128 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Rangers engaged at the battle of Brandywine, 14 were either killed or 

 wounded. There can be no better proof than this statement affords of 

 the closeness and severity of the fighting in which they were engaged in 

 this famous battle. That their merits were duly appreciated is shown 

 by the following notice which appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger of 

 December 3rd, 1777, evidently from an official source: — 



No regiment in the army has gained more honor in this campaign 

 than the Queen's Rangers; they have been engaged in every principal 

 service and behaved nobly ; indeed, most of the officers have been wounded 

 since we took the field in Pennsylvania. General Knyphausen, after the 

 action of the 11th September, at Brandywine, despatched an aide-de- 

 camp to General Howe with ah account of it. What he said concerning 

 it was short but to the purpose. " Tell the General," says he, " I must 

 be silent as to the behaviour of the Rangers, for I want even words to 

 express my own astonishment to give him an idea of it." The following 

 appeared in orders: " The Commander in Chief desires to convey to the 

 officers and men of the Queen's Rangers his approbation and acknow- 

 ledgement for their spirited and gallant behaviour in the engagement of 

 the 11th inst., and to assure them how well he is satisfied with their dis- 

 tinguished conduct on that day. His excellency only regrets their having 

 suffered so much in the gallant execution of their duty." 



The American loss in the battle of Brandywine amounted to 300 

 killed, 600 wounded and 400 taken prisoners. They also lost ten field 

 pieces £ind a howitzer. Many French officers were engaged in this action 

 on the side of the Americans, and one of them, the Baron de St. Ouray, 

 was taken prisoner. Had Brandywine been followed up as it should 

 have been, it would have became the decisive battle of the war. 



The battle of Brandywine opened the way to Philadelphia which 

 was occupied by General Howe on the 2Gth September. AVhen he first 

 took possession of. the city the British general stationed the main division 

 of his army at Germantown which is about eight miles to the north of 

 Philadelphia. Washington encamped about twenty miles from the Penn- 

 sylvania Capital, at Pennibecker's Mills, between the Perkimony and 

 Skippack Creaks. By the beginning of October Washington's army had 

 been considerably reinforced while General Howe's was much weakened 

 by the absence of the detachments which had been sent for the purpose 

 of reducing Billingsport and the forts on the Delaware. Washington 

 was aware of this and conceived the design of surprising the British force 

 at Germantown and destroying it before it could be reinforced. Judge 

 Jones in his history of New York asserts that General Howe was in- 

 formed of this design, but he thought so little about the matter that he 

 never thought proper to let the commanding officer at Germantown know 



