"Took up the line of march at sunrise, passed through Frederick Town, Maryland and reached Powtomack, which, in crossing in Squows, one unfortunately sunk, loaded with artillery & Q. M. stores and men in which our Sergeant & three men were drowned; encamped on the S. W. side of the river. Night being very wet, our baggage not crossed, Officers of the Reg. took Quarters in Col. Clapham's Negro Quarter, where we agreeably passed the night.
"June 1st. Continued on our ground till four o'clock in the afternoon, when we mov'd five miles on the way to Leesburg.
"June 2d. Very wet day ... & continued till evening.
"3rd (Loudoun Co.) Took up the line of March at 10 o'clock, passed through Leesburg--the appearance of which I was much disappointed in; encamped at Goose Creek, 15 miles.
"4th. (Prince Wm. Co.) Marched from Goose Creek at six o'clock at which place left our baggage & sick, and proceeded through the low country. Roads bad in consequence of the rains; encamped at Red house 18 miles."
All writers of the period who describe the town agree that Leesburg, after twenty years or more of existence, was still a shabby little place, "of few and insignificant wooden houses" as one traveller records his impressions. The day of permanent buildings in the town had not yet arrived. Hardly an edifice standing in Leesburg today was then in existence.
While the Powells and the Masons, the Lees, the Claphams, the Nolands and the Rusts, the Chinns, the Peytons, the Mercers, the Ellzeys and others of her natural leaders and large landowning families of the time, had abetted and supported, in one capacity or another, the Revolutionary cause, it was, in the end, the simple, homespun, backwoodsman class that bred Loudoun's most romantic figure in the Revolution. Sergeant Major John Champe of Lee's Partisan Legion, mighty of bone and sinew, stout-hearted, resourceful and of such boundless devotion and loyalty to his country and his commander-in-chief in its hour of travail that he consented to incur the scorn and hatred of his fellow-soldiers when along that hard path lay his duty, deserves to have his fidelity, his courage and his exploits commemorated at length in every story of his native county.