PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION.
VOLUME II.
BY BENSON J. LOSSING
1850.
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CHAPTER VI.
Departure from Valley Forge. – The Paoli Tavern. – Place where Americans were Massacred. – Wayne’s Encampment near the Paoli. – British Attack upon his Detachment. – The Massacre. – Chaplain David Jones. – His Address to the Troops at Ticonderoga. – The Paoli Monument. – The Inscriptions upon it. – The Dead of Paoli. – Journey to West Chester. – Departure for the Brandywine Battle-ground. – Jefferis’s Ford. – Sconnel Town, Osborne’s Hill, and Birmingham Meeting-house. – Landing of the British at the Head of Elk. – Washington’s Preparations to meet them. – March of Americans from Philadelphia. – Encampment on Red Clay Neck. – Howe’s Proclamation. – Retreat of the Americans across the Brandywine. – Approach of the British to Brandywine. – The Fords of that Stream. – Plan of the Battle. – Position of the American Army on the Brandywine. – Movement of the British. – Localities of the Battle-ground. – Skirmishing on the March toward the Brandywine. – Engagement near Chad’s Ford. – Skirmishing on the Brandywine. – Sullivan deceived by conflicting Intelligence. – Washington’s Suspense. – Passage of the Brandywine by the British Army. – Forming of the Lines for Battle. – Conduct of Deborre. – Commencement of the Battle. – Skill and Courage of the Belligerents. – Effects of the British Artillery. – Retreat of the Americans. – March of Greene to their Support. – La Fayette wounded. – The British checked by Greene. – Knyphausen preparing to cross the Brandywine. – General Muhlenberg. – Passage of the Brandywine by Knyphausen. – Bravery of Wayne. – General Retreat of the Americans. – Result of the Battle. – Washington again made Dictator. – Attempt to attack the British Army. – Du Coudray. – Patriotism of the Israels. – Battle prevented. – March of the Americans toward Germantown. – Localities near the Brandywine. – The Quarters of Washington and Howe. – Kennet Square. – A Storm. – New London and Elkton. – Scene of Military Operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. – An Evening on the Chesapeake. – Baltimore. – Battle Monument at Baltimore.
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"My country’s standard waved on yonder height;
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We descended from the observatory at Valley Forge at one o’clock
[November 30, 1848.], and departed for the banks of the Brandywine by way of the Paoli 1 and West Chester. A veil of moisture, deepening every hour, obscured the sun and omened an approaching storm. I alighted on the borders of a wood a short distance from the Norristown road, and sketched the remains of one of the American redoubts pictured on page 129, which lies, almost unknown, within the embrace of the forest. Thence to the place memorable as the scene of the Paoli massacre, a distance of nearly nine miles, our road passed through a broken but well-cultivated country, spreading out into more gentle undulations on the left, toward the Delaware. The place of the massacre is about a quarter of a mile from the highway, east of the West Chester rail-way (which connects with the Columbia rail-way near "the Paoli"), a mile south of the Warren tavern, on the Lancaster turnpike, and a little more than two miles southwest from the Paoli tavern. We left our horse to dine upon corn at a farmyard near, and, following a pathway northeast from the road, through the open fields, we came to the monument which stands over the remains of those who fell there on the night of the 20th of September, 1777. It is upon a small elevated plain, overlooking a fine rolling country toward the Brandywine, and covered with a forest when the event occurred, but now smiling with cultivation. 2 The sad story which makes the place memorable in our history is brief but touching.I have mentioned in another chapter (page 108
{original text has "180".}) the movements of the American army after the battle on the Brandywine, and the prevention of an engagement between the belligerent forces near the Warren tavern by a violent storm of rain, which damaged their ammunition. When Washington withdrew and crossed the Schuylkill, with the main body of the army, at Parker’s Ford, he left General Wayne, with about fifteen hundred men and four pieces of cannon (to be joined by General Smallwood and Colonel Gist the next day 3), with directions to annoy the enemy’s rear, then posted near Tredyffrin church, and to attempt to cut off his baggage train. Wayne encamped two or three miles southwest of the British lines, in a secluded spot, away from the public roads, near the place where the monument now stands. The vigilance of British sentinels did not discover him, but the treachery of Tories revealed his numbers and place of encampment to the commander of the enemy. Howe determined to surprise Wayne, and for that purpose dispatched General Grey (the subsequent murderer at Tappan and plunderer on the New England coasts) to steal upon the patriot camp at night and destroy them. Wayne had intimations of this intended movement, and, though doubting its truth, he neglected no precaution. It was a dark and stormy night. Wayne ordered his men to sleep on their arms, with their ammunition under their coats. With two regiments and a body of light infantry, Grey marched stealthily, in two divisions, toward midnight [September 20, 1777.], through the woods and up a narrow defile below the Paoli, and gained Wayne’s left at about one o’clock in the morning [September 21.]. The divisions conjoined in the Lancaster road, near Wayne’s encampment. The "no-flint general" (see note on p. 764, vol. i.) had given his usual order to rush upon the patriots with fixed bayonets, without firing a shot, and to give no quarters! Several of the American pickets near the highway were silently massacred in the gloom. These being missed by the patroling officer, his suspicions that an enemy was near were awakened, and he hastened to the tent of Wayne. The general immediately paraded his men. Unfortunately, he made the movement in the light of his own camp-fires, instead of forming them in the dark, back of the encampment. By the light of these fires Grey was directed where to attack with the best chance of success. 4 In silence, but with the fierceness of tigers, the enemy leaped from the thick gloom upon the Americans, who knew not from what point to expect an attack. The patriots discharged several volleys, but so sudden and violent was the attack that their column was at once broken into fragments. They fled in confusion in the direction of Chester. One hundred and fifty Americans were killed and wounded in this onslaught, some of whom, it is said, were cruelly butchered after ceasing to resist, and while begging for quarter; and but for the coolness and skill of Wayne, his whole command must have been killed or taken prisoners. He promptly rallied a few companies, ordered Colonel Humpton to wheel the line, and with the cavalry and a portion of the infantry, he gallantly covered a successful retreat. Grey swept the American camp, captured between seventy and eighty men, including several subordinate officers, a great number of small-arms, two pieces of cannon, and eight wagons loaded with baggage and stores. The loss of the British was inconsiderable; only one captain of light infantry and three privates were killed, and four men wounded. General Smallwood was only a mile distant at the time of the engagement, and made an unsuccessful attempt to march to the relief of Wayne. His raw militia were too deficient in discipline to make a sudden movement, and, before he could reach the scene of conflict, Grey had completed his achievement, and was on his way toward the British camp. Falling in with a party of the enemy retiring from the pursuit of Wayne, Smallwood’s militia instantly fled in great confusion, and were not rallied until a late hour the next day.The dead bodies of fifty-three Americans were found on the field the next morning, and were interred upon the spot, in one grave, by the neighboring farmers. For forty years their resting-place was marked by a simple heap of stones, around which the plow of the agriculturist made its furrows nearer and nearer every season. At length the "Republican Artillerists" of Chester county patriotically resolved to erect a monument to their memory, and on the 20th of September, 1817, the fortieth anniversary of the event, through the aid of their fellow-citizens, they reared the memento delineated in the engraving.
5
THE PAOLI MONUMENT.
It is composed of a blue clouded marble pedestal, surmounted by a white marble pyramid. The whole monument is about nine feet high, and stands over the center of the broad grave where the remains of the patriots repose. A peach-tree shades its eastern side. Around it, in oblong form, is a massive stone wall five feet in height, covered with stucco. Upon the four sides of the pedestal are appropriate inscriptions,
6 somewhat defaced by the villain-hand of wanton destructiveness, or the marauding relic-seeker.Here, far away from the hum of towns and cities, rest
After making a sketch of the monument, and dining upon crackers, cheese, and apples – using the plinth of the pedestal for a table – we resumed the reins, and retraced the Lancaster road as far as the Paoli tavern, where a branch road leads to West Chester. Here I parted company with Mr. Agnew, who returned to Philadelphia in the cars, and I journeyed alone toward the Brandywine. Although the fields were shorn, and the orchards were bare of fruit and foliage, yet, on every side, were evidences of fertility and abundance attested by fine farm-houses, spacious stone barns, and numerous plethoric barracks. The country is beautifully diversified and well watered; clear streams, without bridges, intersect the highway in many places. I reached West Chester at dark, distant eight miles from the Paoli tavern, having passed, on the way, near the residence of General Wayne.
WAYNE’S RESIDENCE.
7West Chester is the seat of justice of Chester county. It is in Goshen township, twenty-three miles from Philadelphia, and five south of the Great Valley. It is a pleasant village, containing a population of about three thousand, who are noted for their intelligence and general refinement. It was a mere hamlet when the armies passed by after the battle on the Brandywine,
8 a few miles distant; and there are now not many mementoes of the event in existence. Eye-witnesses have gone down into the grave, and the old dwellings have given place to more modern structures, except the Turk’s Head tavern, and one or two other buildings. At Guss’s Inn, where I tarried for the night, I met Mr. Joseph Townsend, a nephew of the late Joseph Townsend, of Baltimore, who wrote an account of the battle of Brandywine from his own personal recollections, and which was published in 1846, with an accurate survey of the scene of action, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mr. Townsend, who is familiar with every locality connected with the battle, kindly offered to go over the ground with me the next morning.
VIEW AT JEFFERIS’S FORD.
9I breakfasted by candle-light, and, at seven o’clock
[December 1, 1848.], we were on our way to Jefferis’s Ford, on the Brandywine, two and a half miles from West Chester. Thick clouds covered the heavens, and a biting northeast wind, bearing a few tiny snowflakes and pellets of soft hail, evinced the presence of winter. The old ford, where the division of the British army under Howe and Cornwallis crossed the Brandywine, was eight or ten rods above the bridge which now spans the stream.
