1 John D. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799 (Washington, D.C., 1933), Vol. 9, 211.
2 Brigadier General George Weedon to John Page, September 11, 1777, Chicago Historical Society.
3 Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern (Chicago, 2007), 229.
4 Ibid., 227.
5 Ibid., 256.
6 Jacob Neff, The Army and Navy of America: Containing a View of the Heroic Adventures, Battles, Naval Engagements, Remarkable Incidents, and Glorious Achievements in the Cause of Freedom (Philadelphia, 1845), 336.
7 Ibid., 337.
8 George Bancroft, History of the United States, From the Discovery of the American Continent (Boston, 1866), vol. 9, 396.
9 Ibid., 397. The actual role of the Hessians at Brandywine is discussed in detail elsewhere in this book.
10 J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1881), 72.
11 Ibid. Both Washington’s lapses and Thomas Cheyney’s contributions (or lack thereof) to the battle are discussed elsewhere at length.
12 Smith Burnham, “The Story of the Battle of Brandywine,” Second Report of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission (Harrisburg, 1918), 41.
13 Ibid., 39-40.
14 Ibid., 42.
15 Robert Bruce, Brandywine: The Battle at Chadds Ford and Birmingham Meeting House, in Adjoining Parts of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1777 (Clinton, NY, 1922), 27.
16 Wilmer W. MacElree, Charles W. Heathcote, and Christian C. Sanderson, “Battle of Brandywine,” 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Brandywine (the Brandywine Memorial Association, 1927), n.p.
17 Ibid.
18 Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution (New York, 1952), Vol. 1, 346.
19 Ibid., 350.
20 Ibid., 354.
21 John F. Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge: July 1, 1777-December 19, 1777 (Philadelphia, 1965), 140.
22 Ibid.
23 Samuel S. Smith, The Battle of Brandywine (Monmouth Beach, NJ, 1976), 17.
24 John S. Pancake, 1777: The Year of the Hangman (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1977), 170.
25 W. J. Wood, Battles of the Revolutionary War 1775-1781 (Cambridge, MA, 1990), 100.
26 Ibid., 107.
27 Ibid., 109.
28 Ibid., 111.
29 David G. Martin, The Philadelphia Campaign: June 1777-July 1778 (Conshohocken, PA, 1993), 60-1.
30 Ibid., 64-5.
31 Ibid., 69-70.
32 Gregory T. Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign: 1777-1778 (Bowie, MD, 1998), 24.
33 Ibid., 30.
34 Ibid., 34-5.
35 Bruce E. Mowday, September 11, 1777: Washington’s Defeat at Brandywine Dooms Philadelphia (Shippensburg, PA, 2002), 4.
36 Ibid., 125. In 2003, Stephen R. Taaffee published The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778 (University Press of Kansas, 2003). It is a well-researched overall primer on the campaign. Unfortunately, it has few useful maps and does not offer any new or thought-provoking analysis or interpretations. The entire Brandywine battle, which includes the Thomas Cheyney story and an error-filled accounting of Nathanael Greene’s evening stand and the final British attack, is covered in just 14 pages.
37 Thomas J. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia (Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006), Vol. 1, 208.
38 Ibid., 189.
1 David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (Oxford, 2004), 79-80.
2 Ibid., 40; Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, 79. This Fabian strategy was named for Fabius Cunctator, a Roman general who had fought a delaying campaign against the Carthaginians; John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (Oxford, 2003), 190; Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army & American Character, 1775-1783 (Chapel Hill, 1979), 116; Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (New York, 2010), 208; James Thomas Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man (Boston, 1969), 131.
3 Chernow, Washington, 208.
1 Edward J. Lowell, The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War (Gansevoort, NY, 1997), 67.
2 John S. Pancake, 1777: The Year of the Hangman (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1977), 165.
3 John F. Luzader, Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (New York, 2008), xxii.
4 Joseph Townsend, Some Account of the British Army, Under the Command of General Howe, and of The Battle of Brandywine, on The Memorable September 11th, 1777, And the Adventure of that Day, Which Came to the Knowledge and Observation of Joseph Townsend (Philadelphia, 1846), 22.
5 Mark Urban, Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution (New York, 2007), 80-81.
6 George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels & Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It (New York, 1957), 422.
7 Ira D. Gruber, The Howe Brothers & the American Revolution (New York, 1972), 45.
8 Townsend, Some Account, 25; Scheer and Rankin, Rebels & Redcoats, 54.
9 Chadwick, George Washington’s War, 13.
10 The provinces of Hesse and Prussia were two different kingdoms. The princes of Hesse often “rented” their troops to other kingdoms, much as they rented them to the British.
11 Jacob Mordecai, “Addenda to Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia,” in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1974), vol. 98, 165.
12 Chesnutt, David R., and C. James Taylor, eds. The Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 12 (Columbia, SC 1990), 330.
13 Luzader, Saratoga, xxiii-xxiv. Lord Germain became Viscount Sackville in 1782.
14 Pancake, 1777, 165-166.
15 Lowell, Hessians, 66; Scheer and Rankin, Rebels & Redcoats, 129; Chadwick, George Washington’s War, 73.
16 Townsend, Some Account, 23.
17 Lowell, The Hessians, 101-102.
18 Pancake, 1777, 166.
1 Luzader, Saratoga, 354-355. Luzader cites the original source as the William Knox Papers, which were published in the British Historical Commission Publications.
2 Edward G. Lengel, General George Washington: A Military Life (New York, 2005), 223.
3 Luzader, Saratoga, xxiii-xxiv. Lord Germain became Viscount Sackville in 1782.
4 Piers Mackesy, The War for America: 1775-1783 (Lincoln, NE, 1964), 59-60; “Observations on the War in America [1776],” Germain Papers, William Clements Library, Ann Arbor, MI. This memorandum was probably not written by Germain.
5 John Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register; or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons: Containing an Account of the most interesting Speeches and Motions; accurate Copies of the most remarkable Letters and Papers; of the most material Evidence, Petitions, &c laid before and offered to the House, During the Fifth Session of the Fourteenth Parliament of Great Britain (London, 1802), vol. 10, 362.
6 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 361-363.
7 Luzader, Saratoga, xxii, 2-3.
8 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 382.
9 Luzader, Saratoga, 4.
10 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 382-383; Report on the Manuscripts of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, of Drayton House, Northhampshire (Hereford, 1910), vol. 2, 52-53.
11 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 124.
12 Ibid., 125.
13 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 126.
14 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 127-128.
15 Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of a Life, Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania, within the Last Sixty Years (Edinburgh, 1822), 299.
16 Luzader, Saratoga, 5.
17 John W. Jackson, With the British Army in Philadelphia (San Rafael, CA, 1979), 3.
18 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 371.
19 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 371-372.
20 Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War (New York, 1997), 59.
21 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 377-378.
22 The Narrative of Lieut. Gen. Sir William Howe, in a Committee of the House of Commons, on the 29th of April, 1779, Relative to His Conduct, During His Late Command of the King’s Troops in North America: to Which are Added, Some Observations Upon a Pamphlet, Entitled, Letters to a Nobleman (London, 1780), 19-20.
23 Luzader, Saratoga, xx-xxi. Guy Carleton played only a minor role in the Philadelphia Campaign but is worth a short biography. He was born in 1724 to an Anglo-Irish family and was a professional soldier. By the time of the Revolution, he had already spent a number of years in North America. He led the invasion of New York from Canada in 1776 and served as governor general of Quebec and commander in chief of His Majesty’s forces in Canada. Carleton’s efforts prevented the Americans from making Canada the fourteenth colony. Like many of his peers, Carleton had hopes for political and military advancement. Neither Carleton nor the army under his command answered to William Howe. Carleton’s hopes, however, were hampered by Lord George Germain, who soon ordered Burgoyne to take command of Carleton’s field army for the move south into New York.
24 Ibid., 8-9; Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 207.
25 John Fortescue, ed., The Correspondence of King George The Third: From 1760 to December 1783: Printed from the Original Papers in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle (London, 1928), vol. 3, 443-444.
26 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 212.
27 Mackesy, War for America, 115.
28 Luzader, Saratoga, 354-355, cites the original source as the William Knox Papers, which were published in the British Historical Commission Publications, but this could not be confirmed.
29 Gruber, The Howe Brothers, 187-188.
30 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 394.
31 Ibid.
32 Troyer Steele Anderson, The Command of the Howe Brothers During the American Revolution (New York and London, 1936), 272-273.
33 Gruber, Howe Brothers, 266.
34 Report on the Manuscripts, vol. 2, 66-67.
35 Luzader, Saratoga, 26.
36 Stockdale, Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 414-415.
1 Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 7, 196.
2 Chadwick, Washington’s War, 73-75.
3 West Jersey and East Jersey had been two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. This political division existed for 28 years, from 1674 to 1702. Although New Jersey was unified by 1777, many still referred to the area as “The Jerseys.”
4 One of the great stories taught to schoolchildren to this day occurred in the village that September of 1776. Future president John Adams and statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin shared a bed in a small tavern room on the way to a peace conference with William Howe and his brother Admiral Lord Richard Howe. The two patriots spent the evening arguing over the value of fresh air, trading turns opening and closing the window. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 8-9.
5 Ibid.
6 Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 6, 473.
7 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 17.
8 Fitzpatrick, ed. Writings of Washington, vol. 7, 81.
9 Captain von Muenchhausen proved invaluable to Howe as a multilingual aide. In an age of German-speaking officers, it was vital to have a staff member who spoke French—the language almost all professional European officers understood in the era. Von Muenchhausen was from Hanover. He arrived in North America in August of 1776 and served through the New York campaign before joining Howe’s staff. Friedrich von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side: 1776-1778: The Diary of General William Howe’s aide de camp, Captain Friedrich von Muenchhausen, trans. Ernst Kipping, ed. Samuel Steele Smith (Monmouth Beach, NJ, 1974), 4.
10 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 9.
11 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 17.
12 Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 7, 196.
13 James Murray, Letters from America 1773 to 1780: Being the Letters of a Scots Officer, Sir James Murray, to His Home during the War of American Independence, Eric Robson, ed. (New York, 1950), 38.
14 John Peebles, John Peebles’ American War: The Diary of a Scottish Grenadier, 1776-1782, ed. Ira D. Gruber (Mechanicsburg, PA, 1998), 98.
15 Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 7, 272-273.
16 Ibid., 287.
17 Samuel Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Archives: Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Series 1 (Philadelphia, 1853), vol. 5, 270-276; Steven Rosswurm, Arms, Country, and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the “Lower Sort” during the American Revolution (New Brunswick, NJ, 1989), 156; Elizabeth Drinker, The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, Elaine Forman Crane, ed. (Boston, 1991), vol. 1, 224.
18 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 23. Although he commanded a division during the early stages of the Philadelphia Campaign, Lincoln was soon ordered north to organize the militia that would help stop Burgoyne’s army moving south in upstate New York.
19 Dorothy Twohig and Philander D. Chase, eds., The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville and London, 1999), vol. 9, 171.
20 Richard K. Showman, Robert M. McCarthy, and Margaret Cobb, eds., The Papers of General Nathaniel Greene, vol. 2, 1 January 1777-16 October 1778 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1980), 60.
21 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 12-13; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 27; Thomas Glyn, Journal of American Campaign: 1776-1777, manuscript journal, 50a, Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ; Walter Harold Wilkin, Some British Soldiers in America (London, 1914), 226.
22 Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush reproduced in Charles J. Stille, Major-General Anthony Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line in the Continental Army (Philadelphia, 1893), 71. Wayne’s reference was in response to Grant’s having once boasted in Parliament that he could easily ride through the American colonies at the head of 5,000 men.
23 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 13.
24 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds. Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 109; John W. Jackson, The Pennsylvania Navy, 1775-1781: The Defense of the Delaware (New Brunswick, NJ, 1974), 97.
25 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 33.
26 Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell 1774-1777 (New York, 1928), 229.
27 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 13.
28 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 14.
29 Edward E. Curtis, The British Army in the American Revolution (Gansevoort, NY, 1998), 102; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 36.
30 Thomas Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel: The Thomas Sullivan Journal, Joseph Lee Boyle, ed. (Bowie, MD, 1997), 116.
31 Archibald Robertson, Archibald Robertson, Lieutenant General Royal Engineers: His Diaries and Sketches in America, 1762-1780, ed. Harry Miller Lydenberg (New York, 1930), 137.
32 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 16.
33 Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 236-237.
34 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 39-40.
35 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 16; Letter reproduced in Francis S. Drake, Life and Correspondence of Henry Knox, Major-General in the American Revolutionary Army (Boston, 1873), 43-46. The “North River” to which several officers on both sides refer is synonymous with the Hudson River.
36 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 16; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 39.
37 Mrs. E. Stuart Wortley, ed., A Prime Minister and His Son: From the Correspondence of the Third Earl of Bute and Lt. General The Honourable Sir Charles Stuart, K. B. (London, 1925), 112.
38 Historical Anecdotes, Civil and Military: in a Series of Letters, Written from America, in the Years 1777 and 1778, to Different Persons in England; Containing Observations on the General Management of the War, and on the Conduct of our Principal Commanders, in the Revolted Colonies, During that Period (London, 1779), 40-42.
39 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 43.
40 Paul H. Smith et. al., eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress (Washington, 1981), vol. 7, 195.
41 Smith, et. al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 207; Benjamin Rush to Anthony Wayne, June 18, 1777, Wayne Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. 3.
42 Drake, Correspondence of Knox, 45;Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal: Captain Johann Ewald, ed. and trans. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven, CT, 1979), 65.
43 Persifor Frazer, General Frazer A Memoir Compiled Principally from his Own Papers by his Great-Grandson (Philadelphia, 1907), 140.
44 Wortley, ed. A Prime Minister and His Son, 110-113.
45 James Grant to Harvey July 10, 1777, in James Grant Papers, National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, microfilm copy in the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, microfilm 687, reel 28. One mystery of the planning and campaigning of 1777 centers on the construction of boats for a floating bridge. Why did Howe authorize these boats at such great labor and expense? Was it to throw off the many spies Washington had working in New York that spring? While there is no known writing by Howe on the subject, it is clear from the beginning Howe intended to use the fleet, and not these boats, to transfer his army.
46 Smith, et. al., eds. Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 240. The principles of Quaker pacifism led many patriots to view Quakers as Loyalists for not supporting the American war effort.
1 Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 414-415.
2 Cresswell, Journal, 238.
3 Stephen Kemble, Journals of Lieut.-Col. Stephen Kemble, 1773-1789 (New York, 1883), 122. Kemble was promoted to major in 1772 and became deputy adjutant general of British forces in North America. He remained in that capacity under Howe through the Philadelphia Campaign.
4 John Andre, Major Andre’s Journal: Operations of the British Army under Lieutenant Generals Sir William Howe and Sir Henry Clinton June 1777 to November, 1778 Recorded by Major John Andre, Adjutant General (Tarrytown, NY, 1930), 30.
