History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 16

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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Washington was seated under a cherry-tree which then stood-now blown down years ago-on the gentle declivity south of the road which leads to the crossing at Chad's Ford, when he saw a stont- built man without a hat, riding a sorrel horse, which jumped the fences that stood in the direction he was coming across the fields to where Washington was. It was Cheyney, who, having first reported to Sullivan his tidings, had been so discourteously received that he inquired and was told where Washington himself was to be found. The latter listened as the squire related what he had seen, and, as the chieftain seemed to hesitate, Cheyney exclaimed, " By h-Il, it is so !" and dismounting, he picked up a twig, drew a sketch on the ground of the upper roads, describing how the British passed the fords of the forks of the Brandy- wine, and where the enemy would probably be at that time. So accurately was this information imparted, that notwithstanding it was most unwelcome news, the general was reluctantly convinced of its truth. Some of his staff-officers, however, spoke sneeringly of the report made by the justice, and the excited man with an oath said to Washington, "If you doubt my word, sir, put me under guard till you ask Anthony

1 Futhey and Cope's "History of Chester County," p. 586.

THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE.

Wayne or Persie Frazer1 if I am a man to believed," and then, turning to the smiling officers, his indigna- tion found utterance : "I would have you to know that I have this day's work as much at heart as e'er a Blood of you !" 2

The delays that had attended Squire Cheyney's at- tempt to apprise the Americans of the danger that threatened them had consumed considerable time, and hardly had Washington acknowledged the accuracy of the intelligence brought to him, when an orderly galloped hastily to the group and delivered a dispatch. It read as follows :

" Two O'CLOCK P.M.

" DEAR GENERAL :- Col. Bland has this moment sent me word that the enemy sre in the rear of my right and coming down. They are, he says, about two brigades of them. He also says he saw a dust, back io the country, for about an hour.

" I am, &c., "JOHN SULLIVAN."

Inclosed in this note was one addressed to Gen. Sullivan, as follows :

" A QUARTER-PAST 1 O'CLOCK.

" SIR,-I have discovered a party of the enemy on the height, just on the right of the two widow Davis', who live close together on the road called the Forks road, about one-half mile to the right of the meeting- houss. There is a higher hill on their front.

" THEODORE BLAND."

By this time Washington knew that Gen. Sullivan, a brave and patriotic officer, had permitted Howe once more to play with success the stratagem which had given him victory on Long Island, and for the like reason, Sullivan's neglect to make a proper reconnois- sance. It was a brilliant but dangerous movement of the English commander, separating his army into two divisions, seventeen miles asunder ; and had not the second dispatch been sent by Sullivan, declaring on Maj. Spear's assertion, that Cornwallis' division had not moved northward in the manner reported by Col. Ross, the attack determined on by Washington conld have been made on Knyphausen's division in over- whelming numbers, and in all likelihood would have been wholly successful. Never in all his military career did Washington display greater capacity as a commander, than when he had decided to recross the Brandywine and engage the Hessian general. No wonder was it then that the American chieftain ever after disliked to discuss the stragetic movements of that day.

Gen. Washington, knowing that his presence was necessary at the point menaced, was anxions to reach that part of the field as soon as possible, and desired to go thither by the shortest way. To that end an elderly man of the neighborhood, Joseph Brown, who was well acquainted with the locality, was found and asked to act as guide. The latter was loath to under- take this duty, and only consented to do so when the

request assumed such a form that it could not with safety be refused. One of the general's staff, who rode a fine horse, dismounted, Brown was lifted into the saddle, and the party started in the most direct route for Birmingham Meeting-House. The mettle- some beast the guide rode cleared the fences as they dashed across the fields, the officers following at his heels. So great was Washington's anxiety that he constantly kept repeating the command, " Push along, old man; push along, old man." Brown subse- quently, in relating the incidents of this wild scamper across the country, stated that when they were about half a mile west of Dilworthtown, the bullets were flying so thickly that, as the noise of hattle was now a sufficient guide to the American officers, and no no- tice was taken of him, he, unobserved, dismonnted and stole away.

