The Philadelphia Campaign

by Thomas J McGuire

  Maxwell remained in command of the Corps of Light Infantry; Wayne remained at Wilmington.

  Howe's army stayed at Head of Elk until the following day, September 3, when before daylight it began moving around Iron Hill to the right, swinging south and east toward Aikin's Tavern in Pencader. The king's troops crossed the Mason-Dixon line into the state of Delaware, formerly the three lower counties of Pennsylvania, as Capt. Lt. Francis Downman referred to it when he reported, “We entered Pennsylvania this day, having passed a large stone that is the boundary mark.”108 This was one of the crown stones, carved with the arms of Maryland and Pennsylvania, that had been set by the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon ten years earlier. By this move, Howe avoided a direct march on the American position at Iron Hill and outflanked Maxwell on the left. It also allowed von Knyphausen's column, which had been sent to the east side of the Elk River near Cecil Court House on foraging duty, to rejoin the main army with horses, cattle, and other livestock.

  “This spot is the Welsh tract we called Penn-Cadder,” Montrésor commented, noting one of the first Welsh settlements in America.109 From Aikin's Tavern, which became Howe's headquarters, Sir William Erskine, the British quartermaster general, ordered Captain Ewald and six mounted Jägers to “march at once to the left, where I should follow for five to six hundred paces a road which led to Iron Hill and Christiana Bridge.” As the sky lightened, the intrepid captain and the six horsemen started up the road, followed by the foot Jägers, who swung northward from the tavern and began marching toward Iron Hill and Newark.

  A sudden sheet of gunfire at point-blank range from behind a hedge annihilated the mounted Hessians; all six were either killed or wounded instantly. Ewald's horse, “which normally was well used to fire, reared so high several times” that he expected to be thrown. It was no wonder; his horse was grievously wounded in the belly. “Vorwärts, Jäger zu fuss!” Ewald shouted. “Foot Jägers forward!”

  Skirmishing erupted immediately, and the 400 Jägers fought a running battle between Pencader and Cooch's Mill near a bridge over the Christina Creek. Maxwell's Light Corps set up a series of small ambushes along the road and grudgingly fell back toward Iron Hill. “By this time it was broad daylight and we saw the mountain,” Ewald wrote of Iron Hill, which rises abruptly more than 200 feet above the sandy coastal plain. The startling, blood red soil on the hill reveals the origin of its name. It was “overgrown with woods, rising up like an amphitheater and occupied by enemy troops.”

  General Howe himself rode up to the action and ordered Lieutenant Colonel von Wurmb to drive Maxwell off the hill. “The charge was sounded, and the enemy was attacked so severely that we became masters of the mountain after a seven-hour engagement.”110

  The battle was a classic Ranger-type affair, with troops on both sides taking cover and moving through the woods in skirmish order. “We Jägers approach the enemy just like on the hunt,” Lt. Friedrich von Wangenheim had told his brother a few weeks earlier. “We crawl through the bushes on our bellies; upon sighting one, we stalk and shoot.”111 There was also fighting on open ground, where the light troops could mass into formation and charge with bayonets or hunting swords.

  “Then we saw the enemy, consisting of about one thousand men, as they marched into a thin woods,” the Jäger Corps journal recorded. “The Jäger Corps deployed from the middle, to right and left, and formed so that the Anspachers were in the middle, the point which the enemy attacked.” This was no easy fight; Maxwell's men made a spirited attack, and the report went on to say, “They were driven back into another woods with considerable effort. Here they defended themselves obstinately, which brought our right wing, under Captain Wreden, with the hangar [hunting sword] to the attack.” Some of the Continentals fell back to the far side of Cooch's Bridge, while others remained on Iron Hill. “Now, and only after the enemy retreated,” claimed the Jäger account, “a battalion of light infantry joined us for the first time, which General Howe had detached from the right to support us.”112

  The 1st Light Infantry Battalion attempted to come around on the left but was detained by swampy ground. The 2nd Light Infantry came up on the right of the Jägers, with the British grenadiers following behind. “The Yaugers received a heavy fire from them, & made some difficulty in passing the Bridge, but the 2d Batt Light Infantry coming up dash'd over and drove the Rebels, with the loss of 1 kill'd & 10 wounded,” Captain-Lieutenant Peebles of the grenadiers noted. “The Yaugers suffer'd about the same. The skirmishing continued in different parts of the wood first & last about an hour. The Rebels must have lost a good many, as five officers were found dead in the field.”113

