ALBEMARLE LN REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 
272 
peculiar. The people of these areas were isolated in early colo- 
nial days ; intermarried chiefly with each other generation after 
generation, and formed permanent relationships which may he 
traced even now after the lapse of two centuries. At the time of 
the Revolution there were only two roads traversing Vii’ginia 
from north to south. One passed from Philadelj^hia, by way of 
Newcastle, Del., Annapolis, Md., Alexandria, Fredericksburg, 
and Williamsburg, to the western settlements of North Carolina, 
crossing all rivers near the head of navigation exce|)t the James 
and the Roanoke. This road was serviceable only for passenger 
traffic, and for through travel was used almost exclusively by 
horsemen. The other was “ The Great Waggon Road ” from Phil- 
adelphia to the head of the Yadkin, in North Carolina. It fol- 
lowed the course of the ancient Indian road used for centuries 
before by the tribes of the east in their excursions from the 
Atlantic seal)oard to the great hunting grounds in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, and as early as 1750 was the principal line of com- 
merce between the Northern states and the Carolinas and Geor- 
gia. It traversed the entire length of the Shenandoah valley, 
crossing the Potomac some 20 miles above Harpers Ferry, near 
the mouth of the Couococheague creek. It was the position of 
the Couococheague upon this great highway which gave it such 
prominence in the days when the site of the national capital was 
being selected, and which almost led to the location of the capital 
here rather than where it now stands. 
The main artery of Virginia was the James, and it was to the 
fact that the county of Albemarle was near its head and at that 
time almost upon the western frontier that its peculiar relation 
to the events of the Revolution was due. 
Twenty-five miles east of Monticello is the great fork of the 
James river, which at that time was considered to be its head. 
Here two streams converge to form one greater one ; the northern- 
most is the Rivanna, which rises on the eastern slopes of the 
Blue Ridge, then flows by Charlottesville and through the pass 
at Monticello; the southernmost the Fluvanna, rising far to the 
west in the midst of the Alleghanies, breaking through the Blue 
Ridge at Balcony hills (close to the Natural bridge), a hundred 
miles or more above its junction with the Rivanna. This, which 
is far the more important of the two, is now called the “ Upper 
James.” 
The names of these streams are monuments to the loyalty of 
the early colonists. The James bears the name of the monarch 