Cornwallis, accompanied by the commander-in- chief, Sir William Howe, had marched his column from five o'clock in the morning through the woods that skirted almost his entire route on the west bank of the Brandywine. During the first four hours a heavy fog clung to the earth, and a trying march it was that sultry day, with the dust rising in clouds under the feet of a moving army and the wheels of the parks of artillery and trains of baggage-wagons. It was past the midday hour when the British column reached the west branch of the creek at Trimble's, and it was here, while making directly for Jefferies' Ford, that Cols. Cheyney and Hannum watched it on the march, as heretofore related.

On the west side of Jefferies' Ford Emmor Jefferies owned a fine farm, the home of his ancestors, and from his father's ownership of the real estate on both sides of the branch the crossing had received its name,-Jefferies' Ford. When the British army first landed at Elk and moved in the direction of Wil- mington, a number of the storekeepers, as well as other residents of that town, sent their goods to Ches- ter County, near the forks of the Brandywine, whose peaceful quiet at that time it was supposed the march of armies never would disturb. In the house of Em- mor Jefferies, who leaned somewhat to the royal side, it was thought goods could be safely kept. But when the British soldiers learned that in his cellar a large quantity of liquors were stored, the thirsty, hungry men rolled out the barrels and casks, knocked in the heads, and drank freely, without asking the approval of the reputed owner. Nor was that all. Emmor Jefferies was himself pressed into service by Sir Wil- liam Howe as a guide.

It was not one o'clock when the vanguard of the Brit- ish army passed the ford and pressed onward towards Osborne's Hill, near Sullivan's right. Almost half a century ago Joseph Townsend (who, as a young man of twenty-one, was a witness of much appertaining to the battle) published his recollections of that day. He was attending that Thursday morning a mid-week meeting of Friends in the wheelwright-shop at Scon-

1 Persifor Frazer was lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvaois Line, recruited in Chester County. He was born in Newtown township, and was a partner in the noted Sarum Iroo-Works, in Thornbury.

2 Dr. William Darlington's sketch of Thomas Cheyney in Nota Cestri- enses. Newspaper clippings in Library of Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

nelltown, for Gen. Washington had taken the Bir- mingham meeting-house as a hospital for his sick and wonnded soldiers, even before he moved his army to Chad's Ford, and hearing a disturbance outside, the meeting was brought to a close. While endeav- oring to quiet several of the women of the neighbor- hood, who were alarmed at the approach of the Brit- ish troops, Townsend relates : "Our eyes were caught, on a sudden, by the appearance of the army coming out of the woods into the field belonging to Emmor Jefferies, on the west side of the creek, above the fording-place. In a few minutes the fields were lit- erally covered over with them, and they were hasten- ing towards us. Their arms and bayonets, being raised, shone bright as silver, there being a clear sky and the day exceedingly warm." This eye-witness records how "the space occupied by the main and flanking parties (of the British army) was near half a mile wide ;" that Cornwallis " on horseback appeared very tall and sat very erect. His rich scarlet cloth- ing, loaded with gold lace, epaulets, etc., occasioned him to make a brilliant and martial appearance, and that most of all the officers who conversed with us were men of the first rank, and were rather stout, portly men, well dressed, and of genteel appearance, and did not look as if they had ever been exposed to any hardship; their skins were as white and delicate as is customary for females brought up in large cities or towns."

The entire column of British troops had crossed Jefferies' Ford by two o'clock, its advance having reached the vicinity of Osborne's Hill, and in half an hour thereafter the whole body of men halted to re- fresh themselves, for they had not eaten since the early morning, and had marched about seventeen miles almost without a halt. Many of the soldiers on that weary tramp had fallen out of ranks, and ex- hausted remained along the road.1

When Washington first learned that the lost column of Cornwallis had been found, unfortunately for the Continentals in such a position that the inferior American force-in numbers, in discipline, and arms -would have to fight at great disadvantage, or, as Capt. Montressor states it, " were instantly obliged to divide their army, leaving part to oppose our right," Gen. Sullivan was ordered to bring his division to bear upon the British, and this compelled a forward movement of the whole right wing up the Brandy- wine. The American troops formed in a strong posi- tion above Birmingham meeting-house on a hill about a mile and a half removed from the British column, the ground falling gradually for more than half a mile in their immediate front "a natural glacis," and a thick woods covered their rear. As the divisions of Gens. Stirling and Stephens formed, Lord Corn- wallis, on horseback,-Sir William Howe and his gen- erals gathered about him,-sat watching the Ameri-

