1777.] IflSTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 303 



place in the measures adopted by the Council. The threatened 

 danger was at hand. Economy yielded to necessity, and the 

 Council at once resumed the work of preparation with vif,'<jr, 

 whicli had been unwisely shickened during tiie short period that 

 the enemy remained invisible. Additional troops were ordered 

 to Chester, and an ecpial number to Downingtown ; the militia 

 from Northampton that had been ordered to proceed northward, 

 were now directed to proceed to Lancaster " witii all possible 

 expedition," and in pursuance of a recommendation of Congress, 

 all disaftected persons were ordered to be arrested and sent into 

 the interior. 



The fleet passed up the Elk river as far as the ships could be 

 navigated with safety, and on the 25th of August landed about 

 18,000 men, " in good health and spirits, admirably supplied 

 with all the implements of war, and led by an experienced 

 general, of unquestionable military talents."' On the day before 

 Howe landed, the American army passed through Piiiladelphia 

 and marched towards the Brandywine. Being deficient in the 

 means of transportation for army baggage, a pressing request 

 was made upon the Council to supply the deficiency. This re- 

 quest was promptly responded to by an order upon the Justices 

 of the Counties of Philadelphia and Chester; each county being 

 required to furnish twenty-five wagons with four horses each. 



General John Armstrong was placed in command of the militia 

 at Chester. In a letter to the President of the Council, dated 

 at that place on the 21)th of August, we are informed that out of 

 the "chaos" in which Gen. Armstrong had found things at that 

 place, he had then forwarded 1,800 men ; that in concert with 

 Gen. Potter he had formed a rifle regiment [battalion], and 

 placed at the head of it Col. Dunlap, " a prudent man, and not 

 unacquainted with the business of a partisan." This rifle bat- 

 talion, consisting of three hundred privates, which was to march 

 from Marcus Hook the next day, and one hundred and fifty sent 

 from Billingsport the same day, were exclusive of the number 

 above mentioned. The head quarters of Gen. Washington were 

 now at Wilmington, where these troops united with the regular 

 army. On the first of September, the militia that had been 

 called out in Lancaster County were also ordered by Gen. 

 Washington to join his army at Wilmington. 



Up to the 3d of September, the enemy had made but little 

 progress towards Philadelphia. Gen. Maxwell had advanced 

 with a body of light troops to Iron Hill, in Pencader Hundred, 

 Delaware, where on that day he was attacked by a column of the 

 British army, led by Lord Cornwallis, and driven beyond White 

 Clay Creek,' with a loss of forty killed and Avounded.- Up to the 



1 Marshall's Life of Washington, i. 153. » lb. 155. 



