The Philadelphia Campaign

by Thomas J McGuire

125. Bruce E. Burgoyne, ed. and trans., Diaries of Two Ansbach Jägers, Diaries of Lt. Heinrich von Feilitzsch and Lt. Christian Bartholomai. (Bowie, MD: Heritage Press, 1997), 12.

  126. Osborn Letters, 98.

  127. Letter, Washington to Gen. George Clinton, “Chester Augt. 1, 1777,” Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 298.

  128. Letter, Postscript July 8, 1777, Fitzpatrick to his brother, “Camp upon Staten Island, July 5, 1777,” Fitzpatrick Letters.

  129. “Memoir by the Chevalier Dubuysson,” September 12, 1777, Le Marquis de Lafayette, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, vol. 1, edited by Stanley Idzerda, Robert R. Crout, Linda J. Pike, and Mary Ann Quinn (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977), 80. The purple sash was to be worn under the coat and over the shoulder. See Harold L. Peterson, The Book of the Continental Soldier (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1968), 242.

  130. Note, John Heinn [Hunn] to John Hancock, “Cape May July 31 1777,” Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 259; copy enclosed by Hancock in an MS Letter, Hancock to Washington, “Philada., 1 Augt. 1777. 7 o'clock PM,” ibid., image 281. Hunn stated that this was the fifth express that he sent. In addition to Abraham Bennett and Benjamin Jones, the following individuals were paid seven pounds ten shillings for riding express between Philadelphia and Cape May: James Wilson, Matthew Weldon, and David Hand. Colonial Record, Minutes, 258–59.

  131. Letter, Washington to Anthony Walton White, dated “Head Quarters Wilmington 1 August 1777.” Chase, Papers of Washington 10, 485.

  132. Letter, Washington to McDougall, “Chester on Delaware Augt. 1, 1777 10 Oclock P.M.” Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 298.

  133. Letter, Washington to Greene, “Head Q Chester August 1st 1777,” written and signed by Alexander Hamilton, Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 294.

  134. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 23.

  135. Letter, Henry Fisher to?, “Lewis Town, Aug. 2 1777. 8 o'clock, A.M.,” quoted in Pennsylvania Packet, August 5. William James Morgan, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 9 (Washington, DC: Naval History Division, Department of the Navy, 1980), 695–96.

  136. Letter, Henry Laurens to John Lewis Gervais, “Philada., 5th August 1777,” Smith, et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 419.

  137. Fisher, 440. Joseph Addison's Cato was one of the most popular British plays of the eighteenth century. It was a favorite of George Washington's and was performed by officers at the Valley Forge encampment in 1778. The line quoted is from act 1 scene 1, where two of Cato's sons speak. Joseph Addison, Cato. A Tragedy (London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1739), 204.

  138. Letter, John Adams to Abigail Adams, “Philadelphia August 2, 1777 Saturday,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 403.

  139. Letter, James Lovell to William Whipple, “Friday August 1st 1777, 10 at night,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 403.

  140. Letter, Tench Tilghman to Col. Daniel Morgan, “Philada. 1st Augt. 1777,” Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 315.

  141. Letter, Wharton to Colonel Galbraith, “Philadelphia, 2nd August 1777,” Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, 480–81.

  142. Pemberton Weather Data, 1777, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. Also U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department, aa.usno.navy.mil.

  143. James McMichael, “Diary of Lt. James McMichael of the Pennsylvania Line, 1776–1778,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 16 (1892): 146. The General was a drum signal to strike camp and prepare for a march.

  144. Fisher, 440.

  145. Ibid., 440–41.

  146. Pemberton Weather Data, 1777.

  147. Fisher, 441.

  148. Muhlenberg Orderly Book, entry “Germantown August 6 1777,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 34, 337.