STONE HOUSE AT JEFFERIS’S FORD.
On the high ground upon the opposite shore, the old stone house of Emmon Jefferis is yet standing. In it the merchants of Wilmington, alarmed for the safety of their goods, stored a large quantity of wine and other liquors, believing that the line of march of the British army would be through their own town, and not as high up the stream as at this place. For reasons which we shall presently consider, Cornwallis and his division crossed the Brandywine at this ford, and, discovering the Madeira wine in Jefferis’s house, made themselves merry at the expense of the "rebel merchants." Howe took Jefferis with him as a guide to conduct him toward Birmingham meeting-house.
From Jefferis’s Ford we proceeded toward the Birmingham meeting-house, famous in the annals of the Brandywine battle as the spot near which the most sanguinary conflict took place. We traversed the road along which Cornwallis marched over the high ground eastward of the Brandywine, passing the site of Sconnel Town,
10 Strodes’s Mill, and the field where the British army formed for action on the southern slopes of Osborn’s Hill. We were thoroughly chilled when we reached Birmingham meeting-house, delineated on the next page, situated about four miles below Jefferis’s Ford. There we found a comfortable shelter from the piercing wind under its spacious shed, where we sat down with Bowen’s and Futhey’s Plan of the Battleground 11 before us, and contemplated the memorable events which occurred in this vicinity.
BIRMINGHAM MEETING-HOUSE.
12The British fleet under Lord Howe, bearing a land force eighteen thousand strong, under the command of his brother, General Sir William Howe, sailed up the Chesapeake, and landed at Turkey Point, on the west side of the River Elk, about eleven miles from Elkton, at its head, on the 25th of August, 1777. Howe’s destination was Philadelphia. He had left Sandy Hook
[July 23, 1777.] with the intention of passing up the Delaware, but, when at the capes of that river, he was informed of the obstructions which the Americans had placed in its channel, and he proceeded to the Chesapeake. 13 The two days and nights after his landing were stormy, and prevented any considerable movement being made before the 28th, when the British commander-in-chief, with the first and second brigades of light troops and reserve, marched to the Head of Elk. Major-general Grey, with the third brigade and a battalion of Highlanders, crossed the Elk on the 30th. The fourth brigade, under General Agnew, with a Hessian brigade, under Knyphausen, crossed, on the 31st [August.], 14 to Cecil court-house, whence they proceeded on the east side of the river, and joined the forces under Howe on Gray’s Hill [September 3.], about two miles eastward of Elkton. This force had remained at the landing to cover the debarkation of the stores and artillery. General Grant, with a suitable force, remained at the Head of Elk to maintain the communication with the shipping.Washington, as we have seen, was perplexed by the movements of Howe, being uncertain of his destination. As soon, however, as he was informed that the British fleet was off the capes of the Chesapeake, he turned his attention in that direction. The detachments in New Jersey, whom General Sullivan had employed in unsuccessful enterprises against Staten Island, were recalled, and the whole army left Philadelphia for Wilmington. General Stephen, with his division, with that of General Lincoln, who had been ordered to join Schuyler at the north, first proceeded to Chester, in which vicinity the militia of Lower Pennsylvania and Delaware were gathering in large numbers, for the country was thoroughly aroused.
The divisions of Stirling, Sullivan, and Greene (the latter composed of the brigades of Muhlenberg and Weeden), with Morgan’s corps, and Bland’s regiment of horse, accompanied by Washington in person, left Philadelphia on the morning of the 24th of August, and encamped at Red Clay Creek, a few miles below Wilmington, the next day
[August 25, 1777.]. The principal portion of the American cavalry were under the immediate command of Count Pulaski.
General Nash, with Proctor’s artillery, embarked in flat-boats upon the Delaware, and proceeded to Chester, from whence he pressed forward to Wilmington. The whole effective force then present and fit for duty consisted of about eleven thousand men, including about eighteen hundred of the Pennsylvania militia.
Washington established his head-quarters at Wilmington, and made immediate preparations to oppose the march of the enemy, he having been informed, by scouts, of their arrival at the head of Elk. The Pennsylvania and Delaware militia – the former under General Armstrong, the latter under General Rodney – were ordered to press forward to the head of Elk, and to secure the stores deposited there. In this, however, they failed, for, before their arrival, the British army had debarked, and all the stores, among which was a large quantity of salt, 15 fell into their hands. Generals Greene and Weeden thoroughly reconnoitered the country between Wilmington and the Elk; and Washington himself rode through heavy rains to the head of that river, to make personal observations [August 26, 1777.]. An eligible place was selected by Greene for the American army to encamp, within six miles of Howe’s position on Gray’s Hill; but, before information of the selection reached Washington, it had been determined in a council of war to take a position on Red Clay Neck, about half way between Wilmington and Christiana, with the left of the army on Christiana Creek, and the right extending toward Chad’s Ford, upon the Brandywine. Greene’s sagacity foresaw the hazard of the chosen position, and he expressed his opinion that the Americans must abandon it on the approach of the enemy. The sequel proved the correctness of his opinion.
Distressed for want of horses, hemmed in by strong parties of the American militia, and almost daily annoyed by the attacks of Captain Henry Lee’s and other smaller detachments of cavalry upon his pickets, Howe did not move forward until the 3d of September. On the 27th of August he issued a proclamation to the people, assuring them that he did not come to make war upon the peaceable, but to put down the rebellious; that private property should be respected; that their persons should be secure, and that pardon should be extended to all who should return to their allegiance, and surrender themselves to any detachment of the royal forces within a specified time. But the people of Lower Pennsylvania had heard of the falsity of professions put forth in his proclamation to the inhabitants of New Jersey the year previous, and his "Declaration," as he termed it, produced very little effect in his favor. The people had learned to suspect the flattering words of British officials, whether in Parliament or in the camp, and, instead of "remaining quietly in their houses," they flocked to the standard of the patriots, and annoyed the common enemy on every side. The advance of the royal forces toward the Brandywine was marked by a series of skirmishes, in which the Americans made a number of prisoners. 16
Cornwallis, with Knyphausen, at the head of one division of the royal army, moved forward and encamped above Pencander, where a brief but severe skirmish ensued
[September 3.] between the enemy and Maxwell’s regiment of foot, formed in ambuscade, in which the patriots lost forty in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was somewhat less. On the 8th, General Grant, having rejoined the army with the tents, baggage, and stores, the British moved forward by way of Newark, and took post within four miles of the right of the American encampment, extending their left far up into the country. A strong column made a feint of attacking the American front, and, after some menacing maneuvering, halted at Milltown, within two miles of the center of the Americans. Washington, believing it to be the design of Howe to turn the American right, cross the Brandywine, cut off their communication with Philadelphia, and thus hem them in, upon a tongue of land, between the British fleet and army, saw at once the peril of his position, and, pursuant to Greene’s prediction, broke up his encampment, and crossed the Brandywine at Chad’s Ford, at about two o’clock on the morning of the 9th [September, 1777.]. On the same evening, the British marched forward in two columns. Knyphausen, with the left, encamped at New Garden and Kennet Square; Cornwallis, with the right, was posted below, at Hockhesson meeting house. 17 On the following morning the two divisions met at Kennet Square, and at evening advanced to within a mile of Welsh’s tavern, then a public house of considerable note, three miles east of Kennet. 18
EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. – This plan, alluded to on
page 168, note 3, was carefully drawn, from those surveys, by Edward Armstrong, Esq., the recording secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and published by that association. A A, denote the column under the command of Lord Cornwallis, after having crossed the forks of the Brandywine. C, two squadrons of dragoons, which were not employed in the action. E E, the first general attack of the enemy’s guards and grenadiers. F, Deborre’s brigade, on the right, forced by the enemy. G, G, the British and Hessian grenadiers entangled in a wood. H H, march of the enemy toward and beyond Dilworth. The position of the Americans when the battle commenced is named on the plan. I, indicates the ravine or defile where Greene checked the enemy until night. No. 28 denotes the site of a blacksmith’s shop which stood near the defile, but now destroyed.a a,
indicates the column under Knyphausen, in march from Kennet meeting-house toward Chad’s Ford. b b, the heights and woods occupied by Maxwell and his troops. d, British riflemen behind a house, supported by one hundred men from Stern’s brigade. e, the Queen’s Rangers pursuing Maxwell, when he was driven from the woods, f. Near h, which denotes a valley, were four pieces of cannon, with the forty-ninth regiment, to support the attack of the advanced troops, who crossed the ford in the afternoon, under the fire of Wayne’s batteries at m m. n, position of Knyphausen’s column from half after ten in the morning until he crossed the river. o o o, the position of Wayne’s troops near Chad’s house. q, march of the enemy to the ford, in the face of a cannonade from Wayne’s batteries. Chad’s Ford is named on the map. The position of the Americans is seen on the Chester road, a little to the left of Rocky Hill. Knyphausen took position at u, where he remained during the night after the battle.The following references, taken from Bowen and Futhey’s map, show the names of the occupants of houses in the vicinity when the battle occurred, and also the names of the occupants in 1846, two years before I visited the ground:
1. George Strode’s, now Jonathan Paxson’s. 2. now Dr. A. L. Elwyn’s. 4. Widow Susannah Davis’s, the site now occupied by the house of Aaron Sharpless. 5. Widow of John Davis, not standing. 6. Widow of James Davis, now occupied by Hibbert Davis. 7. William Jones, now Brenton Jones, his grandson. 8. Isaac Davis’s, now Abraham Darlington’s. 9. John Woodward’s, not standing. 10, Richard Evanson’s, now Lewis Brinton’s. 11. Supposed to have been J. Bolton’s, not standing. 12. Isaac Garrett’s, not standing. 13. Abraham Darlington’s, now Clement Biddle’s. 14. John Bennett’s, not standing. 15. Edward Brinton, now Edward B. Darlington. 16. George Brinton’s, now Ziba Darlington’s; built in 1704.
