The Revolutionary Struggle to the Battle of Brandywine

counties of Chester, Lancaster, and York were ordered to form a camp "at or near Chester."¹ Col. Smith acted promptly, as did the other counties' lieutenants, for May 30th Council notified Congress that the militia called out by the recommendation of that body was encamped at the places named, part of the troops being already there and the remainder preparing to march; that as Council had but few arms fit for service, Congress was requested to furnish arms, tents, and camp equipage. On June 11th, Benjamin Brannon, sub-lieutenant of the county of Chester, applied to Council for a cannon, that several companies of artillery had been formed in the county, hence he desired that the men might practice with the gun, and to that end also asked for a few pounds of powder. On the 14th, Council ordered that the first class of militia should be immediately forwarded to camp, and the second class be ordered to march, and the third class be held in readiness to move on short notice. The same day Col. Robert Smith received one thousand pounds to equip the militia of Chester County, and he was also instructed to send to Philadelphia thirty wagons. This activity was due to the intelligence Congress had received that Gen. Howe proposed marching to and reducing Philadelphia. When the British army, on June 13th, actually made an advance in two columns from Brunswick, the news was dispatched by Washington to Congress, and being received the neat day, prompt measures were taken to meet the threatened attack. On the 17th, Lewis Granow, sub-lieutenant of Chester County, received four thousand dollars to purchase substitutes, blanket, etc., and on the 20th four hundred stand of arms was delivered to Col. Smith. The next day he received a like number each of canteens, knapsacks, primingwires, brushes, and cartouch-boxes. John Beaton way appointed paymaster of the Chester County militia. On the 21st two thousand dollars were appropriated for paying substitutes in Chester County, and on the 24th a like sum for the same purpose. On July 12th Col. Smith reported that notwithstanding repeated orders only three hundred and twenty men of the Chester County militia had arrived at Chester, and two hundred of these were substitutes. Col. John Hannum was then commanding officer at that station. The alarm having passed away on the return of the British army to Brunswick on the 25th, Council, considering "the extreme inconveniency arising from the march of the militia in the time of Harvest," countermanded the order for the levies to go to camp, but instructed the lieutenants of the counties of Philadelphia and Chester that it was unnecessary to move the second class of militia, but that it should be held in readiness to march at the shortest notice. On July 9th, Council requested the magistrates of the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks to return the names of persons well qualified to take an account of all flour, wheat, grain, and other stores in the several counties, so that it might be removed "in case the Enemy's movements should make it necessary," and on the 29th Council appointed John Pearson, Nicholas Deihl, Isaac Hendrickson, Isaac Serrill, Harvey Lear, and Jacob Richards, to be added to a committee consisting of Samuel Levis, William Kerlin, and Sketchley Morton, which had been appointed to drive off the stock in the county of Chester on the approach of the British forces. On July 20, 1777, Congress received information that a British fleet of one hundred and sixty sail was in the Narrows, on the way to Sandy Hook. On the 22d, Washington, perplexed as to the destination of Howe, requested that trustworthy persons should be stationed at the Capes of the Delaware to give prompt notice if the fleet should appear in that quarter. In the early morning of July 23d the expedition sailed, but owing to light winds and fog the fleet did not get in sight of the Capes until the 30th, when expresses from both Cape May and Lewes were sent to Council apprising that body that the fleet of two hundred and twenty-eight vessels was in sight. Gen. Mifflin was at the time in Chester, for he signed for and indorsed the time of departure from that place on the dispatch from Lewes. Late on the 31st the hostile vessels bore away to the southward. Gen. Howe, in his narrative, states, "that finding it hazardous to sail up the Delaware, he agreed with the admiral to go to Chesapeake Bay, a plan which had been preconcerted in the event of a landing in the Delaware proving upon our arrival there ineligible."²

² George H. Moore, a gentleman whose assertion on any historical topic is always worthy of consideration, states in his work, "The Treason of Charles Lee," that this movement was made by Gen. Howe at the treasonable suggestion of Gen. Lee, the English soldier who had received so many honors at the hands of the American Congress.

On July 9th, Gen. Washington had requested Council to have a plan of the shore of the Delaware River made, and on the 18th that body notified the commander-in-chief that General Du Coudray had produced a plan of a fortification to be erected at Billingsport to prevent the enemy removing the chevaux-de-frise at that place, and the chart would be made of the shore of the river as soon as proper surveyors could be procured. On the 24th the "proper surveyors" were procured, for four persons were directed to make "A Survey of the Shore of the River Delaware and of the land for about four miles to the Westward, taking in the Great Road leading to the Southward, when they may extend further than that distance from the river, and remarking the several places where an enemy may land and the kind of ground adjoining, whether marshy, hilly, open, or covered with woods, and when there are several heights near each other remark'g their altitudes and distances apart, remarking particularly the several Creeks and streams of water as high up, at least, as the tide flows, and the places where they may be