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2019 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 649
Designating December 5, in 2019 and in each succeeding year, as Susanna Bolling Day in Virginia.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 4, 2019
Agreed to by the Senate, February 20, 2019

 

WHEREAS, Susanna Bolling was born on December 5, 1764, in the village of City Point, now known as Hopewell, in Prince George County; and

WHEREAS, during the Revolutionary War, Susanna Bolling lived on her family’s plantation in City Point, and in late May 1781, when she was 16 years old, British General Charles Cornwallis arrived unexpectedly on the plantation with the entire British Southern Army and quartered overnight; and

WHEREAS, Susanna Bolling overheard General Cornwallis’s plan to capture the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general who was a key American ally, the next morning at the Half Way House, located midway between Richmond and Petersburg, which is still in operation in Chesterfield County; and

WHEREAS, in the middle of the night, Susanna Bolling snuck out of her home through a secret underground tunnel, crossed the Appomattox River in a canoe, borrowed a neighbor’s horse, rode through pitch darkness to the Half Way House, and warned General Lafayette of General Cornwallis’s plan to capture him; and

WHEREAS, thanks to Susanna Bolling’s warning, General Lafayette evaded capture and went on to play cat-and-mouse with the British Southern Army, trapping General Cornwallis and his soldiers in Yorktown by August 1781; and

WHEREAS, the Battle of Yorktown soon followed, resulting in Cornwallis’s surrender and a resounding British defeat that served as the last major land battle of the American Revolution; and

WHEREAS, the Patriot victory at Yorktown, which would not have been possible without Susanna Bolling’s courage, patriotism, and determination, prompted the British government to recognize America’s status as its own sovereign nation; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly designate December 5, in 2019 and in each succeeding year, as Susanna Bolling Day in Virginia; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates transmit a copy of this resolution to the Historic Hopewell Foundation so that members of the organization may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly of Virginia in this matter; and, be it

RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates post the designation of this day on the General Assembly's website.