Linear warfare was being adapted to conditions, not dispensed with, for it was still the most effective, large-scale method of combat with muzzle-loading, smoothbore muskets. Tradition, pomp, and pride still played a major role in battle, especially with the British grenadiers. They formed in front of Osborne's Hill. According to Lt. Martin Hunter, “It was here, before we attacked General Washington, that Colonel Meadows made the famous speech to the 1st Battalion of Grenadiers, which he commanded, ‘Grenadiers, put on your caps; for damn'd fighting and drinking I'll match you against the world!’”123
The grenadiers took off the red cloth forage caps they had worn on the march, dropped their packs, and removed their impressive black bearskin caps (designed to pack flat) from their knapsacks, which were left on the ground in heaps.124 Brushing up the fur, the grenadiers put on the caps, adding more than a foot of height to these elite troops, who were already the tallest men in the army. The grenadier's cap was held in place by tasseled white cords braided around an oval crimson patch on the upper part of the back and looping down behind his head under his queue, or ponytail, which was then tucked up beneath the cap rim. The red oval was often decorated with a regimental insignia or Roman numerals, and a polished, white metal grenade badge was fixed to the back below the patch. An embossed black-and-silver front plate bearing the king's crest and the royal cipher “GR” gleamed across the grenadier's forehead.
At approximately 4:30 p.m., “as soon as the third column had formed, the signal to march was drummed everywhere,” von Münchhausen reported.125 On the left, drums, trumpets, whistles, and small, brass hunting horns called “half-moons” sounded the advance for the light troops. The Jägers and light infantry, already positioned about 200 yards ahead of the rest of the line, advanced quickly in open order. On the far right, the Guards rapidly moved forward to the quickstep cadence of twenty-two fifers and drummers dressed in red coats faced with blue and festooned with special royal lace.
It was in the center, though, that the main spectacle of British pageantry was paraded in all of its spine-tingling glory. Sixty-two British fifers and drummers, resplendent in bearskin caps and uniform coats in reversed colors, decorated with a profusion of regimental lace, were massed between the grenadier battalions, the 1st Battalion in front and the 2nd Battalion behind. Fifers removed their instruments from fife cases, long cylinders of polished brass or painted tin worn on the right side below the waist, suspended by tasseled cords candy-striped in regimental colors, fixed on white leather slings over the left shoulder. Regimental badges and numbers—crowns, royal ciphers, Roman numerals—were engraved or brightly painted in regimental colors on the fife cases and on the fronts of the wooden-shelled drums. White ropes braced the sheepskin drumheads tightly on scarlet rims and dangled below in elegant braids.
The senior drum major inverted his mace and raised it vertically to his chest, upon which the drummers silently lifted both sticks horizontally to their nostrils, waiting for the word of command.
“GRENADIERS!” bellowed through the ranks, “By Battalions!” The drum major raised his mace high. “To the FRONT!…QUI-I-I-CK…MARCH!” Mace and drumsticks dropped in one crisp motion, and a visceral thunder of drums rumbled out as 1,200 grenadiers stepped off together in a mesmerizing, glittering mass. With muskets at the shoulder and flags streaming, the battalions swayed rhythmically forward toward the Street Road, the late-afternoon sun glinting from hundreds of bayonets and musket barrels in double ranks. The junior officers or subalterns, ensigns and lieutenants, carried light muskets called fusils or “fuzees” and marched alongside the men, while the captains marched out in front at the head of their companies. The field officers, majors and colonels, were mostly on horseback, with swords drawn and carried at the shoulder.
“We marched to the attack in two columns,” Lt. Martin Hunter of the 2nd Light Infantry recalled, “the Grenadiers at the head of one, playing ‘The Grenadiers March,’ and the Light Infantry at the head of the other.”126
After setting the cadence, the drum and fife majors called the tune and signaled their musicians. The drummers played a roll-off, the fifers raised their instruments to their lips, and the lilting strains of their belligerent quickstep, “The British Grenadiers,” shrilled across the once peaceful Quaker landscape, above the relentless, reverberating throb of the drums:
Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules,
Of Conon, and Lysander, and some Miltiades;
But of all the world's brave heroes,
there's none that can compare,
With a tow, row, row, row, to the British grenadiers.
