ARP205 Congress Enters 1779

Over the winter of 1778-79, the Continental Congress continued its difficult work of keeping the states united, and continuing the war.  Many of the leading delegates had left Congress for other duties.  Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were both in France as diplomats.  Caesar Rodney was now President of Delaware.  Thomas Jefferson had returned to Virginia, where he was revising the state’s statutes and would soon be elected governor.  John Hancock had returned to Congress in the summer of 1778, but after no one seemed interested in returning him to the president’s chair, he left again for Boston and focused more on his business affairs. 

Laurens Controversies

President Henry Laurens, however, had his own issues while presiding over Congress. When he first took the chair in November 1777, he had to deal with the Conway Cabal.  

Henry Laurens

Congress’ big accomplishment during Laurens’ presidency was the passage of the Articles of Confederation.  But a year later, those Articles were going nowhere with state ratification.  The other big issue on Laurens' "to do list was to manage the new alliance with France.

The departure of some of the most important delegates, along with Congress’ failure to meet the needs of the army, and its constant demands on the states, led many to lose respect for Congress.  

Furthering the problem was an increasingly apparent divide between southern delegates and New Englanders.  There had always been some level of distrust between the regions.  Early in the war though, New England was so focused on getting the southern states into the war, that it went out of its way to support southern interests, including the selection of many military leaders from the south in the new Continental Army.  Sectional interests had been growing, and having an impact on many other issues.

Thompson Affair

As all this was happening, another public attack on Congress came in December from General William Thompson.  You may recall Thompson had been one of the first officers from Pennsylvania to join the Continental Army.  His regiment of riflemen arrived only a short time after General Washington took command.  Washington was not a big fan of Thompson, but Congress promoted him anyway to brigadier in March 1776.  When Washington moved the army from Boston to New York, he sent General Thompson off to Quebec.  Thompson managed to get captured only a couple of months after his promotion.  

The British paroled the general and allowed him to return to Pennsylvania, on the condition that he not resume any military duties until exchanged for a British general.  For the next few years, Thompson sat around waiting for an exchange. 

Thomas McKean

Thompson grew increasingly frustrated and angry at the delays.  In September, there were negotiations to exchange Thompson for New Jersey Governor William Franklin, who had become an American prisoner in 1776. Instead of going through with that exchange, Congress opted to exchange Franklin for Delaware Governor John McKinly, whom the British captured during the Philadelphia Campaign.  General Thompson determined that Delaware delegate Thomas McKean was responsible for him losing the exchange.  Then, because the Americans were still holding onto British generals from the Saratoga Campaign, the British army revoked General Thompson’s parole and ordered him to return to New York City for imprisonment.

Just after Thompson received word in November that he would have to return to New York, he sought out McKean at a Philadelphia coffeehouse and got into a violent argument with him.  Thompson called McKean a rascal and a villain, with the apparent intent of getting McKean to challenge him to a duel.  It was also reported that Thompson called Congress a “parcel of damned rascals” although the exact wording is in dispute.

McKean refused to take the bait, and instead reported the incident to Congress.  McKean accused Thompson of insulting Congress.  A military general attacking the honor of the civilian leaders of the government was a serious offense.  Congress held hearings in December to determine exactly what was said.

Thompson denied criticizing Congress generally, and insisted his remarks were against McKean in his personal capacity.  In the end, Congress took no action against Thompson, but also allowed him to return to British custody and left him there for another nearly two years.  The whole incident was another example of how tenuous Congress thought its reputation was becoming with the public.

Resignation over Deane

Just as the Thompson hearings were winding down, Silas Deane decided it was a good time to publish his attack on Congress.  I went into detail about the Deane investigations back in Episode 193. The American diplomat to France had returned to Philadelphia in June, 1778 to face investigations about his activities in bringing covert French assistance to America.  Deane had been the target of secret accusations from fellow commissioner Arthur Lee, whose two brothers Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, sat in Congress.

The Lees did not have any solid evidence against Deane, mostly because the accusations were complete BS.  So instead, they chose to drag out the hearings for over a year, without resolving anything and preventing Deane from returning to France.  After about six months, Deane got sick of all this.  He published an article in December 1778 which called out Congress, and the Lees in particular, for his unjust recall from France and for the inability to resolve the complaints against him.  This set off a series of back and forth articles between Deane on the one side, and the Lees, supported by Thomas Paine, on the other.

Henry Laurens, had backed the Lees in this dispute.  He had grown to oppose Deane and believed all the accusations that the Lees had made against him.   Laurens was outraged at Deane’s public attack on Congress.  He moved that Congress form another committee to investigate Deane over the propriety of his publication and to suspend all investigations regarding Deane’s involvement in French assistance until the committee on the publications could issue a final report.  Laurens saw this as a way of dragging out the hearings further to punish Deane for taking this whole affair to the public. The majority in Congress, however, rejected Laurens’ plan and refused to respond as a body to Dean’s article.  

