During the Revolutionary War (1775-83) armies under General George Washington and General Sir William Howe clashed on Brandywine Creek, southeastern Pennsylvania, in September 1777. This Revolutionary defeat helped open the way for the British conquest of Philadelphia.

In early June 1777, with two humiliating setbacks for the king's forces at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton (December 26, 1776, and January 3, 1777) suffered the previous winter, Howe began a series of maneuvers designed to lure the Continental army out of its winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, and to confuse Washington as to the British general's ultimate goal. By the end of June, however, Howe was back in New York with little to show for his efforts. Then, on July 23, he and his army--complete with baggage, artillery, horses, and provisions for a month--disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean aboard vessels in the fleet of his brother, Lord Howe. The army landed at Head of Elk, Maryland, intending to march on Philadelphia, which was almost 50 miles away. To prevent the British advance, Washington placed his army along the eastern shore of the Brandywine, a creek of uneven depth that had several fords, or shallow areas, where crossing was possible.

Howe divided his army into two divisions under Lord Cornwallis and General Wilhelm von Knyphausen. His plan was to keep Washington preoccupied with a frontal assault from Knyphausen's division, while Cornwallis marched north to a ford to outflank the Revolutionaries. Hearing first that Howe was on the west bank, Washington ordered General John Sullivan's division to cross over the stream and attack. But soon a second dispatch from Sullivan arrived refuting that information, and Washington retracted his orders. In the meantime Howe, Cornwallis, and two-thirds of their forces had crossed Brandywine Creek and approached the right of the Continental line. By withdrawing Sullivan's men from their advance, Washington had unwittingly spared almost certain annihilation of that division and maintained the integrity of his position. When word arrived that the British were on his right, he sent the three divisions to the Birmingham (Quaker) Meeting House to meet them. Washington initially remained at the center with General Nathanael Greene's division, while General Anthony Wayne's forces were to stand on the left against Knyphausen at Chadd's Ford.

The battle opened late in the afternoon near the Meeting House, with Knyphausen beginning a bombardment of Wayne's position shortly thereafter. The terrain was uneven and the Revolutionaries were badly situated, with Sullivan's division separated from the other two. While attempting to close the gap, the British and their Hessian mercenaries bore down on the Revolutionaries with bayonets drawn, and the unnerved troops began to scatter. The outnumbered remnants of the three divisions rallied bravely but fell back into the ranks of Greene's division, which had moved north to assist them. The reorganized line held for a time but could not withstand the enemy's steady advance. Greene began a slow, fighting retreat, and when the sun finally set, he withdrew his entire division; the British, exhausted by the action and with night falling, did not follow. Wayne's forces were also no match for Knyphausen, and they too withdrew with the rest of the Continental army toward Chester. Howe was the victor, and he marched into Philadelphia on September 26, 1777. But he had failed to deliver a crushing blow to Washington at Brandywine.

Bibliography:

Robert Middlekauf, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982)

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