HOWE’S HEAD-QUARTERS.
19Howe’s head-quarters, given above, are denoted on the map by a parallelogram upon the left of the New Road, near the right-hand corner of the map. The house is in the present possession of George F. Gilpin. It was owned by Israel Gilpin when Howe had possession of it. 19 John Henderson, near Harlan Webb’s house.
LA FAYETTE’S QUARTERS.
21. Gideon Gilpin’s, now William Painter’s; the head-quarters of La Fayette.
20 22. Benjamin Ring’s, now Joseph P. Harvey’s; Washington’s head - quarters. 23. William Harvey’s, not standing. 24. Davis’s tavern, now in ruins. 25. John Chad’s, still standing. 26. Amos’s, not standing.On the morning of the 11th of September, the day of the battle on the Brandywine, the main strength of the American army was posted on the heights east of Chad’s Ford, and commanding that passage of the creek. The brigades of Muhlenberg and Weeden, which composed Greene’s division; occupied a position directly east of the ford; Wayne’s division and Proctor’s artillery (o o o on the map) were posted upon the brow of an eminence near
Chad’s house (printed on page 180), immediately above the ford; and the brigades of Sullivan, Stirling, and Stephen, which formed the right wing, extended some distance up the river, on the left of the main body. At Pyles’s Ford, two miles below, General Armstrong was posted with one thousand Pennsylvania militia, to guard that pass. General Maxwell, with about one thousand light troops, took post on the heights upon the west side of the river, about a mile from Chad’s Ford, to dispute that passage.At daybreak
[September 11, 1777.], the column under Cornwallis moved along the Lancaster road, which, for several miles, ran nearly parallel with the Brandywine. General Howe was with this division. Knyphausen and his command moved forward at nine o’clock. A dense fog enshrouded the country, and the scouting parties of both armies often came in close contact before they were aware of their proximity. From behind the walls of the graveyard of the Kennet meeting-house, and also of houses, trees, and clumps of bushes, parties of militia kept up an annoying fire upon the advancing enemy. Knyphausen, however, pushed forward toward Chad’s Ford. He sent a strong advance party to dislodge Maxwell. They met at about ten o’clock, and a severe engagement ensued. Maxwell was driven back to the verge of the stream at the ford, where he was re-enforced. Turning upon his pursuers, he made a furious charge. The ranks of the enemy were thrown into confusion, and fell back upon Knyphausen’s main column. Unable to cope with Maxwell in open battle without bringing a larger force into action, Knyphausen sent a detachment through the woods to make an attack upon his flank. Perceiving this movement, Maxwell retreated across the stream, leaving the whole west bank of the Brandywine in possession of the enemy. 21
VIEW AT CHAD’S FORD.
22Knyphausen now brought forward his ordnance, and from the brow of the hill upon the west side of the stream he kept up a strong cannonade upon the Americans, without attempting to cross. The fire was returned with spirit by Proctor’s artillery. Knyphausen did not cross the Brandywine, because he was instructed by Howe to amuse the Americans with feigned efforts to make the passage of the ford, until Cornwallis should cross above, and gain the right and rear of the patriots. This accomplished, Knyphausen was directed to push across Chad’s Ford, when the two divisions of the royal army would make a simultaneous attack. During these maneuvers of Knyphausen, several detachments of the Americans crossed the river, and boldly attacked his flanking parties and those who were laboring to throw up intrenchments. Captains Porterfield and Waggoner having secured a footing on the western side, General Maxwell recrossed the stream with a considerable force, drove the enemy from the ground, killed about thirty men, and seized a quantity of intrenching tools, with which they were constructing a battery. Knyphausen sent an overwhelming force against them, which soon drove the Americans back to their lines on the east side of the river.
General Sullivan, who commanded the right wing of the Americans, was ordered to guard the fords as high up as Buffington’s, just above the forks of the Brandywine. He sent scouting parties in various directions to observe the movements of the enemy. Colonel Moses Hazen
23 was stationed with a considerable force at Jones’s Ford. Between nine and ten in the morning [September 11.], Colonel Theodoric Bland, 24 with some light horse, crossed the Brandywine at Jones’s Ford, and discovered a portion of Cornwallis’s division marching toward the west branch, at Trimble’s Ford. Bland dispatched a messenger to Sullivan with the information, which was confirmed by another dispatch from Colonel Ross (dated at "Great Valley road at eleven o’clock"), who was in the rear of Cornwallis’s division, informing Sullivan that "five thousand men, with sixteen or eighteen field-pieces, were on the march for Taylor’s and Jefferis’s Fords." Similar intelligence was sent by Colonel Hazen. These accounts reached Washington, from Sullivan, between eleven and twelve o’clock. The commander-in-chief immediately ordered Sullivan to pass the Brandywine and attack Cornwallis, while he, with the main division, crossed, and engaged Knyphausen at Chad’s Ford. General Greene, of Washington’s division, was ordered to cross the river above the ford and gain Knyphausen’s rear. Before these several movements could be executed, counter intelligence was received by Sullivan from Major Spear of the militia, posted upon the forks of the Brandywine, who informed him that there was no appearance of an enemy in that quarter. Spear’s information was confirmed by Sergeant Tucker, who had been sent out in that direction expressly to gain information. Relying upon this intelligence, Sullivan halted. He dispatched a messenger to Washington with the information, and the meditated attack upon the enemy at Chad’s Ford was abandoned. Greene, who had crossed with his advanced guard, was recalled.While Washington was thus kept in suspense by conflicting intelligence, Cornwallis gained his coveted advantage. He made a circuitous march of seventeen miles, keeping beyond the American patrols, crossed the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble’s Ford, and the east branch at Jefferis’s, and gained the heights near the Birmingham meeting-house, within two miles of Sullivan’s right flank, before that general was certain that Howe and Cornwallis had left Kennet Square! This apparent want of vigilance on the part of his patrols drew upon Sullivan the severest censure of the public. Already the failure of an expedition against British posts on Staten Island,
25 under his general command, had biased public opinion against him; and Congress, wherein Sullivan had several active enemies, had directed General Washington to appoint a court to investigate the matter. The disasters which occurred on the Brandywine were charged to Sullivan’s want of vigilance, energy, and skill, and he was held responsible for the defeat of our troops. 26 Even his honorable acquittal, by a court martial, subsequently, did not altogether remove from the public mind a distrust of his ability as a general officer.When Sullivan was assured, by a note from Colonel Bland, dated at "quarter past one o’clock," that the enemy were in great force on Osborne’s Hill, a little to the right of the Birmingham meeting-house, he dispatched a messenger to Washington with the intelligence,
27 and marched immediately to oppose the enemy. His division consisted of his own, Stirling’s, and Stephen’s brigades. Upon the gentle slopes near the Birmingham meeting-house he began to form his line for battle, his left extending toward the Brandywine. It was an advantageous position, for both flanks were covered by thick woods; but, in consequence of the delay in waiting the return of the messenger with orders from the commander-in-chief, the rough and broken character of the ground, and the time occupied by Sullivan in making a wide circuit in bringing his brigade to its assigned place in the line, 28 he was not fully prepared for action when the refreshed and well-formed battalions of the enemy, under Cornwallis, came sweeping on from Osborne’s Hill, 29 and commenced a furious attack. The advanced guard were German troops. On arriving at the Street road, they were fired upon by a company of Americans stationed in an orchard north of Samuel Jones’s brick dwelling-house. The Hessians returned the fire, and the action soon became general. The artillery of both armies opened with terrible effect; and while the Americans maintained their position, the carnage was great. The most indomitable courage was displayed, and, for a while, the result was doubtful. The Americans, many of them unskillful militia, repelled charge after charge of the well-disciplined infantry, chasseurs, grenadiers, and guards of the enemy, until overwhelming numbers obliged them to yield. The right wing of the Americans, under General Deborre, first gave way, and the left, under Sullivan, soon followed. The latter officer used every exertion to rally the flying troops, but in vain. In broken fragments they fled over the fields toward the main division of the army at Chad’s Ford. The center division (Stirling’s brigade), in which was General Conway, with eight hundred men, yet remained firm as a rock in the midst of the wild ocean of carnage. To this division Sullivan now attached himself, and, with Stirling and La Fayette, engaged personally in the hottest of the battle. To this point Cornwallis directed his energies. His artillery made dreadful breaches in their ranks, and strewed the earth with the slain. 30 Resistance was vain, and, when hope no longer encouraged the contending patriots of the center, they, too, wheeled, and joined their comrades in their flight. Two of Sullivan’s aids were killed; and La Fayette, who had leaped from his horse, and, sword in hand, was endeavoring to rally the yielding patriots, was wounded in the leg by a musket-ball, and fell. Gimat, his aid, helped him on a horse, and he escaped. 31 Despair seized the troops, and every effort to rally them was, for a time, vain. They fled to the woods in the rear, pursued by the victorious enemy. Some of them were rallied half a mile northward of Dilworth, and a brief encounter ensued between the fugitives and the pursuing party of the left wing of the enemy. The conflict was short, and the Americans again fled. The British right wing got entangled in the woods, and did not participate in the subsequent engagement, when Greene checked the pursuers.On receiving intelligence of the approach of the British, Washington, with Greene’s division of Virginians and Pennsylvanians, pushed forward to the support of Sullivan, leaving General Wayne at Chad’s Ford to oppose the passage of Knyphausen. When the first cannon-peals from the Birmingham meeting-house broke over the country, Greene pressed forward to the support of the right wing. His first brigade, under General Weedon,
32 took the lead, and so rapid was their march that they traveled four miles in forty minutes. 33 Between Dilworth and the meeting-house they met the flying Americans, closely pursued by the British. Greene, by a skillful movement, opened his ranks and received the fugitives, then, closing them again, he covered their retreat and checked the pursuers by a continual fire of artillery. At a narrow defile about a mile from the meeting-house, in the direction of Chester, flanked on each side by woods, he changed his front, faced the enemy, and kept them at bay while the retreating party rested and formed in his rear. Greene defended this pass with great skill and bravery until twilight, when the pursuers encamped for the night.
