Brandywine

On September 11, 1777, General George Washington's Continental Army clashed with General Sir William Howe's British forces near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in what became known as either the Battle of Brandywine or the Battle of Brandywine Creek, one engagement within the broader American Revolutionary War spanning 1775 to 1783. This clash drew together a larger number of combatants than any other confrontation of the entire conflict. Only the Battle of Monmouth would later surpass it in duration among single-day engagements, since fighting here raged without pause for eleven hours. Howe's push toward Philadelphia, the seat of American government at the time, ended with his troops overwhelming Washington's men and driving them first into the City of Chester, Pennsylvania, then further northeast toward Philadelphia itself.

Howe had set his army in motion from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, crossing New York Bay from British held New York City at Manhattan's southern edge, on July 23, 1777. The troops came ashore near what is now Elkton, Maryland, at a location called the "Head of Elk," situated along the Elk River where it meets the northern Chesapeake Bay near the Susquehanna River's southern outlet. Pushing northward, British forces swept past scattered American light units in minor clashes along the way. Washington chose to make his stand with his forces arranged behind Brandywine Creek, near the Christina River. While a portion of his army staged a diversion opposite Chadds Ford, Howe led the majority of his men on an extended march that carried them across the Brandywine well past Washington's right flank. Inadequate reconnaissance meant the Americans failed to spot Howe's approaching column until it had already positioned itself behind their right side. Scrambling to respond, Washington redirected three divisions to intercept the flanking British force near Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse and School, a Quaker place of worship.

Following intense combat, Howe's forces broke through the hastily assembled American right flank, which had taken position across a series of hills. Simultaneously, Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen pressed his attack at Chadds Ford, collapsing the American left flank. With his army falling into retreat, Washington called upon General Nathanael Greene's division to hold the line, buying enough time for the rest of his forces to withdraw safely to the northeast. Polish General Casimir Pulaski guarded the rear of Washington's retreating army, helping secure the escape. This setback, combined with the maneuvers that followed, left Philadelphia exposed to capture. Two weeks afterward, on September 26, British troops seized the city, which would remain under their control for nine months until June 1778.

Background

Nearly five weeks after departing Sandy Hook on the New Jersey coastline, a Royal Navy fleet numbering over 260 vessels came ashore in late August 1777 at the head of the Elk River. This location sat at the northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay, close to what is now Elkton, Maryland, then called Head of Elk, roughly 40 to 50 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Aboard the fleet were some 17,000 British soldiers under General Sir William Howe. Getting the men and equipment off the ships turned into a difficult undertaking, since the narrow channel there ran shallow and thick with mud.

Meanwhile, Washington had stationed his army, numbering approximately 20,300, in the space separating Head of Elk from Philadelphia. From Iron Hill near Newark, Delaware, about 9 miles to the northeast, his men managed to observe the British coming ashore. Yet because the unloading process dragged on so long, Howe skipped the usual practice of establishing camp and instead pushed his troops forward without delay. This left Washington without a clear picture of how large the opposing force actually was.

Following a brief clash at Cooch's Bridge to the south of Newark, British forces pressed northward. In response, Washington gave up his defensive position along Red Clay Creek near Newport, Delaware, choosing instead to meet the enemy at Chadds Ford, the shortest crossing point over the Brandywine River along the Baltimore to Philadelphia road. On September 9, he spread detachments to defend the fords both above and below this location, intending to draw the fight there. General John Armstrong, leading roughly 1,000 Pennsylvania militiamen, was assigned to Pyle's Ford, situated 5.8 miles south of Chadds Ford, while Major Generals Anthony Wayne and Nathanael Greene held the ford itself with their divisions. To the north, Major General John Sullivan's division extended along the eastern banks of the Brandywine, occupying elevated terrain alongside the divisions of Major General Adam Stephen and Major General Lord Stirling. Farther upstream still, a brigade led by Colonel Moses Hazen watched over Buffington's Ford and Wistar's Ford. Washington felt certain this arrangement left no vulnerable gaps.

