Wayne's Encampment near the Paoli. British Attack upon his Detachment. The Massacre. 1777. of the army, at Parker's Ford, he left General Wayne, with about fifteen hundred men and four pieces of cannon (to be joined by General Smallwood and Colonel Gist the next day'), with directions to annoy the enemy's rear, then posted near Tredyffrin church, and to attempt to cut off his baggage train. Wayne encamped two or three miles southwest of the British lines, in a secluded spot, away from the public roads, near the place where the monument now stands. The vigilance of British sentinels did not discover him, but the treachery of Tories revealed his numbers and place of encampment to the commander of the enemy. Howe determined to surprise Wayne, and for that purpose dispatched General Grey (the subsequent murderer at Tappan and plunderer on the New England coasts) to steal upon the patriot camp at night and destroy them. Wayne had intimations of this intended movement, and, though doubting its truth, he neglected no precaution. It was a dark and stormy night. Wayne ordered his men to sleep on their arms, with their ammunition under their coats. With two regiments and a body of light infantry, Grey marched stealthily, in two divisions, toward midnight, a through the woods and up a narrow defile a September 20, below the Paoli, and gained Wayne's left at about one o'clock in the morning. The divisions conjoined in the Lancaster road, near Wayne's encampb September 21 ment. The "no-flint general" (see note on p. 764, vol. i.) had given his usual order to rush upon the patriots with fixed bayonets, without firing a shot, and to give no quarters! Several of the American pickets near the highway were silently massacred in the gloom. These being missed by the patroling officer, his suspicions that an enemy was near were awakened, and he hastened to the tent of Wayne. The general immediately paraded his men. Unfortunately, he made the movement in the light of his own camp-fires, instead of forming them in the dark, back of the encampment. By the light of these fires Grey was directed where to attack with the best chance of success.2 In silence, but with the fierceness of tigers, the enemy leaped from the thick gloom upon the Americans, who knew not from what point to expect an attack. The patriots discharged several volleys, but so sudden and violent was the attack that their column was at once broken into fragments. They fled in confusion in the direction of Chester. One hundred and fifty Americans were killed and wounded in this onslaught, some of whom, it is said, were cruelly butchered after ceasing to resist, and while begging for quarter; and but for the coolness and skill of Wayne, his whole command must have been killed or taken prisoners. He promptly rallied a few companies, ordered Colonel Humpton to wheel the line, and with the cavalry and a portion of the infantry, he gallantly covered a successful retreat. Grey swept the American camp, captured between seventy and eighty men, including several subordinate officers, a great number of small-arms, two pieces of cannon, and eight wagons loaded with baggage and stores. The loss of the British was inconsiderable; only one captain of light infantry and three privates were killed, and four men wounded. General Smallwood was only a mile distant at the time of the engagement, and made an unsuccessful attempt to march to the relief of Wayne. His raw militia were too deficient in discipline to make a sudden movement, and, before he could reach the scene of conflict, Grey had completed his achievement, and was on his way toward the British camp. Falling in with a party of the enemy retiring from the pursuit of Wayne, Smallwood's militia instantly fled in great confusion, and were not rallied until a late hour the next day. The dead bodies of fifty-three Americans were found on the field the next morning, and were interred upon the spot, in one grave, by the neighboring farmers. For forty years their resting-place was marked by a simple heap of stones, around which the plow of the agriculturist made its furrows nearer and nearer every season. At length the "Republican Artillerists" of Chester county patriotically resolved to erect a monument to their memory, 1 General Smallwood was advancing with 1150 Maryland militia, and Colonel Gist with 700. A Hessian sergeant, boasting of the exploits of that night, exultingly exclaimed, "What a running about, barefoot, and half clothed, and in the light of their own fires! These showed us where to chase them, while they could not see us. We killed three hundred of the rebels with the bayonet. I stuck them myself like so many pigs, one after another, until the blood ran out of the touch-hole of my musket." Chaplain David Jones. His Address to the Troops at Ticonderoga. and on the 20th of September, 1817, the fortieth anniversary of the event, through the aid of their fellow-citizens, they reared the memento delineated in the engraving.' It is com 1 On that occasion the Reverend David Jones, an eminent Baptist clergyman, who was Wayne's chaplain, and with him at the time of the massacre, was present and made an address. He was then past eighty years of age. DAVID JONES was born in White Clay Creek Hundred, Newcastle county, Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736. His ancestors came from Wales in the early part of the last century, and settled at The Welsh Tract. Mr. Jones was educated for the ministry by the Reverend gers Clarke. He patriot