  “The Hessian foot Jägers under Lieutenant Colonel von Wurmb…encountered the enemy outposts at Cooch's Bridge and attacked them,” Major Baurmeister reported. “Captain von Wreden gained a patch of woods on the enemy's left flank, from which he made a spirited attack.” The Jägers were equipped with a form of light artillery called “amusettes,” large, heavy muskets capable of firing a 1-inch ball several hundred yards. “When his jägers cannonaded their front with some amusettes and charged with bayonets [actually, hunting swords], the enemy withdrew in the direction of Christiana Bridge, leaving behind thirty killed—among them five officers—but taking their wounded with them.”114

  “Fell In With the Rebels at Seven [or] Eight in the Morning,” Lt. Gilbert Purdy of Major Holland's Guides and Pioneers wrote, “but They had not forgt their old Costoms: Stood A few Shot and Made the best of their way off. We Pursued them about and Killed 24 which we found the same Day and Some wonded.” Among the many difficult and dirty tasks of the Pioneers was the burial of the dead. “But the Loss of Rebels Could not Be none [known] for they Carried them off,” Purdy continued. “The Lose of our Army Was 2 men Killed and the number Wonded unnone [unknown.] We inCamped that Day at Couches Bridg.”115

  “The rebels left about 20 dead among which was a Captain of Lord Stirling's Reg't,” Montrésor noted. “The Rebel Deserters since Come in, say they lost 5 Captains.” The next morning, the chief engineer added, “Pioneers employed in burying the Rebels, more being found in the woods. Two of them Captains Dallas and Cumming lay just beyond the Bridge at Cooch's Mill.”116

  Capt. Archibald Dallas of New Jersey was from Spencer's Additional Continental Regiment, a unit attached to the Jersey Line and often referred to as the 5th New Jersey. His regimental commander, Col. Oliver Spencer, said he “served as a good and brave officer untill he fell which was in a skirmish with the enemy near Christian bridge in Delaware State in Sept. 1777.” Dallas's wife, Rachel, whom he had married five years earlier, was nine months pregnant and delivered a son, Archibald Dallas Jr., three weeks after her husband's death.117

  “In the morning of the 3rd Cornwallis & Knyphausen having formed a junction near Pencader or Atkin's tavern attacked Maxwell, who after a short resistance retired over White Clay Creek towards the main army with the loss of about forty killed,” Trooper John Donnaldson of the 1st Troop of Philadelphia Light Horse recalled. “Two of our Troopers fell in with a party of militia near Cooches mill from whence they had been driven by the enemy, & brought the intelligence to camp. The whole of the American army except the light infantry which remained on the lines, now took a position behind Red Clay Creek, having its left at Newport on the Christiana & on the road leading directly from the British camp to Phila.”118

  Howe was delighted. “Ye light Infantry & Yagers gave ye Rebel Corps at this place & Iron hill a complete trimming—they went on in ye most covered country you ever saw with more (I think) than their usual spirit,” he wrote to Grant in his barely legible scrawl. “Their perfidity was so great that ye Granadiers who were as willing to have had their share in ye business as could be wisht, could hardly keep up to support them in a run, their Guns galloping to get a shot.” His praise for the light troops—his favorite troops—was enthusiastic. “Worm [von Wurmb] behaved amazingly, as did our 2nd L. Infantry; ye first [1st Light Infantry] to thei
r great disappointment being shut off by an abominable Creek, that had it been fordable, Abercrombie would have cut off ye whole Party consisting of about 200 Men.” In the postscript, he emphasized, “Ewald, Freden [Wreden] & indeed all ye Officers of ye Yagers behaved charmingly.”119

  Based on reports filtering back to headquarters, Washington tried to put as good a face on the loss as possible. “This morning the Enemy came out with considerable force and three pieces of Artillery, against our Light advanced Corps,” he told Congress, “and after some pretty smart skirmishing obliged them to retreat, being far inferior to them in number and without Cannon.” As far as casualties were concerned, “ours, though not exactly known is not very considerable,” he prevaricated. “Theirs, we have reason to believe, was much greater, as some of our parties composed of expert Marksmen, had opportunities of giving them several close, well-directed Fires, more particularly in once instance, when a body of Riflemen formed a kind of Ambuscade,” most likely a reference to the opening volley where Ewald was ambushed.120

