History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 17

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

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4 Mr. Auge's alatement, published in Futhey and Cope's " History of Chester County," p. 81.

2 Poulson's Advertiser, Philadelphia, Feb. 25, 1825.

THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE.

encountered here. Charge after charge did they make, but were repeatedly driven back. Gen. Howe states, "Just at dark the infantry, Second Grenadiers, and fourth brigade had a brief action beyond Dil- worth, between the two roads which run from Dil- worth to Chester." Capt. Montressor tells us that here the heaviest fire during the battle for the time was poured on the British soldiers. Indeed, he re- cords, "Late in the evening, when the action was near concluded, a very heavy fire was received by our grenadiers from six thousand rebels, Washing- ton's rear-guard, when Col. Monckton requested me to ride through it to Brig .- Gen. Agnew's brigade and his (4) twelve-pounders, which I did in time enough to support them; and by my firing the (4) twelve- pounders routed the enemy."1 The latter statement is not accurate, for Weedon, after holding his posi- tion until the demoralized troops had retreated down the Wilmington road to the Concord road, fell back in good order on Greene, and gradually the whole division drew off, showing their fangs to their enemy, who did not pursue the retiring Continentals. It is even stated that many of the American officers were so enraged at the result of the conflict that they de- manded to be led immediately against the enemy, but Washington shook his head, replying, "Our only recourse is to retreat." Greene, whose blood was up from the conflict and defeat, asked how far they must retreat ? " Over every hill and across every river in America if I order you," was the stern reply.2

The American troops, considering the circum- stances, fought well. Particularly was this true of the Twelfth Pennsylvania, commanded by Col. Walter Stewart-said to have been the handsomest man in the Continental service-of Conway's brigade; of the Fifth Virginians, Woodford's brigade, commanded by Col. John Marshall, afterwards the great chief justice of the United States ; and the Tenth Virginia, under Col. Stevens, in Weedon's brigade. The First, Third, and Sixth Maryland Regiments, and the First Dela- ware, under Gen. Smallwood, acquitted themselves with marked bravery, while the Second, Fourth, and Seventh Delaware and German Regiments, four com- panies recruited in Pennsylvania, and the like number in Maryland, were the first to give way, and retired in disorder from the field. This was largely due to the fact that Gen. DeBorre did not possess the confi- dence of his troops. The Eighth Pennsylvania, Col. Bayard, suffered greatly, and in the action Bayard was struck down by a cannon-ball, which broke the barrel of a rifle on the shoulder of Sergt. Wyatt, as well as the sergeant's shoulder, and then struck Bayard on the head and shoulder, "turning him over on the ground for nearly two rods," when Lieut. Pat- terson helped the colonel to his feet, who, the latter

states, " was frantic" at his unceremonious treatment. The Eleventh Pennsylvania lost so heavily that it was subsequently consolidated with the Tenth. Capt. Thomas Butler, of the Third Pennsylvania, for rally- ing a detachment of retreating troops, was on the field publicly thanked by Washington. Capt. Louis de Fleury conducted himself with such gallantry that Congress presented him with a horse to substitute bis own, which was killed in the battle, and Gen. Sulli- van's horse, "the best in America," was shot under him in the engagement. Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish nobleman, highly distinguished himself that day, when, as a volunteer in the American Light- Horse, he rode within pistol-shot of the British lines to reconnoitre. This action and his conspicuous bravery won him troops of friends, so that when he was appointed brigadier-general, with a command of cavalry, it met fully the approval of public opinion.

The actual loss of the American forces can only be approximated, since Gen. Washington never made a detailed report of this battle. The British claimed the loss was about a thousand killed and wounded and five hundred prisoners, together with nine " Branfield pieces, one more of a composition,3 and one brass Howitzer, with several ammunition wagons."+ Howe reported his own loss as only five hundred and seventy- eight killed and wounded, including officers, a state- ment that is not probably correct,3 while Capt. Mon-

