On May 7, 1776, Nicholas Long, the former Colonel/Commandant of the Halifax District Minutemen, was commissioned as the Deputy Quarter Master General (DQMG) for the Southern Department, with the rank of Colonel. He retained this position for the duraton of the war. Camp Quankey was established as a Continental Army depot very near the town of Halifax, NC.

This department was created to provide material, equipment, horses, and wagons for the North Carolina Continental Line as each regiment was being mustered, and as each regiment traveled to/from the state. The men who staffed the DQMG were mostly civilians, but the department did retain a small number of officers to manage all aspects of daily activities.

When British Lt. General Charles, Lord Cornwallis marched from Wilmington to Virginia in April and May of 1781, he sent Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton ahead of his army, and Tarleton met very minor resistance in the town of Halifax on May 7th. Lord Cornwallis arrived on May 11th and remained one night, then marched on to Virginia.

As the dreaded British Army was marching towards them, Col. Nicholas Long and his staff had plenty of time to remove all critical materiél from Camp Quankey and they dispersed it to various locations that were not expected to be in the path of Lord Cornwallis, including Granville County and New Bern. There is no record of the British Army discovering or plundering Camp Quankey while they were in Halifax.