But of all the world's brave heroes,
there's none that can compare,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, to the British grenadiers.127
“Nothing could be more dreadfully pleasing than the line moving on to the attack,” Lt. William Hale of the 2nd Grenadier Battalion told his parents. “The Grenadiers put on their Caps and struck up their march, believe me I would not exchange those three minutes of rapture to avoid ten thousand times the danger.”128 The Latin motto Nec Aspera Terrent—“Hardship does not deter us”—glittered from the front plates of the grenadier caps, the bold words embossed on a flowing scroll above the lion and crown of the royal crest. The sentiment was once more being put to the test as the advance brought the lines closer to the American artillery, which had a range of about 1,500 yards.
“The action began by a cannonade from the enemy, while our army was forming in line from column,” Lieutenant Hunter noted.129 Many of the guns in the American battery were French field pieces, with names like La Inexorable and La Florisante finely engraved on the barrels. Each had the Latin motto Ultima Ratio Regum—“The final argument of kings”—embossed on a scroll near the muzzle.130 Three- and 4-pound solid shot began whizzing through the thick air toward the brilliant red lines, the apple-size iron balls bouncing along the ground or thudding into the soil with a shower of dirt and a cloud of dust. “Our army Still gained ground, although they had great Advantig of Ground and ther Canon keep a Constant fire on us,” a British officer wrote. “Yet We Ne'er Wass daunted.”131
None of those ancient heroes e'er saw a cannon ball,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal;
But our Brave boys do know it,
and banish all their fears,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, the British grenadiers.
But our Brave boys do know it,
and banish all their fears,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, the British grenadiers.
The Royal Artillery replied with 6- and 12-pound shot, firing in support, but failed to silence the Continental Artillery. Smoke began to layer the fields in a thick haze.
George Washington by Charles Willson Peale, painted after the Siege of Boston, 1776. Washington was forty-five years old in 1777 and had been appointed Commander in Chief on June 15, 1775. The Philadelphia Campaign began on June 13, 1777, as Washington entered his third year of command. The army he rebuilt in early 1777 was the third Continental Army authorized by Congress. Brooklyn Museum of Art (Dick S. Ramsey Fund)
Major General Marquis de Lafayette by Charles Willson Peale. Nineteen-year-old Lafayette arrived in America in 1777 and was commissioned a major general for political reasons, without pay or command. He joined Washington's staff on August 1, 1777, and was wounded through the leg at Brandywine, his first battle. His popularity with Washington and the army helped to cement relations with France. Independence National Historical Park
Major General John Sullivan of New Hampshire. Sullivan commanded the Maryland Division in 1777 and was involved in one contentious episode after another. He was subject to court-martial inquiries for the 1777 Staten Island expedition and for Brandywine, where he was unfairly blamed for poor generalship. Both inquiries cleared him, but his luckless military career continued to be stormy. Independence National Historical Park
Lieutenant General Sir William Howe was t
he second British commander in chief, replacing Gen. Thomas Gage in 1775 at Boston. He served in America until 1778 and was knighted after the 1776 campaign. He was successful in every major battle, but failed to follow up his victories, enabling Washington to regroup and continue the war. An enquiry into his conduct by the House of Commons in 1779 cleared his reputation. Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library
Ensign William Augustus West, Viscount Cantelupe, miniature ca. 1778. Lord Cantelupe arrived in America in June 1777 and served nine months in the Brigade of Guards. His diary contains watercolors of the Battle of Brandywine and the Tredyffrin Camp, the only two known contemporary images of the campaign made in the field before the capture of Philadelphia. Cantelupe inherited the title Baron and Earl De la Warr upon his father's death in November 1777, symbolized by the coronet with the script D. The Guards Museum, London
