The Philadelphia Campaign
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62. Ewald, Diary, 75.
63. Francis Downman, The Services of Lieut.-Colonel Francis Downman, R.A…Between the Years 1758 and 1784, edited by F.A. Whinyates (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1898), 30.
64. Kemble, Journals, 479.
65. Baurmeister, Letters, 7.
66. Letter, Jesse Hollingsworth to Governor Johnson, “August 29th 4 P.M.,” from “4 miles North of the Enemy's Camp on the high lands above the Head of Elk.” Brown, Archives of Maryland, 349.
67. Ewald, Diary, 76.
68. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 443.
69. Grant, August 31, 1777.
70. Ewald, Diary, 76.
71. “Return of the Number of Men, Women & Children Victualled the 5th of September 1777 at the Head of Elk”: Guides & Pioners 172 men, 3 wagons, 2 women, 2 children. Daniel Wier, 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 Copies of Letters from John Robinson, Esq., in Answer thereto in the Year 1777, Letterbook 1777, Dreer Collection, case 36, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
72. Gilbert Purdy Diary, entry for August 28, “Memorandum of Lt. Gilbt. Purdy for the Year 1777,” Z 20/C21/1975/U2, National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
73. Downman, Services, 30.
74. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 444.
75. Downman, Services, 30.
76. General Orders, “Head Quarters at Derby [Darby], August 24, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 129–30.
77. Boatner, Encyclopedia, 1054.
78. Letter, John Sullivan to Hancock, “Camp on Perkiomi September 27th 1777.” Hammond, Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, vol. 1, 1771–1777 (Concord, NH: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1930), 549.
79. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia August 26th, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates, vol. 7, 554.
80. Pickering Journal, entry for August 26, 1777. Pickering Papers.
81. Lafayette, Letters and Papers, vol. 1, 92. The owner of the farmhouse was Robert Alexander, a Maryland Loyalist. Washington wrote to Landon Carter on October 27, “I assure you, that It is not my wish to avoid any danger which duty requires me to encounter[;] I can as confidently add, that it is not my intention to run unnecessary risques. In the instance given by you, I was acting precisely in the line of my duty, but not in the dangerous situation you have been led to believe. I was reconnoitring, but I had a strong party of Horse with me. I was, (as I afterwards found) in a disaffected House at the head of Elk, but I was equally guarded agt friend and Foe.” Chase, Papers of Washington, vol. 12, 26–27.
82. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 26.
83. McMichael, “Diary,” 148.
84. Greene, Papers 2, 148.
85. Letter, Armstrong to Wharton, “Chester, 29th August 1777,” Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 5, 563–64.
86. Deposition of Pvt. James Patten, Pennsylvania Militia and Maxwell's Corps of Light Infantry, Revolutionary War Pension Files, film 27, National Archives, Washington, DC.
87. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 26.
88. Hale, “Letters,” 22–23.
89. Letter, Dansey to his mother, “In a Wood near Head of Elk Maryland 30 August 1777,” Dansey Papers.
90. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 443.
91. “Prisoners with the Rebels of the Detachmt. from the Brigade of Foot Guards, April 1778,” Orders of British Troops.
92. Kemble, Journals, 480–81.
93. Charles Stuart, A Prime Minister and His Son: From the Correspondence of the Third Earl of Bute and Lt. General The Honourable Sir Charles Stuart, KB, edited by Mrs. E. Stuart Wortley (London: John Murray, 1925), 116.
94. Serle, Journal, 246.
95. Letter, Fitzpatrick, PMHB I, (1877): 289n. Sir John Fielding was one of the founders of London's first police patrols, the Bow Street Runners, founded about 1750. Jack Ketch was a seventeenth-century executioner famous for “bungled beheadings.”
96. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 129.
97. Letter, Thompson to Paca and John Cadwallader, “Warwick, 30 Augt. 1777,” MS Collection 1986, Maryland Historical Society.
98. Letter, Murray to Mrs. Betty Smyth, “Head of Elke, Maryland, 1st Sept. 1777,” Robson, Letters, 48.
99. Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 166–67; 162.
100. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 447.
101. General Orders, “Head Quarters, Wilmington, September 4, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 178–79.