5 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 18-19.
6 Cresswell, Journal, 241-242.
7 Ibid. The same day Howe withdrew, Lt. Gen. Leopold Philip von Heister left for Europe, turning command of the Hessian troops in North America over to Wilhelm von Knyphausen.
8 Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 295-296.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 50-51; William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: Including an Account of the Late War, and of the Thirteen Colonies, from Their Origin to that Period (New York, 1801), vol. 2, 201; Lillian B. Miller, Sidney Hart, and Toby A. Appel, eds., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, vol. 1, Charles Willson Peale: Artist in Revolutionary America, 1735-1791 (New Haven, CT, 1983), 233.
10 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 52.
11 Ibid., 53.
12 Ibid., 56; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 122. Unbeknownst to Washington, the same day Stirling was fighting Cornwallis at Short Hills, Burgoyne’s troops from Canada reoccupied the fortifications at Crown Point, New York, at the southern tip of Lake Champlain. Burgoyne’s campaign was well underway; the same could not be said for Howe’s operation.
13 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 58; Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 311.
14 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 59; Octavius Pickering, The Life of Timothy Pickering (Boston, 1867), vol. 1, 145.
15 Smith, et. al., eds. Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 280-281; Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 144.
16 Grant to Harvey, July 10, 1777, Grant Papers.
17 Dennis P. Ryan, ed., A Salute to Courage: The American Revolution as Seen through Wartime Writings of Officers of the Continental Army and Navy (New York, 1979), 83.
18 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 57.
19 Graydon, Graydon’s Memoirs, 149; Arthur S. Lefkowitz, George Washington’s Indispensable Men: The 32 Aides-de-Camp Who Helped Win American Independence (Mechanicsburg, 2003), 100.
20 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (M804) [RWPF], Record Group 15, Records of the Veterans Administration, National Archives, Washington, D.C., file S973; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 59; Samuel Hay to William Irvine, July 10, 1777, Irvine Papers within the Draper Manuscripts, the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, series AA, vol. 1, film 60, reel 70.
21 Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 315.
22 Grant to Harvey, July 10, 1777, Grant Papers.
23 Cresswell, Journal, 252; Wortley, ed., A Prime Minister and His Son, 113.
24 Matthew H. Spring, With Zeal and With Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783 (Norman, OK, 2008), 34-35.
25 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 23.
26 Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 329-331.
27 Philander D. Chase and Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., eds., The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville and London, 2000), vol. 10, 195; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 23.
28 Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1777, microfilm copy in the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, film 521, reel 1.
29 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 294; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 64-65.
30 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 67-68; Drinker, Diary, vol. 1, 225.
31 The interesting Hubbardton fight was a British tactical victory, but a small-scale American strategic success. For more on this action, see Theodore P. Savas and J. David Dameron, A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution (Savas Beatie, 2006), 99-103; Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, trans. Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein (Philadelphia, 1958), vol. 3, 56.
32 Joseph Galloway, Letters to a Nobleman on the Conduct of the War in the Middle Colonies (London, 1779), 46; Manuscripts of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, vol. 2, 63.
33 Manuscripts of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, vol. 2, 65-66. Despite Howe’s claim, the sea route made it more difficult to support Burgoyne.
34 Ibid.
35 Kemble, Journals, 124.
36 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 70; Chase and Grizzard, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 10, 207-209.
37 Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 426.
38 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 71; Ewald, Diary, 69-70.
39 William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey, letter dated July 10, 1777, original in the William Dansey Letters, the Delaware Historical Society, Wilmington, Delaware; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 20.
40 Carl von Baurmeister, “Letters of Major Baurmeister During the Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1935), vol. 59, 394.
41 Ferling, Leap in the Dark, 47-48.
42 Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind (New York, 1997), 104. Even though Galloway had participated in the First Continental Congress, he refused to sit in the Second Continental Congress as the war escalated against the mother country. In 1778, Galloway testified to Parliament regarding William Howe’s campaign to capture Philadelphia in 1777. During the course of his testimony, Parliament, questioning his loyalty to the Crown, drilled him on his participation in the First Continental Congress.
43 Jackson, With the British Army, 3; Jackson, The Pennsylvania Navy, 5.
44 “Mr. Joseph Galloway on the American War,” Scots Magazine, 41 (October 1779), 526-527.
45 Letter/journal, James Parker to Charles Steuart, “New York, July 16, 1777,” Parker Family Papers, originals in Liverpool, England, microfilm copies at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington’s Crossing, PA, film 45, reel 2.
46 Carl von Donop, “Letters from a Hessian Mercenary (Colonel von Donop to the Prince of Prussia),” ed. Hans Huth, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1938), vol. 62, 498; Grant to Harvey, July 10, 1777, Grant Papers.
47 Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775-1782, With an Appendix of Original Documents, ed. William B. Willcox (Hamden, CT, 1971), 61-62.
48 Pancake, 1777, 101.
49 Clinton, The American Rebellion, 63.
50 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 21.
51 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 26-27.
52 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 334.
53 Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 366.
54 Jackson, The Pennsylvania Navy, 102-103.
55 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 77; Frazer, General Frazer, 149.
56 William H. Browne, Archives of Maryland, vol. 16, Journal and Correspondence of Safety/State Council 1777-1778 (Baltimore, 1897), 319.
57 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 78; Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 103.
58 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 21. To keep an eye on the Hudson River and distract the Americans, the British sent HMS Vigilant up the Hudson. The weak American defenses could do little to stop the ship from ascending the river, although she was unable to reach West Point.
59 John Montresor, “The Montresor Journals,” ed. G. D. Delaplaine, in Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1881 (1882), 429.
60 Ewald, Diary, 72. It is not clear where in the fleet the British grenadiers would sail.
61 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 21.
62 Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 414-415.
63 State of the Expedition from Canada as laid before the House of Commons, by Lieutenant-General Burgoyne, and Verified by Evidence; with a Collection of Authentic Documents, and An Addition of Many Circumstances Which were Prevented from appearing Before the House by the Prorogation of Parliament (London, 1780), 6.
64 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 30-31.
65 Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 453-454.
1 Bruce E. Burgoyne, ed., Diaries of Two Ansbach Jaegers (Westminster, MD, 2007), 12.
2 Ambrose Serle, The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776-1778, ed. Edward H. Tatum, Jr. (San Marino, CA, 1940), 239-240.
3 Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, vol. 5, 435-436.
4 Cresswell, Journal, 273.
5 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, vol. 5, 439-440. All references are to Series 1 unless otherwise indicated.
6 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 85.
7 Enoch Anderson, Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson, an officer of the Delaware Regiments in the Revolutionary War, ed. Henry Hobart, in Historical and Biographical Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, vol. 2, No.16 (1896), 34.
8 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 31, 32-33.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 85; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 33.
10 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 450-451.
11 Chase and Grizzard, Jr., eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 10, 447-448.
12 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 35.
13 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 86-87; Arthur D. Pierce, Smugglers’ Woods: Jaunts and Journeys in Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ, 1960), 240, 242; Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 467; Little Egg Harbor is today’s Atlantic City.
14 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 430. Montresor’s ship was actually closer to Barnegat Light, north of Egg Harbor.
15 The men from the Stanley had been in search of a rum cargo from a schooner they had chased the previous day when their companions turned them in. Since 1775, HMS Roebuck had been gathering information from Loyalists, chasing smugglers, and interrupting the flow of continental commerce. Anyone familiar with the Delaware River region would have been familiar with the Roebuck. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 87-88.
16 Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 468.
17 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 40; John McGinnis to Colonel Bradford, July 26, 1777, Washington Papers online, Library of Congress, series 4, General Correspondence, July 1777, image 157, accessed March 4, 2013.
18 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 35-37.
19 Chase and Grizzard, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 10, 439; Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 492-493.
20 Entry for July 28, Lord Cantelupe Diary, the Grey Papers, Durham University, England; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 37.
21 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 37; Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 8, 475-476. Gloucester is opposite Philadelphia.
22 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 39.
23 Harlow Giles Unger, Lafayette (Hoboken, NJ, 2002), 37.
24 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 40-41; Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 462-463.
25 Frazer, General Frazer, 151.
26 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 395.
27 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 467-468.
28 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 92-93; Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 465; Caesar Rodney, Letters to and from Caesar Rodney 1756-1784, ed. George Herbert Ryden (New York, 1970), 201-202.
29 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 94.
30 Jackson, The Pennsylvania Navy, 104; Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 469.
31 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 94-95; Marquis de Lafayette, Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette: Published by his Family (New York, 1837), vol. 1, 18.
32 Denys Hay, “The Denouement of General Howe’s Campaign of 1777,” in English Historical Review, vol. 74 (1964), 500-501.
33 Hay, “The Denouement,” 503.
34 Ibid., 504.
35 Jackson, Pennsylvania Navy, 90-92.
36 Jackson, Pennsylvania Navy, 353-61.
37 Ibid., 104; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 42.
38 Jackson, Pennsylvania Navy, 101, 127.
39 Hay, “The Denouement,” 504.
40 Ibid.
41 Hay, “The Denouement,” 505.
42 Narrative of Howe, 23-24. Christiana Creek is usually referred to today as Christiana River. I use the contemporary name throughout this book.
43 Henry Duncan, “The Journals of Henry Duncan,” Publications of the Navy Records Society, ed. John Knox Laughton (London, 1902), vol. 20, 147-148.
44 The Manuscripts of the Earl of Carlisle, Preserved at Castle Howard, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 15th Report (London, 1897), Appendix, Part 6, 354.
45 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 123-124.
46 Tatum, Jr., ed., Journal of Ambrose Serle, 241.
47 Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Diaries of Two Jaegers, 12.
48 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 126-127.
49 The Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; Late Speaker of the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania. Before the House of Commons, In a Committee on the American Papers. With Explanatory Notes (London, 1779), 28; Galloway, Letters to a Nobleman, 70.
50 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 32.
1 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 142-3.
2 Ewald, Diary, 73.
3 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 46.
4 Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, vol. 8, 503-4; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 44.
5 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 55-6.
6 Ibid., 46.
7 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 98; Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 3-4.
8 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 403; Sarah Logan Fisher, “A Diary of Trifling Occurrences,” ed. Nicholas B. Wainwright, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1958), vol. 82, 440.
9 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 34.
10 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 432-3; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 66.
11 Lafayette, Memoirs, vol. 1, 19.
12 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 449; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 52. Although the army and the politicians did not know it yet, another positive development for the Americans occurred on the northern front during their stay at Germantown. Barry St. Leger’s British forces had been turned away from Fort Stanwix in New York. St. Leger’s men comprised a cooperating column that would not be joining General Burgoyne near Albany.
13 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 52.
14 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 459; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 49, 52.
15 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1,105. The Osborn letters are in a private family collection in England, and copies are inaccessible. These quotations of Osborn rely on McGuire’s transcriptions. When horses died aboard ship, their carcasses were shoved overboard. “The fleet and army much distressed for the want of fresh water, having been for some time put to an allowance, but not so much so as the horse vessels, having been obliged to throw numbers of their horses overboard,” wrote Montresor. Many carcasses washed up on the coast. Writing to his wife Abigail, John Adams noted, “[W]e are informed that many dead Horses have been driven on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Horses thrown overboard, from the fleet, no doubt.” Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 440, Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 567.
16 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 23; Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 434-5.
17 Loftus Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777, Cliffe Papers, William Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan; James Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, Grant Papers; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 227-9. Claret (a British name) was a reddish-purple wine grown in the Bordeaux region of France.
18 Burgoyne, Diaries, 12.
19 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 107-8.
20 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 435-6; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 67.
21 Ewald, Diary, 73; Hay, “The Denouement,” 507.
22 Tatum, Jr., ed., Journal of Ambrose Serle, 245; Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 440-1.
23 Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Diaries, 15; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 125. More good news for the Americans arrived from the northern front when it was learned that on August 16, American militia defeated a Germanic force at Bennington, Vermont.
24 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 68-9.
25 Tatum, Jr., ed., Journal of Ambrose Serle, 244; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 24.
26 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 111; Bruce Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Enemy Views: The American Revolutionary War as Recorded by the Hessian Participants (Bowie, MD, 1996), 168. These flags (not the stars and stripes made famous by Betsy Ross) consisted of thirteen stripes and were commonly flown above fortifications at this point in the Revolution. American troops did not carry the now-traditional stars and stripes in field combat until after the Federal period. See Appendix A for more on this subject.
27 Francis Asbury, Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. 1, From August 7, 1771, to December 31, 1786 (New York, 1852), 254.
28 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 117-8.
29 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 539-40.
30 Walter Stewart to Gates, “Camp at Cross Roads, Augt. 13th, 1777,” Horatio Gates Papers, the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, film 23, reel 5, 62-3.
31 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 142-3.
32 Smith, et. al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 513-4, 519.
33 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 121-2.
34 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 69.
35 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 112-3; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 69.
36 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 36.
37 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 141; Clinton, The American Rebellion, 68.
38 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 141.
39 Otis G. Hammond, ed., Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan: Continental Army (Concord, 1930), vol. 1, 461.
40 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 142.
41 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 442; Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, James Grant Papers; The Annual Register: or, a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the year 1777, 4th ed. (London, 1794), 126.
42 Ewald, Diary, 73-4; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 115.
43 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 100.
44 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 78; Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 129-30.
45 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 62; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 124.
46 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 63-4; Pancake, 1777, 166; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 51-52.
47 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 50; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 79-80.
48 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 79-80.
49 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 533.
50 Sydney George Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence (Philadelphia, 1908), vol. 2, 20.
51 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 538-9.
52 Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, James Grant Papers.
53 Rodney, Letters, 212-3.
54 Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 152; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 81-3.
55 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 69; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 83.
56 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 133; Ewald, Diary, 75; Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Diaries, 16.
57 Pancake, 1777, 164.
58 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 133; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 70.
59 Marie E. Burgoyne and Bruce E. Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Hesse-Cassel Jaeger Corps and Hans Konze’s List of Jaeger Officers (Westminster, MD, 2008), 6; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 71; William James Morgan, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington D.C., 1986), vol. 9, 811.
60 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 71.
61 Ewald, Diary, 74.
62 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 136.
63 Christopher Marshall to his children, August 25, 1777, Christopher Marshall Papers, vol. 14, “Christopher Marshall Letterbook, 1773-1778,” the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
64 Journal entry for August 29, Parker Family Papers; Ewald, Diary, 75; Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, James Grant Papers; Fitzpatrick to the Countess of Ossory, “Head of Elk, September 1, 1777,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1877), vol. 1, 289; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 227; Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Enemy Views, 171.
1 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 100.
2 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 135.
3 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 442; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 227.
4 Serle, Journal, 246; Montresor, “Journals,” 442; Edgar, Philadelphia Campaign, 12; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 398; Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 28; Smith, Brandywine, 5.