In this defense the brigades of Weedon and Muhlenberg 34 were greatly distinguished, particularly the tenth Virginia regiment, under Colonel Stevens, and a Pennsylvania regiment, under Colonel Stewart.
We have observed that the plan of the enemy was to attack the Americans front and rear at the same time, by Cornwallis gaining the right flank of the patriots, and Knyphausen crossing the Brandywine at Chad’s Ford. The firing of heavy guns on the American right was to be the signal for the German general to ford the stream. When the firing commenced at the Birmingham meeting-house, Knyphausen observed the departure of Greene’s division, and the consequent weakening of the defense of the passage of the river. He immediately made a proper disposition of his troops for crossing. Wayne was on the alert, and, the moment Knyphausen’s forces moved forward, he opened upon him a heavy fire of artillery from his intrenchments and the battery near Chad’s house. Although in no condition to oppose nearly one half of the British army, he stood firm at first, and gallantly confronted the heavy and steadily progressing columns. But, on receiving intelligence of the defeat of Sullivan at Birmingham meeting-house, and discovering that a considerable force of the enemy, who had penetrated the woods, were coming out upon his flank, Wayne ordered a retreat. This was accomplished in great disorder, leaving his artillery and munitions of war in the hands of Knyphausen. They retreated, in broken columns and confused fragments, behind the division of General Greene, then gallantly defending the pass near Dilworth, and joined the other defeated troops. The approach of night ended the whole conflict. The Americans retreated to Chester that night, where they rendezvoused, and the next day marched toward Philadelphia, and encamped near Germantown. General Armstrong, who was stationed at Pyles’s Ford, had no opportunity to engage in the action. The British remained upon the field, near Dilworth, Howe taking up his quarters at Gilpin’s, a few miles from Chad’s Ford. 35
Military men, when considering the battle of Brandywine, have questioned the judgment of Washington in incurring the great risk incident to a disparity in numbers and discipline. The numbers engaged in the action have never been accurately ascertained. The British effective force, on the day of the battle, was probably not less than seventeen thousand men, while that of the Americans did not exceed eleven thousand, and many of these were raw militia. Washington was aware of the expectations of Congress and the whole country, and wisely considered that a defeat in battle would be less depressing upon the minds of the soldiers and the people, than permitting the enemy to march, without opposition, to the capture of Philadelphia, then the political metropolis of America. Influenced by these considerations, he resolved to fight the enemy; and had not conflicting intelligence perplexed and thwarted him in his plans, it is probable that victory would have crowned the American army. The result was disastrous, and many noble patriots slept their last sleep upon the battle-field that night.
36Congress was not dismayed by the disaster on the Brandywine, but were nerved to new exertions. They resolved to exert their whole power in strengthening the army in the vicinity, and for that purpose Washington was directed to order fifteen hundred troops of Putnam’s division, on the Hudson, to march immediately to the Delaware, while the militia of Pennsylvania and the adjoining states were summoned to join the army. Anticipating the necessity of leaving Philadelphia, and, perhaps, of a temporary speedy dissolution, Congress voted to enlarge the powers of Washington, and he was partially reinvested with the dictatorial character, first conferred upon him before the attack on the enemy at Trenton in 1776.
37 Nor was Washington himself dispirited. Allowing his troops one day for rest and refreshments at Germantown, he recrossed the Schuylkill [September 15, 1777.], 38 for the purpose of giving the enemy battle even upon the field of his late defeat, if his camp yet remained there. He took the Lancaster road, and the next day met the enemy not far from the Warren tavern, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Howe had left his encampment near the Brandywine [September 16.], and was on his way to Goshen (West Chester) when he heard of the approach of the Americans. 39 By a quick maneuver, he gained the high ground near the White Horse tavern with a part of his army, and turned the right flank of the Americans, while the main body advanced toward the left. Skirmishing commenced between the advanced guards of the two armies, and a general battle appeared about to ensue, when a terrible storm of rain (already noticed on page 109), accompanied by heavy thunder, broke upon the belligerents, and so injured their ammunition that they were obliged to defer the battle. Washington found his loss of ammunition to be so great, that prudence forbade a present engagement with the enemy. He accordingly withdrew his army, and filed off toward Reading. Wayne, in the mean while, was hanging upon the rear of the enemy, and suffered the defeat at Paoli. Washington retired to Yellow Springs and Warwick, among the range of mountains which extend to Valley Forge, and passed the Schuylkill at Parker’s Ford. The subsequent movements of the two armies – the battles of Germantown, Red Bank, and Fort Mifflin; the encampment at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge; the evacuation of Philadelphia by the enemy the following spring, and the battle of Monmouth which ensued, have been noticed in the preceding chapter.We will now close the chronicle, finish the sketch of the
Birmingham meeting-house, printed on page 169 {original text has "375".}, and, leaving the venerated fane with its interesting associations, ride to Dilworth to dine.About half-way between the meeting-house and Dilworth, and one hundred rods westward of the road, in a field belonging to Mr. Bennet, is the place where La Fayette was wounded. The ground is very undulating; in fact, the whole scene of the battle of Brandywine is a broken but very fertile country, highly cultivated, and remarkable for the good character of its inhabitants. They were chiefly Quakers during the Revolution; and their decendants, professing the same faith and discipline, own a large portion of the land at present.
CHAD’S HOUSE.
From Dilworth we proceeded toward Chad’s Ford, by the way of Brinton’s Mills. Upon the brow of an eminence near the mills, and overlooking the Brandywine, the old Brinton mansion (26 on
the map) was yet standing, a gray and moss-grown relic of the war. In the gable toward the river is a hole made by the passage of a cannon-ball, fired from Knyphausen’s batteries on the west side of the Brandywine. About a mile below it, upon a road running parallel with the river, is Chad’s house, a small stone building, and another relic of the Revolution. It is upon a slope on the east side of the road. The sketch here given was made from the highway, looking northeast. Upon a loftier knoll, a few rods south of Chad’s, is the place where Wayne stationed Proctor with his artillery. It was an eligible point for commanding the passage of the ford.Turning eastward from the road leading to the bridge over the Brandywine at the ford, I visited the head-quarters of Washington (22 on
the map), delineated on the opposite page, then the residence of Benjamin Ring, now the dwelling of Joseph P. Harvey. It is somewhat modernized, but its general aspect is the same as when the patriot chief occupied it. Mr. Harvey gave me a grape-shot which was plowed up on his farm a few weeks before. Hundreds of pounds of cannon-balls have been found in the vicinity of Chad’s Ford, and are now preserved by relic-seekers.
WASHINGTON’S HEAD-QUARTERS.
From Washington’s temporary residence I rode to the reputed quarters of La Fayette (21), situated a little more than a mile east of Chad’s Ford; and thence, up the New Road, to George Gilpin’s, the quarters of Howe after the battle. From the field where Mr. Gilpin and his sons were at work, I made
the sketch printed on page 172, and there parting company with Mr. Townsend, my cicerone over the battleground of the Brandywine, I turned my face toward Kennet Square, with my back to the keen northeast wind. It was nearly four o’clock when I reached Chad’s Ford. The clouds were deepening, and every aspect of nature was dreary. I alighted, tied my horse to a bar-post, and, shivering with cold, stood upon the bank of the congealing stream, and sketched the picture on page 173 – giving it the effects of sunlight and foliage as in pleasant summer time, after a warm supper at Kennet Square. The shadows of evening were coming on when I crossed the Brandywine, and it was too dark to see objects clearly when I passed the old Kennet meeting-house and Welsh’s tavern, places of historic interest upon the highway. I arrived at Kennet Square, seven miles west of the Brandywine, at about half-past five o’clock, and passed the night at Wiley’s tavern, a venerable edifice, in which Howe had his quarters while his army was encamped in the vicinity.I arose at daybreak, in anticipation of beholding a furious snow-storm, for the wind roared in the spacious chimneys, and the neighboring shutters and sign-boards were beating a tattoo. But the wind had changed to the southeast, and, though blowing with the fury of a December tempest, it was as warm as the breath of early spring. I breakfasted early, and departed for Elkton, twenty-four miles distant, with a prospect of receiving a drenching, for scuds, dark and billowy, came up from the ocean upon the wings of the gale like a flock of monster birds. I had just passed the "Hammer and Trowel" inn, a few miles from Kennet, when a thick mist came sweeping over the hills in the van of a tempest of wind and rain. For more than an hour, it seemed as if the "windows of heaven were opened," and that Æolus and Jupiter Pluvius were joined in merry-making upon the earth. The huge leafless oaks in the forests swayed to and fro like the masts and spars of tempest-tossed navies; and a thousand turbid streamlets poured from the hill-sides, and made rivers of the gentle water-courses in the vales. Twice, while passing over a lofty hill, I felt my wagon lifted from the ground by the wind, its spacious cover acting like a parachute. The storm ceased as suddenly as it arose, and, when I reached New London (a village of some twenty houses), about ten miles from Kennet Square, the clouds broke, and the winds were hushed. A brilliant, mild afternoon made the ride from New London to Elkton a delightful one, and fully compensated for the suffering of the morning. The country is hilly, until within a few miles of the head of the Elk, when it becomes flat, and marshy, and penetrated by deep estuaries of the bay and river.
