Tag: Williamsport MD

Wikipedia says: Williamsport is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States.

The town lies on one of the early Native American trails between New York and the Carolinas. In the mid-18th century, tens of thousands of European settlers and pioneer families with their wagons followed the same route on the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to Virginia and points south and west. In 1744, a ferry was established at the present site of Williamsport to carry the traffic across the Potomac River. Today’s travelers make the crossing on Interstate 81 a mile downriver from the town.

In 1755 the land tract of Thomas Cresap (Jr.) named “Leeds” at the future site of Williamsport would become an important supply depot for the Braddock expedition to capture the French fort Duquesne (at present Pittsburgh). Supplies were transported to this place both west from Rock Creek (today’s Georgetown) and south from Pennsylvania. Col. Thomas Dunbar’s 48th regiment of the British Army encamped here on May 1, 1755, before ferrying across the Potomac River and marching two days south to rejoin Sir Thomas Halkett’s 44th regiment north of Winchester, Virginia. Just over two months later Dunbar, the highest-ranking surviving, unwounded officer, would lead the remains of the tattered army through Williamsport to Frederick, Maryland on the retreat to Philadelphia.

The land of present-day Williamsport was previously owned by Otho Holland Williams, a Continental Army officer in the American Revolutionary War, and for whom the town is named.