English settlers established Berkeley Hundred just south of here in 1619. Benjamin Harrison III, a merchant and planter, purchased the property in 1691. A Georgian-style house was built in 1726 for Benjamin Harrison IV and his wife, Anne Carter. Born here were Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his son, William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States. British forces under Benedict Arnold ransacked Berkeley during the Revolutionary War, and a number of enslaved African Americans escaped. Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac camped here in 1862. The bugle call “Taps” was composed then by Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield.
Department of Historic Resources, 2016
