Battle of the Clouds

Near what is now Malvern, Pennsylvania, an effort to slow the British march toward Philadelphia collapsed on September 16, 1777. This clash, later called the Battle of the Clouds, unfolded not long after American forces had already suffered defeat at Brandywine, following which British troops had settled into camp close to Chadds Ford. Once British commander William Howe learned that the depleted American army sat less than ten miles (16 km) off, he saw an opening to strike a further, more conclusive blow.

Washington caught wind of Howe's intentions and moved to ready his men for combat. Yet before the two sides could clash in earnest, a fierce rainstorm swept through the area. Facing a considerable disadvantage in numbers, and watching tens of thousands of cartridges rendered useless by the wet conditions, Washington chose instead to pull back his forces. Mired by the storm and the mud it left behind, the British found themselves unable to prevent Washington's army from making its escape.

Background

Following the setback at Brandywine, Washington had two urgent goals in mind: shielding Philadelphia from Howe's advancing forces and restocking munitions and supplies that were running low at the Van Leer Furnace in Reading, Pennsylvania. He led his army across the Schuylkill River, passed through Philadelphia, and pushed on toward the northwest. Because the only practical crossing point upstream lay at Matson's Ford, near what is now Conshohocken, staying on the far side of the river allowed him to guard the capital as well as the crucial supply lines to the west simultaneously. But he changed his mind, bringing his troops back across the water to confront the British directly. Howe's army, for its part, had scarcely advanced since the fighting at Brandywine, hampered by too few wagons to move both their injured men and their equipment.

Battle of the Clouds

Word reached General Howe that Washington's forces had crossed back over the Schuylkill on the afternoon of September 15, and before midnight his men were already marching toward the crossroads near the White Horse Tavern. Days of rain and wind had turned the paths into thick mud, slowing the columns and their supply wagons considerably. By the following morning, Washington had roughly 10,000 soldiers moving westward through the Great Valley, a stretch of land flanked by the North Valley Hills and South Valley Hills. Cavalry under General Pulaski brought word that British forces were closing in from the south, only a few miles distant. Retreating toward the North Valley Hills might have bought Washington additional time to prepare defenses, but instead he chose to push his men south, directly toward the approaching enemy, aiming to hold the South Valley Hills.

To buy time, Washington dispatched General Anthony Wayne with an advance detachment to blunt the British approach. Around two in the afternoon, Wayne's men ran into jäger units from the Hessian column on one of the roads. A skirmish broke out, and during the confusion the Americans came close to seizing Colonel Carl von Donop, who had been cut off from the rest of his troops along with a handful of jägers. Roughly an hour later, the main British force under General Charles Cornwallis clashed with Wayne's Pennsylvania militia along a separate road. The militia broke and fled in disorder, leaving behind ten men killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, Washington had been working to arrange his troops for battle but reconsidered his chosen ground, ultimately pulling the army back north past the tavern. No sooner had this retreat begun than a violent downpour struck. Hessian jäger captain Johann Ewald later called it an extraordinary thunderstorm accompanied by the heaviest rainfall he had ever witnessed.

The British advance came to a stop, though General Wilhelm von Knyphausen still sent his jägers forward to strike at the Americans. With their muskets rendered useless by wet powder, Ewald's men charged in with swords drawn and took 34 prisoners. According to either Ewald or Emery Edmondson, the jägers themselves lost five killed, seven wounded, and three captured in the clash. Historian Thomas McGuire later characterized the storm as a classic nor'easter, and its fury continued well into the next day. Having left their tents behind, the British were left to throw together makeshift shelters for the night. Washington, for his part, succeeded in reassembling his line, though much of his gunpowder had been ruined by the rain, worsened by the poor quality of his men's cartridge boxes.

Aftermath

On September 19, Washington pulled his forces back across the Schuylkill once more, positioning himself to protect both the capital and his lines of supply. He did not take everyone with him, though; General Wayne remained behind with a Pennsylvania division numbering 1,500 men and four guns, tasked with making life difficult for the British as they moved through the rear. For a time, Washington ran his headquarters out of Reading Furnace.

Howe's troops, meanwhile, struggled badly against roads turned to mud and ruts, making pursuit of Washington nearly impossible. Rather than press forward under such conditions, the British chose to sit out the weather before resuming their advance toward the target they sought.

The plan called for militia to reinforce Wayne, after which the combined force would fall upon the enemy's baggage train while the main British army pushed toward Washington's position. That plan fell apart when Wayne's men were caught off guard at the Battle of Paoli. With his division scattered by surprise, nothing remained to stop the British from marching into Philadelphia unopposed.