  Exactly what went wrong is difficult to say, but it likely was due to the new corps, a lack of coordination, a lack of experience, and a commander who was coming under increasing criticism. “After advancing as far as Wilmington,” Lafayette commented, “the general detached a thousand men under Maxwell, the senior but also the most inept brigadier general in the army. At the first advance of the English, he was beaten by their advance guard near Christiana Bridge.”121 Congressman Henry Laurens, soon to become the president of Congress, wrote on September 5 that he had spoken with Lt. Col. Louis Casimir, Baron de Holtzendorff, a Franco-German soldier of fortune who had served on the staff of Frederick the Great and was author of the book Elements of Tactics. “Baron Holzendorff this minute from Camp tells me one of our Generals misbehaved,” he said, referring to Maxwell. “The Baron whispers—‘Your Soldiers my Dear Colonel are very good Mans, so good as any brave Mans in the World, but your Officers my Dear Colonel your Officers’— & then bursts his soft Laugh. I understand him and & believe he is pretty just in his meaning.”122 Another critic of Maxwell was Lt. Col. T. Will Heth of the 3rd Virginia, who was one of the light infantry officers and a good friend of Daniel Morgan. “You have been greatly wishd for since the Enemies Landing at the head of Elk,” Heth told Morgan. “Maxwell's Corps ’Twas expected would do great things—we had opportunities—and any body but an old-woman, would have availd themselves of them.”123 Despite the criticisms and the defeat, Maxwell retained command, and the Light Corps was to continue in its duties of scouting and screening.

  Howe established camp on the battlefield. “Part of the army with the first Battalion of Guards marched at 4 in the Morning to Iron Hill & fell in with a party of the Rebels commanded by Col. Maxwell,” Lord Cantelupe wrote in his diary. “They killed & wounded about an hundred chosen Rebels. In the Evening [we] Encamped on Iron hill.”124 The Guards did not actually engage in this fight, as Sir George Osborn indicated to his brother: “I have nothing material to say of my own particular situation to interest you more than that the Brigade of Guards have always been with the advanced part of the army. At Cristina Creek we came up just upon the Corps under the rebel General Maxwell giving way.”125

  The British placed their left flank on Iron Hill, with their right beyond Howe's headquarters at Aikin's Tavern. From this position, they were within sight of both the Delaware and the Chesapeake. Captain-Lieutenant Peebles was camped with the British Grenadiers on the low ground west of Cooch's Bridge. “About 1/2 a mile in our Rear the Guards are Encamp'd on a high ground call'd Iron Hill from which there is a very extensive prospect of the Country all round,” the Highland officer wrote. “You see the Delaware below New Castle about 7 miles distant, about East, a long view of the Eastern Shore & Lower Counties, flat & woody. The Ground about Head of Elk & Chesapeake, & on the Wilmington road, you see the Village of Newark & the Ground about Christeen &ca.”126

  For the next five days, Howe camped at Cooch's Bridge and Iron Hill, while Washington's army pulled back from White Clay Creek and began to build entrenchments along Red Clay Creek near Newport, a small village on the road to Wilmington. “Now then is the time for our most strenuous exertions,” Washington harangued the army in the General Orders on September 5. “One bold stroke will free the land from rapine, devastations and burnings, and female innocence from brutal lust and violence.” He reminded the men, “Two years we have maintained the war and struggled with difficulties innumerable. But the prospect has brightened, and our affairs put on a better face.” Calling them to duty, he told the troops, “If we behave like men, this third Campaign will be our last. Ours is the main army; to us our Country looks for protection…. Animated by motives like these, soldiers fighting in the cause of innocence, humanity and justice, will never give way, but, with undaunted resolution, press on to conquest.”127

  Despite Washington's tirade in the General Orders about damaging the local area, problems persisted. “Notwithstanding the repeated orders against plundering & burning fences, that abominable practice is still continued to the Shame & disgrace of the brigade,” Weedon's Brigade Orders stated on September 6. “Complaints are made that Corn fields are pillaged without restraint, the fence rails burn'd up & many other outrages committed by the soldiery, to prevent which in future, the Officers are once more requested to attend particularly to the behaviour of their men & to punish Such as they see with green corn unless they can make it appear they bought it & any fence rails they may see burning, the Mess to which the fire belongs is to be made answerable.” Further, camp sanitation was still a disgrace and a danger, not to mention obnoxious. “The QM [Quartermaster] Serjeants will immediately parade the C C [Camp Colors] Men of their Regts. & cover up all filth & nastiness in their respective fronts, and any Soldier daring to ease himself in any other place but the proper necessaries provided for that purpose shall receive Ten lashes on his bare back for every Offence.”128

