BERRY HILL 



Pittsylvania County 



ERRY HILL, Pittsylvania County, is one of the 

 Colonial places of Virginia, probably the oldest 

 place equally far inland. It was the home of the 

 Hairston family, who originally inherited it from 

 the Perkins', into which family the Hairstons' 

 ancestors married. It has never been sold, but has 

 passed down from the original grant from the King of England 

 only by successive wills for about three hundred years, and is now 

 the property of Mrs. Ruth Hairston Sims, who inherited it from 

 her great-grandmother. It is located on Dan River, in Pittsyl- 

 vania County, Virginia, and Rockingham County, North Carolina, 

 and happens to be at the point where the Colonial army, under 

 General Greene, crossed this river in his famous strategic retreat 

 before the army of General Cornwallis after the battle of Guil- 

 ford Courthouse. 



After effecting the crossing of Dan River under great difficulty, 

 General Greene camped his army on the river bank, where he pre- 

 pared to, and did, offer resistance to his pursuers. The heavy 

 rains under which this crossing was effected caused the river to rise 

 abnormally and cover the extensive bottom lands, forcing General 

 Greene's army to move back on the flat land. Cornwallis' forces 

 drew up on the bluff on the right, or south, bank of Dan River, 

 from where his artillery opened fire. The Berry Hill house, in 

 which General Greene had taken up his headquarters, overlooked 

 this crossing and battlefield, and in the cannonading the old outside 

 chimney that served General Greene's room was struck but not 

 wholly destroyed, and was later successfully repaired. 



There has been some controversy as to the exact spot on Dan 

 River at which General Greene's crossing was effected, but this was 

 finally settled in 1896 when the unprecedented severe freshet 



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