The battlefield was visited twice by the Marquis de Lafayette, first in 1780 as he was passing through the area on the way to Virgina (with the Marquis de Chastellux and other French officers), and again in 1825 during his 15-month tour of America. During the latter visit, Lafayette pointed out where he was wounded, and visited the elderly Gideon Gilpin (see Appendix C). In 1847, 70 years after the battle, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania published an unpretentious but valuable monograph on the battle, thereby preserving personal accounts and “reliable” traditions that otherwise might have been lost or obscured. However, it was not until after the American Civil War that markers started to appear on Brandywine farm fields.
During the 1877 centennial, artillery pieces were placed to mark the fighting near Sandy Hollow, and the inscription on one of these guns claims to be the spot where Lafayette was wounded. On September 11, 1895, the schoolchildren of Chester County dedicated a marble column monument along Birmingham Road to commemorate Lafayette’s wounding. Five thousand people attended the ceremony.
Efforts to preserve and commemorate the battlefield began in earnest at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was not an easy task, however, because the sprawling battlefield covered some 10 square miles of often difficult terrain. In 1900, the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic acquired two Civil War-era cannon to place on the battlefield, one at the corner of Wylie and Birmingham roads, the other along Birmingham Road near the edge of Sandy Hollow.
In early 1915, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania placed 16 bronze tablets in the area to guide visitors. Eight of these tablets remain today: (1) at the Old Kennett Meeting House; (2) Trimble’s Ford; (3) Sconnelltown; (4) Osborne’s Hill; (5) John Chads’s house; (6) Birmingham Meetinghouse; (7) Dilworthtown, and; (8) Howe’s headquarters. The missing tablets that had once been in place had been erected at: (1) the bridge that crosses at Chads’s Ford proper; (2) about one mile east of Kennett Square at U.S. Route 1 and the intersection with Schoolhouse Road; (3) along Route 1 near the Chadds Ford Elementary School, honoring the American light infantry; (4) Jeffries’s Ford; (5) the intersection of Street Road and Birmingham Road; (6) near the intersection of Birmingham Road and Wylie Road; (7) and Sandy Hollow. The last tablet that went missing marked the site of Lafayette’s wounding.
On September 10, 1927, a pageant was held near Dilworth marking the 150th anniversary of the battle. In December 1946, the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania created a committee to look into preserving the Brandywine battlefield. On July 5, 1947, Governor James Duff created (and very modestly funded) The Brandywine Battlefield Park Commission. The Commission made an initial purchase of property in June of 1949 along U.S. Route 1 and is known today as the Brandywine Battlefield State Historic Site. Unfortunately, no master plan of either the landscape or the architecture was created by the Commission, and administrative decisions concerning the park did not appear to require approval in the state’s capital at Harrisburg.
The initial 1949 purchase consisted of five parcels (50 acres). The buildings included the Gilpin House, with the smokehouse and the shop/garage on the Gilpin property, and the ruins of the Ring House, with the springhouse and the icehouse on the Ring property. The Commission applied that same year to the Pennsylvania Department of General Services for funds to rebuild the Ring House and restore the Gilpin House. The Commission used the funds to eventually complete these projects.
Around the time of the 175th anniversary of the battle, volunteers planted a row of pin oaks interspersed with sugar maples. For the 200th anniversary, a row of dogwoods was planted near the visitor center. Around the time of the bicentennial, the National Park Service considered taking over the management of Valley Forge, Washington’s Crossing, and the Brandywine battlefield from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Valley Forge was turned over to the Federal government, but Brandywine and Washington’s Crossing remained under the Commonwealth’s management.
Brandywine Battlefield was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 20, 1961. According to National Register standards, it has historical archaeological value, regardless of the value of existing structures or buildings. In 1997, the park was the first site in Pennsylvania to be named a Commonwealth Treasure. Unfortunately, the economic collapse of 2008 brought about severe budget cuts and the entire professional and interpretive staff was furloughed in 2009. Currently, the park operates on a volunteer basis and consists of just 52 acres. Very little if any direct fighting occurred within the modern park boundaries. Despite its recognition as a National Historic Landmark, the area around the Brandywine Battlefield State Historic Site has been heavily developed. Most of the property within the boundaries is privately owned. Consequently, the viewshed of several parts of the site have been impaired, and other areas are actively threatened by development pressure.
Local concern over this historically significant ground being compromised by modern land-use practices led to the creation of the Brandywine Battlefield Task Force in 1993. The Task Force is a volunteer group representing local governments, nonprofit organizations, historical groups, regional planning agencies, and concerned residents of the area. Its mission is “the implementation of public and private partnerships to preserve the ten square-mile Brandywine Battlefield Landmark, to educate the community about its cultural resources, and to develop interpretation of the Battle and its historical and physical setting.”
Visitors today can experience the scenes of fighting in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, many portions of the battlefield have been obliterated by development, but large portions remain undeveloped. The Brandywine Battlefield State Historic Site preserves Gideon Gilpin’s home and the reconstructed Benjamin Ring house. A drive along U.S. Route 1 offers visits to the Barns-Brinton House (preserved by the Chadds Ford Historical Society) and the still-active Kennett Meetinghouse. Enthusiasts can pull into the parking lot at the Brandywine River Museum and walk a trail along the Brandywine to see where Chads’s Ford and Chads’s Ferry were once located. Other preserved sites include the John Chads House (Chadds Ford Historical Society) and the still-active Birmingham Meetinghouse.
Over the years, large monuments were erected in the cemetery adjacent to Birmingham Meetinghouse. These three monuments honor Lafayette, Pulaski, a local colonel by the name of Taylor, and local Joseph McClellan. Much of Dilworth maintains its eighteenth-century character and is worth a visit.
Two recent preservation successes are worthy of note. Birmingham Township maintains Sandy Hollow Park, which includes a walking trail over a portion of the battlefield where Adam Stephen’s men fought against Cornwallis’s flanking column. The township has also recently built a walking trail along Birmingham Road. The trail parallels the road and allows hikers to retrace part of the path the British grenadiers followed on the day of the battle.
Despite all these efforts, most of the battlefield remains, unfortunately, in private hands, and is under constant threat from additional development.
After Benjamin Ring died in 1804, the Harvey family owned the home for the next 59 years. Eli Harvey purchased the farm at a public sale on September 5, 1805. It consisted of 170 acres, 19 perches (an almost obsolete term for area measurement) at $51.50 per acre, for a total of $9,123.38. It is this connection that gives Harvey’s Run its name. Ring’s son Joshua continued to live on the property for a few years after the sale. By 1808, Eli Harvey’s son Joseph was operating the grist and saw mills, and by 1825 Joseph was paying the taxes on the entire property. In 1863, Eli died and his daughter Anna Mary took over the house with her husband, Gideon Speakman. In 1864, the house and 200 acres were sold at public sale to Gideon Speakman for $115 per acre, for a total cost of $22,056.87.