5 Daniel Wier to John Robinson, October 25, 1777, “Copies of Letters from Danl. Wier, Esq., Commissary to the Army in America, to J. Robinson, Esq., Secretary to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; and from John Robinson, Esq., in Answer thereto in the Year 1777,” Dreer Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, case 36.
6 Spring, With Zeal, 35.
7 Ibid., 9.
8 Kemble, Journals, 477-8; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 399; Andre, Journal, 37.
9 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 72.
10 Ibid., 84; Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 152; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 152; Ewald, Diary, 78.
11 Stanley J. Idzerda, et al., eds., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790 (Ithaca, NY, 1977), vol. 1, 92; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 84; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 359.
12 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 87.
13 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 86.
14 Ibid., 89.
15 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 137; Ewald, Diary, 75; F. A. Whinyates, ed., The Services of Lieut.-Colonel Francis Downman, R.A. in France, North America, and the West Indies, Between the Years 1758 and 1784 (Woolwich, 1898), 30.
16 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 30.
17 Montresor, “Journals,” 443; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 98; Ewald, Diary, 75.
18 Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Hesse-Cassel Jaeger Corps, 6.
19 Ibid. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 139-40. The army moved out in this order: foot jaegers and 21 mounted jaegers, the British light infantry, the Queen’s Rangers, Ferguson’s riflemen, the British grenadiers, an artillery brigade, the Hessian grenadiers, another artillery brigade, the British Brigade of Guards, the 1st and 2nd Brigades of British infantry with the army’s baggage, the light dragoons (some of whom were dismounted due to the shortage of horses), the rest of the mounted jaegers, and the 71st Highlanders; Montresor, “Journals,” 443.
20 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 139-40; Brown, ed., Archives of Maryland, vol. 16, 349; James Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, James Grant Papers; Ewald, Diary, 76.
21 Montresor, “Journals,” 443; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 30, 399-400; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 140; Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 30.
22 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 74-5.
23 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 26.
24 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 82; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 144; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 26.
25 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 26; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 145; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 228; William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey, August 30, 1777, the William Dansey Letters.
26 Montresor, “Journals,” 443; Tatum, Jr., ed., Journal of Ambrose Serle, 246; Peebles, Peebles’ American War, 129.
27 Kemble, Journals, 480-1.
28 Wortley, ed., A Prime Minister and His Son, 116.
29 Fitzpatrick to the Countess of Ossory, “Head of Elk, September 1, 1777.” Fielding was the founder of the London police and Ketch was a known executioner. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 147.
30 Gruber, The Howe Brothers, 239; Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 418.
31 Edgar, Philadelphia Campaign, 13-14.
32 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 62-3.
33 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 141-2.
34 Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 152-3.
35 Murray, Letters from America, 47-8.
36 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 93, 97.
37 Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of Seventy-six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by its Participants (Edison, NJ, 1967), 610.
38 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 100. Removing the millstones from grist mills would have been a massive undertaking, as anyone who has visited one of the many surviving mills in the northeast can attest to the size and weight of these apparatuses, some weighing as much as two tons. That said, it may have been at least partially successful, for the British army and the civilians of Philadelphia would go through a very lean period later in the fall.
39 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 94.
40 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 151-2; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 99.
41 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 112; Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1961), vol. 1, 321.
1 James Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, James Grant Papers.
2 Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 419-420.
3 Serle, Journal, 246.
4 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 90.
5 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 95.
6 Aiken’s Tavern is modern-day Glasgow, Delaware. The modern road to Glasgow only follows part of the original roadbed; originally, the road followed a course much closer to Christiana Creek; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 93, 103.
7 Pancake, 1777, 167; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 99.
8 Pancake, 1777, 168. See Appendix H for a discussion of the functions of mounted troops.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 151-152. The British were settling into one of the first Welsh settlements in America, known as Pencader.
10 Ewald, Diary, 77.
11 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 152.
12 Ewald, Diary, 78; Montresor, “Journals,” 446.
13 Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Jaeger Corps, 8; Ludwig von Wurmb to Gen. Friedrich von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, in Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 2 (1998), 10. Since the rifles the jaegers carried could not accommodate bayonets, the German light infantrymen carried large swords for hand-to-hand fighting; Andre, Journal, 43; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 154.
14 William Howe to James Grant, September 3, 1777, James Grant Papers, microfilm 687, reel 37; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 135.
15 Small as it was, it was still the largest engagement ever fought on Delaware soil.
16 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 612.
17 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 46.
18 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 157.
19 Jackson, Pennsylvania Navy, 118.
20 Ibid., 118-119.
21 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 147-148.
22 Joseph Clark, “Diary of Joseph Clark,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society (1855), 97; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 168.
23 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 104; Stephen E. Haller, William Washington: Cavalryman of the Revolution (Bowie, MD, 2001), 32. With the exception of the militiamen who had been dispatched to the Brandywine, the Pennsylvania militia was quartered at Newport.
24 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 158-159.
25 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 28; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 108.
26 Ewald, Diary, 79.
27 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 167-168.
28 Ibid., 148.
29 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 106. Citation states the original document was in John Reed’s personal collection.
30 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 159; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 109.
31 Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Enemy Views, 172; Journal entry, September 8, Parker Family Papers; Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 32.
32 Ewald, Diary, 79-80.
33 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 160; Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 32.
34 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 109.
35 Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 5, 598; Clark, Diary, 97-98.
36 Clark, “Diary,” 97-98; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 160-161.
37 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 30; Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 32; Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, Grant Papers.
38 Clark, “Diary,” 98. Lancaster Road is modern-day Route 41.
39 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 179-180.
40 I use the 18th century spelling for Chads’s Ford. At the time of the battle, fords were named after the home or property closest to the crossing point. In this case, that was the property of the widow of John Chads. The modern spelling—“Chadds Ford”—is a 19th century spelling.
41 Ewald, Diary, 80; James T. Lemon, The Best Poor Man’s Country: Early Southeastern Pennsylvania (Baltimore, 1972), 91. The size was recorded in 1782.
42 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 166.
43 Christopher Marshall to “Respected Friend, letter dated 20 September 1777,” Christopher Marshall Papers.
44 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 164; John B. Frantz and William Pencak, eds., Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland (University Park, PA, 1998), 1-2. Of two on the battlefield, Dilworth best retains its 18th century crossroads configuration. Present-day Chadds Ford seems to have taken on a more linear aspect about the time a covered bridge was erected a few hundred feet below the old ferry crossing in the 1830s; Frantz and Pencak, eds., Beyond Philadelphia, 2; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 165.
45 Winslow C. Watson, ed., Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkannah Watson, Including Journals of Travels in Europe and America, From 1777 to 1842, with his Correspondence with Public Men and Reminiscences and Incidents of the Revolution (New York, 1856), 62.
46 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 165.
47 Frantz and Pencake, eds., Beyond Philadelphia, 4; Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 163; Townsend, Some Account, 19. There were several ways for a Quaker to be disowned from their faith, not the least of which was supporting either army in any way. For Quakers, transgressions included joining the military; paying for a substitute to avoid military service; driving a team and wagon, collecting forage, or working as a smith for an army; paying taxes to support the war; and even becoming a tax collector. Mowday, September 11, 1777, 54.
48 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 154-156.
49 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 110; Baylor Hill, A Gentleman of Fortune: The Diary of Baylor Hill, First Continental Light Dragoons, 1777-1781, ed. John T. Hayes (Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1995), vol. 1, 69.
50 James McMichael, “Diary of Lieutenant James McMichael, of the Pennsylvania Line, 1776-1778,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, William P. McMichael, ed. (Philadelphia, 1892), vol. 16, 129; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 174.
51 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 167; Ewald, Diary, 81; Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Enemy Views, 171.
52 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 30; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 111.
53 Ewald, Diary, 81.
54 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 168; Montresor, “Journals,” 449; Andre, Journal, 44.
1 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 156.
2 Chadwick, The First American Army, 171; Gregory T. Knouff, The Soldiers’ Revolution: Pennsylvanians in Arms and the Forging of Early American Identity (University Park, PA, 2004), 87. Pancake, 1777, 74-5.
3 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 6, 110-11.
4 Luzader, Saratoga, 226-7.
5 Pancake, 1777, 78-9.
6 Caroline Cox, A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington’s Army (Chapel Hill, NC, 2004), 3.
7 Cox, A Proper Sense of Honor, 12, 17.
8 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 10, 366.
9 Pancake, 1777, 75-76.
10 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 54.
11 Ibid.; Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 6, 13, 110.
12 Pancake, 1777, 165.
13 Ibid., 66.
14 Luzader, Saratoga, 207.
15 John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts (DeKalb, IL, 2007), 238.
16 The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1776 (London, 1788), 166.
17 Smith, Military Dictionary (London, 1779), 3.
18 Lefkowitz, Washington’s Indispensable Men, 5-6.
19 Ibid., xvi-xvii, 203.
20 Mrs. Bland’s letter reproduced in Edward S. Rankin, ed., Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 51, no. 3 (Newark, NJ, July 1933), 152.
21 Lefkowitz, Indispensable Men, 70.
22 Ibid., 48.
23 These servants comprised the elite of the household staff. References to other servants in the accounts who were not listed by name probably indicate the presence of lower-paid support staff, including cook’s helpers, housemaids, coachmen, hostlers, boys, and others to provide extra help with the cooking, washing, grooming, packing and unpacking, etc.
24 Just east of the Ring home along the Great Post Road sat the Gideon Gilpin home and farm. At the time of the battle, 38-year-old Gideon Gilpin lived here with his 34-year-old wife Sarah. They had four boys and two girls, all under the age of fourteen. There has been considerable debate whether the Marquis de Lafayette stayed at the Gilpin home prior to the battle or with Washington and his staff at the Ring home. It is possible Lafayette spent one night on each property, but the best primary evidence indicates he stayed at the Ring place with Washington on both nights. See Appendix B for a more detailed discussion.
25 Smith, Brandywine, 30; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170. On May 20, 1777, the strength return for six of the nine regiments was 1,338, or an average of 223 men per regiment. If we accept that average for the other three regiments, the division had 2,007 men in May. Since the army was still rebuilding at that point, McGuire’s estimate for the division in September is a reasonable assumption.
26 Pancake, 1777, 165; Resch and Sargent, eds., War & Society, 108, 109.
27 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 156.
28 Smith, Brandywine, 30-1; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170. The May 20, 1777, strength reports put the division at 1,845. McGuire’s estimate of 2,000 represents a reasonable increase for this division from May to September. Wayne could not be made a major general at the time because Pennsylvania’s quota was already taken up by Thomas Mifflin and Arthur St. Clair.
29 Smith, Brandywine, 30. The May 20, 1777, returns for this division give a strength of just over 1,800 men. Since the division had seen combat prior to Brandywine, any increases from recruiting likely would have been cancelled out.
30 Cox, A Proper Sense of Honor, 29-30.
31 Smith, Brandywine, 9.
32 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 171, 172; Smith, Brandywine, 31. In early September, 100 men were ordered detached from each brigade in the army to serve in the light infantry. Smith states the militia regiment had 200 men. One thousand men is McGuire’s reasonable estimate.
33 Smith, Brandywine, 30. The May 20, 1777, strength return for seven of the regiments was 1,711, an average of 244 men per regiment. Applying this average to the other two regiments yields a strength of 2,199, making 2,100 men a reasonable estimate for the division’s strength in September.
34 Smith, Brandywine, 31. The May 20, 1777, strength reports put the division at 1,451 men. Since this division had seen combat, 1,400 men is a reasonable estimate for the unit at the Brandywine. New Jersey soldiers averaged between 18 and 22 years of age and nearly half of them did not own any taxable property—more than twice the proportion of the general population. Twenty percent of New Jersey’s soldiers were from another state or were foreign-born, with “no apparent connection to New Jersey society.” Between 20 and 40 percent were serving as substitutes for others. As for New Jersey’s officers, 84 percent came from the wealthiest one-third of society, and 32 percent from the richest tenth. Less than two percent of these officers had risen from the enlisted ranks. Cox, A Proper Sense of Honor, 12-3, 30 & 33.
35 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170. McGuire gives a 1,500-man estimate for this brigade. However, because this brigade was newly formed, it lacked many of its officers. And about two months later it had only 520 men. One thousand men is a more realistic strength for this brigade at the Brandywine.
36 Haller, William Washington, 32.
37 Smith, Brandywine, 31. In January 1778, the artillery companies had about 74 men per unit after suffering heavy casualties throughout the campaign. So 1,600 men is a reasonable number at the time of the battle of the Brandywine. Unfortunately, strength returns do not indicate how many guns and what type.
38 Lefkowitz, Indispensable Men, 76-7.
39 Lengel, General George Washington, 30-1.
40 Ibid., 61-2.
41 Flexner, Indispensable Man, 68; Arthur S. Lefkowitz, The Long Retreat: The Calamitous American Defense of New Jersey 1776 (New Brunswick, NJ, 1999), 11-12.
42 Chase and Grizzard, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 6, 396-7.
43 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 6, 5-6.
44 Ibid., 397.
45 Lefkowitz, Long Retreat, 55-6.
46 Ibid., 38.
47 Lowell, The Hessians, 290-1.
48 Frank E. Grizzard, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series (Charlottesville and London, 1998), vol. 8, 531-32.
49 Hazard, et al., eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, vol. 5, 539.
50 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 154-6.
51 Knouff, The Soldiers’ Revolution, 82.
52 Samuel J. Newland, The Pennsylvania Militia: The Early Years, 1669-1792 (Annville, PA, 1997), 146-7.
53 Rosswurm, Arms, Country, and Class, 111.
54 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 539. Armstrong stated three days before the battle that he had just under 3,000 men present for duty.
1 William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey, March 15, 1777, original in the William Dansey Letters.
2 Luzader, Saratoga, 226.
3 Ibid.. The exception at Brandywine was the 71st Highlanders, which went into action with multiple battalions.
4 Don N. Hagist, comp., British Soldiers American War: Voices of the American Revolution (Yardley, PA, 2012), 11.
5 Luzader, Saratoga, 224.
6 Luzader, Saratoga, 224.
7 Ibid., 224-225.
8 Ibid., 225.
9 Pancake, 1777, 71-72.
10 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 140.
11 Pancake, 1777, 68; Curtis, The British Army, 6-7.
12 Artillerymen used solid shot against fortifications or opposing artillery. Grapeshot consisted of clusters of iron balls about two inches in diameter, which either devastated infantry or knocked down fence lines or hedges. Canister was literally a container filled with musket balls. These were the most effective anti-personnel weapons.
