“[The Americans remained] planted like Cabbages whilst our parties divided, gaind their flanks, turned their breast works, and then after throwing away their fire, would run off.”1
— Patrick Ferguson, January 31, 1778
September 11 would be remembered as a hot and humid day, but it dawned cool, gray, and dreary, with the Brandywine valley shrouded in fog. A smoky haze drifting lazily from chimneys, bake ovens, and thousands of campfires added to the surreal ceiling hovering above the armies.2
The British were on the move early that morning. General Cornwallis’s strong flanking column, with Lord Howe accompanying it, departed Kennett Square at 5:00 a.m., three-quarters of an hour before sunrise. Whether the northward march would be as effective as it would be long and arduous remained to be seen. Local loyalist Joseph Galloway, who knew the area intimately, rode alongside Howe and Cornwallis while another local, Lewis Curtis, guided the advance guard. The marching order of Cornwallis’s units remains obscure, as no primary source has surfaced with this information. Based upon how the column deployed on Birmingham Hill later that afternoon, a reasonable assumption would be as follows: Advanced Guard, British Grenadiers, British Light Infantry with the Hessian Jaegers, British Brigade of Guards, Hessian Grenadiers, 4th British Brigade, 3rd British Brigade, detachment of 16th Light Dragoons and 42nd Highlanders, and some combination of these two units guarding the wagons bringing up the rear.3
General Knyphausen’s diversionary column also left Kennett Square about 5:00 a.m. “At daybreak the army marched in two columns,” wrote Sgt. Thomas Sullivan of the 49th Regiment of Foot in his journal. “This Column took ye direct road towards Chad’s-ford, 7 miles from Kennetts-square.” At the head marched an officer and 15 men of the 16th Light Dragoons, Ferguson’s Rifle Corps, and the Queen’s Rangers, a total of about 400 men under the command of Capt. James Wemys. The order of march behind Wemys’s detachment was the 1st and 2nd British Brigades under Maj. Gen. James Grant, Maj. Gen. Johann Stirn’s Hessian brigade, the remainder of the squadron of 16th Light Dragoons, and the 1st and 2nd brigades of Royal Artillery, which Sullivan described as “six medium twelve pounders, four Howitzers, and the Light Artillery belonging to the brigades.” The baggage and provision wagons, together with cattle for the entire army were escorted by two battalions of the 71st Highlanders, with the last battalion of the 71st bringing up the rear.4
The units leading the column, Ferguson’s Riflemen and the Queen’s Rangers, sported green uniforms. Both would be mistaken throughout the day (and in the later years) for Hessian jaegers. Ferguson and his men were going to have the pleasure of acting semi-independendy: “Gen. Knyphausen, when I ask’d his orders was pleased to desire me to take my own way.”5
The Great Post Road, down which the riflemen and rangers led Knyphausen’s column, passed through a scenic terrain of rolling hills followed by defiles and swales. Heavy woods lined the road in many places, with farms and other buildings populating the clearings along the way. Post-and-rail fences and stone retaining walls marked much of its course.