The Philadelphia Campaign

by Thomas J McGuire

  The guns in Proctor's battery were abandoned. General Wayne “sent orders for our artillery to retreat—it was on my right,” Col. James Chambers of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment explained, “and ordered me to cover it with part of my regiment. It was done, but to my surprise the artillerymen had run and left the howitzer behind.” Some guns made it away: “The two field pieces went up the road, protected by about sixty of my men, who had very warm work, but brought them safe. I then ordered another party to fly to the howitzer and bring it off.” Capt. Thomas Buchanan and Lt. Michael Simpson of the 1st Pennsylvania and Lt. Thomas Douglass of the 4th Continental Artillery “went immediately to the gun, and the men followed their example, and I covered them with the few I had remaining,” Chambers told Gen. Edward Hand. “But before this could be done, the main body of the foe came within thirty yards, and kept up the most terrible fire I suppose ever heard in America, though with very little loss on our side.”259

  “A colored man,” referring to thirty-year-old Pvt. Edward “Ned” Hector of Capt. Hercules Courtenay's 3rd Company of Pennsylvania Artillery, “had charge of an ammunition wagon attached to Col. Proctor's regiment.”260 Most teamsters were hired civilians, and many were free men of color, but Ned Hector, or “Negro Hector” as one muster sheet reads, was an enlisted man in 1777. He was a bombardier, defined as “an artillery soldier, so called because they are always employed in mortar and howitzer duty.”261 As the British overran the battery, “an order was given by the proper officers to those having charge of the wagons, to abandon them to the enemy, and save themselves by flight.” Ned was reported to have replied, “The enemy shall not have my team; I will save my horses and myself.” As he withdrew with his wagon, “amid the confusion of the surrounding scene, he calmly gathered up a few stands of arms which had been left on the field by the retreating soldiers, and safely retired with his wagon, team and all, in face of the victorious foe.” An act of valor by an American soldier of African descent “will soon be forgotten,” his obituary stated years later, “and yet, many a monument has been ‘reared to some proud son of earth’ who less deserved it than ‘poor old Ned.’”262

  As Maxwell's Light Corps fell back, “many of them Ran to an Orchard to the right of the fort, from which they were Drove to a Meadow, where they made a Stand for some time in a ditch & a battry which till then was still not begun from a hill on our right,” James Parker reported. “But nothing could stand before our lads, they routed them from the Meadow, & all afterwards was a mere Chace, so far I saw.”263

  At one point during the fighting in this area, Jacob Nagle had the fright of his life. “In the heat of the action close to the orchard that I already made mention of I see some men burien an officer who wore the same dress that my father wore, which was green turned up with read fasings [red facings] and gold lace. I was ready to faint. I run up to the officer and enquired what rigment he belonged to. He informed me he was a colo[nel] belonging to the Virginia Line, which gave me comfort but sorrowful.”264 Who the officer might have been is unknown.

  Downstream at Chads's Ferry, “we were up to our middle in the River,” Sgt. Thomas Sullivan of the 49th recounted, “and the rear line of the Enemy being posted upon a Hill on the other side of the Road, plaid upon us with four Pieces of Cannon during that attack.”265 This battery was about 800 yards south of Proctor's position, firing on the British right flank.

  After crossing, Sgt. Sullivan noticed that the Americans, “who drawing up in the field and orchard just by, rallied afresh and fought Bayonet to Bayonet.” They were some of Maxwell's Light Corps, “but the rest of the two Brigades, 71st and Rangers coming up,” the rebels “were obliged to retreat in the greatest confusion, leaving their Artillery & Ammunition in the Field.” The American advance troops on the left, facing the force crossing Chads's Ferry, were probably some of the militia attached to Maxwell and “made but a little stand on that side,” according to Sergeant Sullivan. “After they began to give way,” the Irish sergeant witnessed a grisly scene: “Part of them being attacked by the Rangers and 71st in a Buck Wheat field was totally scivered [skewered] with the Bayonets before they could clear the fence round it.”266 On a hill near Proctor's battery, Sergeant Jarvis of the Queen's Rangers observed with grim satisfaction, “From the eminence we had a most extensive view of the American Army, and we saw our brave comrades cutting them up in great style.”267 Of his rifle corps, Pat Ferguson painfully scribbled to his brother George with his left hand that “they finished the day by killing or taking in conjunction with part of Wemyss’ Rangers their own number of Rebels.”268

  Von Knyphausen noted that Proctor's position “was supported by the Musketry of the Battaillons, that were formed behind the Battery.”269 Five hundred yards east of the ford, the two Pennsylvania brigades of Wayne's Division, nine regiments totaling about 2,000 men, were spread thin in one battle line, with high hills on both flanks. Like several other Continental divisions, their command structure was “deranged.” There should have been three generals here—two brigadiers and one major general. Instead, there was only one, Anthony Wayne, a brigadier who was acting as a major general in place of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.