13 Pancake, 1777, 68-69.
14 Curtis, British Army, 88-93.
15 Bowler, Logistics, 49, 55-56.
16 Ibid., 58.
17 Ibid., 58-59, 70.
18 Lowell, The Hessians, 30-31.
19 General Erskine was responsible for supplying the army’s non-nutritional needs, from tents, camp kettles, and rope, to candles, shovels, and pickaxes. However, his most important duty was supplying wagons to transport the army’s needs. Erskine’s system included hired wagons and drivers fed from the quartermaster’s funds. Howe dictated the wagon train be large enough to supply his army in the field for three weeks. By the third quarter of 1777, Erskine had 1,376 wagons and 3,111 horses. Erskine’s responsibilities were daunting; his failure would have doomed any European army fighting in North America. Bowler, Logistics, 25.
20 Of Samuel Cleaveland, Howe’s chief of artillery, virtually nothing is known. To date, no biographical information about this officer has been located. Before becoming the adjutant general in April 1776, Brig. Gen. Paterson had been the lieutenant colonel of the 63rd Regiment of Foot. Paterson was the officer sent to parlay with Washington for peace prior to the battle of Long Island; Robert McKenzie was a captain in the 43rd Regiment of Foot; Cornelius Cuyler was the major of the 55th Regiment of Foot; Henry Bruen was a captain in the 63rd Regiment of Foot; Nesbitt Balfour was the major of the 4th Regiment of Foot; Henry Fox was a captain in the 38th Regiment of Foot; William Gardiner was the major of the 45th Regiment of Foot; Henry Knight was a captain in the 43rd Regiment of Foot.
21 Smith, Brandywine, 29; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 183. Strengths are based on commissary reports following the landing at Head of Elk a little over two weeks prior to the Brandywine fight. See “Copies of Letters from Danl. Wier, Esq., Commissary to the Army in America, to J. Robinson, Esq., Secretary to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; and from John Robinson, Esq., in Answer thereto in the Year 1777.” Dreer Collection. The artillery consisted of four light 12-pounders and six 6-pounders as well as the battalion artillery.
22 Curtis, British Army, 3.
23 The Orderly Book of Captain Thomas Armstrong, 64th Light Company (in the George Washington Papers, available online at the Library of Congress), dates September 15 – October 3, 1777, confirms the composition of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion. Ensign William, Lord Cantelupe of the Guards painted a chart into the flyleaf of his copy of the list of British officers, published in Philadelphia in February 1778, detailing the composition of the light infantry battalions. These charts are probably 90 percent accurate. Reconstructing the composition of these battalions was possible through the research of Thomas McGuire.
24 Spring, With Zeal, 62; William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey, letter dated 15 March 1777, original located in the William Dansey Letters.
25 This information on the composition of the grenadier battalions is based on a conversation with historian Thomas McGuire.
26 Lowell, Hessians, 86.
27 Smith, Brandywine, 29; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 173. Strengths are based on a commissary report located in copies of Wier letters at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The artillery accompanying Knyphausen’s column consisted of six medium 12-pounders, four howitzers, and the battalions’ light artillery.
28 Spring, With Zeal, 38.
29 M. M. Gilchrist, Patrick Ferguson: A Man of Some Genius (Glasgow, 2003), 34. For additional information on Ferguson’s Rifles, see Appendix E.
30 Peter E. Russell, “Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740-1760,” in LW524: Student Reading Package, APUS Faculty, Fall 2009 (Charles Town, WV, 2009), 152-153; Ian K. Steele, Warpaths: Invasions of North America (New York, 1994), 196.
31 Steele, Warpaths, 193; John Ferling, Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America (Arlington Heights, IL, 1993), 163.
32 Russell, “Redcoats in the Wilderness,” 141-142; Ferling, Struggle for a Continent, 163.
33 John K. Mahon, “Anglo-American Methods of Indian Warfare, 1676-1794,” in LW524: Student Reading Package, APUS Faculty, Fall 2009 (Charles Town, WV, 2009), 130; Ferling, Struggle for a Continent, 163-164; Douglas Edward Leach, Roots of Conflict: British Armed Forces and Colonial Americans, 1677-1763 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1986), 109, 123.
34 Russell, “Redcoats in the Wilderness,” 157; Ferling, Struggle for a Continent, 164-165.
35 Steele, Warpaths, 209; Mahon, “Anglo-American Methods,” 131; Daniel J. Beattie, “The Adaptation of the British Army to Wilderness Warfare, 1755-1763,” in Adapting to Conditions: War and Society in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Maarten Ultee (Birmingham, AL, 1986), 73.
36 Mahon, “Anglo-American Methods,” 131.
37 Spring, With Zeal, 245; Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (New York, 2000), 411; Howard H. Peckham, The Colonial Wars: 1689-1762 (Chicago, 1964), 153.
38 Spring, With Zeal, 246-247.
39 Ibid., 247-248, 253.
40 Johann Ewald, Treatise on Partisan Warfare (Westport, CT, 1991), 32.
41 Spring, With Zeal, 260.
42 Ibid., 252; Leach, Roots of Conflict, 165.
43 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 207; Von Donop, “Letters from a Hessian Mercenary,” 499.
44 Spring, With Zeal, 259.
1 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 186.
2 Spring, With Zeal, 7. The only other natural barrier between Howe and Philadelphia was the Schuylkill River, but that waterway was too close to Philadelphia for defense except as a last-ditch effort, and was easily fordable at many locations.
3 Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 17-18.
4 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 114; Pancake, 1777, 169.
5 Smith, Brandywine, 30. Smith lists the following as his source of the quote: Captain Davis Hopkins correspondence, 4th Continental dragoons. L/R, Office, Chief of Ordnance, A-K, 1816, National Archives & Records Service, Washington, D.C. Upon inquiry, the National Archives referred to a subscription website that proved unhelpful.
6 Isaac W. Hammond, ed., State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Rolls and Documents Relating to Soldiers in the Revolutionary War (Manchester, NH, 1889), vol. 4, 197. During another of these skirmishes, Thomas Carragan of the 7th Battalion of Chester County Militia was wounded during the evening hours when he was surprised by a party of British light horse. He was thrown from his horse and badly bruised about the body. Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5 (Harrisburg, PA, 1906), vol. 4, 557.
7 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170. Chads’s Ford is in the vicinity of the modern-day Brandywine River Museum. The specific alignment of the individual units comprising Greene’s division is not known. Unfortunately, the most reliable contemporary maps are from British and Hessian sources, and do not identify the initial American positions well.
8 Reed, Campaign, 113. The specific alignment of the individual units comprising Wayne’s division is not known; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170; Jacob Nagle, The Nagle Journal—A diary of the Life of Jacob Nagle, Sailor, from the year 1775 to 1841, ed. John C. Dann (New York, 1988), 6.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, 171. The specific alignment of the individual units comprising Sullivan’s division is not known; Smith, Brandywine, 30.
10 Smith, Brandywine, 30; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 171. McGuire puts the Delaware regiment at 250 men, a significant increase from its May 20, 1777, return of 79 men, but that is in line with the increases that Greene’s division saw; Smith, Brandywine, 30; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 171. McGuire estimates Hazen’s regiment at 400 men, which is very similar to its strength return of 393 men on May 20, 1777. It would have been difficult for this regiment to increase its numbers, considering it was recruited from French Canada and that region was under British control at the time.
11 Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 539.
12 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 171; Idzerda, et al., eds., Lafayette Selected Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 94.
13 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 170; John B. B. Trussel, The Pennsylvania Line (Harrisburg, PA, 1993), 212.
14 Proctor’s artillery regiment would be officially designated the 4th Continental Artillery Regiment later in the war. The regiment was offered for Continental service on June 6, 1777, but would not be accepted as such by Congress until September 3, 1778. There is some confusion surrounding the designation of Proctor’s regiment because many believe the unit was formally part of the Continental organization as early as February 1777. Trussel, Pennsylvania Line, 193; Smith, Brandywine, 21. Other American batteries were assigned to other divisions in Washington’s army, but the specifics remain elusive.
15 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 426.
16 Reed, Campaign, 115; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 75.
17 Martha J. Lamb, ed., Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, January-June 1885 (New York, 1885), vol. 13, 281; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 75.
18 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 180-181; William Beatty, “Journal of Capt. William Beatty, 1776-1781,” in Maryland Historical Magazine (Baltimore, 1906), vol. 3, 109.
19 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 180.
20 Ibid., 182.
21 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 6, 28; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 186.
22 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 114; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 30-31.
23 Spring, With Zeal, 62-63.
24 Scheer and Rankin, Rebels & Redcoats, 60; Wood, Battles of the Revolutionary War, 9; Pancake, 1777, 42; George Athan Billias, ed., George Washington’s Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership (New York, 1994), vol. 2, 47.
25 Spring, With Zeal, 63, 65.
26 Mackesy, War for America, 88.
27 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 53.
28 Howe, Narrative, 7.
29 Benton Rain Patterson, Washington & Cornwallis (Lanham, MD, 2004), 123; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 117.
30 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 50; Records of the American Loyalist Claims Commission 1776-1831, Great Britain, Audit Officer, AO 12/40/52, microfilm copy located at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, film 263, reel 12, vol. 40.
31 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 31.
32 Spring, With Zeal, 9; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 117.
1 Hugh F. Rankin, ed., “An Officer Out of his Time: Correspondence of Major Patrick Ferguson, 1779-1780,” in Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library, ed. Howard H. Peckham (Chicago, 1978), vol. 2, 299.
2 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 169.
3 Smith, Brandywine, 9; Wilhem von Knyphausen to George Germain, October 21, 1777, CO 5/94, pt. 2, 442, original in PRO/British National Archives, Kew, a copy located at Brandywine Battlefield State Historic Site.
4 Von Knyphausen to George Germain, October 21, 1777. Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130.
5 DeWitt Bailey, British Military Flintlock Rifles: 1740-1840 (Lincoln, RI, 2002), 49.
6 Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States (Philadelphia, 1812), vol. 1, 15. “Light Horse Harry” Lee was the father of Robert E. Lee of Civil War fame. It is important for the reader to not confuse Kennett Square with the stone Kennett Meetinghouse. The former was about seven miles west of Chads’s Ford, while the latter was about five miles west. In between was Welch’s Tavern.
7 The entrance to modern-day Longwood Gardens is on the site where Welch’s Tavern formerly stood. Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130.
8 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 118; Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 20; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 84-85; Smith, Brandywine, 10. One of the better researched studies of the battle and campaign, Brandywine does not simply follow suit and repeat what others have written. Instead, the text makes it clear that no shots were fired at the tavern, and certainly not in the manner earlier perpetuated: “As Wemys’s men reached Welch’s Tavern … the balance of the Knyphausen column was formed in the road, waiting for word from Wemys that the way was clear to advance.” Smith, Brandywine, 10.
9 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
10 Bailey, Flintlock Rifles, 49. The “light horse” to which he referred belonged to either mounted militia assigned to Maxwell or the Continental dragoons, in whose company Capt. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee may have spent the day; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Major Baurmeister, 405; Stephen Jarvis, Stephen Jarvis: The King’s Loyal Horseman, His Narrative 1775-1783, ed. John T. Hayes (Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1996), 97. I have been unable to determine whether Grymes was a major at the Brandywine, but it is unlikely. He was the second major of the Queen’s Rangers in early November 1777. Since it is known that Capt. Wemys commanded the Rangers at the Brandywine, it is unlikely Grymes was a major at the time.
11 William Heth, “The Diary of Lieutenant William Heth while a Prisoner in Quebec, 1776,” ed. B. Floyd Flickinger, in Annual Papers of Winchester Virginia Historical Society (1931), vol. 1, 33; Lee, Memoirs of the War, vol. 1, 15.
12 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 175.
13 Smith, Brandywine, 10; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130. The fork is about where modern-day Route 52 intersects U.S. Route 1.
14 This hill was leveled in the creation of the modern roadway. In that era, the Great Post Road split and ran around both sides of the meetinghouse. Today, U.S. Route 1 passes several yards south of the building.
15 The Kennett Meetinghouse cemetery has a mass grave with between 50 and 100 battle casualties. On many days a German flag flies over the graves, which is unusual since Germany did not exist in 1777, and it is highly unlikely any of the Hessians with Knyphausen’s column were killed near the meetinghouse. Unlike battlefields from America’s later wars, the mass graves on the Revolutionary War fields likely contain a mix of American and British soldiers.
16 Sol Stember, The Bicentennial Guide to the American Revolution (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974), 91. While the source of this story is not the best, it is known that Quakers were within the meetinghouse during the battle, and the sentiment expressed in the quote at least captured the atmosphere Quakers would typically maintain even amid battle.
17 Smith, Brandywine, 10.
18 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 176-177; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130; Lee, Memoirs of the War, vol. 1, 15-16. As the fighting moved east along the Great Post Road, men of both armies would have passed the south side of the James Brinton home, known today as the Barns-Brinton House. The brick structure was built in the early 1700s, served as a tavern for a short time, and for most of its existence functioned as a family home. While modern U.S. Route 1 passes several hundred feet north of the building today, the eighteenth-century Great Post Road passed within a few feet of the southern elevation of the home. A low, stone retaining wall separated the yard from the roadway. John L. Cotter, Daniel G. Roberts, and Michael Parrington, The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1993), 442-443.
19 Smith, Brandywine, 10. This new position was about 500 feet east of the present U.S. Route 1 crossing of Ring Run.
20 Rankin, ed., “An Officer Out of his Time,” 299; Bailey, Flintlock Rifles, 49. Ferguson’s report that he searched out the flanks, during which there would surely have been gunfire, together with the fact that he kept up a “rattling fire” explains Sgt. Thomas Sullivan’s description of the advance as “a running fire, mixed with regular vollies for 5 miles and they still retreating to their main posts, until they got almost in gunshot of the Ford.” Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130.
21 Bailey, Flintlock Rifles, 49.
22 Ibid. Ferguson may have inflated the strength of his opposition in an effort to portray his own efforts in an even more effective light. On the issue of Ferguson’s contempt for American tactics, one may well argue that his own rifle allowed his men to reload while kneeling or lying down, of which Ferguson was justifiably proud. Ferguson’s men were not fighting with much eighteenth-century “honor,” either.
23 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405.
24 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 176; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405.
25 James Parker, journal entry for September 11, Parker Family Papers; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405.
26 Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130.
27 Smith, Brandywine, 21.
28 Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 33.
29 General James Grant, the commander of the First Brigade, led both his own and the Second British Brigade at Brandywine. Exactly why he did so, and who if anyone was or had been in command of the Second British Brigade during the campaign, remains a mystery.
30 Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 130.
31 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405-406.
32 The fighting east of the Brandywine has proven difficult to interpret. Soldiers in battle are heavily focused on the fighting in front of them, and their letters, diaries, and journals reflect that. Piecing the story together and reconciling the various eighteenth-century sources has been difficult. What follows is the author’s best interpretation; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405.
33 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 405; James Parker, journal entry, September 11, Parker Papers; Jarvis, Stephen Jarvis, 97-98.
