LOCATION: USCT Monument, intersection of VA 610 (Maddens Tavern Road) and VA 725 (Youngs Lane), Lignum

Pursued by British Major Banastre Tarleton, the Marquis de Lafayette camped near here June 4 – 6, 1781. Lafayette commanded about 3,000 Continental soldiers and militia which were positioned between Great Fork Church, about one-half mile to the east, and Robert Slaughter’s home, over a mile to the northwest along the old Fredericksburg Plank Road. The Slaughter home was later named The Grange after Lafayette’s home in France, while the field south of Slaughter’s home became known as the Quarter Field. On June 6, 1781 Lafayette moved west on Kirtley Road and then south along the Carolina Road to cross the Rapidan River at Raccoon Ford. Four days later reinforcements from Pennsylvania under Gen. Anthony Wayne joined Lafayette‘s forces against Tarleton and General Cornwallis.

Marker installed November 16, 2024

Reference Material

“La Grange,” Jeffries, Margaret; Virginia Historical Inventory Project; Virginia Conservation Commission. Division of History.; United States. Works Progress Administration, 1937

United States Geological Survey map showing the location of the Lagrange community.

Modern map showing the Lagrange area and the location of sites associated with Lafayette’s 1781 campaign in Culpeper.

A. Culpeper Church, more properly known as the Great Fork Church or Lower Church.
Lafayette called it the “Culpeper Church”, but it was more often known as the Great Fork Church or Lower Church. It was the first church built (1733) in what became Culpeper County (1749), Virginia. It is thought that Lafayette’s troops
camped along the Fredericksburg Plank Road on the evening of June 4 and June 5, 1781 extending from the Great Fork Church (A) to just south of the home of Robert Slaughter (B).

B. La Grange, formerly known as the Robert Slaughter home.
This name was given to this farm when Lafayette was here in June 1781. The Grange is a French word for the farm and it was named for Lafayette’s home in the French community of Courpalay in the Seine-et-Marne département of France.
The historic Slaughter home was later referred to as The Grange or just Grange. Lafayette’s home was situated 30-miles east of Paris, its full name is “Chateau de la Grange-Bléneau” but it was referred to by its most famous resident and
future generations as “La Grange”. From 1799 until his death in 1834, this was home to “The Hero of Two Worlds” the Marquis de Lafayette, who championed liberty in both America and France.

C. Quarter Field
This tract contained seven hundred-thirty acres which Robert Slaughter Jr. bought from William Jackson. This was part of the land that Lafayette’s men were quartered on June 4 and June 5, 1781. Ever since which time it has been known as
the Quarter Field. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, quite a few relics of this war have been dug up here, things such as bridly(e) bits, short swords, etc. It was while staying here that Lafayette, speaking of the farm, used the French word for it, giving it the name which it still bears.