  149. McMichael, “Diary,” 146.

  150. Philip Katcher, Uniforms of the Continental Army (York, PA: George Shumway Publisher, 1981), 154–55; Martin, Joseph Plumb, Private Yankee Doodle, edited by George F. Scheer (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1962), 187. Lt. Col. St. George Tucker wrote on July 5, 1781, “At an entertainment given by the Marquis [de Lafayette] yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing Col. [Walter] Stewart…He is the same pretty fellow that he ever was, and wears a plume almost as large as General Wayne himself. I wrote you before that the Pennsylvania line abounded in these decorations. I will venture to say that all the ostriches that ever appeared on the table of Heliogabalus would be insufficient to furnish the whole army in the same profuse style, for the feathers appear before you can well discover the shoulders to which the head that supports them is annexed.” William Henry Egle, Notes and Queries Historical and Genealogical, etc., vol. 2 (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1895), 234–35. For visual confirmation of Stewart's personal appearance (including the above-described plume), see Charles Willson Peale's 1781 portrait of Stewart, reproduced in Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia Kane, American Art: 1750–1800, Towards Independence (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1976), 95. Private Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  151. McMichael, “Diary,” 146.

  152. Letter, Henry Laurens to John Loveday, “Philadelphia 9th August 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 449.

  153. Letter, John Adams to Abigail Adams, “Philadelphia Aug. 6. 1777 Wednesday,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 432.

  154. Lafayette, Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 91.

  155. Pickering and Upham, Life of Pickering, vol. 1, 150–51.

  156. Fisher, 441.

  157. Letter, James Lovell to William Whipple, “Philadelphia 11th Aug 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 459.

  158. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Aug. 11.1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 450.

  159. Osborn Letters, 98.

  160. “Narrative of Captain Andrew Snape Hamond,” Morgan, Naval Documents, vol. 9, 363.

  161. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 23.

  162. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 434–35.

  163. Letter, Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777. “Use brought us to relish our Salt Pork,” i.e., “The circumstances made us learn to enjoy salt pork.”

  164. Letter, Grant to Harvey, “Head of Elk 31st August 1777,” Grant Papers, reel 28/29.

  165. Letter, Hale to his parents, “Head of Elk River, Maryland, 30th August 1777,” Hale, “Letters,” 21, 23.

  166. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 435.

  167. Von Feilitzsch, 12.

  168. Osborn Letters, 98. In this same letter to his brother in Dresden, Osborn, the muster master general of the foreign troops, revealed that he did not speak or understand German: “How I envy your having been able to acquire the German language every day. I have an Harper on board, one of the Musick of the Regimen[t] de Ditforth, but I find no advantage but in the amusement of his musick.”

  169. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 23.

  170. Letter, John Adams to Abigail Adams, “Philadelphia August 14, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 479–80.

  171. Annual Register for 1777, 126.

  172. Muhlenberg, Journals, 66.

  173. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 435.

  174. Ronald Hoffman, Sally D. Mason, and Eleanor S. Carcy, eds., Dear Papa, Dear Charley, Letters of Charles Carroll of Annapolis and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, vol. 2 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 1040.

  175. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Phila. Aug. 13 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 474.

  176. Letter, Adams to Abigail, August 14, 1777, Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 479–80.

  177. Letter, Lee to Mann Page, “Philadelphia 17th Augt. 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 499.

  178. Serle, Journal
, 241–42.

  179. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 436.

  180. Robertson, Diaries, 141.

  181. Parker Family Papers, August 16.

  182. Letter, William Dansey to his mother, “In a Wood near Head of Elk, Maryland Aug 30th 1777,” Dansey Papers.

  183. Letter, Cliffe to brother Jack, October 24, 1777.

  184. Osborn Letters, 98.

  185. London Chronicle (November 18, 1777), 5, col. 1.

  186. Serle, Journal, 245.

  187. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 440–41, 438.

  188. Von Feilitzsch, 15.

  189. Boyle, Thomas Sullivan Journal, 125; von Münchhausen, Diary 23–24.

  190. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 438. A butt is a 126-gallon cask.

  191. Letter, John Adams to Abigail Adams, “Philadelphia August 29, 1777 Fryday,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 567.

  192. Letter, Charles Stuart to Lord Bute, “September 1777,” New Records, 45.

  193. Serle, Journal, 244.

  194. “July 23rd, 1777: Annapolis has assumed a very different Appearance since Your Excellency left it.” Extract of a letter from Mr. Eddis to Governor Eden, PRO Colonial Office 5/722, 9, quoted in Morgan, Naval Documents, 321–22.

