126 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In July 1777 tiie British army, under General Howe, sailed from 

 New York, and landing at the iiead o! Chesapeake Bay commenced a 

 victorious march towards Philadelphia. This movement brought on the 

 battle of Brandy wine which was fought upon the 11th September, Gen- 

 eral Washington boing in command of the Americans, and the result 

 being their total defeat. The Queen's dangers formed part of General 

 Howe's army on that memorable day, and covered themselves with glory. 

 They were then under the command of Major We}Tnss and were with 

 the right wing of the army, which was commanded by Knyphausen. 

 The Brandywine is a small river which flows into the Delaware from the 

 north, entering the latter near Wilmington. It is fordablo in several 

 places, yet it seemed to offer such advantages for defence that Washing- 

 ton took up a position behind it with a view to check the British in their 

 advance on Philadelphia. Washington, who had been on the western bank 

 of the Brandywine, with his headquarters at Washington, crossed to the 

 east bank by Chad's Ford before daylight on the morning of the 9th 

 September, and established his headquarters at a house about a mile to 

 the eastward of the Brandywine. The British, the same evening, moved 

 forward in two columns, Knyphausen with the left and Cornwallis with 

 the right. On the morning of the 10th they united at Kennet Square, 

 a small village about seven miles west of the Brandywine. That evening 

 tihey advanced two miles farther or to within a mile of Welsh's tavern, 

 and about five miles west from Chad's Ford. 



On the morning of the 11th September, the day of the battle on 

 the Brandywine, the main body of the American army was posted on the 

 heights, east of Chad's Ford and commanding the passage of the river. 

 The brigades of Muhlenberg and Weeden, which composed General 

 Greene's division, occupied a position directly east of the ford. Wayne's 

 division and Proctor's ai-tillery were posted upon the brow of an emin- 

 ence near (Jhad's house, immediately above the ford; and tiie brigades 

 of Sullivan, Sterling and Stephen, whicli formed the right wing, ex- 

 tended upwards of two miles up river from Chad's Ford. At Pyles' 

 Ford, two miles below. General Armstrong was posted with one thousand 

 ]\'nnsylvania Militia; and General Maxwell with upwards of one thou- 

 sand light troops took post on the heights on the west side of the river 

 about a mile from Chad's Ford to check the advance of the British to- 

 wards that crossing place. 



General Howe's plan of attack was similar to that adopted in the 

 battle of Long Island and involved a circuitous march for the purpose 

 of getting on the enemy's flank and rear. At daybreak the column of 

 Cornwallis, which was composed of two battalions of Grenadiers, two 

 of light infantry, the Hessian grenadiers, part of the seventy-first regi- 