Elkton (the "Head of Elk" of the Revolution) is an old town, the capital of Cecil county, in Maryland. It is situated at the junction of the two branches of the Elk River, the upper portion of Chesapeake Bay, and at the head of tide-water. The rail-way from Philadelphia to Baltimore passes within half a mile of the town. Here the British made their first halt, after leaving the place of debarkation at Turkey Point, twelve miles below; and Elkton may be considered the dividing point, in the military operations of the Revolution, between the North and South. The accompanying map, divided by the Delaware River, with New Jersey on the right and Pennsylvania on the left, is introduced to exhibit the relative position of the principal places in those two states, from Amboy to Elkton, mentioned in preceding pages, and made memorable by military events. My tarry at Elkton was brief. While Charley (my horse) was "taking a bite" at an inn stable, I made inquiry of the post-master and other citizens, concerning vestiges of the Revolution, and ascertained that nothing was visible in the neighborhood of Elkton except the water, and the fields, and the hills on which Howe encamped, some two miles from the town. The place of the debarkation of the British was Turkey Point, a cape formed by the junction of the Elk River and the broad mouth of the Susquehanna, twelve miles below the village. Informed that the enemy cast up no intrenchments, and, consequently, left no tangible marks of their presence there, and assured that a fine view of the Point might be obtained from the steam-boat, when going down the Chesapeake, I resolved to be satisfied with a distant observation. I accordingly rode to Frenchtown, three miles below Elkton, whence the boats connecting with the Delaware and Chesapeake rail-way depart for Baltimore; "took tea" with a widow lady, residing in a fine brick dwelling on the bank of the river, and, just before sunset, embarked. Charley was restive when walking the plank, but, using all the philosophy he possessed, he soon decided that the hubbub in the steam-pipe was harmless, and his footing on deck secure. These problems settled, he seemed to enjoy the evening voyage quite as much as the bipeds around him. It was, indeed, a glorious evening. When the George Washington cast off her moorings, the last gleams of the evening sun gilded the hills of Delaware, and, while passing Turkey Point, the scene was truly gorgeous. The tall trees of the cape were sharply penciled upon a back-ground of blended ruby, orange, gold, purple, and azure, glowing like opal, and spreading over many degrees of the western horizon; while above, far up in the dark blue, was the crescent moon, with Jupiter in her lap, beaming so brightly that he cast a line of silver light upon the calm waters of the bay. Both had gone down behind the hills when we passed North Point 40 light-house, and entered the Patapsco. We arrived at Baltimore, sixty-eight miles from Elkton, at ten o’clock. The city was in a tumult. A destructive fire was raging; and the grand diapason of the trumpet shouts of the firemen and the clangor of bells met us upon the waters, almost as far distant as the lurid glare of the flames.
"Oh the bells, bells, bells,
What a tale their terror tells
I had traveled since dawn, by land and water, in rain and sunshine, full ninety miles; and it was a pleasant thought that to-morrow would be the Sabbath – a day of rest.
NOTE. – At the beginning of the previous chapter (page 137) {original text has "this chapter (page 41)".} I have mentioned some of the operations of the Queen’s Rangers, under Simcoe, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, but inadvertently omitted an occurrence in which Brigadier-general Lacey, of Pennsylvania, was conspicuous. It occurred on the first of May, 1778, at a place called The Crooked Billet (now Hatborough), about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. There General Lacey had his head-quarters. His command were encamped there most of the time during many weeks in the spring of 1778, and proved a great annoyance to the British foraging parties. It was deemed important to attack and disperse these troops, and that service the active Major Simcoe, with his Rangers, and Lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie, with light infantry and cavalry, as commander-in-chief, attempted. They surprised General Lacey at dawn on the morning of the first of May. He was unsuspicious of an enemy until they were within two hundred yards of his camp. He was in bed, and by the time he was in his saddle the enemy were within musket shot of his quarters, and attacked him front and rear. Retreat was his only chance for safety, for the number of the enemy was overwhelming. To accomplish that incurred the necessity of severe fighting. He literally "cut his way through," and skirmishing continued for more than two miles. He succeeded in retreating in tolerable order, and most of his command escaped. General Lacey’s skill and bravery on this occasion were highly commended.
John Lacey was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the fourth of February, 1755. He was commissioned a captain under Wayne early in 1776, and was at the head of a company in February of that year. He was made sub-lieutenant of Bucks county in the spring of 1777, for the purpose of organizing the militia. On the sixth of May he was commissioned lieutenant colonel, and in January, 1778, was made brigadier general. He commanded on the lines between the British in Philadelphia and the Americans at Valley Forge, and was esteemed by Washington as one of the most useful officers in the service. After the affair at The Crooked Billet, above noticed, he was elected a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the following year he was chosen to a seat in the Council, where he served three years; at the same time, he performed much military service. After the war, he made his residence at Pemberton; and as justice of the peace, district judge, and legislator, he continued in public life until the last. He died on the 17th of February, 1814, at the age of fifty-nine years.
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ENDNOTES
1 The Paoli was one of the famous taverns on the old Lancaster turnpike. The Spread Eagle, the Buck, the White Horse, the Black Horse, the Red Lion, &c., were all famous among travelers upon the Lancaster and Harrisburg roads. Governor Pownall (member of Parliament during the period of the Revolution), who traveled the roads in 1754, mentions several of these small hamlets that had grown up near some of the old taverns.
2 The land is owned chiefly by Mr. Joseph Rodgers, whose residence is not far distant.
3 General Smallwood was advancing with 1150 Maryland militia, and Colonel Gist with 700.
4 A Hessian sergeant, boasting of the exploits of that night, exultingly exclaimed, "What a running about, barefoot, and half clothed, and in the light of their own fires! These showed us where to chase them, while they could not see us. We killed three hundred of the rebels with the bayonet. I stuck them myself like so many pigs, one after another, until the blood ran out of the touch-hole of my musket."
5 On that occasion the Reverend David Jones, an eminent Baptist clergyman, who was Wayne’s chaplain, and with him at the time of the massacre, was present and made an address. He was then past eighty years of age.
DAVID JONES was born in White Clay Creek Hundred, Newcastle county, Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736. His ancestors came from Wales in the early part of the last century, and settled at The Welsh Tract. Mr. Jones was educated for the ministry by the Reverend Isaac Eaton, of Hopewell, New Jersey. He was for many years pastor of the upper (Baptist) Freehold church in New Jersey, from which place he proceeded to the Northwestern Territory in 1772 and 1773, on a Gospel mission to the Shawnee and Delaware Indians. He was unsuccessful, and, after enduring many hardships, he returned to his charge at Freehold. He afterward published an account of his mission. One of his companions, while navigating the Ohio in a canoe from Fort Pitt, was the celebrated George Rogers Clarke. He early espoused the patriot cause, and became so obnoxious to the Tories, that, believing his life to be in danger, he left New Jersey, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1775, in charge of the Great Valley Baptist church. On the occasion of the Continental Fast, soon afterward observed, he preached a sermon before Colonel Dewee’s regiment, entitled "Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless." It was published, and, being extensively circulated throughout the colonies, produced a salutary effect. In 1776, Mr. Jones received the appointment of chaplain to a Pennsylvania regiment under Colonel St. Clair, which was ordered to the Northern Department. He was on duty with St. Clair at Ticonderoga, where, when the enemy was hourly expected (October 20th, 1776) from Crown Point, he delivered a characteristic discourse to the regiment, which had a powerful effect upon them. * Chaplain Jones served through two campaigns under General Gates, and was chaplain to a brigade under Wayne in the autumn of 1777. He was with that officer at the "Paoli massacre," and narrowly escaped death. He had been in the battle at the Brandywine a few days before, and was in the engagement at Germantown. He accompanied the army to Whitemarsh and Valley Forge; was with Wayne in the battle at Monmouth, and in all his subsequent campaigns, until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in the autumn of 1781. He was so active in the cause of freedom, that a reward was offered for him by General Howe, and a detachment was sent to the Great Valley, on one occasion, to arrest him. † At the close of the war he retired to his farm and church.
When General Wayne took command of the army in the Northwestern Territory, against the Indians, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his chaplain, and accompanied him. When the war of 1812 broke out, he again entered the army, being then seventy-six years old, and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson until the close of that contest. His last public act was to address the people assembled to dedicate the Paoli Monument. He died on the 5th of February, 1820, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church-yard, in sight of Valley Forge. The portrait here given I copied from an excellent cabinet picture of the chaplain in the possession of his grandson, Horatio Gates Jones, Jr., of Philadelphia, who kindly furnished me with the materials for this brief sketch of the public services of that eminent patriot and divine.
* I have before me a printed copy of that address, which was published soon afterward. I print it here as a favorable specimen of the manner in which the American soldiers were addressed by their chaplains.
"ADDRESS
"To General St. Clair’s Brigade at Ticonderoga, when the Enemy were hourly expected, October 20, 1776.
"MY COUNTRYMEN, FELLOW-SOLDIERS, AND FRIENDS.
"I am sorry that during this campaign I have been favored with so few opportunities of addressing you on subjects of the greatest importance both with respect to this life and that which is to come; but what is past can not be recalled, and NOW time will not admit an enlargement, as we have the greatest reason to expect the advancement of our enemies as speedily as Heaven will permit. [The wind blew to the north, strongly.] Therefore, at present, let it suffice to bring to your remembrance some necessary truths.
"It is our common faith, and a very just one too, that all events on earth are under the notice of that God in whom we live, move, and have our being; therefore we must believe that, in this important struggle with the worst of enemies, he has assigned us our post here at Ticonderoga. Our situation is such that, if properly defended, we shall give our enemies a fatal blow, and in great measure prove the means of the salvation of North America.
