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Chapter VIII
The Battle of Brandywine | |||
the best in information I can at present obtain. The baggage having been previously moved off all is secure; saving the men's blankets, which at their backs, many of them doubtless are lost.
"I have directed all the troops to assemble behind Chester, where they are now arranging for the night. Notwithstanding the misfortunes of the day I am happy to find the troops in good spirits, and I hope another time we shall compensate for the losses now sustained.
"The Marquis La Fayette was wounded in the leg, and General Woolford in the hand. Divers other officers were wounded and some slain, but the numbers of either cannot be ascertained.
"P.S. - It has not been in my power to send you earlier intelligence; the present being the first leisure moment I have had since the engagement. The American army assembled to the east of Chester 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 maneuvered his troops in a country of hill and vale, wood and thicket, showed the accomplished, scientific soldier. The rapidity with which Washington brought order out of disorder was shown when the American troops marched through Darby to Philadelphia, 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 capacity 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 foremost 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.
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Chapter IX
From The Defeat At Brandywine To The Conclusion Of The Revolutionary War | |||
On the afternoon of September 12th, the day succeeding 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 neighborhood. Early the following morning (Saturday, the 13th), Lord Cornwallis, with the Second Battalion of Light Infantry and Second Grenadiers, made a junction 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 following 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 employed 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 commanding 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 3/4 of a mile west of Chester," and under the same date he states, "This night at 8, the body with Lord Cornwallis moved from near Chester toward the Lancaster road." |
1 Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. v. p. 616. 2 Penna. Mag of Hist., vol. vi. p. 35. | ||
| The day following the battle of Brandywine, Council 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, unless Washington should command them to rendezvous elsewhere. On the 13th, Washington, whose army was resting at Germantown, instructed Col. Penrose to overflow the ground upon Providence Island, which necessarily meant cutting the banks at Darby Creek, so as to prevent 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 Haverford 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."3 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 encamped in East Whiteland township, Chester Co., in the vicinity of the Admiral Warren Tavern. | 3 Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. v. p. 624. | ||
| 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,"4 and at eight o'clock that night, Lord Cornwallis moved from near Chester towards the Lancaster 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 |
4 Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 35. 5 Futhey and Cope's "History of Chester County," p. 78. | ||