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The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition, also known as the Transmontane Expedition, [1] took place in 1716 in the British Colony of Virginia. The Royal Governor and a number of prominent citizens traveled westward, across the Blue Ridge Mountains on an exploratory expedition. It is a frequently recounted event of the History of Virginia.
Alexander Spotswood became acting royal governor of Virginia in 1710, by which time pressure on the colony to expand had become more acute than ever. In 1716, Governor Spotswood, with about 50 other men and 74 horses, led an expedition up the Rappahannock River valley during westward exploration of the interior of Virginia. The journalist of this expedition was a Huguenot, Lieut. John Fontaine, who served as an officer in the British Army. [2]
The party included fourteen rangers and four Meherrin Indians, and departed Germanna on August 29, coming within sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains on August 31. They continued upriver past today's Stanardsville, reaching the head of the Rappahannock on September 2. Fontaine recorded in his journal for September 5 that axemen had to clear the way along the path of what he called the "James River", but which was in fact a creek along the eastern slope named Swift Run, surrounded on all sides by steep mountain terrain. Swift Run is part of the James River drainage system. The expedition had followed the Rappahannock drainage system up to this point.
There they crossed the top ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains at Swift Run Gap (elevation 2,365 feet).
On September 6, 1716, they rode down into the Shenandoah Valley on the east side of Massanutten Mountain and reached the Shenandoah River, which they called the "Euphrates" near the current town of Elkton. There, they fired multiple volleys and drank special toasts of wine, brandy, and claret to the King and to Governor Spotswood, naming the two peaks after them. [3] The taller summit they called "Mount George", and the lesser, "Mount Spotswood".
On the banks of the river they buried a bottle, inside which they had put a paper whereby Spotswood claimed the place in the name of George I. On September 7, the party returned home, reaching Germanna on September 10.
After the journey, Spotswood gave each officer of the expedition a stickpin made of gold and shaped like a horseshoe on which he had inscribed the words in Latin "Sic juvat transcendere montes", which translates into English as "Thus, it is pleasant to cross the mountains." [4] The horseshoes were encrusted with small stones and were small enough to be worn from a watch chain. [5] The members of Governor Spotswood's expedition soon became popularly known as the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe."
Of the expedition members, only the following are known by name to have taken part: Lt. Governor Spotswood, John Fontaine, Robert Beverley, Jr., Major William Woodford, William Robertson, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Todd, James Taylor (great-grandfather of US Presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor), Robert Brooke (grandfather of VA Governor Robert Brooke), George Mason III, Capt. Smith, William Clopton, Jr. (second son of William Clopton and Ann Booth Clopton), Jeremiah Clouder, and William Russell (Lt.-Col., Ranger, employed by Spotswood). [6] Edward Sanders' 1839 will of descendant Elijah Sanders mentions great-grandfather "Old Edward Sanders" as a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe.
In a Richmond news article, dated February 16, 1901, honoring John Bacon Clopton, the grandson of William Clopton, Jr.. The following is a copy of a handwritten statement, signed and sealed to be found among the John Bacon Clopton papers at Duke University Library, Durham, North Carolina:
There was in my father's possession a golden horseshoe which the tradition of the family said was worn by William Clopton Jr.. That it had 7 Diamonds set in it the place of nailheads, was inscribed on one side "Sic Juvat Trancsenderi Montes" and on the other "William Clopton, Knight." That as a child I have had it laid in my hand to look at and that it was of a size to encircle the center of my palm. And that this horseshoe was stolen by Pickpocket Smith, a notorious character, who operated among fashionable of Richmond in 1842 or 3. Witness my hand and seal this ninth day of August, 1897. Signed: Joyce Wilkinson Wallace
When Spotswood returned to Williamsburg, he actually claimed that the intention of the Expedition was to look for a way to Lake Erie, with a view to eventually thwarting the growing French presence in the region. He also sought permission from Britain to make a second expedition to scout for an outpost location on the Great Lakes; however he never received it. [6]
At a practical level, word of the expedition, and descriptions of the fertile valley land beyond the mountain range, apparently did not do much in the short-term to open the Shenandoah Valley for development from the east. The mountain range was a formidable barrier. Instead, most of the early settlers came down the Valley from the north, many of German and Scottish descent. Groups of Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania, and settled in the general area of present-day Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, where their descendants may still be found today.
Spotswood's expedition, which from all reports, traveled at a leisurely pace, encountered no conflict with Native Americans, and included frequent stops for celebrations and libations, earned a somewhat legendary status. The expedition's fame can also be attributed to providing further evidence supporting Virginians' self-image as being hospitable and loving of drink and conviviality. The fame was further enhanced when it was romanticized in The Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe, an early chivalric romance, authored by William Alexander Caruthers, and first published in 1845. Today, the horseshoe and pentagon are symbols of the Germanna Foundation, which supports archaeology on the site associated with the expedition.
A commemorative plaque and pyramid-shaped stone at Swift Run Gap (at the south side of U.S. Highway 33 near the Skyline Drive overpass) mark the historic crossing of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. [7] The Skyline Drive and the Appalachian Trail both pass nearby as well.
Also at this location, a Virginia Historical Highway Marker, # D10 Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, is located. It reads:
On 5 Sept. 1716, in this region, it is believed Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood and his party of government officials, gentry, Native Americans, soldiers, and servants crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. Their adventure into Virginia's western lands began at Germanna late in August and ended when they returned there on 10 September. According to legend, Spotswood gave his companions small golden horseshoes on their return and the group became known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. The journey has been fictionalized and mythologized in literature since the 19th century.
