In Central Virginia, the names Hessian Hills and Barracks Road are among the reminders of a Revolutionary War POW camp built in Albemarle County.
After their capture at the Battle of Saratoga, thousands of British and Hessian prisoners of war — as well as their families — began a journey from Massachusetts to Albemarle County in November 1778. That move was intended to keep the risk of a rescue mission to a minimum.
The POWs were headed toward several hundred acres near Ivy Creek, owned by Col. John Harvie — an attorney and Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Enslaved people cleared the undeveloped area and simple housing structures started to go up: The Albemarle Barracks.
Travis Shaw works with the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area and took part in a recent chat about the barracks hosted by Encyclopedia Virginia. He said that 18 people lived in each of about 300 huts.
“They begin arriving at the barracks in January (1779), again kind of arriving in stages and what they find there is profoundly disappointing,” Shaw said. “Most of the huts were unfinished at this point or so poorly constructed that they're pretty much uninhabitable. … And it's really up to them to kind of improve them and put them into some sort of livable condition.”
They built churches, stores and taverns, and Thomas Jefferson visited a theater that was constructed there. A combination of local militias, and Virginia troops guarded the new outpost — though higher-ranking British officers were given significant leeway and allowed to live elsewhere.
In October 1780, the British landed in Portsmouth, again presenting the Americans with consternation over a possible mission to rescue the soldiers. By February of the next year, The Albemarle Barracks had been abandoned and the POWs moved north.
None of the encampment’s buildings exist today — in part due to locals picking over the evacuated parcel. A historic marker along Barracks Farm Road and some other scattered local place names serve as reminders of the soldiers’ temporary home.