34 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
35 Bailey, Flintlock Rifles, 49.
36 Ibid.; Rankin, “Correspondence of Ferguson,” 299-300.
37 Smith, Brandywine, 11; Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 131.
38 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 406.
39 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777. The British guns were located where the modern Chadds Ford Elementary School now sits.
40 Idzerda, et. al., eds., Lafayette Selected Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 94; Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777.
41 Heth, “Diary,” 33; Rankin, “Correspondence of Ferguson,” 299.
42 In addition to Capt. Murden being killed, the following officers were wounded: Capt. Job Williams (he would later die of his wounds), Capt. Saunders, Capt. John McKay, Capt. Robert McCrea, Capt. Burns, Lt. Kerr, Lt. Agnew, Lt. Smith, Lt. Toel, and Lt. Close. Heth, “Diary,” 33; Remembrancer; or, Impartial Repository of Public Events for the Year 1777 (London, 1778), 416; George Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed Since the Commencement of the War 19th April 1775, Regiments Etc. and Officers of Marines Serving on Shore,” in Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography (Philadelphia, 1903), vol. 27, 176-205; Bailey, Flintlock Rifles, 49; Fitzpatrick, ed. Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 206.
43 Burgoyne, ed., Enemy Views, 175.
44 Clark, “Diary, 99. James Parker, journal entry, September 11, Parker Papers.
45 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 406; Johann Ludwig von Cochenhausen to Gen. Friedrich von Jungkenn, October 9, 1777, Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, eds. Henry Retzer and Donald Londahlsmidt, no. 2. (1998), vol. 6, 2;James Parker, journal entry, September 11, Parker Papers.
46 Howard M. Jenkins, “Brandywine, 1777” in Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science (London, September 1877), vol. 20, 334. The story of William Harvey’s brush with death was written a century after the battle, and there is no contemporary source that documents the event. However, the Harvey home was behind Knyphausen’s artillery positions and thus in the line of fire, and was indeed constructed many years prior to the battle. William Harvey inherited the property when his father died in 1754, and was living there in 1777. Following the battle, many local residents filed damage claims—including William Harvey. Documentation for the claim can be found in Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 107. Based upon these corrabborating details, I decided to include the story as factually accurate.
47 Nagle, Journal, 6-7. Nagle lived a remarkable life. He served with Washington at Valley Forge, resigned in 1778, and joined the Continental Navy. Nagle was captured by the British in 1781, freed by the French the following year, arrested by the British immediately thereafter, and spent many years in the British navy and with the merchant marine. After being shipwrecked on an island for a year, he sailed to England, married, had seven children, and went to sea again under Lord Nelson during the Napoleonic Wars. Nagle left the sea for good in 1824 after his wife and all of his children died of yellow fever. His own grand adventure ended in 1841.
48 Ibid., 8.
49 Ibid.
50 Rankin, “Correspondence of Ferguson,” 299-301.
51 John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War Which Established the Independence of his Country, and First President of the United States (Fredericksburg, VA, 1926), vol. 2, 299-300.
52 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 181; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 131.
53 Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 131; Judge Advocate General Office: Court Martial Proceedings and Board of General Officers’ Minutes, Great Britain, War Office, March 31, 1778, Court Martial Testimony, WO71/86/66-8, microfilm copy at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, film 675, reel 10.
54 Nagle, Journal, 8.
55 Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 131-132.
56 Hussars were a form of light cavalry originating in central Europe known for wearing a highly ornamented, Hungarian-style uniform with ostentatious riding boots. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 180; Rankin, “Correspondence of Ferguson,” 299-301.
57 Rankin, “Correspondence of Ferguson,” 299-301.
58 Idzerda, et al, eds., Lafayette Selected Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 94; Nagle, Journal, 7.
59 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 121; Stockdale, ed., The Parliamentary Register, vol. 10, 427.
60 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 99.
1 Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 155.
2 Marlborough Meetinghouse was close to the present Unionville High School. The road north taken by Cornwallis is the present-day Unionville-Lenape Road. In that era, the road probably continued on to Trimble’s Ford. Today, in order to get to the ford one must turn left at the T-intersection onto Unionville-Wawaset Road for a short distance before turning right on to Northbrook Road, which leads down to the ford.
3 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 601; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to Henry Johnson, November 14, 1820, in The Historical Magazine, Notes and Queries, Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, ed. Henry B. Dawson (Morrisania, NY, 1866), vol. 10, 202-3.
4 John Stone to William Paca, September 23, 1777, in The Chronicles of Baltimore; Being a Complete History of “Baltimore Town” and Baltimore City From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, ed. J. Thomas Scharf (Baltimore, 1874), 166; Timothy Pickering, Pickering Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, microfilm copies at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, film 220, reel 52, 184-186; Octavius Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 155.
5 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 475-476, 549. There is an oft-repeated story of Washington and Knox laughing at Sullivan’s aide when he reported Sullivan’s opinion to headquarters. However, no available contemporary document corroborates the claim.
6 James Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, James Grant of Papers.
7 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 184; Ewald, Diary, 83-84.
8 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 185. The original road to Trimble’s Ford is now partially private and is called Bragg’s Hill Road.
9 Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 80. The story is believable, but the source is questionable. Dr. William Darlington was one of the earliest historians of Chester County and an occasional member of Congress in the early 1800s. In 1822, the former Capt. Mountjoy Bayly was serving as the sergeant-at-arms in the U.S. Senate. Darlington spent an evening at Bayly’s home that year, during which the latter told the war story to his guests. Darlington, therefore, is the source of the story, and not Bayly himself. Two facts support this version. First, Bayly was indeed a captain in the 7th Maryland in 1777, and second, he died in 1836—after the supposed dinner party in 1822. See also, Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (Baltimore, 2003), 81. Despite Joel Bailey’s loyalism, the passing British troops plundered his farm. Although two British officers gave him £45, he lost household items and clothing valued at nearly £140—including four horses with harnesses, five sheep, and 300 pounds of cheese. Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 80.
10 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 186.
11 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 31.
12 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 186-187.
13 Charles Campbell, ed., The Bland Papers: Being a Selection from the Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. (Petersburg, VA, 1840), vol. 1, 67.
14 Pinckney to Johnson, November 14, 1820, 202-203.
15 Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777.
16 Ewald, Diary, 83; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 196.
17 Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 80.
18 James Parker, journal entry, September 11, Parker Family Papers.
19 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 124.
20 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 475-476; Pickering Papers, Film 220, Reel 52, 184-186; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 191.
21 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 191; Samuel Smith, “The Papers of General Samuel Smith,” in The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries, Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, 2nd series, no. 2 (Morrisania, NY, February 1870), vol. 7, 85.
22 Stone to Paca, September 23, 1777, 166; Smith, “Papers of Smith,” 85; Journal of the Hessian Corps in America under General von Heister, 1776-June 1777, Hessian Documents of the American Revolution, Morristown National Historical Park, Morristown, New Jersey, copy in the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, microfiche 326-327, letter Z, 84; Francis Thorne to Lord Percy, September 29, 1777, in Percy Papers, Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, England, vol. 52.
23 Journal of the Hessian Corps, Letter Z, 84.
24 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 451, 476; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 197-198.
25 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 476-477.
26 Ibid.; Billias, ed., George Washington’s Generals and Opponents, vol.1, 149.
27 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 425-426.
28 Pancake, 1777, 172.
29 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 193.
30 Ibid.
31 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 207; Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed,” 184. The only officer matching this description was Capt. John Stewart of the British 49th Regiment of Foot, who fell wounded, but survived.
32 The eighteenth-century road from Trimble’s Ford to Jeffries Ford no longer exists. Following the general route today, once across Trimble’s Ford, Cornwallis’s column moved north on modern Northbrook Road and turned right onto Camp Linden Road, made a left onto Wawaset Road, and a right onto a modern private farm lane. Traces of the eighteenth-century road can still be seen crossing modern farm fields toward Jeffries’s Ford. This trace ties back in with modern Lucky Hill Road on the opposite side of the present farm fields before continuing down to the east branch of the Brandywine at Jeffries’s Ford.
33 One of the many local legends about the battle involves liquor being stored at the Jeffries house. The home stood just on the west side of the ford of the same name. Legend has it that Wilmington, Delaware, merchants had shipped large quantities of wine and liquor to Chester County for safekeeping. Supposedly, all this liquor was stored in the Jeffries home and was found by Howe’s men as they marched down to the ford. The story seems to have originated in Jenkins, “Brandywine, 1777,” 335. No eighteenth-century source mentions the liquor, so I omitted the unconfirmed tale from the main body of the text.
34 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side: 1776-1778, 31.
35 Ewald, Diary, 83. “The warning post with which I had fought from morning until around noon” was another reference by Ewald to the 1st Pennsylvania’s Lt. Col. James Ross and his 70 men, who had reported his skirmishing to Washington.
36 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 198; Smith, Brandywine, 15.
37 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 453, 475.
38 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 197; Pickering Papers, film 220, reel 52, 184-186.
39 Reed, Campaign, 127.
40 Pancake, 1777, 172. Pancake’s citation for this portion of his book includes eight sources in a single endnote. However, not one of these eight sources provides an eighteenth-century source confirming any of the Cheyney story.
41 Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 24; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 107. Mowday’s sources for the Cheyney tale are Cheyney family stories supposedly passed down through the generations. Unless an eighteenth-century source becomes available to substantiate the story, it is difficult to accept the family’s version of the tale.
42 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 187-188.
43 Townsend, Some Account, 20, 21. Later in the day, fighting would rage around the Birmingham Meetinghouse. The fate of the sick Americans inside is unclear. No known account mentions them in conjunction with the fighting.
44 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 195.
45 Townsend, Some Account, 22.
46 Ibid., 23.
47 Joseph Strode purchased the mill complex from an earlier family in 1737. In addition to the grist mill (for grinding grain), it also included a sawmill and cider mill. It used Plum Run as its water source. This mill provided grain to Washington’s Army. It ceased operations sometime in the early twentieth century; Ewald, Diary, 84.
48 Archibald Robertson, text accompanying his manuscript map, “The Battle of Brandywine,” RCIN 734026. A., King’s Map Collection, Windsor Castle; Townsend, Some Account, 23.
49 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Major Baurmeister,” 406.
50 Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 197.
51 Montresor, “The Montresor Journals,” 449; Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777, Loftus Cliffe Papers; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 246-247. Carapichea ipecacuanha is a flowering plant in the Rubiaceaae family native to Brazil. Its common name, as Hale noted in his recollection, ipecacuanha, can be translated from Portuguese to “duck penis.” The root has been touted by various botanists over the centuries for a variety of ailments, including as a powerful emetic.
52 Robertson map key.
53 Frederick Augustus Wetherall, Journal of Officer B in the Sol Feinstone Collection of the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, item no. 409.
54 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side: 1776-1778, 31.
55 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 199.
56 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 463.
57 Preudhomme De Borre to Congress, September 17, 1777, Washington Papers online, Library of Congress, series 4, General Correspondence, September 1777, images 341-42, accessed March 12, 2012.
58 Journal of the Hessian Corps, Letter Z, 87-88.
59 Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, Grant Papers.
60 Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (New York, 1951), vol. 4, Leader of the Revolution, 488-489.
1 Wetherall, Journal of Officer B.
2 Ewald, Diary, 84; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 200.
3 Lee, Memoirs, vol. 1, 16.
4 William Scott, Memoranda on the Battle of Brandywine and The Battle of Germantown, in the Sol Feinstone Collection of the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, item no. 111.
5 Townsend, Some Account, 24.
6 Ibid., 24-25.
7 Ewald, Diary, 85.
8 Ewald, Diary, 85.
9 Ibid.; Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10; McGuire, The Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 2, 280, reproduces the entire letter; Scott, Memoranda.
10 Ewald, Diary, 85-86; Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 463.
11 Spring, With Zeal, 64.
12 Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10.
13 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 31; Townsend, Some Account, 25.
14 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 205.
15 Ibid., 204. At this time, Sullivan’s division was moving back to take a position on Birmingham Hill.
16 Martin Hunter, The Journal of Gen. Sir Martin Hunter and Some Letters of his Wife, Lady Hunter, ed. A. Hunter (Edinburgh, 1894), 29. Two companies from the 52nd Regiment of Foot—its light and grenadier companies—fought at the Brandywine. Martin Hunter was a lieutenant in the light infantry company, which was attached during the battle to the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 210-211; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 231; Wetherall, Journal of Officer B.
17 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 204.
18 Ewald, Diary, 86.
19 Townsend, Some Account, 24-25.
20 Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 450.
21 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 212. Exactly where these guns deployed is unknown, but they were likely down near Street Road, and therefore would have been at an elevation disadvantage. Just as there is a lack of source material specifics for the American artillery, the same problem exists for the British long arm. The only unit sent to North America was the 4th Battalion of Royal Artillery. How this unit was divided and allocated amongst the various British commands in North America is not always clear, and we do not know which specific batteries participated on the flanking march with Howe and Cornwallis. Circumstantial evidence suggests the entire battalion may have been with Howe’s army during this campaign, but how it was divided remains to be determined.
22 Elisha Stevens, Fragments of Memoranda Written by him in the War of the Revolution (Meriden, CT, 1893), September 12, 1777 entry. Private John Francis account, see Montgomery, ed. Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 508; Ensign William Russell account, see Heitman, Historical Register of Officers, 478. Stacey Williams account, see Montgomery, ed. Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 187; Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 275.
23 The next two senior colonels in the 2nd Maryland Brigade were Thomas Price and Josias Hall, both of whom were commissioned on the same day, December 10, 1776. Who led de Borre’s brigade into battle that day remains something of a mystery. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers.
24 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 464.
25 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 221.
26 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 463-464.
27 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 220-221. Throughout the rest of the day, Sullivan remained near the gap between Stirling‘s and Stephen’s divisions except for a short time when he tried to rally his own broken division.
28 Ibid., 222.
29 Stone to Paca, September 23, 1777, 166-167.
30 Remembrancer for 1777, 416; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 222, 225. The Osborn letters are in a private family collection in England and are inaccessible. The Osborn quotes rely on the accuracy of McGuire’s transcriptions. According to a return in the National Archives, the Guards fired an average of only six or seven shots per man for the entire battle, including their engagement later in the day near Chads’s Ford.
31 Smith, Brandywine, 17; Smith, “Papers of Smith,” 85.
32 Anderson, Personal Recollections, 36-37. Some of what Captain Anderson wrote decades after the event is clearly out of order, but the vibrancy of what he recalled about the combat, coupled with the fact that he was at the Brandywine battle, makes it worthwhile to piece his memory together wherever possible.
33 Idzerda, et al., eds., Lafayette Selected Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 94; Stone to Paca, September 23, 1777, 167.