  The four regiments of the 2nd Brigade, commanded by a former British officer, forty-four-year-old Col. Richard Humpton of Yorkshire, England, was formed on the left, with Wayne's old regiment, the 5th Pennsylvania, holding the left flank. Made up largely of Chester County men, the 5th Pennsylvania was led by Col. Francis Johnston of Nottingham and Lt. Col. Persifor Frazer of nearby Thornbury. The 11th Pennsylvania was right next to the 5th, followed by the 8th and 4th Pennsylvania Regiments.

  The 1st Brigade, commanded by twenty-eight-year-old Col. Thomas Hartley of York, Pennsylvania, formed the division's right wing and was composed of five regiments. The severely understrengthed 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment, barely 100 men, was commanded by Maj. William Williams and posted on the left. Next came the 10th Pennsylvania, then Hartley's Additional Continental Regiment in the center, adjoining the 7th Pennsylvania, the largest regiment in Wayne's command, with about 350 men.

  Wayne's right flank rested on the Great Road; holding the “post of honor” on the right was the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, composed mainly of Pennsylvania riflemen and commanded by Col. James Chambers. The 1st Pennsylvania was not only the senior regiment in the Pennsylvania Line, but also the first regular regiment in the U.S. Army. It was originally Thompson's Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion, the first regiment formed in response to Congress's authorization for a national, or Continental, army in June 1775. Many of its original personnel were still in the ranks. In January 1776, Thompson's was renamed the 1st Continental Regiment, out of twenty-six regiments, and in July of that year it became the 1st Pennsylvania. Here at Brandywine, its unusual regimental flag, one of the few still in existence, flew proudly in the center of the line. 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, “I refuse to be subjugated.”

  The artillery park was on the hill above to the right, and Proctor's earthwork lunette battery was 200 yards in front of the park. “The troops that were on the right of our brigade, on the hill,” Stirling's and Stephen's Divisions, “were drawn off, and left our right flank quite uncovered,” Chambers told Edward Hand, the 1st Pennsylvania's previous commander, now a brigadier general in charge of Fort Pitt. “The enemy kept an unremitting fire from their artillery (and ours too played with great fury), until advancing under the thick smoke they took possession of the redoubt in front of our park,” which was Proctor's battery. “As there were no troops to cover the artillery in the redoubt, the enemy was within thirty yards before being discovered; our men were forced to fly, and to leave three pieces behind.”270

  “The Brittish Troops came on with the Greatest boldness & bravery, and began a most heavy fire on us,” Lt. Col. Adam Hubley of the 10th Pennsylvania wrote, ass
uring his brother John, “We returnd it a heavy.” The 10th Pennsylvania Regiment was posted to the left center of the 1st Brigade, next to Hartley's regiment, which was in the center. In the heavy exchange of fire, Maj. Lewis Bush of Hartley's regiment had his horse shot out from under him. No sooner did he remount than he toppled over, mortally wounded. “When he received his wound fell in my Arms,” Hubley informed his brother.271 Maj. Lewis Bush was the highest-ranking American soldier killed in the battle.