8 " We took ten pieces of cannon and & howitzer ; eight were brass, the other two of iron of a new construction." Materials for History, by. Frank Moore, quoted in Penna. Mag. of History, vol. i. page 294, note. " Jo the war of the Revolution a singular cannon was made by a person who afterwards lived in the village (Mount Holly, N. J.). It was con- structed of wrought-iron staves, hooped like a barrel, with bands of the same material, excepting there were four layers of stavea hresking joint, all of which were firmly bound together, aud then bored aod breached like other cannon. . . . William Denning (he died in the ninety-fourth year of his age) was an arlificer in the army of the Revo- lution. He it was who, in the day of his country's need, made the only successful attempt ever made in the world to manufacture wrought-Iron cannon, one of which he completed in Middlesex, Ps., and commenced another and larger one at Mount Holly, but could get no one to assist bim who could stand the heat, which is said to have been so severe as to melt the lead buttons on his cost. The unfinished piece ie now (1844) in the Philadelphia Arsenal. The one completed was taken by the British at the battle of Brandywine, and is now in the tower of London. The British offered a stated annuity and a large sum to the person who would iostruct them in the manufacture of that article, but the patriotic blacksmith preferred obscurity and poverty in his own beloved country, though the country for which he had done so much kept her purse closed from the veteran soldier until near the period of his decease." Barber and Howe's Historical Collections of New Jersey, pp. 113-114. + Penna. May. of History, vol. vi. p. 297.

5 In the Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. iv. page 121, is given whut purports to be a memorandum of the British forces at the battle of Brandywine, and the loss sustained by the several divisions. The document was, it is stated, found in one of the British officers' marquet, at Germantown, Oct. 4, 1777, which, after being in possession of Col. Thomas Forrest, subsequently came to John F. Watson, the annalist. The total 1088 89 given in the memorandum is nineteen hundred and seventy-six. In Headley's Life of Washington, page 258, le published a paper found among those belonging to Gen. James Clinton, and in his handwriting, indorsed, " Taken from the enemy's Ledgers, which fell into the banda of General Washington's army at the action of Germantown." An ex- amination of the two statements shows That the one is & copy of the other, although there is a difference of ten in the grand total, the latter being nineteen hundred and eighty-six. This occurs in the loss of the First

I " Evelyns in America," hy Gideon D. Scull, Oxford, England, 1881 (privately printed), p. 266.

2 Headley'e " Life of Washington," p. 256.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

tressor tells us that the British troops had sixty killed and three hundred wounded. Certain it is that the English not continuing the pursuit is some evidence that they were in no condition to do so. Thomas Paine declared that Brandywine, "excepting the enemy keeping the ground, may be deemed a drawn battle," and that as Washington had collected his army at Chester, "the enemy's not moving towards him next day must be attributed to the disability they sustained and the burthen of their wounded."1 The dead of both armies, it should be remembered, were left on the field and had to be burned, while the number of wounded was so great, that on the Sunday following the battle (September 14th) Drs. Rush, Leiper, Latimer, Way, and Coates, with Mr. Willet, a mate in the hospital, with their attendants, who had been sent by Washington, arrived at headquarters of the British army, or, as Capt. Montressor records the incident, came " to attend the wounded Rebels left scattered in the Houses about the field of Battle un- attended by their Surgeons until now."

To return to the army, which was drifting down the road to Chester in a confused mass. The artillery saved from the enemy's clutches jolted and surged along as rapidly as the tired horses could be made to go under the goading whip, while the baggage-wagons crowded to the front amid the oaths of the teamsters and the panic-stricken men who were forced to make room for the vehicles to pass. Fortunately the early evening was still and clear, and the moon looked down on the defeated, demoralized men, who tiring at length of their senseless flight, the disorder in a meas- ure ceased as the weary journeying came near an end, so that the guard at Chester bridge, placed there by Lafayette, succeeded in gathering the men into some- thing like company and regimental order without much difficulty. Greene's division, as well as many of the men from other commands, preserved a mili- tary organization, and they marched from the field in columns becoming the brave soldiers they had proved themselves to be on the heights of Brandywine.

In Chester the noise of the distant cannonading could be distinctly heard, like far-away mutterings of thunder, and after the battle had been lost, the bearers of ill tidings traveled fast with their unwelcome in- telligence. Before dusk the first of the discomfited American forces began to straggle in, spreading all kind of rumors regarding the results of the contest, and the ancient borough was never so aroused. In Philadelphia all was excitement. Paine states that he was preparing dispatches for Franklin "when the report of eannon at Brandywine interrupted my (his) proceedings." 2

Hessians at the Upper Ford, under Cornwallis,-the Forrest memoran- dum making it sixty, while that of Clinton's piaces it at seventy. The two papers differ romowhat in designating the numerals of the British regimente. The Clinton paper is probably the most accurate.