34 Smith, “Papers of Smith,”, 85-86; Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 464.
35 Smith, “Papers of Smith,” 86.
36 Preudhomme De Borre to Congress, September 17, 1777; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 284.
37 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 464; John Hawkins, “Battle of Brandywine Described,” in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1896), vol. 20, 421. Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 576; Linn and Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 11, 100, 107. Sweeney was later confined at the Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, with a number of other prisoners. Samuel Hazard, et al, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1 (Harrisburg & Philadelphia, 1853), vol. 6, 58. Hazen’s final engagement position remains something of a mystery. Sullivan’s observation that he “Still Stood firm on our Left” could have meant he assumed a position on the left side of Lord Stirling’s division. However, Hazen was at the tail end of Sullivan’s division a short while earlier watching the divisional artillery. It is doubtful his command could have remained intact and moved so far east so quickly to Stirling’s position with the Brigade of Guards at the top of the hill and the balance of Sullivan’s troops in chaos in between. Until additional documentation is discovered, the position from which he engaged the British remains open to reasonable speculation.
38 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 120, 125.
39 Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. 9, 337. This set is available in both 8 and 10 volume editions; Smith, Brandywine, 17; Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 30; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 120, 125.
40 Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 245; Remembrancer, 415-417; Lowell, The Hessians, 301.
41 Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 245; Journal of the Hessian Corps in America under General von Heister, letter Z, 90.
42 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 208.
43 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 462-463; Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 680.
44 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 219. Burke seems to be describing the entire movement of Sullivan’s division, from the initial move from Brinton’s Ford to near Street Road, back south and east to Birmingham Hill, and then the botched attempt to shift farther east near Stirling’s left flank. That distance would have been more than two miles. The essence of his argument is that if the division had made a beeline for where it ultimately ended up, the march would have been just under one mile instead of double that distance. Burke, of course, ignores the reality of operating in real time without hindsight under battlefield conditions.
45 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 118.
46 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 555-556.
47 “Papers Related to the Battle of Brandywine,” in Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1846), vol. 1, No. 8, 53; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 219.
48 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 472-473.
1 Wetherall, Journal.
2 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 201.
3 Wetherall, Journal; Scott, Memoranda. The dash of the light infantry along the road passed a stone house (1735) on the western side that is still in existence, though it has been considerably enlarged.
4 Lee, Memoirs, vol. 1, 16; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 215. Of the regiment’s four captains in the fight, Capt. John Chilton was killed, Capt. Philip Lee was mortally wounded, and Capt. John Peyton was wounded but remained with his men. Several junior officers in the regiment also fell. Lieutenants Apollos Cooper and Robert Peyton, and Ens. George Peyton were killed. Lieutenant William White was mortally wounded. Lieutenants John Mercer and John Blackwell were wounded. Heitman, Historical Register, multiple pages of alphabetic listings.
5 Scott, Memoranda; Wetherall, Journal.
6 William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey, October 9, 1777, original in the William Dansey Letters.
7 Scott, Memoranda. Although Scott used the word “run,” as a major, Stuart almost certainly would have been mounted; Wortley, ed., A Prime Minister and His Son, 116-117. Major Charles Stuart was the son of the influential and much hated Tory minister John Stuart Lord Bute. After Howe’s effective dismissal, Stuart exchanged several sharp letters with the general and sought permission to return to England, a request Howe denied. Stuart returned to New York in the spring of 1777 and went into the field with the army without a command. McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 39.
8 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 464. Another story involving this part of the battle involves Capt. Joseph McClellan of the 9th Pennsylvania Regiment (Thomas Conway’s brigade, Lord Stirling’s division). Captain McClellan commanded a company opposite the grenadier company of the 42nd Highlanders. He later wrote in the third-person about an episode involving one of the Scots: “A stout man whom he took to be a Scotchman, and who was evidently under the influence of liquor advanced recklessly and placed himself behind a little mound, made by the root of a tree which had been blown down. From this position, which was within pistol-shot of McClellan’s company, the British soldier fired, and killed the sergeant, who was standing by Capt. McClellan’s side…. Capt. McClellan, seeing his sergeant fall, and observing whence the fatal missile came, perceived that the man was reloading his piece as he lay crouched behind the mound, and partially protected by it, and determined to anticipate him. He discharged his carbine with deliberate aim, and said he saw the soldier roll over, evidently disabled, if not killed.” Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 79. No contemporary account corroborates this story. McClellan was a captain in the 9th Pennsylvania, but no sergeant in that regiment was killed (known losses do not include a sergeant). Captain William Mackey was wounded and captured when a musket ball passed through his lungs and Pvt. Peter Eager was also wounded. A ball entered Pvt. Adam Koch’s head below his right eye and passed out below his right ear, Ensign Benjamin Morris and Pvt. Daniel Mullen were both killed. Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 277; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 537, 560; John Blair Linn and William H. Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2 (Harrisburg, PA, 1880), vol. 10, 693-709; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 456.
9 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 31; “A Biographical Sketch of Governor Richard Howell, of New Jersey,” ed. Daniel Agnew, in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1898), Vol. 22, 224. There is some evidence that women were present at this time at the front even though they had been ordered to remain with the baggage train. An account by Capt. John Markland claimed women of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment took “the empty canteens of their husbands and friends and returned with them filled with water, which they persisted in delivering to the owners during the hottest part of the engagement, although frequently cautioned as to the danger of coming into the line of fire.” “Revolutionary Services of Captain John Markland,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1885), vol. 9, 105.
10 Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 245; Ebenezer Elmer, “Extracts from the Journal of Surgeon Ebenezer Elmer of the New Jersey Continental Line, September 11-19, 1777,” ed. John Nixon Brooks, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1911), vol. 35, 105.
11 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 31; “London, December 18: Extract of a letter from an Officer at Philadelphia to his friend at Edinburgh, dated Oct. 27,” Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal 26, no. 1400 (December 26, 1777); Clark, “Diary,” 98-99.
12 Lafayette, Memoirs, vol. 1, 23; Idzerda, ed., Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 84, 95.
13 Idzerda, ed., Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 95; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 673, 684. Gimat was Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat, a volunteer French officer who served in the Continental Army during the Revolution. A memorial shaft, installed in 1895 to mark the location of Lafayette’s wounding, is almost certainly misplaced. Some of the several witness sources who agree on this claim to have been with Lafayette during his 1825 visit to the battlefield. According to a Nathan Jester of Dilworthtown, Lafayette pointed the spot out from his carriage, and a temporary marker was placed along the road between Birmingham Meetinghouse and Dilworth, approximately 275 yards beyond Sandy Hollow. “It was proposed to place the memorial shaft at that point, and the inscription was framed to suit that location. It is however equally adapted to its present location.” Lafayette at Brandywine: Containing the Proceedings at the Dedication of the Memorial Shaft to Mark the Place Where Lafayette Was Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine (West Chester, PA), 73. As with almost all Victorian-era battlefield monuments, the permanent Lafayette monument’s present location was chosen for visibility, not accuracy. “The place selected for the shaft is a triangular piece of ground on the north side of the public road leading from Dilworthtown to Birmingham meetinghouse…. This is one of the highest points of what is known as “Battle Hill,” is in full view of the meetinghouse, and the hills to the north, over which the British approached, and is a short distance from where Lafayette was wounded.” Ibid., 10-11. Many monuments of this period, like those on Civil War battlefields, were placed along main roads for visibility, often several hundred yards from where a unit actually fought. Lafayette was almost certainly wounded west of the location of the monument, somewhere near where Conway’s brigade fought near the intersection of Birmingham Road and Wylie Road.
14 Peebles, Peebles’ American War, 133; Henry Stirke, “A British Officer’s Revolutionary War Journal, 1776-1778,” S. Sydney Bradford, ed., Maryland Historical Magazine (1961), vol. 56, 170; Robertson, His Diaries and Sketches, 146; Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 450. An account of the battle by Lt. John Shreve of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment includes his father’s wounding. However, the 2nd New Jersey was not at the Brandywine, and no available account documents Shreve’s attachment to any other unit. As the story is questionable, it is omitted from the main narrative. John Shreve, “Personal Narrative of the Services of Lieut. John Shreve,” The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries (New York, 1879), vol. 3, 567-568.
15 John Hawkins, “Battle of Brandywine Described,” in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1896), vol. 20, 421. Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 576; Linn and Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 11, 100, 107. Sweeney was later confined at the Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, with a number of other prisoners. Samuel Hazard, et al, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1 (Harrisburg & Philadelphia, 1853), vol. 6, 58. Hazen’s final engagement position remains something of a mystery. Sullivan’s observation that he “Still Stood firm on our Left” could have meant he assumed a position on the left side of Lord Stirling’s division. However, Hazen was at the tail end of Sullivan’s division a short while earlier watching the divisional artillery. It is doubtful his command could have remained intact and moved so far east so quickly to Stirling’s position with the Brigade of Guards at the top of the hill and the balance of Sullivan’s troops in chaos in between. Until additional documentation is discovered, the position from which he engaged the British remains open to reasonable speculation.
16 Scott, Memoranda; George Ewing, “Journal of George Ewing, a Revolutionary Soldier, of Greenwich, New Jersey,” in American Monthly Magazine, vol. 38 (1911), 6; “Biographical Sketch of Howell,” 224; William Henry Egle, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, vol. 23 (Harrisburg, PA, 1897), 816. One of the captured was John Portman of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was later confined on James Island, South Carolina, but escaped the evening before the British evacuated Charleston. John Portman, pension application. Captain-Lieutenant Gibbs Jones led an independent Pennsylvania battery during the battle, but it is unclear where the unit fought. Jones later reported the loss of his papers at the Brandywine, including the unit’s muster rolls. Gibbs Jones to Joseph Howell, December 20, 1786, National Archives and Records Administration, Manuscript File RG93, accessible at www.wardepepartmentpapers.org.
17 Lieutenant George Duke, Grenadier Company, 33rd Regiment of Foot, to unknown correspondent, October 13, 1777, ed. Thomas McGuire, original posted online to be auctioned in May 2008, edited copy in author’s collection.
18 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 209.
19 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 465.
20 Remembrancer for 1777, 415-417; Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed,” 176-205. The following grenadier officers were killed: Capt. Edward Drury (63rd Regiment of Foot), Lt. William Faulkner (15th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Minchin (27th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Richard Barber (40th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Hadley Doyle (52nd Regiment of Foot), and Lts. John Harris and Adam Drummond (33rd Regiment of Foot). In addition to those killed, the following were wounded: Capt. Andrew Cathcart (15th Regiment of Foot), Capt. John Simcoe in the arm (40th Regiment of Foot), Capt. Fish (44th Regiment of Foot), Lts. Ligonier Chapman and Stephen Cooke (37th Regiment of Foot), and Lt. Thomas Peters (64th Regiment of Foot). S. R. Lushington, The Life and Services of General Lord Harris, G.C.B. During His Campaigns in America, The West Indies, and India (London, 1840), 88.
21 Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10.
22 Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Hesse-Cassel Jaeger Corps, 14; Richard St. George, “The Actions at Brandywine and Paoli Described by a British Officer,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1905), vol. 29, 368; Hunter, Journal of Hunter, 29-30.
23 Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Diaries of Two Jaegers, 18; Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10; Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Hesse-Cassel Jaeger Corps, 14. The woods, combined with a slight elevation change, blocked the Germans’ view of the British light infantry advancing and fighting on their right. The cannon referenced by von Wurmb were the two 3-pounders assigned to support the advancing jaegers that had been left behind due to the difficulties of terrain.
24 Wetherall, Journal; Montresor, “Montresor Journals,” 450.
25 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (M804) [RWPF], file S37758. William Beale of the 12th Virginia Regiment was wounded in the forehead during the defensive effort by Scott’s brigade.
26 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files, file S6085; Linn and Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 10, 810-811. Jonathan Nicholson to Joseph Howell, September 17, 1788, National Archives and Records Administration, Ltrs sent J. Howell, Comm. Accounts RG93, accessible at www.wardepartmentpapers.org. Lieutenant Philip Slaughter of the 11th Virginia Regiment remembered the bloody day of combat for the remainder of his life. After the end of the Revolutionary War, he returned to central Virginia and named his farm “Brandywine.” Slaughter lived a long life and did not die until 1849. Ironically, his farm was the scene of heavy fighting during the American Civil War at the battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862. Robert K. Krick, Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain (Chapel Hill, NC, 1990), 50.
27 Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Jaeger Corps, 14; Ewald, Diary, 86. “Dilworthtown” was Dilworth, about one-half mile southeast of Stephen’s position on Birmingham Hill; Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10. Two of the jaeger officers were later recognized for their service at the Brandywine: Capts. Johann Ewald and Carl von Wreden received the Hessian order pour la vertu militaire. They were the first officers of that rank to be thus honored. Lowell, The Hessians, 199.
28 Hunter, Journal of Hunter, 29-30; Captured British Officer’s Accounts Ledger, 1769-1771, and Diary, Washington Papers online, Library of Congress, series 6: Military Papers, 1755-1798: Subseries C, accessed March 28, 2013; Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Jaeger Corps, 14.
29 Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, October 14, 1777, 10; Hunter, Journal of Hunter, 29-30; Narrative of Howe, 98.
30 American losses are reported later in this study, as we do not have them broken out separately as we have for the British and German units. Jaeger casualties are from Burgoyne and Burgoyne, eds., Journal of the Jaeger Corps, 15; Remembrancer for 1777, 415-417; Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed,” 176-205. Among the light infantry officers who fell, Lt. Francis Johnson (38th Regiment of Foot’s light company) was killed. In addition to those mentioned earlier, the following light infantry officers were wounded: Capt. Thomas Mecan (23rd Regiment of Foot), Capt. James Douglas (15th Regiment of Foot), Capt. Nicholas Wade (49th Regiment of Foot), Capt. Henry Downing (55th Regiment of Foot), Capt. James Murray in the ankle (57th Regiment of Foot), Capt. James DeCourcy (40th Regiment of Foot), Lt. John Birch (27th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Thomas Nicholl (33rd Regiment of Foot), Lt. Charles Leigh (15th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Samuel Ruxton (45th Regiment of Foot), Lt. Thomas Armstrong (49th Regiment of Foot), and Lt. Bent Ball (63rd Regiment of Foot). Over a month and half later, Captain Murray was still recovering from his wounded ankle. That day he wrote, “[N]ow that my fever has left me I shall be perfectly recovered in a few days.” Eric Robson, ed., Letters from America, 1773 to 1780: Being the letters of a Scots officer, Sir James Murray, to his home during the War of American Independence (New York, 1950), 49.
31 Luzader, Saratoga, 227.
32 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 32. A local tale claims Howe forced farmer Emmor Jefferis to guide the army to Birmingham Meetinghouse, with Howe telling him, “Don’t be afraid Mr. Jefferis, they won’t hurt you.” The army already had guides directing the flanking column to Osborn’s Hill, with the meetinghouse immediately beyond. No source has been found to corroborate the claim. “Papers Related to Brandywine,” 53.