  On Wayne's left, the 2nd Brigade was also slugging it out, enduring heavy musket and cannon fire. Lt. Gabriel Peterson of the 8th Pennsylvania, in the right center of the brigade, said that he was near twenty-nine-year-old Maj. Stephen Bayard “when he was struck down by a cannon ball, that broke a rifle gun of Sergt. [Thomas] Wyatt and his shoulder and then struck Bayard on the head and shoulder, and tumbled him over the ground for near two rods,” about thirty feet. Peterson helped Bayard up. “He was frantic, and seemed much hurt, but being much engaged at the time,” the lieutenant “could not render him any assistance.”272

  On Wayne's far-right flank, “Our brigade was drawn into line, with the park of artillery two hundred yards, in the rear of the redoubt,” Chambers wrote. “Our park was ordered off then, and my right was exposed.” Suddenly, filtering through the woods over the hill on the right of the Pennsylvania Line came red-clad troops, “the lads,” as the Americans sometimes called their British opponents. “The enemy advanced on the hill, where our park was, and came within fifty yards of the hill above me,” Chambers reported. It was the Guards, with Osborn's flank companies in the lead and the rest of the 1st Battalion on the way. “I then ordered my men to fire,” said Chambers. The majority of the 1st Pennsylvania were veteran riflemen, so the gunfire would have been sharp and accurate. Prudently, the advance parties of the Guards pulled back until the rest of the battalion came up; or, as Chambers put it, “Two or three rounds made the lads clear the ground.”273

  “The Guards met with very little resistence and penetrated to the height overlooking the 4-gun battery of the rebels at Chad's Ford just as General Knyphausen had crossed,” Capt. John André noted in his diary, indicating on his map the Guards’ advance to both the battery and the hills overlooking Wayne's position.274 Robertson carefully delineated that “one Battalion of the Guards filed off to their right,” crossed Brinton's Run, “and forming at W,” the hill where Sullivan's two-gun battery had been placed to cover Brinton's Ford and the bridge of wagons and rails that was probably thrown across the Brandywine, “advanced to X,” the hill above Proctor's battery, “by which means they came upon the right Flank of the Rebels who had opposed Lieut. Genl. Knyphausen's Column, who now gave way on all sides, but Night coming on hindered a Pursuit.”275

  Coming up behind the Guards from Chads's Ford were hundreds of British troops, led by the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, their regimental flags embroidered with the three feathers and crown of the prince of Wales and the motto Ich Dien, “I serve.” “The 23rd Regt. with the Remainder of the 1st & 2nd Brigade…got upon the Height a short Time after them where they every where met with dispersed parties of the Ennemy, that had fled from the Guards & Grenadiers, who occupied about the same Time a Height something more to the left,” hovering above Wayne's right.276

  Wayne was now seriously outnumbered and outflanked on both wings, with Guards and Welsh Fusiliers gathering on the right and several hundred vengeful Queen's Rangers and ferocious Highlanders of the 71st pressing on the center and left, all supported by two British brigades and Hessian musket battalions crossing the creek in strength. As darkness descended, the Pennsylvanians grudgingly withdrew about 600 yards to a height. Pvt. James Patten of the Pennsylvania Militia was in Dunlap's Partizan Regiment, attached to Maxwell's Corps. Patten “assisted at this battle in covering the retreat of Genl. Wayne and aided in drawing his cannon up a hill or steep to the heighths of that place.”277

  “I brought all the brigade artillery safely off, and I hope to see them again fired at the scoundrels,” Chambers vowed. “Yet we retreated to the next height in good order, in the midst of a very heavy fire of cannon and small arms. Not thirty yards distant, we formed to receive them, but they did not choose to follow.”278 General von Knyphausen told Lord Germain that Wayne's men, “upon the troops coming up, retired from one Inclosure to the other, & were driven by the gallant Behaviour of the Troops back to the Heights to the left of the Road to Chester.”279 Colonel Hubley informed his brother, “The Action Lasted Nearly to Night when the Genl. thought proper to retire about 600 yds. on an Eminence opposite the Enemy, leaving the Enemy to bemoan the Loss of Considerable Numbers of their Vatren Soldiers, slain on the feild of Battle.”280

  “As all our Militia were at the lower Ford where was no action, & Genl. Green sent to reinforced at the upper Ford, we had not a very large party to oppose the Enemy at the middle Ford,” Joseph Clark observed. Describing the Pennsylvania Line's withdrawal, he wrote, “The Body stationed across the Valley drew off to the right & formed farther back on an Eminence when an Engagement began with musketry & the Enemy gave way,” probably referring to the advance companies of the Guards pulling back. “But as night was spreading its dusky shade thro’ the gloomy valley, & our army was something broke it was necessary to leave the field of Action & take care of the Troops. Accordingly after sunset the party at the middle Ford drew off & marched down to Chester, where the whole army by appointment met. The sun was set when I left the Hill from whence I saw the fate of ye day.”281