102. Letter, Timothy Pickering to Mrs. [Rebecca] Pickering, “Wilmington, August 29th, 1777,” Pickering and Upham, Life of Pickering, 152–53.
103. Letter, Stewart to Gates, “New Port [DE], September 2, 1777,” Commager and Morris, Spirit of Seventy Six, 610.
104. John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), 147.
105. Letter, Anthony Wayne to Polly, “Blue Bell [Tavern, near Darby], 26th Augt. 1777,” Stillé, Wayne, 74.
106. Commager and Morris, Spirit of Seventy Six, 611. This is possibly the first documented use of the term “mad” in reference to Wayne, who acquired the nickname “Mad Anthony” by the end of the war.
107. Stillé, Wayne, 75–76.
108. Downman, Services, 32.
109. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 446.
110. Ewald, Diary, 77, 78.
111. Letter, Lt. Friedrich von Wangenheim to Baron von Wangenheim, “Camp at Amboy on Jersey, 24 June 1777,” Bruce Burgoyne, “The Hesse Cassel Field Jager Corps,” Schwalm 5, no. 3 (1995): 3.
112. “Journal kept by the Distinguished Hessian Field Jäger Corps, etc.,” translated by Bruce Burgoyne, Schwalm 3, no. 3 (1987): 47.
113. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 129.
114. Baurmeister, Revolution, 102.
115. Purdy Diary, entry for September 3.
116. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 446–47.
117. “Revolutionary Pension Records of Morris Co. NJ,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, n. s., vol. 1 (1916). “About a year ago there was rescued from rubbish in Morristown a manuscript account book without covers which was found to contain court records of certificates presented by petitioners for pensions based upon Revolutionary War service…The dates run from 1779 to 1795” (89). “The deposition of Sarah Frost taken on oath…Saith that on the 22d day of Septr 1777 She the Said Deponant delivered Rachel Dallas the Wife of Archibald Dallas of her Son Archibald Dallas and further saith not.
“Whereupon the court adjudged that Rachel Cory late Widow of Archibald Dallas is entitled to the half pay of her late husband Capt. Archibald Dallas Deceased from the 5th. day of Sept. 1777, to the 28th day of January 1779 and that her Son Archibald Dallas or his Legal representative is entitled to draw the half pay of his Father Archibald Dallas from the said 28th day of January 1779, until he arrives at the age of eight years if he lives until that time which will terminate the 22d day of Sept. 1785” (95–96).
118. Capt. J. H. C. Smith, History of the 1st City Troop, based largely on the recollections of Trooper John Donnaldson, 1st City Troop Archives, Philadelphia.
119. Letter, Howe to Grant, “Aikins Tavern, Nine o'clock P. M., Wednesday, Sep. 3,” Grant Papers, reel 37.
120. Letter, Washington to Hancock, “Wilmington, 8 o'clock P. M., September 3, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 173.
121. Lafayette, Letters and Papers 1, 94.
122. Letter, Henry Laurens to John Lewis Gervais, “5th September 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates 7, 612.
123. B. Floyd Flickinger, “The Diary of Lieutenant William Heth while a Prisoner in Quebec,” Annual Papers of Winchester Virginia Historical Society 1 (1931): 33. Heth personally delivered a petition to Washington requesting that Maxwell be removed from command of the Light Infantry on September 30.
124. Cantelupe Diary, entry for September 3, 1777.
125. Osborn Letters, 100.
&nbs
p; 126. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 130.
127. Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 181–82.
128. George Weedon, Valley Forge Orderly Book of General George Weedon…1777–78, edited by Samuel Pennypacker (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1902), 37–38.
129. Clark MS.
130. William Beatty Journal, 1776–1781. MS 1814, Maryland Historical Society.
131. Dann, Revolution Remembered, 147.
132. Ewald, Diary, 80.
133. Letter, Grant to Harvey, “Philadelphia 20th Octr. 1777,” Grant Papers, reel 28.
134. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 448.
135. Rüffer, Regiment von Mirbach, Enemy Views, 172.
136. Parker Family Papers, journal entry for Sept. 8.
137. McMichael, “Diary,” 149.
138. Ewald, Diary, 80.
139. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 30.
140. Henry Strike, “A British Officer's Revolutionary War Journal, 1776–1778,” edited by S. Sydney Bradford, Maryland Historical Magazine 56, no. 2 (June 1961): 169.