  195. Osborn Letters, 98.

  196. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 26. Continental flags in this period did not follow any set pattern or fixed color scheme. It is possible that the red in the stripes was of a deep hue or the stripes were red, white, and blue. A contemporary British drawing of Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia shows a large flag with red, white, and blue stripes; were this the case with the Annapolis flags, the red and blue stripes together might appear as purple at a distance. None of the descriptions mention stars being on the Annapolis flags.

  197. London Chronicle (November 18, 1777), 5, col. 1.

  198. Minutes for Thursday, August 21, 1777, Brown, Archives of Maryland, vol. 16, 340.

  199. Elmer T. Clark, J. Manning Potts, and Richard Morris, eds., The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, vol. 1, The Journal, 1171–1793 (London: Epworth Press, 1958), 247. Asbury was sent to America by John Wesley in 1771 and is considered the leader in establishing the Methodist Church in America.

  200. Letter, Col. Nathaniel Smith to Governor Johnson, “Baltimore the 22d. August 1777,” Brown, Archives of Maryland, vol. 16, 340–41. In 1794, threatened by war with the British, “the fort at Whetstone Point was repaired by the inhabitants of the town, and the Star Fort of brickwork added. The ground was afterwards ceded to the United States, and the work called Fort McHenry, in honor of Colonel James McHenry of Maryland, then Secretary of War.” J. Thomas Scharf, The Chronicles of Baltimore, etc. (Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1874), 272.

  201. Scharf, Chronicles, 166. “1769. Messrs. David Shields, James Cox, Gerard Hopkins, George Lindenberger, John Deaver and others, aided by a general subscription, procured an engine for the extinguishment of fires, which was called ‘The Mechanical Company.’” Ibid., 64.

  202. Letter, Mary Cox to Darby Lux, “Baltimore April 15, 1779,” MS Collection 1909, James Cox Papers, Maryland Historical Society [MHS].

  203. MS Notice, “Head Quarters the 24 August [1777], signed And. Buchanan,” Cox Papers.

  204. Letter, Benjamin Rumsey to Gov. Thos. Johnson, “24 Augt. 1777, Joppa,” Brown, Archives of Maryland, vol. 16, 342–43.

  205. Letter, Stuart to Lord Bute, “Chesapeake Bay, on Board a Transport, Aug. 21 1777,” Morgan, Naval Documents 9, 780–81.

  206. Parker Family Papers, entry for August 21.

  207. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 442.

  208. Letter, Grant to Harvey, “Head of Elk 31st August 1777,” Grant Papers, reel 28/29.

  209. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 441.

  210. Letter, Aquila Hall to Governor Thomas Johnson, “Sunday 10 Oclock August the 24th 1777,” Morgan, Naval Documents 9, 795.

  211. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 441.

  212. Letter, Grant to Harvey, “Head of Elk 31st August 1777”, Grant Papers, reel 28/29.

  213. Logbook, HMS Isis, entry for Sunday, August 24, 1777, ADM 52/1809, PRO, National Archives, Kew.

  CHAPTER 3

  1. Fisher, 443.

  2. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia August 20th 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 517.

  3. Blockley Township is now the Overbrook and Wynnefield sections of West Philadelphia.

  4. Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 3, 118–19. “General Orders Reported by Town Major Lewis Nicola: August 12th, 1777. The Captain Commanding Colonel White's 4th Georgia Regiment must immediately send the Persons concerned in the murder of a Soldier, of said Regiment, to Philadelphia, under a Guard of a Serjeant, a Corporal and eight men. The Prisoners to be Hand-Cuffed and brought to the Town Major. The Surgeon and all other witnesses to attend at the same time.” Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, 548.

  5. Marshall Remembrancer, entries for August 30 and September 6.

  6. Letter, Percy to Polly Frazer, “Cross Roads Bucks County July [sic; August] 13/th, 1777,” Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 151.

  7. Letter, Walter Stewart to Horatio Gates, “Camp at Cross Roads, Augt. 13th, 1777,” Gates Papers, film 23, reel 5, 62–63.

  8. Letter, Richard Henry Lee to Landon Carter?, “Philadelphia 19th Aught 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 513–14.

  9. Letter, Benjamin Harrison to Washington, “Philad. Augst. 20 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 519.