  On September 6, “the whole Army moved nigher to the Enemy, head Quarters was moved from Willmington to new Port,” Joseph Clark of Stephen's Division wrote. That night, “all the heavy Baggage was sent off to Brandewine expecting next morning to make the attack, but the Enemy did not come on, so nothing was done this day but fortifying. Parapet walls were thrown up to a great extent, trees fell to secure the flanks & important passes.”129

  The Continentals prepared for a major showdown. “As the Approach of the Enemy gave reason to apprehend an Attack, the whole of the troops were ordered to throw up Breast Works in front of their respective Camps,” Lt. William Beatty of the 7th Maryland noted in his diary. “We began this work to day and Compleated it on Monday the 8th about 10 o'Clock.”130 Trees were felled and their branches sharpened into abatis, tangled obstructions, to block roads. From Wilmington, Private Hutchinson remembered that his fellow militiamen “were then ordered to the banks of Red Clay Creek and were employed in cutting timber to create all possible obstructions in the public roads and highways for the purpose of preventing the passage of the enemy in their march to Philadelphia.”131 Gun emplacements were constructed; according to Ewald, General Sullivan “had stationed himself behind the Christiana Bridge. He had interspersed the marshy bank with thirty cannon, making a good defile there.”132 Washington again harangued the men, calling them to duty. Spirits in the American forces were high as the troops braced for a British attack.

  Grant reported to General Harvey in London:

  The Rebells Army was posted at New Port with Christine Creek up their Left, the Heights of Wilmington & Brandy Wine River upon their Right, the Delaware in their Rear, Redoubts & Abbaties in their Front. Washington expecting that the attack would be made as He wished upon the New Port side, was determined to Risk an Action to save Philadelphia which was avowedly & in all their publick orders the object of all their Efforts. The Rebell Genl. & his Council agreed in opinion that a more advantegious Position could not be found, to prevent our penetrating into their darling Province.133


  But no attack came. In the predawn hours of September 8, the Crown Forces struck camp and marched northward to Newark as a strange glow filled the northern sky. “The whole moved 2 hours before daylight—a remarkable borealis,” Captain Montrésor noted. Leaving the flat, sandy coastal plains of the Delmarva Peninsula, Howe's army crossed the fall line marked by Iron Hill and entered the hilly region beyond. “An amazing strong ground—marched this day about 12 miles to Head Quarters—a very strong country,” the chief engineer commented. “At 1/4 past 7 this morning marching through Newark the weather was very cold indeed. Encamped this day at 1 o'clock…[on] the road from Newport to Lancaster in the way to New Garden.”134 Ens. Carl Rüffer of the Regiment von Mirbach described Newark as “a very pleasantly built city of about sixty houses, but completely uninhabited. Also, now and again, very pleasing country homes which previous to this time we had seldom encountered in this area because it is rather thinly settled.”135 James Parker observed, “The country is entirely deserted. We pass the Village of Newark, remarkable for Sedition & Presbeterian sermons, the inhabitants had all left their houses.”136

  In the American encampment, drums sounded “The General,” the signal to strike camp. Lt. James McMichael of the Pennsylvania State Regiment wrote in his journal:

  September 8: At 3 A.M. the General was beat and all tents struck. All the regiments were paraded, the men properly formed with an officer at the head of every platoon, and after wheeling to the right, we remained under arms until 9 o'clock. Then the alarm guns were fired and the whole army drawn up in line of battle, on the east side of Red Clay Creek, with Gen. Greene's division to the right. Here we remained for some time, when Gen. Weedon's brigade (of which my regiment was a part), was detached to the front to bring on the attack. We crossed the creek and marched about a league [3 miles] to an eminence near Mr. McCannon's meeting house, and there awaited the approach of the enemy, who were within half a mile of us. They however encamped, which occasioned us to remain under arms all night, the sentries keeping up a constant fire.137