1 Paine's letter to Franklin, Penna. Mag. of History, vol. Ii. p. 283.

2 Penna. Mag. of Ilist., vol. ii. p. 283. Irving (Life of Washington, vol. ill. p. 222) thus describes the excitement in Philadelphia : "The scene

Far into the night the American army kept march- ing into Chester, and it is related that after the moon . had set Col. Cropper, then a captain in the Ninth Vir-" ginia Infantry,-a part of Greene's command covering the retreat,-because of the darkness, and to prevent his men being crowded off the approaches to the bridge at the creek, fastened his handkerchief on a ramrod, and stood there holding it aloft as a signal until his command had filed by.

Hon. William Darlington has recorded the escape of Col. Samuel Smith, of Maryland, from the field, as related to him by the old veteran, who subsequently defended Fort Mifflin so determinedly. Having be- come separated from his command in the retreat, and,. apprehensive of falling into the hands of the enemy, the colonel rode to the house of a Quaker farmer, whom he desired forthwith to conduct him by a safe route to Chester. The latter protested against the undertaking, but Col. Smith drew a pistol, stating that if he did not get his horse at once and do as he asked, he was a dead man. The Quaker, in alarm, exclaiming, " What a dreadful man thou art !" did as he was told. "Now," said Col. Smith, " I have not entire confidence in your fidelity, but I tell you ex- plicitly that if you do not conduct me clear of the enemy, the moment I discover your treachery I will blow your brains out." The terrified farmer there- upon exclaimed, " Why, thou art the most desperate man I ever did see." However, he brought the colonel safely to Chester and was rewarded for his services. At midnight Washington addressed a letter to Con- gress, apprising that body of the loss of the battle. The missive is dated Chester, and traditionally in the Kerlin family, it is said, he wrote the letter at the Washington House, on Market Street. It was pub- lished by the order of Congress, and is as follows:

" CHESTER, September 11 th, 1777. " Twelve o'clock at night.

"SIR :- I am sorry to inform you that in this day's engagement, we have been obliged to leave the enemy masters of the field. Unfortu- Dately the intelligence received of the Enemy's advancing up the Bran- dywine and crossing at a ford about six miles above ns, was uncertain and contradictory, notwithstanding all my plans to get the best. This prevented my making a disposition adequate to the force with which the enemy attacked ns on our right ; in consequence of which, the troops first engaged were obliged to retire, before they could be reinforced. In the midst of the attack on the right, that body of the enemy that re- mained on the other side of Chad's ford, crossed and attacked the di- vision there under the command of General Wayne, and the light troop under General Maxwell; who after a severe conflict, also retired. The militia under the command of General Armstrong, being posted at a ford about two miles below Chad's, had no opportunity of engaging.

" But though we fought under many disadvantages, and were from the cause above mentioned, obliged to retire, yet our loss of men is not, I am perenaded, very considerable; I believe much less than the ene- my'a. We have also lost seven or eight pieces of cannou according to

of this battle, which decided the fate of Philadelphia, was within eix and twenty miles of that city, and each discharge of cannon could be heard there. The two parties of the inhabitants, Whig and Tory, were to be seen in groupe in the equares and public places, awaiting the event in anxions eilence. At length a conrier arrived. His tidinge spread consternation among the friends of liberty. Many left their homee; entire families abandoned everything in terror end despair and took refuge in the mountains."

CONCLUSION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

the best ioformation I can at present obtaio. The baggage having been previously oloved off all is secure; saviog the men's blankete, which at Queir backs, many of them doubtless are lost.

" I have directed all the troops to assemble hebiod Chester, where they are now arranging for the night. Notwithetaodiog the misfortunee of the day I am happy to fiod the troops io good spirite, and I hope another time we shall compensate for the losses now sustained.

"The Marquis La Fayette wes wounded in the leg, aod General Wool- ford in the hand. Divers other officers were wounded and some slain, but the numbers of either caonot be ascertained.

"G. WASHINGTON.

" P.S .- It has not been in my power to seod you earlier intelligence; the present being the first leisure moment I have had since the eogage- ment."

The American army assembled to the east of Ches- ter along the Queen's Highway, and Washington, after dispatching this letter, went to the present Leiperville, where, still standing on the north of the road, is the old stone dwelling, then the home of John McIlvain, in which the chief of that retreating army passed the night after the ill-starred battle of Brandywine.