1 " Journal of Capt. Montressor," Penna. Mag. of History, vol. v. p. 416.

can officers arrange their line of battle, and as his glass showed him the disposition they were making, his eminent military abilities, never excelled in Eng- land's history during the last three hundred years, except by Marlborough, compelled him to pay this tribute to their merit, "The damned rebels form well !"

Cornwallis, under the immediate supervision of Sir William Howe, formed his battle array in three lines. The Guards were on the right of the advance, the First British Grenadiers to the left, the centre of the latter organization, supported by the Hessian Grena- diers, formed in a second line. "To the left of the Second Grenadiers, who held the centre, were two battalions of light infantry, with the Hessian and Anspach Chasseurs, supported by the fourth brigade, for a second line." The third brigade, consisting of the Fifteenth, Forty-fourth, and Seventeenth Regi- ments, was held in reserve, and was not called into action during the day. Both flanks of the British army were covered by very thick woods, and the ar- tillery was advantageously disposed so that its fire might most seriously affect the American lines, and sustain the advance in its attack on the Continental troops.

Gen. Sullivau seems to have questioned his own judgment and hesitated to decide what was best to be done, when the true situation of the two armies was clearly presented to his mind. He had command of the entire right wing, hence the command of his im- mediate division devolved on Gen. DeBorre, his brig- adier, a French officer of thirty-five years' experience in service, but a martinet, insisting on every little punc- tilio of military etiquette, even where such trifling matters might jeopardize the whole army. Hence when the latter marched his division to form, because it had laid along the Brandywine, fronting across, he insisted on moving his command on the right of Stephens and Stirling, which determination on his part made disorder in the division and occasioned an interval in the American line of over half a mile. It should be remembered that Stirling and Stephens as soon as they learned that the enemy were on their flank moved promptly, without waiting for orders from Sullivan, to the nearest good position from which they could resist the advancing British columns. Sullivan, thereupon leaving his old division in disorder, rode forward to where the other general officers were, and it was their unanimous opinion, he tells us in his report, "that his division should be brought on to join the other and the whole should incline further to the right to prevent our being out-flanked." Even the graphic account of the battle furnished by Gen. Sullivan shows that he lost that self-control which in Gens. Greene and Washington showed conspicuously during that afternoon of disaster to the American arms.

" At half-past two," he says, "I received orders to march with my division to join with and take com-

THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE.

mand of that and two others to oppose the enemy who were coming down on the right flank of our army. I neither knew where the enemy were, or what route the other divisions were to take, and of course could not determine where I should form a junction with them. I began my march in a few minutes after I received my orders, and had not marched a mile when I met Col. Hazen with his regi- ment, which had been stationed at a ford three miles above me, who informed me that I might depend that the principal part of the British army was there, although I knew the report sent to headquarters made them but two brigades. As I knew Col. Hazen to be an old officer, and a good judge of numbers, I gave credence to his report in preference to the intelligence before received. While I was conversing with Col. Hazen and our troops still on the march, the enemy headed us in the road about forty rods from our ad- vance guard. I then found it necessary to turn off to the right to form, and so got nearer to the other di- visions, which I at that moment discovered both in the rear and to the right of the place I was then at. I ordered Col. Hazen's regiment to pass a hollow way, file off to the right, and face to cover the artillery. The enemy, seeing this, did not pass on, but gave me time to form my division on an advantageous height in a line with the other divisions, about almost a half mile to the left."

This gap of half a mile must be closed, and while this was being attempted at about half-past three o'clock,1 the English commander hurled his well-dis- ciplined soldiers full at the unformed Americans' right wing, and a half-hour previous to this assault the British guns had opened fire.2 The distance sep- arating the combatants was about a mile and a half, the assaulting party being compelled to cross a valley and ascend a hill slope before they came to close quarters with their enemy.

