were saved by the humanity of a British Captain, who dared to disobey the orders of his General.'

[Hale's United States, page 180.

"Three days after this affair, Colonel Richard Butler, with a detachment of infantry, assisted by Major Lee with a part of his cavalry, fell in with a small party of chasseurs and yagers under Captain Donop, which he instantly charged, and, without the loss of a man, killed ten on the spot, and took the officer commanding the chasseurs, and eighteen of the yagers prisoners. Only the extreme roughness of the country, which impeded the action of the cavalry, and prevented part of the infantry from coming up, enabled a man of the enemy to escape. Some interest was taken at the time in this small affair, because it seemed, in some measure, to revenge the loss of Colonel Baylor.

[Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. 1, p. 270.

General Wayne did not invite, but demanded a Court Martial, which was granted; that tribunal honorably acquitted him, stating that he had done all that a brave and meritorious officer could have done similarly circumstanced.

The volunteer, military soldiers and other citizens of Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Philadelphia city and county, and perhaps Schuylkill and Montgomery counties have purchased 20 acres or upwards, embracing the massacre ground, upon which a mound has been reared, composed of the bones of the butchered, around which a brick wall has been built, and in front of the gateway thereto, on the centre of the top of the mound, a marble or free-stone monument has been erected commemorative of that disasterous night to the brave and unsuspecting soldiery under the command of the bold and chivalrous Wayne.

CHAPTER V.

The original design laid and possessed by Howe after the battle of Brandywine was to bring General Washington to another battle, and for the purpose of giving location to the seat of war, under cover of his shipping determined to make a descent upon Philadelphia with the view of taking possession thereof. He accordingly pushed one division across the Schuylkill at a ford called Fatland, and another division at a ford called Gordon's. The American soldiers which were stationed to dispute their passage at these two points were forced to retire before superior numbers. Every obstacle in the way of a march towards the city being thus removed, General Howe with the main body began to move onward about midnight, and encamped on or near to the Ridge Road at some distance from the city. It appears that Congress and the people generally called for another battle in order to save the Capitol. Washington, however, whose calm deliberations were always found judicious, decided against making an attack upon the enemy, thinking it better no doubt (in the crippled and unprovided state of his troops) to postpone his attack, and suffer Howe to take peaceable possession of the city, then and afterwards to make a descent upon him in the strength of his might and serve a military ejectment in the use of powder, ball and bayonets, and dispossess him at once and perhaps capture his whole army. This was an enlarged hope no doubt in the bosom of the commander-in-chief, as will be gathered from the following:

"He had previously marched to give battle to his enemy, skirmishing had already taken place between the front of each army, but driven from action by an unusually heavy and cold rain, the gun-locks of the Americans were rendered useless, their cartridges became saturated with water, many of the soldiers were unprovided with bayonets. A fearful situation indeed with a well disciplined army in his vicinity and "scarcely a

were saved by the humanity of a British Captain, who dared to disobey the orders of his General."

[Hale's United States, page 180.

"Three days after this affair, Colonel Richard Butler, with a detachment of infantry, assisted by Major Lee with a part of his cavalry, fell in with a small party of chasseurs and yagers under Captain Donop, which he instantly charged, and, without the loss of a man, killed ten on the spot, and took the officer commanding the chasseurs, and eighteen of the yagers prisoners. Only the extreme roughness of the country, which impeded the action of the cavalry, and prevented part of the infantry from coming up, enabled a man of the enemy to escape. Some interest was taken at the time in this small affair, because it seemed, in some measure, to revenge the loss of Colonel Baylor.

[Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. 1, p. 270.

General Wayne did not invite, but demanded a Court Martial, which was granted; that tribunal honorably acquitted him, stating that he had done all that a brave and meritorious officer could have done similarly circumstanced.

The volunteer, military soldiers and other citizens of Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Philadelphia city and county, and perhaps Schuylkill and Montgomery counties have purchased 20 acres or upwards, embracing the massacre ground, upon which a mound has been reared, composed of the bones of the butchered, around which a brick wall has been built, and in front of the gateway thereto, on the centre of the top of the mound, a marble or free-stone monument has been erected commemorative of that disasterous night to the brave and unsuspecting soldiery under the command of the bold and chivalrous Wayne.

CHAPTER V.

The original design laid and possessed by Howe after the battle of Brandywine was to bring General Washington to another battle, and for the purpose of giving location to the seat of war, under cover of his shipping determined to make a descent upon Philadelphia with the view of taking possession thereof. He accordingly pushed one division across the Schuylkill at a ford called Fatland, and another division at a ford called Gordon's. The American soldiers which were stationed to dispute their passage at these two points were forced to retire before superior numbers. Every obstacle in the way of a march towards the city being thus removed, General Howe with the main body began to move onward about midnight, and encamped on or near to the Ridge Road at some distance from the city. It appears that Congress and the people generally called for another battle in order to save the Capitol. Washington, however, whose calm deliberations were always found judicious, decided against making an attack upon the enemy, thinking it better no doubt (in the crippled and unprovided state of his troops) to postpone his attack, and suffer Howe to take peaceable possession of the city, then and afterwards to make a descent upon him in the strength of his might and serve a military ejectment in the use of powder, ball and bayonets, and dispossess him at once and perhaps capture his whole army. This was an enlarged hope no doubt in the bosom of the commander-in-chief, as will be gathered from the following:

"He had previously marched to give battle to his enemy, skirmishing had already taken place between the front of each army, but driven from action by an unusually heavy and cold rain, the gun-locks of the Americans were rendered useless, their cartridges became saturated with water, many of the soldiers were unprovided with bayonets. A fearful situation indeed with a well disciplined army in his vicinity and "scarcely a

musket in a regiment could be discharged, and scarcely one cartridge in a box fit for use." He studying justly the safety of his army, withdrew and encamped at Warwick Furnace at some distance from the British army. General Washington's reasons for declining to give Howe battle in disputing further his entrance into Philadelphia were conclusive."

[Marshall's Washington, pages 162 and 3.

Congress left the Capitol (Philadelphia) on the evening of the 18th Sept., and convened at Lancaster on the 27th of the same month. That body afterwards met at Yorktown, Va.

General Washington after having previously made many diversions against and descents upon the enemy for the space of the three months elapsing after the battle of Brandywine, one on the Delaware below the city, another at Germantown, and others at White Marsh, Three Mile Run and Chestnut Hill with different degress of success, notwithstanding he was loser at Germantown, owing in a great measure to a very heavy fog, which operated against him, retired with his starving and almost naked army on the 11th of December into winter quarters at Valley Forge on the Schuylkill, twenty-five or twenty-seven miles from Philadelphia. Washington's army might have been tracked from White Marsh to Valley Forge by the blood from their bare and mangled feet upon the hard frozen ground. In addition to this, their sufferings from hunger were next akin to those endured at the hands of a famine..

One day previous to our leaving Philadelphia, I was out taking a walk around the city, on my return to the barracks I espied some fine looking cabbage in a back lot; I mentioned this to my comrades, and two of them and I agreed to go that night and procure a head apiece. Accordingly after dark we sallied forth and entered the lot, I had just pulled up a head and was leaning upon the fence waiting for my companions. Whilst in this position I was surprised and taken prisoner by a "strapping big" negro, who clasped my body fast in his arms.