cause, and became so obnox ious to the Tories, that, believing his life to be in danger, he left New Jersey, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1775, in charge of the Great Valley Baptist church. On the occasion of the Continental Fast, soon afterward observed, he preached a sermon before Colonel Dewee's regiment, entitled "Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless." It was published, and, being extensively circulated throughout the colonies, produced a salutary effect. In 1776, Mr. Jones received the appointment of chaplain to a Pennsylvania regiment under Colonel St. Clair, which was ordered to the Northern Department. He was on duty with St. Clair at Ticonderoga, where, when the enemy David Jones was hourly expected (October 20th, 1776) from Crown Point, he delivered a characteristic discourse to the regiment, which had a powerful effect upon them.* Chaplain Jones served through two campaigns under * I have before me a printed copy of that address, which was published soon afterward. I print it here as a favorable specimen of the manner in which the American soldiers were addressed by their chaplains. "ADDRESS "To General St. Clair's Brigade at Ticonderoga, when the Enemy were hourly expected, October 20, 1776. "MY COUNTRYMEN, FELLOW-SOLDIERS, AND FRIENDS, "I am sorry that during this campaign I have been favored with so few opportunities of addressing you on subjects of the greatest importance both with respect to this life and that which is to come; but what is past can not be recalled, and Now time will not admit an enlargement, as we have the greatest reason to expect the advancement of our enemies as speedily as Heaven will permit. [The wind blew to the north, strongly.] Therefore, at present, let it suffice to bring to your remembrance some necessary truths. "It is our common faith, and a very just one too, that all events on earth are under the notice of that God in whom we live, move, and have our being; therefore we must believe that, in this important struggle with the worst of enemies, he has assigned us our post here at Ticonderoga. Our situation is such that, if properly defended, we shall give our enemies a fatal blow, and in great measure prove the means of the salvation of North America. "Such is our present case, that we are fighting for all that is near and dear to us, while our enemies are engaged in the worst of causes, their design being to subjugate, plunder, and enslave a free people that have done them no harm. Their tyrannical views are so glaring, their cause so horribly bad, that there still remain too much goodness and humanity in Great Britain to engage unanimously against us, therefore they have been obliged (and at a most amazing expense, too) to hire the assistance of a barbarous, mercenary people, that would cut your throats for the small reward of sixpence. No doubt these have hopes of being our task-masters, and would rejoice at our calamities. "Look, oh! look, therefore, at your respective states, and anticipate the consequences if these vassals are suffered to enter! It would fail the most fruitful imagination to represent, in a proper light, what anguish, what horror, what distress would spread over the whole! See, oh! see the dear wives of your bosoms forced from their peaceful habitations, and perhaps used with such indecency that modesty would forbid the description. Behold the fair virgins of your land, whose benevolent souls are now filled with a thousand good wishes and hopes of seeing their admirers return home crowned with victory, would not only meet with a doleful disappointment, but also with such insults and abuses that would induce their tender hearts to pray for the shades of death. See your children exposed as vagabonds to all the calamities of this life! Then, oh! then adieu to all felicity this side the grave! "Now all these calamities may be prevented if our God be for us-and who can doubt of this who observes the point in which the wind now blows-if you will only acquit yourselves like men, and with firmness of mind go forth against your enemies, resolving either to return with victory or to die gloriously. Every one that may fall in this dispute will be justly esteemed a martyr to liberty, and his name will be had in precious memory while the love of freedom remains in the breasts of men. All whom God will favor to see a glorious victory, will return to their respective states with every mark of honor, and be received with joy and gladness of heart by all friends to liberty and lovers of mankind. "As our present case is singular, I hope, therefore, that the candid will excuse me, if I now conclude with an uncommon The Paoli Monument. The Inscriptions upon it posed of a blue clouded marble pedestal, surmounted by a white marble pyramid. The whole monument is about nine feet high, and stands over the center of the broad grave where the remains of the patriots repose. A peachtree shades its eastern side. Around it, in oblong form, is a massive stone wall five feet in height, covered with stucco. Upon the four sides of the pedestal are appropriate inscriptions,' somewhat defaced by the villain-hand of wanton destructiveness, or the marauding relic-seeker. Here, far away from the hum of towns and cities, rest General Gates, and was chaplain to a brigade under Wayne in the autumn of 1777. He was with that officer at the "Paoli massacre," and narrowly escaped death. He had been in the battle at the Brandywine a few days before, and was in the engagement at Germantown. He accompanied the army to Whitemarsh and Valley Forge; was with Wayne in the battle at Monmouth, and in all his subsequent campaigns, until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in the autumn of 1781. He was so active in the cause of freedom, that a reward was offered for him by General Howe, and a detachment was sent to the Great Valley, on one occasion, to arrest him.