General Sir George Osborn, Baronet, by George Romney, 1778. Osborn was a captain and lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards, and served in America during the New York and Philadelphia campaigns as captain of the Grenadier Company of the Brigade of Guards. He was also Muster Master General of the Foreign Troops, responsible for keeping accounts of the Hessian and other German troops serving in the war. He left Philadelphia with Lord Cornwallis in December 1777. This portrait was painted shortly after he returned to England, when he was promoted to general. Private collection, United Kingdom
“A Battery of Rebels opened on Brandywine Heights the 11th of September 1777 in the County of Birmingham,” by Lord Cantalupe, 1777, depicting the Guards firing a volley up Battle Hill in Birmingham Township against Sullivan's Division. Durham University Library, UK/Lord Howick
“Light Dragoon Encampment at Trydyffinn Pennsylvania 1777 Sept.” by Lord Cantalupe, 1777, showing the 16th Light Dragoons camp behind the Guards camp on the afternoon of September 19. Note pup tents and wigwams, horses tethered to the fence, and Trout Run in the foreground. Durham University Library, UK/Lord Howick
“The Battle of Paoli, or Paoli Massacre” by Xavier della Gatta, 1782. Painted for a British officer, probably Lt. Martin Hunter, who is depicted in the left foreground, wrapping his wounded hand. His comrade Capt. William Wolfe lies dead nearby. Ferguson's Riflemen are the five green-uniformed soldiers in the center. American “booths” or wigwams are on the right amid the chaos and horror, and the 16th Dragoons saber Wayne's infantry on the left. The American Revolution Center
“A Dansey Tent.” Capt. William Dansey of the 33rd Regiment wrote to his mother in 1778: “I am in good Health and Spirits for a Campaign and am look'd upon in the Army as the first equip'd Man in it, I have a Tent of a very singular construction intirely of my own Invention…It is what I can't well describe to you but if Peace comes you will see the Original as I had it pitch'd on the memorable Field of the Battle of Brandywine…I find I am writing on a Sheet I have been drawing on, but as it is a Draft of the Dansey Tent, pitch'd with a Firelock and four Bayonets.” Historical Society of Delaware
Onward swept the grenadiers, unstoppable as they approached the Street Road. The front broadened as the Guards gradually shifted to the right and headed toward the hill that Sullivan's Division occupied. Step by step, the column of grenadier battalions steadily transformed into a single battle line as the 1st Battalion moved obliquely to the right while the 2nd Battalion continued straight ahead, its left flank hugging the Birmingham Road. “The Line moving on Exhibited the most Grand & Noble Sight imaginable,” observed a British light infantry officer from across the road. “The Grenadiers beating their March as they advanc'd contributed greatly to the Dignity of the Approach.”132
The god of war was pleasèd, and great Bellona smiles,
To see these noble heroes, of our British isles,
And all the gods celestial,
descending from their spheres,
Beheld with admiration the British Grenadiers.
And all the gods celestial,
descending from their spheres,
Beheld with admiration the British Grenadiers.
Stirling's men could hear and see them coming from a mile away. “We Came in Sight of the Enemy who had Crossed the river & were coming down upon us,” Lt. Ebenezer Elmer, a surgeon's mate of the 3rd New Jersey in Stirling's Division, wrote. “We formed about 4 oClock on an Eminence, the right being in ye woods. Presently a large Column Came on in front playing ye Granediers March & Now the Battle began which proved Excessive severe.” Elmer noted, “The Enemy Came on with fury.”133
On Cornwallis's left, the Hessian and Anspach Jägers advanced quickly and crossed the Street Road far ahead of the grenadiers, but they soon found themselves in difficult terrain, with opposition from American skirmishers. “I saw that the enemy wanted to form for us on a bare hill, so I had them greeted by our two amusettes and this was the beginning of General Howe's column's [participation],” Col. Ludwig von Wurmb reported. “We drove the enemy from this hill and they positioned themselves in a woods from which we dislodged them and then a second woods where we found ourselves 150 paces from their line which was on a height in a woods and we were at the bottom also in a woods, between us was an open field,” in front of Stephen's position at Sandy Hollow. “Here they fired on us with two cannon with grape shot and, because of the terrible terrain and the woods, our cannon could not get close enough, and had to remain to the right.”134