141. Letter, William Dansey to his mother, “October 11, 1777” Manuscript Dept. HSD. The flag and Dansey's letters were acquired by the Historical Society of Delaware in the 1920s when the last of the Danseys died and the family possessions were sold at auction. Brinsop Court is still a farming estate in western England outside Hereford in Herefordshire, not far from the Welsh border. The house dates to the 1200s, and only five families have lived there in all that time, including the Danseys, who occupied it for 200-plus years.
According to the inscription on a memorial plaque found in Little Hereford Church, a few miles north of Leominster, Capt. Dansey Dansey died in 1774 at age sixty-six. He inherited the estate Brinsop Court from his uncle, Capt. William Dansey, “the last of that line,” and he adopted the surname Dansey. The plaque was erected by his wife, Martha, and his only son, William. Capt. Dansey Dansey was a career soldier, as was son William, who died in Santo Domingo, as the following note in the Dansey papers indicates: “Sacred to the Memory of Catherine second Daughter of the Revd. Alexander Malet A. N. and Relict of William Dansey of Brinsop Court in the County of Hereford Esqr. Aid-de-Camp to His Majesty George the 3rd, Lieut. Colonel of the 49th Regiment, and Commandant of Cape Nicola Mole, in the Island of St. Domingo where he died Novr. 18th 1793, a victim to the Zeal with which he discharged his Duty regardless of the effects of an insalubrious and destructive climate. She died, Novr. 21st, 1825, Aged 81.” Dansey Papers, HSD.
142. Ewald, Diary, 80.
143. Downman, Services, 32.
144. Letter, McKinly to Rodney, “Wilmington 9 Septr 1777,” Delaware Archives, 1414–15.
145. Beatty Journal, 109.
146. Winslow C. Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkannah Watson, etc. (New York: Dana and Company, 1856), 61–62. [loc.gov Travels in America, 1750–1920]
147. Charles Biddle, Autobiography of Charles Biddle, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 1745–1821 (Philadelphia: E. Claxton and Co., 1883), 148–49.
148. Ibid., 274.
149. Watson, Men and Times, 62.
150. Letter, Marshall to “Respected Ffriend, September 20, 1777,” Marshall Letterbook, case 36.
151. Grant, October 20, 1777.
152. Ewald, Diary, 79–81.
153. Burgoyne, Enemy Views, 171.
154. Parker Family Papers, journal entry for September 9. The Caudine Forks was a deep gorge in Italy. During the Second Samnite War in 321 B.C., the Romans suffered a severe defeat after the Samnites, led by C. Pontius, blocked one end of the gorge, lured the Roman forces commanded by Posthumis into the trap, and then blocked the exit. The Roman Army was forced to accept a humiliating defeat without a battle. See Livy, History of Rome, book IX. The author is indebted to John Mackenzie of Britishbattles.com for his assistance in identifying this reference.
155. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 449.
CHAPTER 4
1. Annual Register of 1776, 166.
2. John C. Dann, The Nagle Journal (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988), 6.
3. Contemporary documentary evidence for this bridge is sketchy and uncertain. Von Knyphausen wrote Lord George Germain, “The Queen's Rangers were ordered to pass the Morass [at Chads's Ford] immediately…Whereupon the[y] ran off into the Wood near the creek on the Road to Chads's Ford. During this I had ordered the Brigades to follow over the Morass, The 4th and 5th Regt. to draw up to the left, across the Road to Brandywine Creek's Bridge & dislodge the Enemy in their Front. Brigadier General Cleveland posted two heavy & two light 12 pounders on the Height on this Road, & two Six pounders further downwards, where the 27th was placed. At 11 o'Clock the Ennemy were driven back over the Creek evacuating their very advantageous Posts of this Side—The most obstinate Resistance, they made was on the Road to Brandywine Creek's Bridge; but the gallant & spirited Behaviour of the 4th & 5th Regt. forced them soon to leave their Ground…I look upon it as my Duty, particularly to mention…the high Spirit & Ardour shewn by the 4th & 5th Regiment on the Road to Brandywine Creek's Bridge as well, as in the Attack upon the 1st Battery, which they forced.” Letter, von Knyphausen to Germain, “Camp near Philadelphia Octbr. 21st 1777,” CO 5/ 94, pt. 2, 442, PRO/British National Archives, Kew. This letter, written in English, while probably a translation from von Knyphausen's German or French, makes clear distinctions between Chads's Ford and Brandywine Creek Bridge. His description places it north of the ford, where the 4th and 5th Regiments were originally placed.