"Such is our present case, that we are fighting for all that is near and dear to us, while our enemies are engaged in the worst of causes, their design being to subjugate, plunder, and enslave a free people that have done them no harm. Their tyrannical views are so glaring, their cause so horribly bad, that there still remain too much goodness and humanity in Great Britain to engage unanimously against us, therefore they have been obliged (and at a most amazing expense, too) to hire the assistance of a barbarous, mercenary people, that would cut your throats for the small reward of sixpence. No doubt these have hopes of being our task-masters, and would rejoice at our calamities.
"Look, oh! look, therefore, at your respective states, and anticipate the consequences if these vassals are suffered to enter! It would fail the most fruitful imagination to represent, in a proper light, what anguish, what horror, what distress would spread over the whole! See; oh! see the dear wives of your bosoms forced from their peaceful habitations, and perhaps used with such indecency that modesty would forbid the description. Behold the fair virgins of your land, whose benevolent souls are now filled with a thousand good wishes and hopes of seeing their admirers return home crowned with victory, would not only meet with a doleful disappointment, but also with such insults and abuses that would induce their tender hearts to pray for the shades of death. See your children exposed as vagabonds to all the calamities of this life! Then, oh! then adieu to all felicity this side the grave!
"Now all these calamities may be prevented if our God be for us – and who can doubt of this who observes the point in which the wind now blows – if you will only acquit yourselves like men, and with firmness of mind go forth against your enemies, resolving either to return with victory or to die gloriously. Every one that may fall in this dispute will be justly esteemed a martyr to liberty, and his name will be had in precious memory while the love of freedom remains in the breasts of men. All whom God will favor to see a glorious victory, will return to their respective states with every mark of honor, and be received with joy and gladness of heart by all friends to liberty and lovers of mankind.
As our present case is singular, I hope, therefore, that the candid will excuse me, if I now conclude with an uncommon address, in substance principally extracted from the writings of the servants of God in the Old Testament; though, at the same time, it is freely acknowledged that I am not possessed of any similar power either of blessing or cursing.
"1. Blessed be that man who is possessed of true love of liberty; and let all the people say, Amen.
"2. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the common rights of mankind; and let all the people say, Amen.
"3. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the United States of America; and let all the people say, Amen.
"4. Blessed be that man who will use his utmost endeavor to oppose the tyranny of Great Britain, and to vanquish all her forces invading North America; and let all the people say, Amen.
"5. Blessed be that man who is resolved never to submit to Great Britain; and let all the people say, Amen.
"6. Blessed be that man who in the present dispute esteems not his life too good to fall a sacrifice in defense of his country; let his posterity, if any he has, be blessed with riches, honor, virtue, and true religion; and let all the people say, Amen.
"Now, on the other hand, as far as is consistent with the Holy Scriptures, let all these blessings be turned into curses to him who deserts the noble cause in which we are engaged, and turns his back to the enemy before he receives proper orders to retreat; and let all the people say, Amen.
"Let him be abhorred by all the United States of America.
"Let faintness of heart and fear never forsake him on earth.
"Let him be a magor missabile, a terror to himself and all around him.
"Let him be accursed in his outgoing, and cursed in his incoming; cursed in lying down, and cursed in uprising; cursed in basket, and cursed in store.
"Let him be cursed in all his connections, till his wretched head with dishonor is laid low in the dust; and let all the soldiers say, Amen.
"And may the God of all grace, in whom we live, enable us, in defense of our country, to acquit ourselves like men, to his honor and praise. Amen and Amen."
† On one occasion, while reconnoitering alone, he saw a dragoon dismount and enter a house for refreshments. Mr. Jones boldly abstracted the horseman’s pistols, and, going into the house, claimed him as his prisoner. The dragoon was unarmed, and was obliged to obey the orders of his captor, to mount and ride into the American camp. The event caused great merriment, and Wayne laughed immoderately at the idea of his chaplain’s capturing a British dragoon.
6 The following are the inscriptions written by William Darlington, M. D., L. L. D., of West Chester:
NORTH SIDE. – "The atrocious massacre which this stone commemorates was perpetrated by British troops under the immediate command of Major-general Grey."
WEST SIDE. – "Sacred to the memory of the Patriots who on this spot fell a sacrifice to British barbarity, during the struggle for American Independence, on the night of the 20th September, 1777."
SOUTH SIDE. – "Here repose the remains of fifty-three American soldiers, who were the victims of cold-blooded cruelty in the well-known ‘Massacre at Paoli,’ while under the command of General Anthony Wayne, an officer whose military conduct, bravery, and humanity were equally conspicuous throughout the Revolutionary War."
EAST SIDE. – "This memorial, in honor of Revolutionary Patriotism, was erected September 20th, 1817, by the REPUBLICAN ARTILLERISTS of Chester county, aided by the contributions of their fellow-citizens."
7 This is copied from Day’s Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. The house is of stone, and ranked among the first country mansions of the period. It is about a mile and a half south of the Paoli tavern.
8 The Brandywine Creek rises near the boundary of Lancaster and Chester counties, Pennsylvania, and flows through Delaware. After uniting with Christiana Creek, it enters the Delaware River, forming the harbor of Wilmington. It is navigable as high as Brandywine village.
9 This view is from the easterly bank of the Brandywine. The ford was at the mouth of the little creek seen issuing from the small bridge on the left. The Brandywine here is broad and shallow, with quite a rapid current.
10 Sconnel Town was a hamlet of two or three dwellings, one or two shops, and a school-house, situated a short distance from Jefferis’s Ford, on the road to the Birmingham meeting-house. That building having been taken possession of by the Americans for an hospital, the Quakers who worshiped there held their meetings in a wheel-wright’s shop at Sconnel Town. They were holding a week-day meeting there on the day of the battle. Not a vestige of Sconnel Town may now be seen, except the remains of a cellar on the easterly side of the road.
11 This plan is from an actual survey made during the summer of 1846, under the direction of John S. Bowen and J. Smith Futhey, of Chester. The position of the forces in action, many of the houses, and other localities as they existed, was ascertained from a map drawn by officers of the British army, and published a few months after the battle (in April, 1778). De Chastellux, who visited the battle-ground with La Fayette in 1781, mentions the fact that he had one of these English maps as a guide. The roads of the present day, and the relative position to them of the houses, woods, &c., of the Revolution, are carefully laid down upon the map of Bowen and Futhey, which forms the basis of
the one printed on page 171 of this work.12 This is a view of the southerly front of the meeting-house. The building is very substantially built of stone. Much of it is serpentine, which abounds in that region, and of which several houses are constructed. I was informed that the stains made by the blood of the wounded carried in there at the time of the battle are yet visible upon the floor. The Hicksite party hold present possession of the house; the Orthodox have built a place of worship near.
13 On the day when Sir William Howe entered the Chesapeake, he received a letter from Lord George Germaine, dated May 18th, giving him the first intimation that aid would be expected from him in favor of Burgoyne, then pressing forward toward the Hudson from Canada. He immediately sent a message to Sir Henry Clinton, who was left in command at New York, to act in conjunction with Burgoyne, if circumstances should permit. The result we have considered.
14 Manuscript letter from General Agnew to his wife, dated "Camp on the River Elk, August 30th, 1777." In this epistle he wrote, "I have not had the happiness to receive any letter since the one which brought me the plan of a house, in which I trust in God yet to pass many, many happy years in the society of my worthy Betty and the two dear children, as the best and true real reward for all we have undergone." Alas! five weeks afterward he was slain in the battle at Germantown, and wife and children saw him no more.
15 Salt was a scarce, yet indispensable article during the war. In his official dispatch, dated August 25th, 1777, Washington, alluding to the efforts to save the stores, wrote, "Among others, there is a considerable parcel of salt. Every attempt will be made to save that." During the winter encampment at Morristown in 1780, salt was eight dollars a bushel, and it was difficult to procure it even at that price.
16 On the 28th of August the Americans took between thirty and forty prisoners; and, on that evening, twelve deserters from the British navy and eight from the army came into camp. On the 29th, Captain Lee took twenty-nine prisoners.
17 The column of Cornwallis was composed of two battalions of grenadiers, two of light infantry, the Hessian grenadiers, part of the seventy-first regiment, and two British brigades; in all about 13,000 men. Knyphausen’s division consisted of two British brigades, the residue of the Hessians, and Wemys’s corps of Rangers; in all about 5000.
18 This tavern, and also the Kennet (Quaker) meeting-house, still exist. The reader will better understand the position of places, as well as the movement of the armies, by reference to
the above map. Kennet Square, a small village, is about seven miles west of the Brandywine, upon the high road from Chad’s Ford. Welsh’s tavern is about three miles east of the Square, and half a mile beyond is the Kennet meeting-house and grave-yard, noted on the map. The several fords on the Brandywine, mentioned in the narrative, were located as follows: First above Brandywine village was Pyles’s Ford; the next was Chad’s Ford; one mile above was Brinton’s; two miles above this was Jones’s, on the Street road, and Wistar’s (now Shunk’s), about a mile above Jones’s. These were below the forks of the creek. On the north branch was Buffington’s (now Brinton’s), Jefferis’s, six miles above Chad’s Ford, and Taylor’s Ford, about half a mile higher, where the old Lancaster road crossed. On the west branch was Trimble’s Ford, about a mile above the forks, and five miles from the British encampment near Welsh’s tavern. – See Bowen and Futhey’s Sketch of the Battle of Brandywine, explained below.19 This house is situated upon a new road, one mile south-southwest of Dilworth. This view is from the field in front.
20 There is some doubt about La Fayette having occupied this house. De Chastellux, who, in 1780, visited the battle-ground in company with La Fayette, says, "M. De La Fayette, attended by the other travelers, went further on to ask for quarters at a Quaker’s called Benjamin Ring, at whose house he lodged with General Washington the night before the battle." – Travels in America, i., 237. This building is about a mile and a half east of Chad’s Ford.