Gen. Howe demonstrated in this battle his ability to command armies successfully, and the skill with which he manœuvred his troops in a country of hill and vale, wood and thicket, showed the accomplished, scientific soldier. The rapidity with which Washing- ton brought order out of disorder was shown when the American troops marched through Darby to Phila- delphia, on September 12th, in the soldierly bearing of that part of the army which the day before had fled from the field a panic-stricken mob. Taking all things into consideration, never was Washington's wonderful command of men and extraordinary ca- pacity to recover from disaster more exhibited than at this period of our nation's history, and that in this emergency the whole country turned to him as its fore- most man is evidenced in that Congress, while the thunder of the cannons of Brandywine was yet heard in Philadelphia, clothed the commander-in-chief with almost dictatorial power for two months.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE DEFEAT AT BRANDYWINE TO THE CONCLUSION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

ON the afternoon of September 12th, the day suc- ceeding the battle, Maj .- Gen. Grant, with the First and Second Brigades of the English army, marched from Chad's Ford to Concord meeting-house, whence he sent out foraging-parties to bring in wagons, horses, provisions, and cattle from the surrounding neighbor- hood. Early the following morning (Saturday, the 13th), Lord Cornwallis, with the Second Battalion of Light Infantry and Second Grenadiers, made a junc- tion with Gen. Grant and advanced to the Seven Stars, in Aston, within four miles of Chester. The day was very cold, as the noticeable equinoctial gale of the fol- lowing Tuesday was already threatening. It may be

that an advance party of the British troops that day went as far as Chester, for on Sept. 13, 1777, James Dundas wrote from Billingsport that "the people em- ployed here begin to be very uneasy, since we have heard that Chester is in possession of the enemy." 1 Notwithstanding this assertion, I doubt much whether the ancient borough was occupied by any of the com- manding army officers at that time, for on September 15th Capt. Montressor records in his journal2 that "the Commander in Chief went with his Escort only of Dragoons to Lord Cornwallis' Post 3 of a mile west of Chester," and under the same date he states, "This night at 8, the body with Lord Corn- wallis moved from near Chester toward the Lancaster road."

The day following the battle of Brandywine, Coun- cil called for the militia in the several counties-the fourth class in Chester County-" to turn out on this alarming occasion," and to march to the Swede's Ford, on the Schuylkill, uuless Washington should command them to rendezvous elsewhere. On the 13th, Washington, whose army was resting at Ger- mantown, instructed Col. Penrose to overflow the ground upon Providence Island, which necessarily meant cutting the banks at Darby Creek, so as to pre- vent the English army, should it march immediately to Philadelphia, from erecting batteries in the rear of Fort Mifflin, or carrying it by a land force in that direction. On September 15th, Washington broke camp at Germantown and marched his soldiers along the Lancaster road. From the Buck Tavern, in Hav- erford township, he called the attention of Council to the pressing necessity for an immediate supply of blankets for the troops, stating that he had been " told there are considerable quantities in private hands, which should not be suffered to remain a moment longer than they can be conveyed away."" The American commander had fully determined to meet the British army again in battle before the city of Philadelphia should fall into the hands of the enemy. For that purpose he had turned his column westward, and that evening Washington was en- camped in East Whiteland township, Chester Co., in the vicinity of the Admiral Warren Tavern.

Late in the afternoon of September 15th the report was received by Gen. Howe that the American army, as he supposed, in flight, was " pursuing the road to Lancaster," + and at eight o'clock that night, Lord Cornwallis moved from near Chester towards the Lan- caster road, following the Chester and Great Valley road, "by way of the present village of Glen Riddle, Lima, and Howellville and by Rocky Hill and Goshen Friends' meeting-house."5 The next morning Gen. Howe, who had remained at Birmingham for five days

1 Penna. Archives, let series, vol. v. p. 616.

2 Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 35.

$ Penoa. Archives, let seriee, vol. v. p. 524.

