commanded by Brigadier General Robert Lawson, whose brigade of Virginia militia had also fought at Yorktown.9 

The prisoners marched along for days in steady rain and snow, lacking adequate food and water, and sleeping out under the open sky at night. They did, however, report that they enjoyed much freedom along the way. 
Their march took them through Williamsburg and Fredericksburg, where the two groups separated; the one bound for Winchester and the other for Fort Frederick.
On November 1st, the Winchester group was made to cross the Rappahannock River barefoot, where the waters came up to their thighs. They proceeded on, coming into sight of the Blue Ridge on November 3rd. On the 4th they were made to wade barefoot again for nearly a quarter of an hour across the ice cold waters of the Shenandoah River, where the current was so swift that they had to be careful that it did not carry them away. This crossing in cold water caused all sorts of sickness.
Finally, after marching two hundred and forty grueling miles in sixteen days, the first group arrived at their destination of Winchester, Virginia, on November 5th, 1781. 10

Winchester, Virginia 

The exact location where the Hessian Barracks at Winchester once stood is unknown. Unlike other prison camps, no formal barracks ever existed in Winchester, only an uncompleted main structure and a number of temporary huts. 

Winchester�s first prisoners started arriving in 1776 and included a few Scottish Highlanders and Tory leaders. In September of 1777 a group of twenty Pennsylvania Quakers arrived from Philadelphia, where they�d been arrested as prisoners of war.

The first German prisoners to arrive were some of the Hessians captured at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1776. They moved to Winchester in the fall of 1777, where they were parceled out to the local people to live and work in the countryside. 

As more prisoners continued to arrive, by October, the Continental Congress resolved that a log barracks and stockade should be built to house them. At the end of the year Congress authorized $20,000 for Colonel John Smith to build the Barracks, feed and clothe the prisoners, and pay the guards. In January, 1778, Colonel David Kennedy entered into a contract with William Hobday, who agreed 

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[9] Lion G. Miles,  p. 41.

{10] Johann Conrad D�hla, p. 188-189.