s Ferry, under Capt. William Dix, to Hillsborough, N. C. and then to a place called Cross Creek. At one of these places, he was placed under the command of a Capt. Samuel, Adjutant Washington and Col. William Moore. Barr was at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina where Lord Cornwallis was defeated and at the Battle of Guildford Courthouse on March 15, 1781 and at the surrender at Yorktown.. In his deposition on February 11, 1833, Bar stated that when he enlisted he resided in Caswell County, N.C. with his father Michael O’Barr.

According to his son John M. Dix, Capt. William Dix “collected a company of 80 men and he and the men he had raised met at Whitlock’s Store, the place appointed for the rendezvous of the troops of the county and being already in commission was appointed to the command of a company about the first of November 1780” and in the spring following joined Gen. Green.” This information is unlikely to be accurate. Capt. William Dix married Rebeckah Booker on July 30, 1781. John M. Dix made this deposition in 1854, some 73 years before and this all happened before John M. Dix was born. Whitlock’s Store was probably the store at Barksdale Station down Dan River in Halifax County. It is unlikely that 80 Pittsylvania men would meet there before heading off to North Carolina. John M. Dix received the land which included the grist mill on Hances Creek and the north side ferry landing on Dan River and the landing on the south side by his father’s 1800 will. His father William had been dead for 54 years when he made these statements. He probably confused stories by other Revolutionary veterans.

Another account is more likely to be accurate. Thomas Smith (b 1763), who served under Capt. William Dix, stated that he joined as a volunteer and rendezvoused in February of 1781 at John Pigg’s Mill on Banister River. John Pigg bought land of both sides of Banister River in 1763, before Pittsylvania became a county, and built his mill. Shortly after Pittsylvania became a county in 1767, John Pigg was appointed captain of militia and the monthly musters were held on his land near the mill. John Pigg was reluctant to renounce the King and pronounced a traitor, but later signed the Oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia in their demand for independence from England. One of the major claims against him was the fact that he was a user of the “detestable East India tea.” Colonist were boycotting the tea because of a tax by England placed on its import.

Smith said that the William Dix company marched from Pigg’s Mill under Col. William Campbell, Major Anthony Crockett across the Dan River at Perkins Ferry. This route was down the Berry Hill Road, crossing the Dan River near the North Carolina state line. Col. Peter Perkins, one of the highest military officers of his time, lived at Berry Hill, west of the ferry. His brother Constantine Perkins lived in the old home place on the south side of Dan River near the ferry landing. Another brother Nicholas Perkins owned land surrounding the north side ferry landing.

The company marched to Salem (Winston-Salem) in North Carolina and on to the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin River where they joined with Gen. Nathaniel Green’s army. Then they marched to Guildford Courthouse where they camped a few days before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse which took place on March 15, 1781.

After about an hour and a half, when both side had lost a number of brave men, Capt. William Dix and others retreated to the Speedwell Iron Works on Troublesome Creek, west of the present Reidsville in Rockingham County, North Carolina. Smith became sick and was hospitalized at Hillsborough in Orange County, N. C., where he remained until he was discharged by Capt. Dix in August of 1781.

Capt. William Dix led his company of Pittsylvania County, Virginia soldiers into battle at Guildford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. He was riding his prize English mare. The “nag” was said to have been worth 100 guineas.

A year later, Capt. Dix came to Pittsylvania County Court of Claims and sought 30 pounds for “One bay mare killed in the action at the Guilford action.” As a comparison, during that same period at the state capital of Williamsburg, a journeyman trades person received an average of 30 pounds a year. Imagine paying a years salary for a horse.

Capt. William Dix made other claims in March 1782 for supplies, which were impressed, for Revolutionary War use. His father, Capt. John Dix made claims for ferrying hundreds of troops, wagons, horses and cattle across Dan River during the War.

John Dix came from Essex County to settle on Dan River in 1766, “in the 7th year of King George III,” while this area was still a part of Halifax County and was granted a license to operate his ferry. Dix’s Ferry was four miles down Dan River from where the original town of Danville was chartered by the General Assembly much later in 1793. High above the ferry site, just above Hances Creek, John Dix built his house. The house is no longer there but the rather large graveyard with lots of fieldstone markers west of the old ferry road at the top of the hill.

In 1771, John Dix owned both ferry tract and the 165-acre tract surrounding the 25 acres which became Danville. He called his pre-Danville tract, with an operating water-powered gristmill “Palm Tree Springs.” (see a separate post). He ran an advertisement in the Williamsburg Gazette offering to lease one or both tracts.

In that same advertisement (shown above), his father described their house, William Dix was about sixteen years old at that time. His ferry tract had “a good dwelling house with three rooms and a passage below and two above, a cellar underneath and every convenient outhouse, stables for 24 horses and a garden newly paled-in 160 feet square, a tailor’s and blacksmith shop on premises with a set of blacksmith tools and a good still.”

Apparently, John Dix leashed his “Palm Tree Springs” tract with the mill. He was still living on his ferry tract in 1772 and he applied to build a grist mill on Hances Creek above the ferry. That same year, he applied to operate an ordinary (tavern) at his dwelling house. John Dix was involved in just about everything. At various times, he was captain in the militia, one of “His Majesty’s Justices,” Sheriff, and corner.

During the Revolutionary War, the Dix men owned 1,768 acres of land in Pittsylvania: John Dix 903 acres, William Dix 500 acres, Larkin Dix (oldest son) 165 acres (this is the “Palm Tree Springs” tract), and James Dix 200 acres. I believe that James Dix, who died in 1790 and owned land on Dan River east of the ferry, was a brother of John.

John Dix was born in 1729. Another notice in the “Virginia Gazette and American Advertiser” the exact minute of his death: “John Dix - 28 November 1783 at 20 minutes after 8 o’clock in the A.M. died Capt. John Dix of Pittsylvania in the 55th year of his age, after days of painful illness which he bore with fortitude.”

John Dix wrote his will on October 28, 1783, exactly a month before he died. The will stated: “I give unto my son William Dix all land that I now possess in Pittsylvania County whereon I now live, together with the ferry, not to interrupt one third my beloved wife in any of the above land or premises for and during her natural life. Also I give to William Dix a Negro named Daniel.”