  “Nothing but misconduct lost us the feild,” referring to Sullivan's rumored blunder, “the men behav'd like Vetrans, and Fought with the Greatest bravery,” Hubley wrote a few days after the battle. “Aboutt half an hour after knight we Moov'd of[f] the Eminence to which he had returnd & Marchd that Knight to Chester.”282

  As Knyphausen began to push across Chads's Ford, George Washington was galloping up toward Dilworth, along with Gen. Henry Knox, the chief of artillery; Count Casimir Pulaski; and others of the headquarters staff. Local tradition maintains that an elderly man named Joseph Brown was pressed into service to guide the commander in chief up the quickest route. Brown hesitated and tried to be excused. “One of Washington's suite dismounted from a fine charger, and told Brown if he did not instantly get on his horse and conduct the general by the nearest and best route to the place of action he would run him through on the spot.”283 Brown did as he was ordered, and they “leapt all the fences without difficulty, and was followed in like manner by the others.” Washington was reported to have kept close beside Brown, repeating, “Push along, old man—push along, old man.” Arriving near Dilworth, “Brown said the bullets were flying so thick that he felt very uncomfortable,” and like Emmor Jefferis, he was able to scurry off.284

  Moving ahead of Greene's Virginians, who were double-timing up from Chads's Ford, the commander in chief arrived in time to see Stirling's and Stephen's troops falling back, some pell-mell while others retained their formations. “I saw nothing of the disposition you had made,” Washington later wrote to Sullivan, “not getting up till the action was, in a manner over; & then, employed in hurrying on a reinforcement, and looking out a fresh ground to form the Troops on, which, by this time, were beginning to give way.”285 In the distance, lines of British troops could be seen advancing through the smoke amidst sunbeams streaming horizontally through the trees behind them.

  Col. Timothy Pickering arrived shortly afterward. Several hundred yards southwest of Dilworth, he wrote, “I found the General near the southeastern quarter of a very large clear field, at the further side of which, I saw the enemy advancing in line,” probably Monckton's 2nd Grenadier Battalion.286 Washington was across the Wilmington Road from a large, medieval-looking stone dwelling, William Brinton's “Great House,” built in 1704, the ancestral home of the extensive Brinton family. Daylight was starting to fade; sunset on September 11, 1777, was precisely at 6:15 P.M. “The sun shone, and was perhaps 15 or 20 minutes above the horizon,” the adjutan
t general recalled. “A few rods in our front, was a small rising in the ground; and General Knox asked—‘Will your Excellency have the artillery drawn up here?’ I heard no answer; nor did I see any body of infantry to support it.”287

  Two guns were positioned and began bombarding the British lines at long range. “Orders were given to the 2nd Battalion of Grenadiers and 4th Brigade to incline to their left, and a Halt was made” at the Birmingham Road just west of Dilworth “to give time to the Artillery to come up,” Capt. Archibald Robertson noted.288 Across the field, as the British moved forward, Pickering remembered, “We retired. Some of our troops were formed behind a rail fence. The enemy continued to advance.” Three Royal Artillery 12-pounders opened fire; the rounds hissed through the air and tore into the Continentals with terrible results. “A shot from their artillery I saw cut down a file of those troops,” Pickering recalled.289

  “The Rebels were discover'd behind the Fence in Front, with two Pieces of Cannon, with which they cannonaded the Troops” at the Birmingham Road, Robertson wrote, “but our 12 pounders which had got up to [the road], firing a few rounds,” forced the Americans back about 200 yards to another fence, “where they again cannonaded the 4th Brigade.”290 Pickering revealed, “We retreated further. Col. Richard Kidder Meade, one of the General's aids, rode up to him about this time, and asked ‘if Weedon's (or Muhlenberg's) brigade, which had not yet been engaged, should be ordered up?’” Though Pickering did not hear Washington's reply, the answer was affirmative.291

  The situation was absolute chaos. “We had the whole British force to contend with, that had just before routed our right wing,” Greene wrote.292 Fortunately for him, the British paused momentarily. After storming the hill and capturing the five American guns, His Majesty's troops were disorganized and needed to regroup; they were also exhausted. A British light infantry officer confirmed that the rebels “were pursued closely, but the fatigue of the day having been very great & the Men encumber'd with their Blankets &c, it soon became necessary to halt.”293