Paoli

On September 20, 1777, forces clashed near what is now Malvern, Pennsylvania, in an engagement remembered as the Battle of Paoli, sometimes called the Battle of Paoli Tavern or the Paoli Massacre. This clash formed part of the Philadelphia campaign during the American Revolutionary War. It came after Continental troops had pulled back from the Battle of Brandywine and from the unfinished Battle of the Clouds. In the wake of those setbacks, Washington stationed a detachment under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne to keep watch on advancing British troops and slow their push toward Philadelphia, the seat of the revolutionary government, which they intended to seize.

As night fell on September 20, Major General Charles Grey led British troops in a sudden assault on Wayne's camp close to the Paoli Tavern, inflicting heavy losses on the Americans. American propagandists later spread false accusations that the British had shown Wayne's men no mercy, and this claim gave rise to the name by which the fight became known throughout the United States: the "Paoli Massacre."

Monument

A granite marker went up on the battlefield grounds in 1877, taking the place of an earlier memorial from 1817 that had fallen into disrepair. Fittingly, one face of the newer structure carries the same wording found on its predecessor. Rising 22.5 feet (6.9 m) into the air, the monument bears inscriptions on all four of its sides. Today it sits within a park in Malvern, ground that earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 under the name Paoli Battlefield Site and Parade Grounds.

That listing encompasses more than just the monument itself. Among the contributing elements are two buildings, two sites, and five objects tied to the property's historical designation. These include the actual battlefield and the parade grounds where troops once assembled, along with the original 1817 memorial commemorating the Paoli Massacre and the 1877 obelisk that succeeded it. Rounding out the collection are a monument honoring World War I dating to 1928, an urn from around 1946 dedicated to World War II, and a caretaker's house with an accompanying garage constructed in 1922.

Aftermath

An official inquiry cleared Wayne of misconduct charges, though it did find that he had erred tactically. Furious at this conclusion, Wayne pushed for a complete court-martial. Thirteen officers sat on a board that, on November 1, overturned the inquiry's initial findings and instead affirmed that Wayne had conducted himself honorably.

Part of what made this engagement infamous was testimony from those who claimed to have witnessed it firsthand, alleging that British soldiers had bayoneted or mutilated Americans even as they tried to give themselves up. Among the accounts that circulated were these:

Lt. Col. Adam Hubley of the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment described watching British soldiers hack and cut down helpless American men who had already fallen into enemy hands, showing almost no mercy whatsoever.

William Hutchinson, serving in the Pennsylvania Militia, told of more than a dozen soldiers surrounding a man with bayonets fixed, each taking turns stabbing him across his body and limbs as though it were sport. A physician who later examined the body counted forty-six separate bayonet wounds.

Col. Thomas Hartley of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment recalled how the enemy struck at midnight while the men, freshly roused from sleep, scrambled in disorder. Chaos ensued, and the slaughter that followed was immense. He called it a bloody month.

Maj. Samuel Hay of the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment declared that no era in history could match such a spectacle of butchery.

These claims were later challenged by Mark M. Boatner III, an American military historian. He argued that American propagandists stirred up hostility toward the British through fabricated charges, claiming falsely that Grey's soldiers denied quarter and slaughtered defenseless men attempting surrender. He pointed out that the accusation of refused quarter falls apart given that the British captured 71 prisoners, and that the gruesome state of the dead was simply a consequence of how messy a weapon the bayonet can be.

In the aftermath, Wayne's soldiers vowed vengeance, and the phrase "Remember Paoli!" became their rallying cry during the fighting at Germantown and later at Stony Point.

As an act of defiance, soldiers of the 2nd Light Infantry dyed the feathers on their hats red, making themselves recognizable to the Americans. This gesture was later commemorated in 1833, when the Light Company of the 46th Regiment of Foot received authorization to wear red cap markings in place of the standard green associated with Light Infantry units.

Similarly, in 1934 the Royal Berkshire Regiment, heir to the traditions of the 49th Foot, gained permission to add a red marking to their headwear, though the official reasoning cited the Light Company's actions at Brandywine Creek instead, somewhat inaccurately. Later in the twentieth century, units descended from both regiments continued wearing red backing behind their cap badges, a practice that lasted until 2006, when The Light Infantry and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment were merged into The Rifles.