Coming from Chester, Pennsylvania, the Second Division of the French Army , more than 2,000 officers and men with up to 1,000 horses and oxen, marched through Wilmington to Newport. The artillery camped on this site on September 6/7, 1781, their twenty-ninth camp since departure from their first camp in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 18, 1781. Coming from Elkton, Maryland, the artillery of the First Division of the French Army camped on this site on August 29/30, 1782. The artillery of the Second Division camped here the following night of August 30/31, 1782, their fifth camp since departure from their camp in Williamsburg, Virginia,on July 1, 1782.