* At the close of the war he retired to his farm and church. When General Wayne took command of the army in the Northwestern Territory, against the Indians, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his chaplain, and accompanied him. When the war of 1812 broke out, he again entered the army, being then seventy-six years old, and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson until the close of that contest. His last public act was to address the people assembled to dedicate the Paoli Monument. He died on the 5th of February, 1820, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church-yard, in sight of Valley Forge. The portrait here given I copied from an excellent cabinet picture of the chaplain in the possession of his grandson, Horatio Gates Jones, Jr., of Philadelphia, who kindly furnished me with the materials for this brief sketch of the public services of that eminent patriot and divine. The following are the inscriptions written by William Darlington, M. D., L. L. D., of West Chester: NORTH SIDE. "The atrocious massacre which this stone commemorates was perpetrated by British troops under the immediate command of Major-general Grey." WEST SIDE.- -"Sacred to the memory of the Patriots who on this spot fell a sacrifice to British barbar. ity, during the struggle for American Independence, on the night of the 20th September, 1777." SOUTH SIDE." Here repose the remains of fifty-three American soldiers, who were the victims of coldaddress, in substance principally extracted from the writings of the servants of God in the Old Testament; though, at the same time, it is freely acknowledged that I am not possessed of any similar power either of blessing or cursing. "1. Blessed be that man who is possessed of true love of liberty; and let all the people say, Amen. "2. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the common rights of mankind; and let all the people say, Amen. "3. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the United States of America; and let all the people say, Amen. "4. Blessed be that man who will use his utmost endeavor to oppose the tyranny of Great Britain, and to vanquish all her forces invading North America; and let all the people say, Amen. "5. Blessed be that man who is resolved never to submit to Great Britain; and let all the people say, Amen. "6. Blessed be that man who in the present dispute esteems not his life too good to fall a sacrifice in defense of his country; let his posterity, if any he has, be blessed with riches, honor, virtue, and true religion; and let all the people say, Amen. "Now, on the other hand, as far as is consistent with the Holy Scriptures, let all these blessings be turned into curses to him who deserts the noble cause in which we are engaged, and turns his back to the enemy before he receives proper orders to retreat; and let all the people say, Amen. "Let him be abhorred by all the United States of America. "Let faintness of heart and fear never forsake him on earth. "Let him be a magor missabile, a terror to himself and all around him. "Let him be accursed in his outgoing, and cursed in his incoming; cursed in lying down, and cursed in uprising; cursed in basket, and cursed in store. "Let him be cursed in all his connections, till his wretched head with dishonor is laid low in the dust; and let all the soldiers say, Amen. "And may the God of all grace, in whom we live, enable us, in defense of our country, to acquit ourselves like men, to his honor and praise. Amen and Amen." * On one occasion, while reconnoitering alone, he saw a dragoon dismount and enter a house for refreshments. Mr. Jones boldly abstracted the horseman's pistols, and, going into the house, claimed him as his prisoner. The dragoon was unarmed. and was obliged to obey the orders of his captor, to mount and ride into the American camp. The event caused great merri ment, and Wayne laughed immoderately at the idea of his chaplain's capturing a British dragoon. After making a sketch of the monument, and dining upon crackers, cheese, and apples -using the plinth of the pedestal for a table-we resumed the reins, and retraced the Lancaster road as far as the Paoli tavern, where a branch road leads to West Chester. Here I parted company with Mr. Agnew, who returned to Philadelphia in the cars, and I journeyed alone toward the Brandywine. Although the fields were shorn, and the orchards were bare of fruit and foliage, yet, on every side, were evidences of fertility and abundance attested by fine farm-houses, spacious stone barns, and numerous plethoric barracks. The country is beautifully diversified and well watered; clear streams, without bridges, intersect the highway in many places. I reached West Chester at dark, distant eight miles from the Paoli tavern, having passed, on the way, near the residence of General Wayne. WAYNE'S RESIDENCE." West Chester is the seat of justice of Chester county. It is in Goshen township, twenty-three miles from Philadelphia, and five south of the Great Valley. It is a pleasant village, containing a population of about three thousand, who