21 The loss of the enemy in this engagement was estimated at about three hundred; that of the Americans was trifling.
22 This view is from the east bank of the Brandywine, looking southwest. The ford was about ten rods above the present bridge. Its place is indicated in the picture by the hollow in front of the tree on the extreme left. The wooded height seen on the opposite side of the river is the place where Knyphausen’s artillery was planted.
23 Moses Hazen was appointed colonel of a second Canadian regiment in 1775. He commanded at Montreal for a short time. Afterward he was appointed colonel of a regiment called Congress’s Own. He was in the battles of Germantown and Brandywine. Having charge of prisoners in Pennsylvania, he was ordered to designate, by lot, a British officer for retaliation in the case of Huddy, mentioned on page 160 {original text has "366".}. He died at Troy, New York, January 30, 1802, aged 69 years.
24 Theodoric Bland was a native of Virginia. He was prepared by study for the medical profession, but abandoned it for the field when the Revolution commenced. He was among the earliest active opposers of Dunmore in Virginia. After distinguishing himself as a leader among the volunteers, he joined the regular army, and soon rose to the rank of colonel of dragoons. He was a vigilant and energetic officer. In 1779, he was appointed to the command of the "convention troops" (as those of Burgoyne’s captured army were called), at Charlottesville, in Virginia, where he continued till the autumn of 1780, when he was elected a delegate in Congress. He held a seat in that body until the close of the war. He was then chosen a member of the Legislature of Virginia, and in that body he opposed the ratification of the Federal Constitution. When adopted, he patriotically gave it his firm support, and was chosen to represent his district in the first Congress under that instrument. While attending the session in New York, he was seized with illness, and expired on the 1st of June, 1790, at the age of forty-eight. Colonel Bland was a soldier, legislator, and poet. His papers were collected and published a few years since, and are interesting mementoes of the war.
25 I have briefly referred to this expedition on page 56, in connection with a notice of the political influence of the Quakers during the war.
26 Three days after the battle on the Brandywine (September 14th), Mr. Burke, a delegate in Congress, made specific charges against Sullivan. On the strength of these charges, Congress voted that Sullivan should be recalled from the army till an inquiry should be made into his conduct. The recall was suspended at the earnest solicitation of Washington, who knew the falsity of the charges, the worth of Sullivan, and the immediate wants of the army; there being a lack of general officers, in consequence of Lincoln, Arnold, and others, having been sent to the northern army.
27 Tradition says that Thomas Cheyney, a resident Whig, gave Washington the first intelligence of the approach of the enemy. He was alone, on a spirited mare, reconnoitering, and came suddenly upon the British. They fired upon him, but he escaped to the quarters of Washington. The chief doubted the truth of his intelligence at first; but the solemn assurances of Cheyney that it was correct – an assurance backed by an oath – made Washington believe him. Sullivan’s note soon removed all doubt. Cheyney was an active spy while the American army was in the vicinity of the Delaware, and often suffered much from the Tories.
28 A dissension at this time existed respecting the post of honor, on the extreme right of the line. General Deborre, a French officer who had lately joined the army, claimed this post, an honor which Sullivan would not yield. Perceiving his orders disobeyed, and Deborre pertinaciously insisting upon taking the right, Sullivan made a circuitous march for the purpose of outreaching him, and was, consequently, late upon the field. His brigade was not formed for action when the conflict commenced. Sullivan did not accomplish his purpose, and Deborre obtained his coveted position on the right. His brigade was the first to give way in the action. For his conduct on this occasion, and also in the expedition against Staten Island, Congress voted an inquiry. Deborre was offended, and resigned his commission. Having made himself very unpopular in the army, Congress readily accepted his resignation. He was an officer of thirty-five years’ service in Europe, but was totally unfit to command American troops.
29 Osborne’s Hill is an eminence extending eastward from the Brandywine, and crossing the road from Jefferis’s Ford, about a mile and a quarter above the Birmingham meeting-house. The British, under Cornwallis, halted and divided on the north side of Osborne’s Hill, between two and three o’clock in the afternoon. It was at this time that the two armies first discovered each other, and prepared for action. The British army advanced over and down the south side of the hill (according to the narrative of Joseph Townsend, an eye-witness), across the lands of James Carter, now (1848) occupied by his nephew, James Forsyth.
30 The place where the hottest of the conflict occurred was between the Birmingham meeting-house and the present dwellings of Messrs. Hibbert Davis and Brinton Jones. Many were killed near the meeting-house; and, on the day after the battle, several bodies were found south of the meeting-house, doubtless slain in the retreat. The meeting-house was taken possession of by General Howe, and used as an hospital. Several officers who died there were buried in the grave-yard, on the north side of the building. A popular tradition asserts that Earl Percy, the officer who commanded the retreat from Lexington, was killed in this engagement, and that he had a presentiment of his death on this occasion. Even the place where he was said to be buried, near the entrance gate to the grave-yard of the Birmingham meeting-house, was pointed out to me. This is not correct. The earl (who was afterward Duke of Northumberland) left America previous to this battle. He died in England at the age of ninety-four, on the 10th of July, 1817.
31 The bullet passed quite through his leg. He met a surgeon in the rear, who put a slight bandage around his leg, and he rode to Chester. The soldiers were retreating, in a straggling manner, in that direction; and La Fayette placed a guard near the bridge, at the entrance of the village, with orders to stop all the retreating soldiers at that place. His wound was then dressed, and the next morning he was conveyed to Philadelphia, from whence, after a few days, he proceeded to Bristol. When Henry Laurens was on his way to York, he took the route through Bristol, and conveyed La Fayette in his carriage to Bethlehem, where he received the kind attentions of the Moravians. There he remained about two months, till his wound was sufficiently healed to enable him to join the army. Laurens’s kindness was long remembered. When, subsequently, he became a prisoner in the Tower of London, the Marchioness De La Fayette wrote a touching letter in his behalf to the Count De Vergennes, soliciting the aid of the French court in procuring the release of Laurens. – Sparks’s Washington, v., 456.
32 George Weedon was a native of Virginia, and was an inn-keeper at Fredericksburg before the war. * We find his name first connected with military affairs, in a letter to Colonel Washington, in April, 1775, informing him that the Independent Company of Fredericksburg were determined, with his approbation, to march to Williamsburg, on account of the removal of powder from the magazine by order of Governor Dunmore. This letter was signed by himself, Hugh Mercer, Alexander Spottswood, and John Willis. He joined the Continental army in the course of the summer, and in February, 1777, he received from Congress a commission as brigadier. He was in the battles at Brandywine and Germantown. In consequence of some dissatisfaction about rank, he left the service while the army was at Valley Forge. He resumed the command of a brigade in 1780, and commanded the Virginia militia at Gloucester, during the siege of Yorktown, in October, 1781. From that time he was not engaged in active service in the field. I have met with no account of his subsequent career and death.
* Dr. J. F. D. Smyth, an English traveler in America, in giving an account of Fredericksburg, says, "I put up at the inn kept by one Weedon, who was afterward a general officer in the American army, and was then very active and zealous in blowing the flames of sedition."
33 Gordon, ii., 225.
34 JOHN PETER GABRIEL MUHLENBERG was born in the village of Trappe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of October, 1746. He was the son of Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, D. D., the founder of the Lutheran Church in America; and his mother was the daughter of Conrad Weiser, a celebrated officer and Indian agent in Pennsylvania. Peter, his eldest born, was dedicated in infancy to the Church, and he was educated for the ministry, partly in this country and partly in Europe. He was ordained a minister in 1768, and commenced his labors in Western New Jersey the following year. He was married to Anna Barbara Meyer in 1770. In order to take charge of a congregation in Virginia, to which he had been called, he went to London in 1772, to receive ordination from an English bishop. Mr. White (afterward Bishop White, of Pennsylvania) was ordained at the same time (the 23d of April, 1772) by the Bishop of London. In his journal Mr. Muhlenberg states that, before their return to America, he and Mr. White attended the theater to see the performance of Garrick, then in the height of his career as an actor. Returning to America, he assumed ministerial duties at Woodstock, in Virginia, where he soon became a leading spirit among those who opposed British oppression. In 1774, he was chairman of the committee of safety in his county, and was also elected a member of the House of Burgesses. At the close of 1775, he was elected colonel of a Virginia regiment, and laid aside his pastoral character. In concluding his farewell sermon, he said, that, in the language of Holy Writ, "there was a time for all things; a time to preach, and a time to pray, but those times had passed away;" and then, in a voice that echoed like a trumpet-blast through the church, he said, "that there was a time to fight, and that time had now come!" Then, laying aside his sacerdotal gown, he stood before his flock in the full regimental dress of a Virginia colonel. He ordered the drums to be beaten at the church door for recruits; and almost his entire male audience capable of bearing arms joined his standard. Nearly three hundred men enlisted under his banner on that day. He was in the battle at Charleston in 1776, and served with fidelity in the Southern campaign that year. Congress promoted him to the rank of brigadier general in February, 1777, and he was ordered to take charge of all the Continental troops of the Virginia line in that state. He joined the army under Washington, at Middlebrook, in May following, and was with the chief in all his movements until 1779, including the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, the sufferings at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge, the conflict on the plains of Monmouth, and the capture of Stony Point. At the close of that year he was directed to take command of the troops in Virginia, where he was very active until the attack of Cornwallis at Yorktown. In that battle and victory General Muhlenberg participated. At the close of the war, he was elevated to the rank of major general. He removed to Pennsylvania, and in various civil capacities served that state. He was a member of the first and third Congress, and in 1801 was elected a United States senator. The same year he was appointed supervisor of the internal revenue of Pennsylvania, and in 1802 was made collector of the port of Philadelphia. He remained in that office until his death, which occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, on the 1st of October (his birth-day), 1807, at the age of sixty-one years. His grave is near the village church where he was baptized, and a simple monument bears this inscription: "Sacred to the memory of General PETER MUHLENBERG, born October 1st, 1746; died October 1st, 1807. He was brave in the field, faithful in the cabinet, honorable in all his transactions, a sincere friend, and an honest man."