4 Penna, Mag. of Hist , vol. vi. p. 35.

6 Futhey aod Cope's " History of Chester County," p. 78.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

after the battle,1 on the morning of the 16th, marched towards Lancaster by the way of the Turk's Head (now West Chester), Goshen meeting-house, and the Sign of the Boot, on the Downingtown road, and at eleven o'clock made a junction with Cornwallis' division, the latter column moving in advance until it had gone about a milė and a half north of Goshen meeting- house, where, about two o'clock, the two armies con- fronted each other, and Wayne attacked the British right flank with so much spirit that in a few moments the action would have become general, when, doubt- less, owing to the discharge of musketry, the heavy, low-hanging, scudding clouds broke into a deluge of rain, accompanied by a tempest of wind, which re- sulted in separating the armies immediately. So far as the American troops were concerned, they were in a few moments wet to the skin. Their ammunition was ruined, owing to their cartouch-boxes and " tum- brels" being so defectively constructed that they were no protection from the rain. About four o'clock, Washington retired to Yellow Springs, which place his army reached in the night, and the next morning the commander-in-chief retreated with the main army up the Schuylkill, crossing it at Parker's Ferry.

While the English forces lay at Birmingham, Jacob James, a loyalist of that neighborhood, re- cruited in Chester County a troop of light-horsemen, and when the army marched away, he and his com- pany followed the British standard. "The Chester County dragoons, under Captain James, subsequently took part in the surprise of Col. Lacey's Militia Bri- gade, lying at Crooked Billett," on April 30, 1778, and in March, 1780, Capt. James was captured in North Carolina. President Reed, on April 18th of the latter year, wrote to Governor Caswell stating that James had been " a distinguished Partizan here in the Winter 1777, & particularly active in Kidnap- ping the Persons in the Vicinity of the City who were remarkable for their Attachment to the Cause of their Country. He was also extremely troublesome to the County by stealing & employing his Associates in stealing Horses for the British Army." President Reed therefore requested Governor Caswell " that he may not be exchanged as a common Prisoner of War, but retained in close Custody untill a favorable Opp'y shall present to bring him to this State for Tryal."2 The regular British officers, however, were not over- scrupulous in this matter of appropriating horses to their use, for, on Sept. 19, 1777, Lieut .- Col. Harcourt, with a party of dragoons and light infantry, came from Howe's encampment in Goshen, on the Phila- delphia road, and from Newtown Square brought a hundred and fifty horses to the enemy.3

The British not only had made these advances hy

land, but on September 17th Howe was notified that several of the English vessels of war had arrived in the river, " and three vituallers, one at anchor, in the Delaware off Chester." + The "Roebuck," Capt. Hammond, whose presence in the river, as heretofore noticed, had made that officer familiar with the navi- gation of the Delaware River, at least as far as Wil- mington, was one of the advanced men-of-war. Ad- miral Earl Howe, after the battle of Brandywine, hastened with his fleet into the river and anchored his vessels along the Delaware shore from Reedy Island to New Castle. Washington, as well as Gen. Howe, when the latter by "doubling on his tracks" had crossed the Schuylkill and captured Philadel- phia, knew that the English commander must have uninterrupted water communication to maintain his army, and while the enemy were resolved to do every- thing they could to force the passage of the river, the American authorities were equally resolved to keep up, if possible, the obstruction. "If these can be maintained," wrote Washington to Congress, " Gen. Howe's situation will not be the most agreeable ; for, if his supplies can be stopped by water, it may easily be done by land."5 When the city fell, on September 25th, Gen. Howe sent a messenger to notify the Eng- lish fleet, then at Chester, that his had taken posses- sion of Philadelphia. That communication by the river must be had was well understood by the Eng- lish officers, for, in a letter from Lieut .- Col. William Harcourt to Earl Harcourt, dated at Philadelphia, Oc- tober 26th, he remarks that " it was absolutely neces- sary we should open a communication with our fleet ;" 6 and in the letter he narrates the attempts, up to that time, made by the British commander to that end, the defeat of Col. Dunop at Red Bank, the attack on Fort Mifflin, the repulse of the English forces there, and the destruction of the frigate " Augusta" and sloop-of-war "Merlin," classifying them as " checks following so close upon the back of each other."

The enemy, however, had already made unwelcome visits to the section of country now Delaware County, for a resident of Philadelphia, under date of October 3d, records that " a foraging party went out last week towards Darby and brought in a great number of cattle to the great distress of the inhabitants."7 We also learn that on October 5th (Sunday) a captain of the Royal Artillery, with thirty men, went to Chester to bring to Philadelphia two howitzers and a large number of mortars. A battalion of Grenadiers and the Twenty-third or Welsh Fusileers accompanied them as an escort.8 On September 29th, Col. Stirling, with two British regiments, crossed the river from Chester, and took possession of the fortifications at Billingsport, which was manned only by militia, who,

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 17

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