“The Jäger Corps found itself close to an enemy advance post with two 6-pounders and 600 men, which stood on a height, with woods in front of it,” the Hessian Jäger Corps report stated. “Our two 3-pounders opened fire first, the Jägers attacked the enemy, drove them into a hedge, and dislodged them three different times before they retreated back to the main body of the army.” The report went on to say that the main American force “was advantageously posted on a not especially steep height in front of the woods, with the right wing resting on a steep and deep ravine,” the area just below Sandy Hollow. “That wing was directly opposite the Jägers, and in the same hedges from which the Jägers had driven the enemy corps; and the Jägers were engaged for over half an hour, with grapeshot and small arms, with a battalion of light infantry.”135
When the British light infantry arrived at the Street Road, Ewald's party disbanded. “As soon as the line approached the advanced guard Lt. Col. Abercromby ordered the 17th light company to form on the right of the battalion, the 42nd on the left,” while Ewald's Jägers “fought dispersed along the whole line.”136
The Virginia skirmishers withdrew from Jones's orchard at the approach of the main British force and took cover with the rest of the 3rd Virginia behind the Friends graveyard wall. “When the Left of the Line came up to the Birmingham Meeting House about two hundred Rebels fired & fell Back,” wrote a British light infantry officer. Then suddenly, from the hill beyond the Y in the road past the meetinghouse, “at that Instant five Pieces of Cannon open'd upon the Right of the 1st L. I. loaded with Grape Shot” at a range of 600 yards. Charges of thirty or so small iron balls packed in a linen bag (resembling a bunch of grapes) sprayed from each gun like a shower of iron hail. “As soon as the line came up to Dilworth Church the enemy opened a fire from five field pieces,” an officer of the 17th Light Company wrote, noting, “The church yard wall being opposite the 17th light company, the captain determined to get over the fence into the road.”
Once in the road, however, the light bobs were dangerously exposed to the American artillery. As the guns were reloaded, Captain Scott decided on a daring scheme: “Calling to the men to follow [he] run down the road and lodged the men without loss at the foot of the hill on which the guns were firing.” Ducking and dodging, taking cover as needed, the 17th Light Infantry headed straight toward the battery, soon followed by the 4th and 38th Companies. Another light infantry officer confirmed that at the meetinghouse, “a High Stone Wall preventing their keeping up with the Battalion, those Companies leap'd over the Fence into the high Road which divided them from the British
Grenadiers & in order the sooner to avoid the danger of the Shot ran down the Road & shelter'd themselves at the foot of the Hill.” The volume of cannon fire was intense; one British officer noticed “the hedge on the left side of the road much cut with the grape shot.”137
As for the 3rd Virginia, “one column moved upon it in front, while a second struck at its left,” probably the light troops in the road. “Cut off from cooperation by the latter movement, it bravely sustained itself against superior numbers,” Capt. Henry Lee wrote with much admiration and slight exaggeration, “never yielding one inch of ground, and expending thirty rounds a man, in forty-five minutes,” from the time of the first skirmish with Ewald. “It was now ordered to fall back upon Woodford's right, which was handsomely accomplished by Colonel Marshall, although deprived of half his officers, where he renewed the sanguinary contest.”138 Lt. Col. T. Will Heth of the 3rd Virginia, who was with Maxwell's Corps at Chads's Ford at that moment, told Daniel Morgan, “I need not say more…than to assure you the 3rd. V. R. alone, prevented the British Grenadiers & Light Infantry advancing 3/4 of an Hour.”139
Gentlemanly hyperbole notwithstanding, the 3rd Virginia performed with distinction, but it paid a terrible price. With only one field officer and four captains present, by the end of the day, Capt. John Chilton had been killed, and Capt. Philip Lee was mortally wounded; the other two captains, Thomas Blackwell and John Peyton, were both wounded but still fit for duty. “Marshall escaped unhurt, although his horse received two balls,” Lee reported. “The subalterns suffered in proportion”: Lt. Apollos Cooper and Ens. George Peyton were killed; Lt. William White was mortally wounded; and Lts. John Francis Mercer, John Blackwell, and Robert Peyton were all wounded. “Thirteen non-commissioned officers and sixty privates fell.” But in consolation, “the opposing enemy was severely handled.”140
The Philadelphia Campaign Page 27