According to Joseph Townsend, an advance com- pany of Hessians, when they reached "the street- road were fired upon by a company of the Americans who were stationed in the orchard north of Samuel Jones' brick dwelling-house," and the mercenaries scrambled up the bank of the road alongside the orchard, and resting their muskets on the upper rails, discharged them at the small body of Continentals. This was merely an episode in the engagement, and was one of many similar incidents alluded to by Capt. Montressor, in the remark, "Some skirmishing began in the valley in which the enemy was drove."3 The American artillery Sullivan had placed in the centre of the line, where he had taken his position, and he ordered the guns discharged as quickly as possible to stop the progress of the British and to give the brigade

under DeBorre time to form, for that body had been thrown "into the worst kind of confusion" before the assaulting party was upon them, and although Sulli- van sent four of his aids, two of whom were killed in the effort to adjust the disorganized division, and had gone himself to rally the men who had fallen out of ranks, he succeeded only in partly forming there a line of battle.

Conscious that the artillery on the centre com- manded both the right and left of the line, he re- turned to that poiut, determining to hold the position as long as possible, knowing that if it was carried "it would bring on a total rout, and make a retreat very difficult." The right, however, was demoralized, and though some of the troops in that division were ral- lied and made a show of resistance, the greater por- tion could not "be brought to do anything but fly." In front of the American left was a plowed field, and the attack at this point was made by the Guards, the First British Grenadiers, and Hessian Grenadiers; and although it was claimed by Gen. Howe that, notwith- standing a heavy fire of artillery and musketry, his troops pushed the rebels at once from the position they had taken, the fact is that for nearly an hour the struggle for the possession of the summit was con- tinued, and although five times did the British sol- diers drive the American troops from the hill, as often was it retaken. The regiments of Drayton, Ogden, and Hazen's "Congress' Own" stood firm on the left, while the resistance of Stirling and Stephens was highly creditable, the main defense being made * by the centre, where Sullivan exhibited great per- sonal courage, and doubtless by his example ani- mated his men in their contest with an overwhelming force. At length the left wing broke and fled, pur- sued by the Guards and Grenadiers into a thick woods, whence the larger part of the American troops escaped, while the English were "entangled, and were no further engaged during the day." The centre still remained firm; and here Gen. Conway, by the good conduct of his brigade, gained consider- able reputation for himself (which he subsequently tarnished at Valley Forge), the Twelfth Pennsylva- nia, under his command, suffering very heavy loss. Cornwallis now turned the whole fire of his artillery on the small body of men who still stood in line, and they were soon compelled to retire, a movement which was effected with some degree of steadiness and an occasional resumption of the offensive, since they took with them their artillery and baggage.

The noise of heavy ordnance almost due north from Chad's Ford apprised Knyphausen that Gen. Howe had succeeded in turning the right wing of Washing- ton's army, and, although the musketry firing could be distinctly heard, it was not until an hour before the sun's setting that the Hessian commander made the attempt to cross at the ford.4 It is doubtful whether

1 At half-past three the whole moved toward the enemy in three columns .- Journal of Capt. Montressor, Penna, Mug. of Hist., vol. v. p. 416.

2 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. x. p. 316.

3 Penna. Mag. of History, vol. v. p. 416.

4 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. x. p. 316.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Wayne had more than a thousand men who before that day had been under fire to resist the passage of the creek by the enemy. Knyphausen, taking ad- vantage of the smoke from his own and the American cannon, for they had been firing for some time, marched his column, under the immediate command of Maj .- Gen. Grant, into the stream, and, notwithstanding Proctor's guns and the artillery with Wayne, plowed gaps in the advancing ranks, so that for days after- wards "the farmers were fishing dead bodies from the water,"1 the crossing was made, and the redoubt cap- tured. "Mad Anthony" knew that a retreat was in- evitable, but his pugnacious nature, and that of the Pennsylvania line in his command, was loath to re- tire before an enemy, but the appearance of a large body of English troops from Cornwallis' division, on his right, compelled a hasty and disorderly retreat, in which he and Maxwell were compelled to abandon the greater part of their artillery and stores. The handsome black horse which Col. Proctor rode that day was shot from under him, but subsequently the State of Pennsylvania, in consideration of his bravery on that occasion, remunerated him for the loss he had sustained. The Pennsylvania militia, under Gen. Arm- strong, which had taken no active part in the battle, fled with the rest of the American soldiers, and joined the demoralized body, which then almost choked the Concord road with a struggling mass of panic-stricken men hastening wildly in the direction of Chester.

