At Crooked Billet, Gen. John Lacey commanded the American patriots engaged in the conflict for Independence. Col William Dean and Capt Isaac Longstreth were associated with the struggle here. Patriotic Capt John Downey and others were cruelly slain on this ground in the struggle for American liberty. The patriots of 1776 achieved independence, their successors established it in 1812, and in 1861 the nation was struggling for its perpetuation with the conviction that the Union must and shall be preserved.