On the opposing side, British forces massed near Kennett Square. Howe possessed a far superior grasp of the local terrain compared to Washington, and he had no interest in throwing his men against the entrenched American lines directly. Instead, he chose a flanking strategy much like the one that had worked at Long Island. He sent roughly 6,800 troops under Wilhelm von Knyphausen forward to engage Washington's men head on at Chadds Ford. The bulk of his army, some 9,000 soldiers commanded by Charles, Lord Cornwallis, took a longer route north to Trimble's Ford on the West Branch of the Brandywine, then turned east toward Jefferis Ford on the East Branch, both crossings that Washington's faulty intelligence and thin reconnaissance had failed to account for, before wheeling south to strike the American position from behind.

Battle

A thick fog blanketed the countryside as the eleventh of September dawned, giving the British forces useful concealment for their movements. Washington, meanwhile, sorted through conflicting intelligence on enemy positions and remained convinced that the main thrust of the assault would fall on Chadds Ford.

Knyphausen's column set out along the road from Kennett Square, now known as Route 1, at half past five in the morning, marching eastward toward the American lines where that route met Brandywine Creek. Combat opened roughly four miles west of Chadds Ford near Welch's Tavern, where troops from Maxwell's light infantry clashed with the leading British units, chiefly the Queen's Rangers, loyalist soldiers under James Wemyss. Pressing forward, the British ran into a larger body of continentals sheltering behind stone walls on the grounds of Old Kennett Meetinghouse. Fighting raged through the mid-morning hours around the building even as the Quakers inside carried on with their weekly worship undisturbed. A member of the congregation later remarked that despite the clamor outside, everything within remained calm and serene.

From that meetinghouse the fighting rolled onward for three more miles until it reached Brandywine Creek at Chadds Ford. The British ultimately drove the Americans back, though only after absorbing significant casualties themselves.

Meanwhile, the larger British force, led by Cornwallis with Howe accompanying him, departed Kennett Square at five in the morning. Loyalists in the area had told Howe of two fords above the forks of the Brandywine that the Americans had left unguarded. Covering seventeen miles took the column roughly nine hours. Around two in the afternoon they emerged on the American right and paused to rest atop Osbourne's Hill, a position overlooking the Continental army from the north. Warned by scouts under Colonel Bland, Washington placed Sullivan in charge of Stirling's and Stephen's divisions along with his own and sent him north to counter the flanking maneuver. Howe struck just as the American lines were still forming north of Dilworth. Sullivan, now commanding the entire right wing, stepped away from his own division to consult with fellow officers, leaving it under Preudhomme de Borre with instructions to shift rightward and connect with Stirling and Stephen, whose divisions stood arranged left to right as Sullivan, Stirling, and Stephen. As British lines pressed forward, Hessian Jaegers threatened to turn the American right, compelling Stephen and Stirling to adjust their position further right.

Howe's hesitation gave the Americans a window to occupy elevated ground close to Birmingham Meetinghouse, roughly a mile north of Chadds Ford, before the British finally struck at four in the afternoon. On the American left, the British Brigade of Guards caught de Borre's division still forming and shattered it almost immediately, sending the whole unit into flight. Stephen and Stirling initially held their ground, assisted by artillery posted on a knoll between them, but British light infantry, supported by the Jaegers, eventually pushed Stephen's men into retreat. At the center, a bayonet charge from British grenadier battalions drove Stirling back as well. Lafayette, who had only just joined Stirling's division, was wounded while attempting to rally the fleeing soldiers.

By around six in the evening, Washington and Greene arrived with reinforcements in an effort to check the British, who by then held Meeting House Hill. Washington met with Greene and Knox, the artillery commander, in the yard of the William Brinton house, as the 2nd Battalion of Grenadiers approached, reinforced by a fresh brigade, the 4th British Brigade. The decision was made to have Knox position artillery to slow the enemy's progress. Combining with survivors of Sullivan's, Stephen's, and Stirling's shattered divisions, Greene's men formed a line south of Dilworth and held the pursuing British at bay for nearly an hour, buying time for the rest of the army to withdraw. Once night fell, Greene's division finally set off toward Chester with the remainder of the army, the darkness preventing any further British pursuit. Many American cannons had to be abandoned on Meeting House Hill, since nearly all the horses needed to move the artillery had been killed.

When Knyphausen learned that Cornwallis's column had engaged, he launched his own assault across Chadds Ford against the now weakened American center, breaking through the divisions of Wayne and William Maxwell and forcing them to retreat while