The portrait here given is copied, by permission of the author, from an engraving in the Life of Peter Muhlenberg, by his grandson, Henry A. Muhlenberg, Esq., from which I compiled this brief memoir.
35 In M. Hilliard d’Auberteuil’s work, in French, published in 1782, entitled "Essais Historiques et Politique sur la Revolution de l’Amerique Septentrionale," there is a touching story of a scene which occurred near the Brandywine, after the battle. It is in substance as follows: A beautiful girl, named Molly Harvey, loved a young patriot soldier by the name of Seymour. Her father was wealthy; the young man was poor. They were not allowed to marry; and young Seymour, determined to distinguish himself, went to South Carolina, and was in the severe battle at Sullivan’s Island. He afterward joined the army under Washington, and commanded a company in the battle on the Brandywine. After the battle he obtained leave of absence for three days, and repaired to the house of Harvey, near by. The parents consented to the marriage, and the nuptials were celebrated. The friends of the parties were assembled under the trees, enjoying the festivity, when two soldiers from the British army approached, and attempted to make Seymour their prisoner. A contest ensued, in which the bride was killed by a bayonet-thrust. The day of her marriage was the day of her death. Accompanying the story is a beautiful engraving, representing the sad spectacle.
36 The number of the killed and wounded in the several engagements on the 11th is not known. Washington was unable to make a return of the American loss on account of the confusion which followed the defeat, many of the militia companies being thinned by desertion; and Howe’s estimates were only conjectural. General Greene estimated the loss of the Americans in killed, wounded, and prisoners, at about 1200; that of the royal army nearly 800. Howe reported his loss at 90 killed, 488 wounded, and six missing. He also stated the loss of the Americans at 300 killed, 600 wounded, and 400 taken prisoners; about the number estimated by Greene. The Americans also lost ten small field-pieces, and a howitzer. Many French officers were engaged in the action. The Baron De St. Ouary, serving as a volunteer, was taken prisoner. Captain Louis de Fleury, the hero of Stony Point, had a horse killed under him. His bravery commanded the admiration of Washington. Two days after the battle, Congress ordered another horse to be presented to De Fleury.
The day after the battle, Howe wrote to Washington. informing him that the wounded Americans were so numerous that his surgeons could not attend to them, and offering to receive any surgeons the American chief might send. Doctors Rush, Leiper, Latimer, and Willet, with their attendants, were sent back to take care of them.
37 The following is a copy of the resolution: "Resolved, That General Washington be authorized and directed to suspend all officers who misbehave, and to fill up all vacancies in the American army under the rank of brigadiers, until the pleasure of Congress shall be communicated; to take, wherever he may be, all such provisions and other articles as may be necessary for the comfortable subsistence of the army under his command, paying or giving certificates for the same; to remove and secure, for the benefit of the owners, all goods and effects which may be serviceable to the enemy; provided that the powers hereby vested shall be exercised only in such parts of these States as may be within the circumference of seventy miles of the head-quarters of the American army, and shall continue in force for the space of sixty days, unless sooner revoked by Congress." – Journals, iii., 318. The last clause was important, for there were a great number of disaffected persons who preferred to have their property fall into the hands of the enemy, to contribute to their support.
38 Monsieur Du Coudray, a French officer, who had just obtained permission to join the army as a volunteer, set off with a party of French gentlemen to overtake Washington. Du Coudray rode a young and spirited mare. As he entered upon a flat-bottomed boat to cross the Schuylkill, she went out to the extreme end, and into the river, with her rider on her back. Du Coudray was drowned. Congress ordered (September 17) his corpse to be interred at the expense of the United States, and with the honors of war.
39 The evening after the battle, a party of British were sent to Wilmington to seize Governor M‘Kinley, and secure such plunder as might fall in their way. They took the governor from his bed, and, seizing a shallop, which was lying in the stream, laden with the valuable effects of the people, together with the public records of the county, a large quantity of public and private money, all the papers and certificates belonging to the loan and treasury offices there, with plate and jewels, returned to the camp. The whole country was in a state of terror; and while the victorious Britons were on their march toward Philadelphia, all lower Pennsylvania and Delaware were eminent for the loyalty of their inhabitants. There were, however, noble exceptions. The patriotism of the Israels, and the bold heroism of Hannah Irwin Israel, will never be forgotten. Israil Israel, her husband, was a member of the committee of safety, and of course a marked man. Betrayed by his Tory neighbors, he and his wife’s brother were made prisoners, and taken on board the Roebuck frigate, lying in the Delaware, in sight of his house, for trial. He was treated harshly; his bed was a coil of ropes on deck; his food of the meanest kind. It was reported that he had declared that he would sooner drive his cattle as a present to General Washington, than to receive thousands of dollars in British gold for them. On being informed of this, the British commander ordered a detachment of soldiers to go to his meadows, in full view, and seize and slaughter his cattle then feeding there. His young wife (only nineteen years of age) saw her husband and brother taken to the frigate, and she also saw the movement of the plunderers. She guessed their purpose when she saw the soldiers land. With a boy eight years old, she hastened to the meadow, cast down the bars, and began driving out the cattle. The soldiers told her to desist, and threatened to shoot her. "Fire away!" cried the heroic woman. They fired, and the balls flew thickly but harmlessly around her. The shield of God’s providence was over her, and, though the cowardly soldiers fired several shots, not one grazed her. The cattle were all saved, and the discomfited marauders returned to the frigate. The trial of Israel took place. A kind-hearted sailor asked him if he was a Free-mason. He answered in the affirmative, and was informed that a Lodge was to be held on board the vessel that night, the officers being Masons. The trial ended, and the life of Israel was in jeopardy. He made a manly defense before the court, and, when opportunity offered, he gave a sign of the brotherhood. It was recognized; the haughty bearing of the officers was changed to kindness; the Tory witnesses were reprimanded for seeking the harm of an honorable man; presents were prepared for his heroic wife; and himself and brother were sent on shore in a splendid barge, and set at liberty. The records of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania bear testimony that Mr. Israel (who was many years Grand Master) was saved from an ignominious death by the use of masonic signs. – See Mrs. Ellett’s Women of the Revolution, i., 155.
40 North Point, at the entrance of the Patapsco, was the scene of a sanguinary battle between the Americans, under General Striker, and the British, under General Ross, in September, 1814. The Americans were defeated, and the British lost their commander-in-chief. In 1815, the citizens of Baltimore erected a monument on the corner of Calvert and Fayette Streets, in memory of those Americans who fell in that engagement, and also during the bombardment of Fort M‘Henry, the next day. This monument was planned by Maximilian Godefroy, and erected under his supervision. It is entirely of pure white marble, and rests upon a square plinth, or terrace, of the same material, forty feet square, and four feet in height. From this platform rises a square Egyptian basement, entirely rusticated, to indicate strength. It is composed of eighteen layers of stone, to signify the number of states which formed the confederacy at the time of the battle thus commemorated. This basement is surmounted by a cornice, each of the four angles of which bears an elegantly executed griffin. A winged globe adorns each center of the Egyptian cornice, symbolical of eternity and the flight of time. On each of the four fronts of the basement is a false door, like those of ancient cenotaphs. Three steps ascend to these doors, and indicate the three years’ duration oh the war. The shaft represents an enormous fasces, symbolical of union, the rods of which are bound with fillets. Upon these fillets, inscribed in letters of bronze, are the names of those who fell in defense of the city of Baltimore. Around the top of the fasces are two wreaths; one of laurel, the other of cypress, indicating glory and grief. Between these wreaths are the names of the officers who were killed, inscribed in bronze letters. The fasces is ornamented with two epic sculptures, in low relief; one representing the battle at North Point, the other a battery of Fort M‘Henry. On the east and west fronts are lachrymal urns, emblematic of regret and sorrow. Beneath the epic sculptures are inscriptions, as follows: North side. – "BATTLE OF NORTH POINT, 12th September, A. D. 1814; and of the independence of the United States, the thirty-ninth." South side. – "BOMBARDMENT OF FORT M‘HENRY, 13th September, A. D. 1814; and of the independence of the United States, the thirty-ninth."
The basement and fasces form, together, thirty-nine feet. Upon the top is a beautifully-wrought colossal statue. It is a female figure, intended to personify the city of Baltimore. Upon her head is a mural crown, emblematic of cities; in one hand she holds an antique rudder, symbolic of navigation, and in the other she raises a crown of laurel, as with a graceful inclination of the head she looks toward the fort and battle-ground. At her feet, on one side, is the American eagle; on the other, a bomb-shell. The height of the monument, including the statue, is fifty-two feet, two inches.
The following are the names of the slain, inscribed upon the monument:
OFFICERS. - James Lowry Donaldson, adjutant 27th reg.; Gregorius Andree, lieut. 1st rifle battalion; Levi Claggett, 3d lieut., Nicholson’s artillery.
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND PRIVATES —John Clemm, T. V. Beaston, S. Haubert, John Jephson, T. Wallace, J. H. Marriot of John, E. Marriot, Wm. Ways, J. Armstrong, J. Richardson, Benjamin Pond, Clement Cox, Cecelius Belt, John Garrett, H. G. M‘Comes, Wm. M‘Clellan, John C. Bird, M. Desk, Danl. Wells, Jr., John R. Cop, Benjn. Neal, C. Reynolds, D. Howard, Uriah Prosser, A. Randall, R. R. Cooksey, J. Gregg, J. Evans, A. Maas, G. Jenkins, W. Alexander, C. Fallier, T. Burniston, J. Dunn, P. Byard, J. Craig.
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