are noted for their intelligence and general refinement. It was a mere hamlet when the armies passed by after the battle on the Brandywine,' a few miles distant; and there are now not many mementoes of the event in existence. Eye-witnesses have gone down into the grave, and the old dwellings have given place to more modern structures, except the Turk's Head tavern, and one or two other buildings. At Guss's Inn, where I tarried for the night, I met Mr. Joseph Townsend, a nephew of the late Joseph Townsend, of Baltimore, who wrote an account of the battle of Brandywine from his own personal recollections, and which was published in 1846, with an accurate survey of the scene of action, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mr. Townsend, who is familiar with every locality connected with the battle, kindly offered to go over the ground with me the next morning. 1848. I breakfasted by candle-light, and, at seven o'clock, we were on our way to December 1, Jefferis's Ford, on the Brandywine, two and a half miles from West Chester. Thick clouds covered the heavens, and a biting northeast wind, bearing a few tiny snowflakes and pellets of soft hail, evinced the presence of winter. The old ford, where the division of the British army under Howe and Cornwallis crossed the Brandywine, was eight blooded cruelty in the well-known 'Massacre at Paoli,' while under the command of General Anthony Wayne, an officer whose military conduct, bravery, and humanity were equally conspicuous throughout the Revolutionary War." EAST SIDE." This memorial, in honor of Revolutionary Patriotism, was erected September 20th, 1817, by the REPUBLICAN ARTILLERISTS of Chester county, aided by the contributions of their fellow-citizens." The Brandywine Creek rises near the boundary of Lancaster and Chester counties, Pennsylvania, and flows through Delaware. After uniting with Christiana Creek, it enters the Delaware River, forming the harbor of Wilmington. It is navigable as high as Brandywine village. This is copied from Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. The house is of stone, and ranked among the first country mansions of the period. It is about a mile and a half south of the Paoli tavern. Jefferis's Ford. Sconnel Town, Osborne's Hill, and Birmingham Meeting-house On the high ground upon the or ten rods above the bridge which now spans the stream. From Jefferis's Ford we proceeded toward the Birmingham meeting-house, famous in the annals of the Brandywine bat tle as the spot near which the most san- FERIS'S FORD.! the road along which Cornwallis marched VIEW AT JEF over the high ground eastward of the Brandywine, passing the site of Sconnel Town,' Strodes's Mill, and the field where the British army formed for action on the southern slopes of Osborn's Hill. We were thoroughly chilled when we reached Birmingham meeting-house, delineated on the next page, situated about four miles below Jefferis's Ford. There we found a comfortable shelter from the piercing wind under its spacious shed, where we sat down with Bowen's and Futhey's Plan of the Battleground' before us, and contemplated the memorable events which occurred in this vicinity. STONE HOUSE AT JEFFERIS'S FORD. The British fleet under Lord Howe, bearing a land force eighteen thousand strong, under the command of his brother, General Sir William Howe, sailed up the Chesapeake, and landed at Turkey Point, on the west side of the River Elk, about eleven miles from Elkton, at its head, on the 25th of August, 1777. Howe's destination was Philadelphia. He had a July 23, left Sandy Hooka with the intention of passing up the Delaware, but, when at the capes of that river, he was informed of the obstructions which the Americans had placed in its channel, and he proceeded to the Chesapeake. The two days and nights after 1777. This view is from the easterly bank of the Brandywine. The ford was at the mouth of the little creek seen issuing from the small bridge on the left. The Brandywine here is broad and shallow, with quite a rapid current. 2 Sconnel Town was a hamlet of two or three dwellings, one or two shops, and a school-house, situated a short distance from Jefferis's Ford, on the road to the Birmingham meeting-house. That building having been taken possession of by the Americans for an hospital, the Quakers who worshiped there held their meetings in a wheel-wright's shop at Sconnel Town. They were holding a week-day meeting there on the day of the battle. Not a vestige of Sconnel Town may now be seen, except the remains of a cellar on the easterly side of the road. 3 This plan is from an actual survey made during the summer of 1846, under the direction of John S. Bowen and J. Smith Futhey, of Chester. The position of the forces in action, many of the houses, and other localities as they existed, was ascertained from a map drawn by officers of the British army, and published a few months after the battle (in April, 1778). De Chastellux, who visited the battle-ground with La Fayette in 1781, mentions the fact that he had one of these English maps as a guide. The roads of the present day, and the relative position to them of the houses, woods, &c., of the Revolution, are carefully laid down upon the map of Bowen and Futhey, which forms the basis of the one printed on page 171 of this work. On the day when Sir William Howe entered the Chesapeake, he received a letter from Lord George Germaine, dated May 18th, giving him the first intimation that aid would be expected from him in favor |