Today, the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe are those U.S. Army soldiers from the 100th Regiment recognized by their commanders for exemplary service and leadership, just as Governor Spotswood recognized the men in his 1716 expedition. Today's Knights of the Golden Horseshoe receive a small gold-painted horseshoe. They also are approved to wear a distinctive unit insignia, featuring a golden horseshoe emblazoned on a red shield. Originally approved for the 375th Field Artillery Regiment on April 27, 1933, the insignia was redesignated for the 100th Regiment on July 8, 1960. A coat of arms also exists for regiments and separate battalions of the U.S. Army Reserve: this coat of arms features the golden horseshoe emblazoned on a red shield, the red symbolizing Artillery. Over the shield stands a Lexington Minute Man Proper.
In West Virginia, there is a competition named after the Golden Horseshoe(s), since it was previously thought that Spotswood's party had penetrated as far as the current borders of the state. The Golden Horseshoe test has been administered in West Virginia each year since 1931 and is the longest running program of its kind in the United States. The top-scoring students in each county receive the award. Each county has at least two winners. The exam tests student knowledge on West Virginia citizenship, civics and government, economics, geography, history and current events. Since 2008, all eighth grade students take a test online to show their knowledge of West Virginia's history. The students with the highest scores are knighted and receive a golden horseshoe in Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital. [8]
Rockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,757. Its county seat is the independent city of Harrisonburg.
The Shenandoah Valley is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River, to the south by the James River, and to the Southwest by the New River Valley. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the Valley plus the Virginia Highlands to the west and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley Province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.
Alexander Spotswood was a British Army officer, explorer and lieutenant governor of Colonial Virginia; he is regarded as one of the most significant historical figures in British North American colonial history.
The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately 195 miles (314 km) in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west where it rises, across the Piedmont to the Fall Line, and onward through the coastal plain to flow into the Chesapeake Bay, south of the Potomac River.
The Rapidan River, flowing 88 miles (142 km) through north-central Virginia in the United States, is the largest tributary of the Rappahannock River. The two rivers converge just west of the city of Fredericksburg. The Rapidan River begins west of Doubletop Mountain in Shenandoah National Park where the Mill Prong meets the Laurel Prong at Rapidan Camp, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Big Meadows. The river defines the border of Orange County with Culpeper and Madison Counties.
Germanna was a German settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony.
John Lederer was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains. He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains (1669) and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. A map documenting his discoveries was integral to subsequent understanding of the interior.
Swift Run Gap is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains located in the U.S. state of Virginia.
William Woodford was a Virginia planter and militia officer who distinguished himself in the French and Indian War, and later became general of the 2nd Virginia Regiment in the American Revolutionary War, but was captured at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina and died of disease in New York City about six months later aboard a British prison ship.
Robert Beverley Jr. was a historian of early colonial Virginia, as well as a planter and politician.
U.S. Route 33 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from Elkhart, Indiana to Richmond, Virginia. In Virginia, the U.S. Highway runs 135.60 miles (218.23 km) from the West Virginia state line near Rawley Springs east to its eastern terminus at SR 33 in Richmond. US 33 is the primary east–west highway of Rockingham County, which lies in the Shenandoah Valley. The highway connects the independent city of Harrisonburg, the town of Elkton, and an entrance to Shenandoah National Park. East of the Blue Ridge Mountains, US 33 connects the Piedmont communities of Stanardsville, Gordonsville, and Louisa. The U.S. Highway is a major suburban and urban route in the Richmond metropolitan area. Within Richmond, US 33 runs concurrently with US 250. SR 33 continues from US 33's eastern terminus as a state-numbered extension of the U.S. Highway that connects Richmond with Virginia's Middle Peninsula.
McGaheysville is a Census-designated place located in Rockingham County, in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located along U.S. Route 33 between Penn Laird and Elkton, and sits at the base of the Massanutten.
George Mason III was an American planter, military officer, legislator and government official. Although he repeatedly won election to represent Stafford County in the then-one-house Virginia General Assembly, he may today be best known as the father of George Mason IV, a Founding Father of the United States.
Alexander Swift Pendleton was an officer on the staff of Confederate Generals Thomas J. Jackson, Richard S. Ewell and Jubal A. Early during the American Civil War.
With residency beginning in 1727, Adam Miller (Mueller) is recognized as the first permanent white settler in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, US. Born in 1703 in Schriesheim, Germany, Miller immigrated to America as a young married man, settling in Lancaster County, PA in 1724.
William Beverley (1696–1756) was an 18th-century legislator, civil servant, planter and landowner in the Colony of Virginia. Born in Virginia, Beverley—the son of planter and historian Robert Beverley, Jr. and his wife, Ursula Byrd Beverley (1681–1698)—was the scion of two prominent Virginia families. He was the nephew of Peter Beverley (1668–1728), Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and the grandson of wealthy Virginia planter William Byrd I (1652–1704) of Westover Plantation. Beverley's mother died shortly before her 17th birthday, and he was sent to England.
Richard Buckner was a Virginia attorney and land speculator who served many years as the clerk of Essex County and for three years served as clerk of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1712–1715). When Caroline County was created from Essex County, he held many offices in the new county, including winning election to represent it in the House of Burgesses.
Augustine Moore, nicknamed "Old Grubb", was a prominent tobacco merchant who became a planter and founder of the Moore family of Virginia. He may be best known for building Chelsea plantation, now on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the best-preserved 18th century buildings in the state.
George Hume was a Scottish-born American surveyor, colonial official, and key figure for his contributions to land surveying in the colony, particularly in the region that would become Culpeper County, Virginia. Hume also played a significant role in mentoring and training a young George Washington in the art of surveying. He was the cousin of Virginia Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood.