202. Ibid., 116–17.
203. Officer B, attached memo.
204. Robertson Map Key.
205. Elmer, “Extracts,” 104–5. In the original text, Elmer uses the archaic ye for “the” and ym for “them”: Ye is still understood by modern readers, but I have taken the liberty of changing the less-familiar ym to ’em for the sake of clarity.
206. “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), British Library.
207. Clark Diary, MS MG 256.
208. Lafayette, Letters and Papers 1, 83–84.
209. Ibid., 95, 114.
210. Letters, William Dansey to Mrs. Dansey Dansey, “Camp at German Town, Philadelphia Octor 9th 1777”; Dansey to Dansey, October 16, 1777, Historical Society of Delaware.
211. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 78.
212. Agnew, “Howell,” 224.
213. Elias Dayton Papers, New Jersey Historical Society, Ryan, Salute to Courage, 100.
214. Robertson Map Key.
215. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 32.
216. Burgoyne, Diaries, 18.
217. Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, Schwalm 6, no. 2 (1998): 10. For clarity, the word disrupted has replaced the obscure word inaccommodated in the text of the published translation.
218. Jorn Meiners, “Portraits of Hessian Jäger Officers in the Museum of Marburg University,” translated by Henry J. Retzer, Schwalm 7, no. 4 (2004): 16.
219. Ewald, Diary, 86.
220. Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, Schwalm 6, no. 2 (1998): 10.
221. Burgoyne, Enemy Views, 173–74. Ewald specifically mentions the use of Allons! Allons! at the Battle of Monmouth (136), but it was a favorite and famous shout among German troops, even though it is French. Frederick the Great used French in his court (as did most European monarchs) and introduced the highest military decoration, Pour la virtue Militaire, used by Prussian and German military forces for the next two centuries. Ewald, von Wurmb, and von Wreden were all awarded this decoration on June 16, 1777, by the landgraf of Hesse-Cassel. Schwalm 7, no. 4 (2004): 18.
Of the word huzza, the Oxford English Dictionary etymology notes that it was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and probably derives from a sailor's shout of greeting. It also says, “German has also ‘hussa’ as a cry of hunting and pursuit, and, subsequently, exaltation.”
222. Hunter, Journal, 29–30.
223. Von Wurmb to von Jungkenn, Schwalm 6, no. 2 (1998): 10.
224. Burgoyne, Diaries, 18. Casualties are taken from the Journal of the Hessian Jäger Corps. See Ewald, Diary, 394, n. 80.
225. Hammond, Sullivan, 460–65.
226. Letter, Dr. William Darlington to Dr. A. Elwyn, “West Chester, Nov. 29, 1845,” Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1, no. 8 (December, 1846): 57.
227. Von Münchhausen, Diary, 32.
228. Letter, Robert H. Harrison to John Hancock, “Chads ford 5 oClock PM 11 Septr 1777,” Washington Papers online, ser. 4, General Correspondence, image 136–37. Robert Hanson Harrison was “the best of all the aides at communicating Washington's ideas. The general frequently entrusted Harrison to write to Congress on his behalf.” Arthur Lefkowitz, George Washington's Indispensable Men (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003), 110. This book is an important resource for understanding the actual functioning of Washington's Headquarters and the roles played by the aides and military secretaries.
229. Grant Papers, October 20, 1777, reel 28.
230. Downman, Services, 33.
231. Microfiche #232, Letter FZ, “Short Description of the Journey of the Hon. Hessian Troops,” 83–85.
232. Smith Papers, 86.
233. Robertson Map Key.
234. Downman, Services, 33.
235. Dann, Nagle, 8.
236. Parker Family Papers. The words in brackets followed by a question mark indicate missing words caused by holes and deterioration in the manuscript. I have cautiously added words to keep the sense of the narrative. The original reads, “The Rebels fired grape & [exploding?] shells. Capt. Steuart who Commanded at our battery kept a [warm?] fire for near a half hour.”
237. Clark Diary.
238. Marshall, Life of Washington 302–3. Both Marshall and Pickering imply that Washington headed for the right flank as soon as the action began. The letter written to Congress was at 5 P.M., and is headed “Chads's Ford,” indicating that it was written from that area or from Headquarters at the Ring House. The letter describes the violent firing in progress. Pinpointing Washington's every movement and location is challenging, for he moved a lot that day. He wrote to Sullivan afterwards, “What happened on your march to the field of battle, your disposition there, and behaviour during the action, I can say nothing about, no part ’till the retreat commenced having come under my immediate observation.” Hammond, Sullivan, 542.
239. Gordon Independence, 225.
240. Letter, Greene to Henry Marchant, “Camp White Plains, July [25?] 1778,” Greene, Papers, 471. Greene wrote little if anything about Brandywine until this time. His letter indicates frustration on his part with Washington's silence about his role and the role of the Virginia troops: “…his Excellency, for fear of being chargeable with partiality, never says anything to the advantage of his friends. In the action of Brandywine last campaign, where I think both the general and the public were as much indebted to me for saving the army from ruin as they have ever been to any one officer in the course of the war; but I was never mentioned upon the occasion…. This brigade was commanded by General Weedon, and, unfortunately for their own interests, happened to be all Virginians. They being the general's countrymen, and I thought to be one of his favorites, prevented his ever mentioning a single circumstance of the affair.”
241. Greene, Papers, 161.
242. Pickering's Criticisms of Judge Johnson's Life of Greene, Pickering Papers, reel 52, 184–85. Stone of the 1st Maryland and Elmer of the 3rd New Jersey mention Nash's brigade, or part of it, coming up. Congressman Burke told Richard Caswell, “Greene's Division and Nash's Brigade…were ordered to the right to reinforce the Troops on that Wing.” Smith et. al. Letters of Delegates 7, 679.
243. “Journal of Hawkins,” 491.
244. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
245. Wier Letterbook, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
246. Robertson Map Key.
247. Letter, Adam Hubley to John Hubley, “Camp Lancaster Road, near Sorrel Horse [Radnor Twp.], Sepr. 15. 1777,” Peter Force Papers, ser. 9, conts. 21–24, MSS 7, 137, reel 104, Library of Congress. Hubley says that Wayne's Division was “solely stationed” at Chads's Ford. Gordon wrote, “Wayne and the North-Carolinians, with the artillery and the light troops, after their defeat by Knyphausen, pass the rear of it [Weedon's Virginia Brigade/Colonel Steven's Regiment] in their retreat. At dark, that also is withdrawn by gen. Greene” [emphasis added]. Gordon, Independence, 90.
248. Journal of Jarvis.
249. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
250. Robertson Map Key.
251. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
252. Boyle, Thomas Sullivan Journal, 134.
253. Parker Journal, Parker Family Papers.
254. Journal of Jarvis.
255. Clark Diary.
256. Dann, Nagle, 8. Rawdon was wounded, not killed. “Capt. Jones” is probably Capt.-Lt. Gibbs Jones, Independent Pennsylvania Artillery Company. This company lost two men wounded at Brandywine. Hazard, Pennsylvania Archive, 5, no. 3, 954.
257. “Note: John Graves Simcoe in his Remarks on the Travels of the Marquis de Chastellux (5–6n.) makes the following statement: ‘The Marquis is in doubt whether the British troops who passed Chad's Ford, were in one or two columns. Though I have failed in my enquiries relative to this point, I have met with an anecdote that may illustrate his account, and deserves to be made more generally known. The Marquis was informed that t
he redoubt which Mr. Washington had thrown up to cover Chad's Ford “could not be taken unless turned.”’” Howard C. Rice, Travels in North America by the Marquis de Chastellux, vol. 1 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 314, n. 71.]
258. Dann, Nagle, 8–9.
259. Chambers, Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 10, 323.
260. Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 3, 1056.
261. Smith, Universal Military Dictionary, 31.
262. William Summers, “Obituary Notices of Pennsylvania Soldiers of the Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 38 (1914): 443–44. Ned has not been entirely forgotten; Hector Street in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, near where he lived in his last years, is named in his honor. His memory serves as a monument to the other African Americans who served in the Revolution, whose contributions under extremely difficult times have often been overlooked or ignored.
263. Parker Family Papers.
264. Dann, Nagle, 9.
265. Boyle, Thomas Sullivan Journal, 134.
266. Ibid.
267. Journal of Jarvis.
268. Bailey, British Flintlock Rifles, 50.
269. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
270. Extract of a letter, Chambers to Gen. Edward Hand, Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 10, 322–23.
271. Letter, Adam Hubley to John Hubley, September 15, 1777, Force Papers.
272. Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 10, 663.
273. Chambers, in Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 10, 323.
274. André, Journal, 88.
275. Robertson Map and Map Key.
276. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
277. Patten, Deposition, Pension Papers.
278. Chambers, in Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives 10, 323.
279. Von Knyphausen to Germain.
280. Letter, Adam Hubley to John Hubley, September 15, 1777, Force Papers.
281. Clark Diary.
282. Letter, Adam Hubley to John Hubley, September 15, 1777, Force Papers.
283. Letter, Dr. William Darlington to Dr. A. Elwyn, “West Chester, Nov. 29, 1845,” Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1, no. 8 (December, 1846): 57.
284. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 79.
285. Hammond, Sullivan, 454.
286. Pickering Papers, reel 52, 184–85.
287. Ibid.
288. Robertson Map Key.
289. Pickering Papers, reel 52, 184–85.
290. Robertson Map Key.
291. Pickering Papers, reel 52, 184–85.
292. Greene, Papers, 471.
293. Officer B.
294. Officer B, attached memo.
295. Burgoyne, Enemy Views, 174.
296. [Louis Hue Girardin], Pulaski Vindicated etc. (Baltimore: John Toy, 1824), 23–24.
297. Scharf, Chronicles, 168.
298. Elmer, 105.
299. Robertson Map Key.
300. Letter, Cliffe to Jack, October 24, 1777.
301. Hammond, Sullivan, 557.
302. Dr. Darlington interview with McClellan, Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 79.
303. Robertson Map Key.
304. Ewald, Diary, 87.
305. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 133.
306. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 449–50.
307. Hammond, Sullivan, 474.
308. Ewald, Diary, 86.
309. McMichael, “Diary,” 150.
310. Letter, Pickering to John Marshall, 1827, Pickering Papers, film 220, reel 16:186A–189A.
311. Ewald, Diary, 86. In Tustin's translation, it states that the regiments were the 44th and 64th. The 44th was in the 3rd Brigade and did not engage at Brandywine; the 46th was in the left center of the 4th Brigade, next to the 64th. Ewald may have made the mistake or the handwriting in the German manuscript may have been unclear.
312. “Losses of the Military and Naval Forces Engaged in the War of the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 27 (1903): 176–205; “General Return of the Names, Country, Age and Service of the Officers, &c. of the 64th Regiment of Foot,” W.O. 17-184, PRO.
313. Officer B.
314. Robertson Map Key.
315. Ewald, Diary, 87.
316. Montrésor, Montrésor Journals, 121.
317. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 133.
318. Letter, Cliffe to Jack, October 24, 1777.
319. Hunter, Journal, 30.
320. Clark, Diary, 93.
321. Letter, Pickering to John Marshall, 1827.
322. George Inman, “George Inman's Narrative of the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 7 (1883): 241.
323. “A Memorandum List for 1777,” by unidentified officer of the 2nd Battalion of Light Infantry, Washington Papers online, Military papers, reel 118, Library of Congress. Viewable at Washington Papers online, Military Correspondence. The original arcane text actually reads: “The Army being then Arived at Brandy Wine Crick, they Formd the Lines. Genl. Niphousen the Right[,] Genl. Earl Carnwalls the Lift [left][,] Genl. Sr. Willm. Askin [Erskine] the Flying Army on the Lift [left] of the grad [Grand] Army. The Bragader Genarls Commanding ther Different Bregads in Station…they All Gave Way Leving 15 pices of Brass Canon 2 Iron ditto—70 Waggons of Arminishon Bagish and Provishons 150 With Horses Complated at 4 Each for gun and Waggon But Night Came on and Brave Howe not knowing the Cuntery Wass Obliged to halt that night.”
324. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 81.
325. Grant to Harvey, October 20, 1777, Grant Papers, reel 28.
CHAPTER 5
1. Letter, Washington to Hancock, Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 207–8.
2. http://www.geocities.com/nadineholder/RevWar.html. Woodward and Allied Families–Revolutionary War, Abraham Woodward home page. “Rye ‘n’ Injun,” a mixture of rye flour and “Injun” (“Indian meal,” i.e., cornmeal) was a common daily bread in colonial households. Dutch ovens worked by having glowing coals from the wood fire placed under the pot (which often had “spider legs” on the bottom to raise it a few inches). The contents to be cooked were placed inside, then the lid put on and coals heaped on top. A lip around the top of the lid held the coals in place.
3. Letter, From a Lady near West Chester to Dr. A. L. Elwyn, n.d., “Some Account, Etc.,” Townsend Ward, 1846, 62–63.
4. Cope, Philadelphia Merchant, 401–2.
5. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 672.
6. Dann, Nagle, 9. Much of southeastern Pennsylvania is blessed with a great limestone aquifier, and thousands of springs proliferate. The eighteenth-century wells are typically stone-lined and descend between ten and thirty feet, often having two or three feet of water in them. A combination of a hot, dry summer, together with the sudden crush of hundreds of very thirsty men—biting cartridges full of black gunpowder and inhaling clouds of acrid sulfur smoke dry the mouth considerably, to the point of desperation—no doubt caused numerous wells to go dry temporarily.
7. Woodward home page.
8. Smith, “Memoirs,” Historical Magazine, 86.
9. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 80.
10. Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 155–56.
11. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 134.
12. Joseph Townsend.
13. Remembrancer for 1777 (London: J. Almon, 1778), 415–17.
14. Letter, Fitzpatrick to Lord Ossory, “Philadelphia October 28, 1777,” Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Library of Congress.
15. Remembrancer for 1777, 415–16; 411.
16. Purdy Diary, entry for September 11.
17. “Memmorandum List for 1777.”
18. Letter, Margaret Stedman to Elizabeth Fergusson, “Septembr. Ye 11, 1777,” “Excitement in Philadelphia on Hearing of the Defeat at Brandywine,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 14, 66–67.
19. George W. Corner, The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press for the American Philosophical Society, 1948), 132–33. Washington's letter of September 13 names “Doc
tors Rush, [possibly Andrew] Leiper and [Henry] Latimer, and Mr. [Elias Willard or] Willet, a Mate in the Hospital…. I have thought proper to add Drs. [Nicholas] Way and Coats to the surgeons above mentioned.” Dr. Henry Latimer said, “Doctor Rush, Physician General, Doctors Leiper and Coates, hospital physicians and surgeons, Doctor Way (a volunteer) and myself” (132, n. 4).
20. Letter, Fitzpatrick to Ossory, October 28, 1777.
21. Thomas Paine, “The Crisis #4,” online at Thomas Paine National Historical Association, www.thomaspaine.org/archives/crisis-4.html.
22. Muhlenberg, Journals 3, 74.
23. Letter, John Adams to Abigail, “Philadelphia Monday Septr. 8, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates 7, 627.
24. Letter, James Hutchinson to James Pemberton, “Philadelphia Septr. 15th 1777,” American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
25. Eliphalet Dyer to Joseph Trumbull, “Philadelphia Septr. 12, 1777,” Smith et. al., Letters of Delegates 7, 650.
26. Letter, James Hutchinson to James Pemberton, “Philadelphia Septr. 15th 1777,” American Philosophical Society.
27. Letter, Grant to Harvey, “Philadelphia October 20, 1777,” Grant Papers.
28. Woodward home page.
29. Cantalupe Diary, entry for September 12.
30. Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 159–60.
31. The Pennsylvania Packet, December 12, 1778; advertisement by Persifor Frazer for two of his slaves who ran away in March or April 1778 and went to Philadelphia. Accessiblearchives.com.
32. Frazer, Frazer Memoir, 157–60.
33. Parker Journal, entry for September 14.
34. Baurmeister, Letters, 17–18.
35. Letter, John McKinley to President of Congress Henry Laurens, “20th August, 1778,” Delaware Archives, 1415.
36. Regiment von Alt Lossberg Journal (Combined Battalion), letter M, fiche # 65, M. 79–80, Lidgerwood Collection.
37. Parker Journal, no date; entry at the end of October.
38. “Memmorandum List for 1777.”
39. Gruber, Peebles Diary, 134.
40. Futhey and Cope, Chester County, 566.
41. Letter, Washington to Armstrong, “Head Qurs., Sunday Morning, 7 O'Clock, September 14, 1777,” Fitzpatrick, Washington 9, 220–21.
42. Lafayette, Letters and Papers 1, 79.
43. Hiltzheimer Diary.
The Philadelphia Campaign Page 49