  10. Muhlenberg, Journals, 69. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a pelagian is “a believer in the doctrines of Pelagius or his followers, esp. in the denial of the transmission of original sin, and in the principle that human will is capable of good without the assistance of divine grace.”

  11. Letter, Percy Frazer to Polly, “Graeme Park Augt. 21, 1777,” Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 152.

  12. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia August 21, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 521.

  13. Letter, Chase to Johnson, “Philada. Augst. 23rd 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 534.

  14. Letter, GW to Nash, “August 22, 1777 Sunset”; Letter, GW to Putnam “Head Qrs. Bucks County, August 22, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 115–16.

  15. Resolution of Congress, “In Congress, Augt. 22nd, 1777,” Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 539.

  16. Letter, Percy Frazer to Polly, “Graeme Park Augt. 22nd, Night,” Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 152.

  17. Fisher, 443.

  18. Letter, Dr. Rush to Wayne, “Philad. June 5th 1777,” Stillé,Wayne, 69.

  19. Letter, John Adams to Charles Adams, “Philadelphia 30 March 1777,” Morgan, Naval Documents 8, 227–28.

  20. Letter, Richard Henry Lee to Robert Morris, “Baltimore March 1, 1777,” Morgan, Naval Documents 8, 10.

  21. Colonial Records, Minutes 9, 278–79.

  22. Letter, Percy Frazer to Polly, “Camp at the Cloves. July 18 1777,” Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 149.

  23. Graydon, Memoirs, 299–301.

  24. Letter, GW to Hancock, “August 23, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 127–28.

  25. Graydon, Memoirs, 307–8.

  26. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia August 23rd 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 533.

  27. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia August 1. 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 400.

  28. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia, August 24, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 538.

  29. General Orders August 23, 1777, Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 127.

  30. Letter, Henry Marchant to Nicholas Cooke, “Philadelphia August 24th 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 541.

  31. Graydon, Memoirs, 308.

  32. Letter, Christopher Marshall to his children, “Lancaster Augst. 25th, 1777,” Marshall Letterbook, case 36, Historical Society of Pennsylva
nia, Philadelphia.

  33. “Journal of H.M. Armed Ship Vigilant, Captain John Henry,” Morgan, Naval Documents, vol. 9, 810.

  34. Ibid., 811.

  35. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 26.

  36. Journal entry for August 29, Parker Family Papers, reel 2.

  37. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 26.

  38. Ewald, Diary, 75.

  39. Grant to Harvey, August 31, 1777, reel 28, Grant Papers.

  40. Letter, Murray to Mrs Smyth, “Head of Elke, Maryland, Sept. 1st 1777,” Robson, Letters, 47.

  41. Burgoyne, Diaries, 16.

  42. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 127–28.

  43. Letter, Fitzpatrick to the Countess of Ossory, “Head of Elk, September 1, 1777,” PMHB 1 (1877): 289n.

  44. Journal Entry for August 26, Parker Family Papers, reel 2. Words missing because of holes in manuscript are supplied in brackets.

  45. Carl L. Baurmeister, Letters from Major Baurmeister to Colonel von Jungkenn Written During the Philadelphia Campaign 1777–1778, edited by Bernhard A. Uhlendorf and Edna Vosper (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1937), 7.

  46. Letter to his parents, “Head of Elk River, Maryland, 30th August 1777,” Hale, “Letters,” 21.

  47. Burgoyne, Enemy Views, 171.

  48. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 442.

  49. Hale, “Letters,” 21.

  50. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 442.

  51. Clark, Potts, and Morris, Asbury Journal, 247.

  52. Serle, Journal, 246.

  53. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 442, 443.

  54. Carl L. Baurmeitser, Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals 1776–1784 of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces, translated and edited by Bernhard A. Uhlendorf (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1957), 98

  55. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 28.

  56. Serle, Journal, 245–46.

  57. Baurmeister, Letters, 7.

  58. André, Journal, 71.

  59. Letter, Loftus Cliffe to his brother Jack, “Camp near Philadelphia 24 October 1777,” Cliffe Papers. Nabobs were Englishmen who returned from India immensely rich, wallowing in luxury.

  60. Kemble, Journals, 477–78.

  61. Printed Proclamation “By His Excellency Sir William Howe, K. B., 27th Day of August 1777,” André, Journal, 72, insert.