Tustin's translation of Capt. Johann Ewald's description refers to “the plank bridge.” Ewald, however, was not with this column and based his description of this part of the battle on the accounts of others. While not a word-for-word copy, the similarity of Ewald's description to von Knyphausen's letter suggests that he wrote down the official headquarters version of this attack; this is a good source for someone attempting to keep a journal of events.
Later evidence is tantalizing, if elusive. When Lafayette returned to visit Brandywine on July 26, 1824, “The general received the greetings of the people, and viewed the interesting heights around Chads’ Ford, and the field where the armies encamped the night before the battle, and pointed out the positions of Gens. Wayne and Maxwell's brigades. He inquired if any one could point out where the bridge of rails was across the Brandywine, but no one was able to give him the information” (Futhey and Cope, 130).
Finally, a topographical map prepared in December 1863 by Henry L. Whiting of the U.S. Coast Survey for the defense of Philadelphia (in case of another Confederate invasion), proposed fortifications near Chadds's Ford. The map marks the “Point where British crossed, in force, by Temporary bridge of trees and rails,” located near the mouth of Brinton's Run, about half a mile below Brinton's Ford (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl, Library of Congress). The two-gun battery to the north of Chadds's Ford would have covered this position very well.
Unfortunately, no contemporary maps of the Battle of Brandywine show this bridge, and further primary documentation is elusive.
4. Pickering and Upham, Life of Pickering, 160.
5. Dann, Revolution Remembered, 149.
6. Greene, Papers 2, 154–56.
7. Letter, Cliffe to Brother Jack, October 24, 1777.
8. Hunter, Journal, 28.
9. Narrative, “Some account of the adventures of one day—the memorable September 11th, 1777, by Joseph Townsend of Baltimore. Some account of the British Army under the command of Genl. Howe and the battle of Brandywine which came to the knowledge and personal observation of the subscriber Joseph Townsend,” in a cover labeled A Manuscript Account of the Battle of Brandywine September 11th 1777 by Joseph Townsend, with the inscription, “This was found among the effects of General Joshua Evans of Paoli[.] I think that it was published in 1846.” MS 13292, Julius F. Sachse Collection, MS Collection, Chester County Historical Society.
Townsend's account was first published in 1846 by the Hi
storical Society of Pennsylvania. That version is faithful to the original manuscript. The published version—in J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County (Philadelphia: Louis and Everts, 1881)—though essentially the same, has been edited and “corrected”; some wording and punctuation is different. For unknown reasons, words and phrases have been inserted, changing details here and there, resulting in distortion. Who inserted them or why is unknown; likewise, where the added information came from is not stated.
It is possible that Townsend wrote more than one manuscript. In January 2002, an anonymous eight-page manuscript narrative titled “A short sketch of the movement of General Howe's Army [insert: after he landed on Turkey Point at the head of the Chesapeak Bay] up to the 11th of September 1777” came up for bid at HCA Auction (item 0025) on the Internet. Excerpts of the narrative were published on the website, and it is clearly another version of Townsend's account. Attempts to acquire further information or a full transcript of the account went unanswered, and I don't know the present [2005] whereabouts of the manuscript.
Comparing the two published versions and the original manuscript, along with the primary accounts from other participants, it is clear that Futhey and Cope's editing has distorted much of the original. Hereafter, the text will rely on the original unedited manuscript, and the differences will appear in the notes.
10. Jacob Mordecai, “Addenda to Watson's Annals,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 98 (1974): 165.
11. Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States (New York: University Publishing Company, 1869), 89.
12. Letter, Patrick Ferguson to George Ferguson, “Off Newcastle [DE] Octr. 18th 1777,” quoted in DeWitt Bailey, British Military Flintlock Rifles (Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2002), 49.
13. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
14. Bailey, British Flintlock Rifles, 49.
15. Extract from the Journal of Stephen Jarvis, On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, www.royalprovincial.com, originally published in Journal of American History 1 (1907).
16. Flickinger, “Diary of Heth,” 31.