33 Townsend, Some Account, 25.
1 Parker, journal entry for September 11, Parker Family Papers.
2 James Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, James Grant Papers.
3 Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 33.
4 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777; Whinyates, ed., Services of Downman, 33.
5 This estimate of the number of troops available to Knyphausen at this point in the day takes into account casualties from the morning action.
6 Smith, Brandywine, 22.
7 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
8 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 206.
9 Jarvis, Stephen Jarvis, 16; Parker, journal entry for September 11, Parker Family Papers; Clark, “Diary,” 99; Sullivan, From Redcoat to Rebel, 134.
10 Ewald, Diary, 82; Jarvis, Stephen Jarvis, 98-99.
11 Smith, Brandywine, 23; Robertson map and accompanying text.
12 Burgoyne, ed., Enemy Views, 177.
13 Nagle, The Nagle Journal, 8.
14 Ibid. None of the known British officers killed in the battle were in this area. However, Capt. John Rawdon of the 4th Regiment of Foot was severely wounded in the knee and could be the officer Nagle described.
15 Account reproduced in Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5 (Harrisburg, PA, 1906), vol. 2, 621.
16 Sullivan, Journal, 134. Proctor later informed Congress that he lost “my best horse and my Portmanteau Horse taken by the Enemy, together with my Baggage of a considerable Value.” Thomas Proctor to the Continental Congress, April 10, 1778, Papers of the Continental Congress, available online at www.fold3.com, accessed March 25, 2013. Many years later in his pension application, Jacob Strembeck claimed a lieutenant named Thomas Bowde was killed during this action. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (M804) [RWPF], file S4896. No Thomas Bowde, however, appears in the Continental Army Officer List. For information on Henry Conkle and John Conrad, see Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 558. For information on David Chambers, see Linn and Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 11, 181. For information on artillery quartermaster James Livingston, see Egle, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, vol. 23, 817; Thorne to Percy, September 29, 1777.
17 There are a series of hills (or rises and swales) as you move east from Chads’s Ford. Proctor’s redoubt artillery position had been on the hill closest to the river. The artillery reserve was positioned on one of the hills, likely within the grounds of the current park. This was where Chambers’s 1st Pennsylvania Regiment was deployed to protect the guns, to buy enough time to get the artillery out of harm’s way.
18 Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 2, 621-622. Flying over Chambers’s men of the 1st Pennsylvania was one of the few Continental flags that survive today. “The flag was a large square of green silk with a small, red square in the center, on which was depicted a hunter holding a spear against a netted, rampant tiger. Below this was a scroll with the motto Domari Nolo.” McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 249.
19 Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 2, 622. One of the artillery officers who had abandoned the guns was Capt. Hercules Courtney, who was later court-martialed for “[l]eaving his howitzer in the field … in a cowardly unofficerlike manner.” Courtney was found guilty and ordered “to be reprimanded by Gen. Knox in the presence of all the Artillery officers.” Luckily for Courtney, Washington reprieved the captain and had him released from arrest. Courtney was dismissed from the service in February 1778 for neglect of duty. “Orderly Book of General Edward Hand, Valley Forge, January 1778,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1917), vol. 41, 202
20 Smith, Brandywine, 23; Sullivan, Journal, 134.
21 Nagle, Journal, 8-9. Spiking an artillery piece involved jamming a file or other metal object into the vent hole and snapping it off to render the piece incapable of being fired until the vent hole was cleared again. Two of these guns had been captured from the Hessians at Trenton.
22 Parker, journal entry for September 11. The ditch to which Parker referred was probably the lane leading to the Ring farm; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Major Baurmeister,” 407; Jarvis, Stephen Jarvis, 99; Sullivan, Journal, 134. Following the battle, British engineer officer Archibald Robertson created a detailed map of the battlefield. He placed only a few trees near Proctor’s artillery position, but included two fenced tree lots or orchards on the Ring property just east of the position.
23 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
24 Nagle, Journal, 9. If Nagle’s memory is accurate, the fallen officer has not been identified.
25 Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 35. Edgar provides no citation for his version of the story; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 149. Mowday’s source for the story is a secondary source, not an eighteenth-century one; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 247; William Summers, “Obituary Notices of Pennsylvania Soldiers of the Revolution,” in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1914), vol. 38, 444. Historians must be careful when relying on sources such as this obituary notice written 57 years after the war. To date, no contemporary account has surfaced to confirm Hector’s war story. However, there was an Edward Hector carried on the muster rolls who served as a bombardier in the Pennsylvania regiment. Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 1056.
26 Adam Hubley to John Hubley, September 15, 1777, Peter Force Papers, series 9, conts. 21-24, microfilm reel 104, David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA. The road along which Maxwell formed his men was probably where the Ring Road runs today, near the modern entrance to Brandywine Battlefield State Historic Site.
27 Account reproduced in Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 312.
28 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (M804), file S2408.
29 The severe casualties the 11th Pennsylvania suffered at the Brandywine and later at Paoli and Germantown in the campaign forced the proud remnants of the unit to fold into the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment in the spring of 1778.
30 Hubley to Hubley, September 15, 1777.
31 Lieutenant John Bush suffered the misfortune of losing his personal chest with all his papers. Nine years later, he was still trying to settle his accounts with the army due to those missing documents. Heitman, Register of Officers of the Continental Army, 300. The Pennsylvania casualties are documented in the following sources: Linn & Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 10, 428, 433, 545-572, 646-654, 720-757, 764-772 & 799-800; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 513-515, 557-558, 571, 596; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 75, 374, 663; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, Vols. 2, 1032, 1085; Jonathan Nicholson to Joseph Howell, February 15, 1788; John Bush to Joseph Howell, November 31, 1786; Richard Humpton to Joseph Howell, May 1787, National Archives and Records Administration: Ltrs Sent, J Howell, Comm. Accounts, RG93, available at www.wardepartmentpapers.org.
32 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 407.
33 Thorne to Percy, September 29, 1777. If “the regiments inclin’d to their left,” perhaps he and others thought some of the Hessian grenadiers from Howe’s flanking column had moved to their right after the Birmingham Hill fight. In fact, a battalion from the Brigade of Guards from that very column soon joined them.
34 Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
35 Sullivan, Journal, 134.
36 Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 271; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 4, 537, 566-570; Linn and Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, vol. 10, 337; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 3, 643-737.
37 John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago, 1980), 404; Joseph Ritter, Memoirs of Jacob Ritter, A Faithful Minister in the Society of Friends, ed. Joseph Foulke (Philadelphia, 1844), 15-16.
38 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files (M804), files S2713, S32114.
39 Ibid., files S23542, S22899; Samuel Hay to William Irvine, November 14, 1777, Irvine Papers within the Draper Manuscripts, the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, Series AA, vol. 1, film 60, reel 70.
40 Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 2, 622; Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 407.
41 Hubley to Hubley, September 15, 1777.
42 Remembrancer, 415-417; Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed,” 176-205.
43 Hubley to Hubley, September 15, 1777.
44 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 407; Johann Daniel Stirn, “Diary Installment from Major General Johann Daniel Stirn,” ed. Henry Retzer and Donald Londahlsmidt, in Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 2. (1998), 6.
1 Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777.
2 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 135; Edgar, Philadelphia Campaign, 34-35; Pancake, 1777, 173; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 132-133; Smith, Brandywine, 21; Robertson, text accompanying his manuscript map.
3 Robertson, text accompanying his manuscript map.
4 Scott, Memoranda. The jaegers remained on the far left of the army and did not rejoin the column until after dark.
5 Hawkins, “Battle of Brandywine Described,” 420.
6 Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 31; Ewald, Diary, 86; Peebles, Peebles’ American War, 133; Wilkin, Some British Soldiers, 230-231; Montresor, “The Montresor Journals,” 450; Wetherall, Journal of Officer B.
7 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 135. Unfortunately, Reed does not provide a citation for his version of the story.
8 Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 33-34. While Edgar provided no citation for the story, he noted in his narrative that local resident William Darlington told the tale. Darlington was not living at the time of the battle, but later became an amateur historian of Chester County. Darlington’s telling constitutes questionable history.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 252. McGuire cites Futhey and Cope’s History of Chester County as the source of the story; Mowday, September 11, 1777, 131.
10 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 454. Exactly what Lord Stirling and Adam Stephen did after their commands collapsed atop Birmingham Hill is unknown. Neither officer is mentioned in the various primary accounts, and no report or letter discussing their participation has been found. Almost certainly they worked like Gen. Sullivan to organize their men into a defensive front, and participated in the final repulse of the British.
11 Smith, Brandywine, 20-21; Chesnutt and Taylor, eds., Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 11, 547.
12 Charles F. Hobson, ed., The Papers of John Marshall, vol. 10, January 1824-March 1827 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000), 340. The sun set that night at 6:15 p.m. The pair of artillery pieces placed by Knox were almost certainly from the artillery reserve park, although their exact identity has not been determined.
13 Stone to Paca, September 23, 1777, 167.
14 Hobson, ed., Papers of Marshall, vol. 10, 340-341; Clark, “Diary,” 99.
15 Edgar, Philadelphia Campaign, 35. Edgar provided no citation for the story of the Pulaski charge. Mowday, September 11, 1777, 133, also includes a lengthy narrative supposedly written by one of the horsemen who participated in the charge. The story was published in 1839—more than six decades after the battle—in the Portland Transcript of Maine, which in itself makes it unreliable. In addition, the article is unclear as to which battle the man was referring. It is just as likely the fighting took place somewhere other than at the Brandywine. Therefore, this account cannot be relied upon.
16 Louis Hue Girardin and Paul Bentalou, Pulaski Vindicated from an Unsupported Charge, Inconsiderately or Malignantly (Baltimore, 1824), 23-24; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 254-255; Smith, Brandywine, 21.
17 Smith, Brandywine, 20; Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 471. Dilworth was a small village of a dozen mostly stone buildings, located at a five-point crossroads. The most substantial structure was Charles Dilworth’s brick tavern. Dilworth was a Quaker who served on the county committee and as a county sheriff. Due to his politics, the Friends Meeting disowned him, and the British Army stripped his tavern bare in the aftermath of the battle. A British raiding party burned the tavern the following winter.
18 Pinckney to Johnson, November 14, 1820, 203; Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 557. Colonel Alexander Spottswood commanded the 2nd Virginia Regiment, and Col. Edward Stevens’s led the 10th Virginia Regiment.
19 Ewald, Diary, 86-87. While it is not known with certainty, it is likely it was the artillery at this stage of the fighting that forced Knox to fall back while he was fighting for extra time to allow the infantry to form behind him.
20 Hammond, ed., State of New Hampshire, vol. 4, 200. The house to which Captain Fleury refers was a farmhouse and its outbuildings at the intersection of the Wilmington Road and Harvey Road.
21 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 557.
22 Robertson map, with accompanying text.
23 Ibid. A careful cartographer, Royal engineer Archibald Robertson confirmed two separate extensive lines of American troops separated by a gap and the Wilmington Road. Although strengths and names are not present, a comparison with other depictions of troops (like Stephen’s division atop Birmingham Hill, or the 2nd Grenadier Battalion), is instructive. No primary accounts of this part of the fighting from Muhlenberg’s or Francis Nash’s commands have been located. Based upon this map, my study of the sources, and personal familiarity with the terrain, I believe Muhlenberg reached the field and formed west of the road in time to assist in throwing back the grenadiers. Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 471; Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 473; Robertson Map and accompanying text. Colonel Moses Hazen’s regiment (2nd Canadian, or Congress’s Own), which appears to have escaped the catastrophe of Birmingham Hill, may well have formed the core of this line around which Sullivan’s survivors formed before Muhlenberg arrived.
24 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 256; Robertson map, with accompanying text. Every source that says Muhlenberg fought on this part of the Brandywine field is a secondary source.
25 Pickering, Pickering Papers, film 220, reel 52, 184-186. Douglas Southall Freeman, in Washington, vol. 4, 482n, does not believe Nash reached the northern part of the field in time to participate in the fighting. The unlucky “promising young” officer, was struck in the leg by a cannonball at the battle of Germantown on October 4 and died three days later.
26 Peebles, Peebles’ War, 133. Peebles’s company was attached to the 2nd Grenadier Battalion.
27 Ewald, Diary, 86-87; Robertson map, with accompanying text. When the five companies of 2nd Light Infantry Battalion joined Agnew’s line, why they did so, and who led them is unclear. Their presence with the 4th Brigade during this stage of the fighting was unknown until the 2005 discovery of the Robertson map, which meticulously notes their presence. The parent battalion is depicted on the map just southeast of Dilworth with the jaegers. Major John Maitland’s 2nd Light Infantry Battalion originally formed between the jaegers and 1st Light Battalion east of the Birmingham Road and helped drive Stephen’s division off Birmingham Hill. During that action, five companies became separated, but appear to link back up with the rest of the battalion northwest of Dilworth. The next thing the map shows is the 2nd Light battalion southeast of Dilworth (but not how it got there) and Agnew’s 4th Brigade advancing southwest of the Wilmington Road. It seems likely that the same five companies separated in the fight on Birmingham Hill were absorbed into Agnew’s advancing brigade line below Dilworth, even though Robertson’s map doesn’t show them until the final position facing Greene’s line.
28 Peebles, Peebles’ War, 133. This strength assigned to the British force takes into account the casualties the 2nd British Grenadier Battalion suffered assaulting Stirling’s division.
29 Robertson map, with accompanying text.
30 McMichael, “Diary,” vol. 16, 150; Hobson, ed., Papers of Marshall, vol. 10, 340.
31 Robertson map, with accompanying text. Unfortunately, we know very little about the fighting west of the Wilmington Road between the 2nd Battalion of Grenadiers and the American troops arrayed as Greene’s left wing other than that the grenadiers advanced within a couple hundred yards of the patriot line, exchanged fire for an indeterminate amount of time, and the fighting ended about the same time, and for the same reason, as it did on Agnew’s front.
32 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 259.
33 Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777; Ewald, Diary, 86. The officer corps of the 64th Regiment of Foot was particularly hard hit. In addition to those named, the four lieutenants included Michael Jacobs, George Torriano, William Wynyrd, and Thomas Freeman; the ensign was Alexander Grant. In the 46th Regiment, Ensign Skeffing Bristow was wounded. Remembrancer, 415-417; Inman, ed., “List of Officers Killed,” 176-205. The Craig Farm, located along Harvey Road, may still contain graves from the battle. In the mid-nineteenth century, remains from the 64th Regiment of Foot were found, and in the late 1970s another grave was found on the property containing a member of the 17th Regiment of Foot (Grey’s 3rd Brigade).
34 Hagist, British Soldiers, 229. General Agnew’s luck ran out a few weeks later outside Philadelphia at Germantown, where he was killed by a civilian sharpshooter named Hans Boyer during the American attack. He was carried back to his headquarters in John Wister’s Big House (now called Grumblethorpe) on Germantown Avenue, where he died. His blood stains are still visible on the parlor floor. Agnew is buried at the De Benneville Family Burial Grounds in Philadelphia.