Washington, when he received positive information ' that the British left wing had made its circuitons march from Kennett Square to Jefferies' Ford, the first part of the route under the guidance of Joseph Parker, whom Sir William Howe had compelled to point out the most direct road to Trimble's, and from Jefferies' Ford by Emmor Jefferies, and had already turned Sullivan's flank, started across the country for the scene of conflict, as already mentioned. He had immediately commanded Greene's division, con- sisting of Weedon's and Muhlenberg's brigade, to ad- vance to the support of the right wing. With the promptitude ever noticeable in Greene's movements, the latter immediately put his division in motion. Weedon's brigade was on the advance, and at trail arms, the men, guided by the noise of battle, and knowing that Sullivan could have no liue of retreat "but towards Dilworthtown, as the British right wing had outflanked it to the left, and intervened between it and Chad's Ford," double-quicked nearly to Dilworthtown, four miles in forty-five minutes, and then by a wheel to the left of a half-mile, he was enabled to occupy a position where, opening his ranks, he let the retreating, discomfited battalions pass through while he held the pursuing British in check and saved the American artillery.

Previous, however, to Greene's coming to their re-

lief, a number of Americans were induced to make a stand, and rallied on a height to the north of Dil- worthtown, where, under the personal command of Washington, who had reached the field, accompanied by Lafayette, the latter for the first time under fire in America, a stout resistance was made. It was here that the marquis was wounded. He stated that a part of the American line had broken, while the rest still held its ground ; and to show the troops that he " had no better chance of flight" than they, he ordered his horse to the rear, and dismounted, he was endeavor- ing to rally the disorganized column, when he was struck in the left foot by a musket-ball, which "went through and through." The fact that Lafayette was wonnded was immediately carried to Washington, "with the usual exaggerations in such cases." The surgeon endeavored to dress the injured foot on the battle-field, but the firing was so sharp that the at- tempt was abandoned, and the young Frenchman mounted his horse and galloped to Chester, where, becoming faint from loss of blood, he was " carried into a house and laid on a table, where my (his) wound received its first dressing."2 Before he per- mitted his injuries to be cared for, Lafayette stationed a guard at the old decayed draw-bridge at Chester Creek (the site of the present Third Street bridge) to arrest stragglers and return them to their regiments. The Baron St. Ovary, who was aiding Lafayette in the endeavor to rally the American soldiers, was not so fortunate as the marquis, for he was captured by the English, and to be consigned to the tender mer- cies of that fiend, William Cunningham, provost- marshal of the royal army, was certainly less to be desired than a wound which healed kindly in two months.

The enemy meanwhile pressed the Americans back- ward until Weedon's brigade came in sight, and Sul- livan joining him with some of his men, the battle continued until many of the fugitives had succeeded in effecting their retreat. At a place then called Dilworth's Path, now known as Sandy Hollow, the American army made its final stand. It is said by Irving that Washington, when riding in the neigh- borhood previous to the battle, had called Greene's at- tention to that locality, suggesting that if the army should be driven from Chad's Ford there was a point well calculated for a secondary position, and here Greene was overtaken by Col. Pinckney, an aid of the commander-in-chief, ordering him to occupy that place. Be that as it may, Greene formed there ; Weedon's brigade, drawn np in the narrow defile, flanked on either side by woods, and commanding the road, while Greene, with Muhlenberg's-the fight- ing parson-brigade formed on the road on the right. The English troops, flushed with success, for it is idle to say they were not the victors of the day, came on, and were surprised at the unexpected resistance they

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 16

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150