35 Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777, Loftus Cliffe Papers.
36 McMichael, “Diary,” 150; Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, vol. 2, 499, vol. 4, 514-571. The British rolled up two light field pieces on the other side of the line, from which a distant shot may have struck Sgt. Peeling. It is also possible his wound was not caused by grapeshot. Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 280, claims the regiment lost just one killed and two wounded, but archival records show otherwise.
37 Ewald, Diary, 87.
38 Another legend regarding the battle has some of the Anspach jaegers recognizing Peter Muhlenberg, with whom they had fought in a previous war, and shouting out “Here comes Devil Pete.” While a stirring story, no available primary source confirms the legend.
39 Duke, Brandywine British officer’s letter. Whether Agnew ordered the 33rd to pull away from the left to support the embattled 64th is unknown.
40 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 102; Joseph Plumb Martin, Private Yankee Doodle: Being a Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, George E. Scheer, ed. (Eastern National, 1962), 187; Ewald, Diary, 86.
41 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 471.
42 Robertson map, with accompanying text; George Inman, “George Inman’s Narrative of the American Revolution,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 7 (Philadelphia, 1883), 241.
43 Andre, Journal, 46-47; Hunter, Journal, 30; Spring, With Zeal, 270-271.
44 Spring, With Zeal, 9.
45 Pancake, 1777, 174.
46 Hobson, ed., Papers of Marshall, vol. 10, 341; Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 155; Lafayette, Memoirs, vol. 1, 24.
47 Hawkins, “Battle of Brandywine Described,” 420; Clark, “Diary,” 99; McMichael, “Diary,” 150.
48 Nagle, The Nagle Journal, 9.
49 Smith, “Papers of Smith”; Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 80.
50 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 263-264. The website McGuire cited as his source for the story is no longer accessible.
51 Montresor, “Journals,” 451.
52 Remembrancer for 1777, 415-417.
53 Burgoyne, trans. and ed., Diaries of Two Jaegers, 18; Von Knyphausen to Germain, October 21, 1777.
54 Ewald, Diary, 87; Christopher Marshall, Extracts from the Diary of Christopher Marshall, Kept in Philadelphia and Lancaster, during the American Revolution 1774-1781, ed. William Duane (Albany, NY, 1877), 127.
55 “Notes and Queries: Loss of the British Army at Brandywine,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1880), vol. 4, 121. Regardless of the various estimates, the officially reported 587 casualties remain the generally accepted figure for Howe’s losses.
1 Townsend, Some Account, 28-29.
2 Fitzpatrick, ed. Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 207-208.
3 Muhlenberg, Journals, vol. 3, 74.
4 Margaret Stedman to Mrs. E. Fergusson, September 11, 1777, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1890), vol. 14, 64-65.
5 Smith et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 683-684.
6 Ibid., 657, 689.
7 Frazer, General Persifor Frazer, 155.
8 Thomas P. Cope, Philadelphia Merchant: The Diary of Thomas P. Cope, 1800-1851, Eliza Cope Harrison, ed. (South Bend, IN, 1978), 401-402.
9 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 265-266. The website McGuire cited as the source of the story was no longer available.
10 Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 164; Hazard, et al, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, vol. 6, 100-101.
11 This is not the same Gideon Gilpin House at which Lafayette supposedly stayed. This Gilpin home belonged to a relative of Gideon’s. George Gilpin built the two-story brick home in 1754 on the original Gilpin family tract, which was located near where the fighting ended. Robertson, Manuscript Map.
12 Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777, Loftus Cliffe Papers.
13 Spring, With Zeal, 269.
14 Years later, 379 farmers and other citizens of Chester County filed damage claims for reparations. Smith, Brandywine, 23. Some of the claims filed read as follows: Joseph Dilworth of Birmingham Township: 100 bushels of wheat, 18 sheep, 800 pounds of cheese, 25 yards linen, 1 beaver hatt, and 2 gallons of peach brandy; William Harvey of Birmingham Township: 2 Milch Cows, 6 Yearling Cattle, 22 Sheep, 130 Bushels of wheat, 1 copper coffee pot, and 16 tons of hay; Charles Dilworth of Birmingham Township: 2 beef cattle, 2 heifers, 2 horse colts, 24 large fat hogs, 45 pigs, 10 sheep, wheat, hay. Accounts of property taken and destroyed by the British Army under the command of General Howe, located in the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA; Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782 by the Marquis de Chastellux, ed. Howard C. Rice (Chapel Hill, NC, 1963), vol. 1, 152.
15 Townsend, Some Account, 28-29.
16 Frazer, Memoir, 159.
17 Peebles, Peebles’ American War, 134; Lowell, The Hessians, 38.
18 Townsend, Some Account, 28-29.
19 Richard L. Blanco, Physician of the American Revolution: Jonathan Potts (New York, 1979), 163; Chadwick, Washington’s War, 234-235; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 144.
20 Blanco, Physician of the Revolution, 163.
21 Townsend, Some Account, 26.
22 Ibid., 25.
23 Kemble, Journals, 492, 493; Andre, Journal, 47; Captured British Officer’s Accounts Ledger.
24 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 208, 215; Andre, Journal, 47.
25 Benjamin Rush, The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush: His “Travels Through Life” Together with His Commonplace Book for 1789-1813, George W. Corner, ed. (Westport, CT, 1948), 132-133.
26 L. H. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush (Princeton, NJ, 1951), vol. 1, 154-155.
27 Smith, Brandywine, 24; Gilbert Purdy diary, original located in the Canadian Archives, Item MG23-B14, vol. 1; Montresor, “Journals,” 451.
28 Fitzpatrick, ed. Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 209-210.
29 Ibid., 210.
30 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 273-274. The rapids no longer exist because dams were built that raised the water level. The Lower Ferry, also known as Gray’s Ferry, was located where Gray’s Ferry Avenue Bridge crosses the river today, between South Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia. The Middle Ferry was located between the modern Market Street and Chestnut Street Bridges, near 30th Street. The Upper Ferry was located within the bounds of modern-day Fairmount Park, near the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Spring Garden Street Bridge.
31 Ibid., 274. Levering’s Ford is in modern-day Manayunk, just below the big concrete arch bridge. Matson’s Ford is in modern-day Conshohocken, just north of the Fayette Street Bridge. Fatland Ford is in modern-day Valley Forge National Historic Park, behind where the chapel stands today. Swedes Ford is in what is Norristown today, just below the Route 202 bridge.
32 Pancake, 1777, 174.
33 Muhlenberg, Journals, vol. 3, 74; McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 272-273.
34 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 264-265.
35 Von Baurmeister, “Letters of Baurmeister,” 409.
36 Delaware Archives: Revolutionary War (Wilmington, DE, 1919), vol. 3, 1,416; Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 145; Von Baurmeister, “Letters,” 409.
37 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 143; “Military Operations near Philadelphia in the Campaign of 1777-8,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1878), vol. 2, 283.
38 Fitzpatrick, ed. Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 211.
39 McGuire, Philadelphia Campaign, vol. 1, 279; Captured British Officer’s Accounts Ledger; Bailey, British Military Rifles, 51. See Appendix E regarding the Rifles’ future disposition.
40 Pickering, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 158-159.
41 Anthony Wayne to Thomas Mifflin, September 15, 1777, Anthony Wayne Papers, vol. 4.
42 Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 224.
43 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 148; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 241.
44 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 227-278; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 227.
45 James Parker, journal, no date but entered at end of October 1777, Parker Family Papers.
46 Jackson, Pennsylvania Navy, 121; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, vol. 11, 213.
47 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 145.
1 Thomas Jefferson, Writings, ed. Merrill D. Peterson (New York, 1984), 1318.
2 Letter reproduced in William S. Stryker, ed., Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 1, Extracts from American Newspapers 1776-1777 (Trenton, NJ, 1901), 483.
3 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, vol. 2, 162; Weedon to Page, September 11, 1777.
4 “Papers Related to the Battle of Brandywine, 53; Noah Brooks, Henry Knox: A Soldier of the Revolution (New York, 1900), 104; Samuel Shaw, The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw: The First American Consul at Canton, ed. Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1847), 36.
5 Anderson, Personal Recollections, 37-8.
6 “Military Operations near Philadelphia,” 283 ; Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York, 2003), 342
7 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, Vol. 9, 207-8; Chase and Lengel, eds., Papers of Washington, Vol. 11, 479.
8 Smith, et al., eds., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 680.
9 Hobson, ed., Papers of Marshall, vol. 10, 341; Pickering, Life of Pickering, Vol. 1, 160.
10 Chernow, Washington, 305-6; Aaron Ogden, Autobiography of Col. Aaron Ogden, of Elizabethtown (Paterson, NJ, 1893), 7.
11 Showman, McCarthy, and Cobb, eds., Papers of Greene, Vol. 2, 471.
12 Jefferson, Writings, 1318.
13 Montresor, “Journals,” 451; Peebles, Peebles’ American War, 133-4; Purdy diary, original located in the Canadian Archives; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 31.
14 Journal of the Hessian Grenadier Battalion von Minnigerode, Microfiche 232, Hessian Documents of the American Revolution, Morristown National Historical Park, Morristown, NJ, copies from the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA.
15 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 32.
16 Narrative of Howe, 95-96; James Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, James Grant Papers.
17 Ewald, 87.
18 Duke, Brandywine British officer’s letter.
19 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 31-2.
20 Reproduced in Todd Andrlik, Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before it was History, it was News (Naperville, IL, 2012), 224.
21 Reproduced in Ibid., 225.
22 Thomas Paine, Crisis #4, available at www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/paine/the-american-crisis-part-4-by-thomas-paine, accessed April 1, 2013.
23 Neff, Army and Navy of America, 336.
24 John Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. 1, 316.
25 Burnham, “Story of Brandywine,” 42; MacElree, Heathcote, & Sanderson, “Battle of Brandywine,” n.p.
26 Anderson, Command of the Howe Brothers, 288.
27 Ward, War of the Revolution, Vol. 1, 350-4.
28 Reed, Campaign to Valley Forge, 140.
29 Pancake, 1777, 174; Edgar, The Philadelphia Campaign, 39-40.
30 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 201-202.
1 The brigade’s regular commander, Brig. Gen. William Smallwood, was on detached duty raising Maryland militia. Senior colonel John Stone probably led the brigade at Brandywine.
2 William Maxwell, the brigade’s commander, was detached to command the light infantry.
3 The Light Infantry Brigade under William Maxwell included detachments from the entire army including Col. Patterson Bell’s 8th Battalion of Chester County Militia.
4 No brigade commander was assigned to the light dragoons at Brandywine. Each regiment reported directly to Washington.
5 This regiment was detached from the 3rd British Brigade to serve as headquarters guard.
6 The 1st Light Infantry Battalion was composed of the light companies of the following Regiments of Foot: 4th, 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 35th, 37th, and 38th. The 2nd Light Infantry Battalion was composed of the light companies of the following Regiments of Foot: 40th, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 49th, 52nd, 54th, 55th, 57th, 63rd, 64th, and two companies from the 71st. The Orderly Book of Capt. Thomas Armstrong, 64th Light Company (in the George Washington Papers, available online at the Library of Congress site), dates September 15 - October 3, 1777, confirms the composition of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion. Ensign William Lord Canteloupe of the Guards painted a chart into the flyleaf of his copy of the list of British officers (Philadelphia, February 1778) detailing the composition of the light infantry battalions. These charts are largely accurate. Reconstruction of the composition of these battalions was possible through the research of Thomas McGuire.
7 The 1st British Grenadier Battalion was composed of the grenadier companies of the following Regiments of Foot: 4th, 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 35th, 37th, 38th, and 40th. The 2nd Grenadier Battalion consisted of the following grenadier companies: two Royal Marine companies, and the following Regiments of Foot: 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 49th, 52nd, 54th, 55th, 57th, 63rd, 64th, and 71st. The composition of the grenadier battalions is based primarily on research conducted by historian Thomas McGuire.
8 Includes the Anspach-Bayreuth jaegers.
9 Composed of three battalions.
10 Composed of the remnants of the regiments decimated at Trenton.
11 These men were attached to the baggage train.
1 Mowday, September 11, 1777, 73, 202.
2 Beth-Ann Ryan, “Where was the American Flag first flown in battle? Was it Cooch’s Bridge?” http://library.blogs.delaware.gov/2011/06/14/american-flag-first-flown-in-battle/.
3 Ibid.
1 It should also be noted at the outset that, as an unattached general, Lafayette did not hold a formal command at Brandywine. He was not entitled to occupy a “headquarters.”
2 De Chastellux, Travels in North America, vol. 1, 148.
3 Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825; or, Journal of a Voyage to the United States, trans. John D. Goodman (Philadelphia, 1829), vol. 2, 237.
1 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 534-537.
2 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 462-467.
3 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 475-477.
4 Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 9, 425-426.
5 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 547-550.
6 Ibid., vol. 1, 555-556.
7 “Papers related to the Battle of Brandywine,” 53-54.
8 Hammond, ed., Papers of Sullivan, vol. 1, 556-557.
9 Ibid., vol. 1, 557.
10 Ibid., vol. 1, 563-564.
11 Ibid., vol. 1, 565.
12 Ibid., vol. 1, 565-566.
13 See Appendix F for a brief summary of Sullivan’s life after Brandywine.
1 Bailey, British Military Rifles, 51-52.
2 Ibid., 52.
3 Ibid., 54.
4 Ricky Roberts and Bryan Brown, Every Insult & Indignity: The Life, Genius and Legacy of Major Patrick Ferguson (Lexington, KY, 2011), 95.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., 96.
7 Ibid.
1 Butterfield, ed., Letters of Rush, 92.
2 Chesnutt and Taylor, eds., Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 11, 547.
3 The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Jared Sparks, ed, 12 vols. (Boston, 1834-1837), vol. 9, 100.
4 Benjamin H. Newcomb, Franklin & Galloway: A Political Partnership (New Haven, CT, 1972), 287-8.
1 Baron de Jomini, The Art of War (Philadelphia, 1862; reprint, Westport, CT, 1974), 278.
2 Ibid., 264, 278, 279.
3 Carl Von Clausewitz, “On War,” in On War, eds. Michael Howard and Pater Paret (Princeton, 1976), 286-88.
4 Ibid., 286.
5 Ewald, Treatise, 97.
6 Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 59.
7 Pancake, 1777, 69; Von Muenchhausen, At General Howe’s Side, 22; Spring, With Zeal, 271.
8 Ibid.
9 Jomini, Art of War, 288-289, 290-291.
10 Von Clausewitz, “On War,” 287.
11 Bobrick, Angel in Whirlwind, 312.
12 Von Muenchhausen, At Howe’s Side, 32.