In what appears to have been a pique of frustration at Congress’ inaction, Laurens gave a speech saying that he could no longer be president of a body that refused to defend its dignity and offered his resignation.  It’s not clear if Laurens really meant to resign, or whether he thought the delegates would reject his officer and reconsider his motion to go after Deane.  If it was the latter, he would be disappointed.  Adding to Laurens’ troubles was an accusation against him, that he had leaked confidential information to Thomas Paine during Paine’s public disputes with Deane.

Congress called for a vote for a new president the following day.  Some of Laurens’ allies attempted to reelect Laurens.  But they were in the minority.  By a vote of eight states to four, Congress elected John Jay as its new President. 

President John Jay

John Jay had only arrived as a delegate to Congress a few days earlier. He was just shy of his 33rd birthday when he assumed the president’s chair.  

John Jay

The New York delegate had grown up in a wealthy and prominent family.  His father had been a wealthy merchant.  His mother descended from a prominent Dutch family that had lived in New York before it became British.

Jay had attended college and pursued a career as a lawyer.  He began supporting the patriot cause before the war, and served on the local Committee of Correspondence.  In 1774, he was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  After that, he served in the local New York Provincial Congress and as a judge in New York State.  

He joined the Second Continental Congress just a few days before Laurens offered his resignation. I’m not clear on why the majority of delegates turned to the new guy to become president.  It may be that he was perceived as a moderate.  It may also have been that he was a supporter of Silas Deane and that the majority wanted to show support indirectly for Deane.  Whatever their reasons, Congress now had a new president.

Quebec Offensive

Another issue on Congress’ agenda was a new assault on Quebec.  Recall that a year earlier, Congress had approved an assault on Quebec to be led by General Lafayette, but that it could not come up with the men, money, ammunition, and other resources to get the offensive underway.

In the interceding year, France had joined the war.  With the availability of French soldiers, arms, and equipment, and with the reduction of British forces as London moved soldiers to other parts of the empire, they had a much better opportunity in 1779 to push Britain out of Canada.  Lafayette became an ardent advocate of leading an invasion of Quebec.  He pestered both Washington and Congress with proposals to lead just such an offensive. 

George Washington rejected the plan, telling Lafayette that his priorities were capturing New York and Newport.  Washington also wrote to Congress, giving a litany of military reasons why an invasion of Quebec would be a bad idea in 1779, just as he had thought in 1778.

Washington also expressed private concerns to President Henry Laurens in a November 14 letter as to why a French led invasion of Quebec was a bad idea.  Washington looked at the outcome if the offensive succeeded.  Washington noted that the local Quebecois might be very happy to be under French rule again.  France might use the opportunity to assert control there, not just hand over Quebec to become part of the United States.  While France was an American ally at the moment, everyone knew that was primarily the result of their joint opposition to Britain.

France was a larger and more powerful country than Britain.  It also had an absolute monarchy that was probably less disposed than Britain toward supporting the ideals of a republic. Washington had begun his military career opposing French claims to the Ohio Valley.  Returning France to control of Quebec might once again stoke those claims and lead to some future war between the US and France, one where the US would not have Britain as an ally.

Minister Gérard

While Washington valued the alliance with France.  At the same time, he also noted that “it is a maxim founded on the universal experience of Mankind, that no Nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest.”  French and American interests would likely deviate if France began to build a new empire in America from its hold in Quebec.  Despite the current alliance, Washington saw a longer-term benefit to a British-controlled Quebec than a French-controlled Quebec.

Despite Washington’s letter, Congress tentatively gave support in December to retaking Quebec.  Washington found this of enough concern that he took the extreme step of leaving his army in New York and northern New Jersey to ride to Philadelphia and speak with members of Congress personally.  Washington arrived on December 22 and would remain in Philadelphia through January.  We don’t know exactly what Washington told the committee, but it was likely an elaboration both on his official military concerns as well as the concerns about a French Quebec that he had expressed to Laurens.  During the course of the talks, Congress agreed that an invasion of Quebec was not feasible at the time and withdrew its proposal.

All of this was happening under the watchful eye of French Minister Gérard, who had been in Philadelphia since the summer.  Gérard did not have access to secret Congressional sessions, but he was following events closely.  Gérard’s primary responsibility in America was to make sure that the US did not reach some resolution with Britain that would leave France hanging in the war.  He was still concerned by the fact that the Carlisle Commission still in New York trying to bring about just such a resolution.

Congress’ decision not to cooperate in an invasion of Quebec only added to French fears.  Gérard began pressing for an expression of support for the French alliance and a guarantee that there was no consideration of a peaceful resolution and return of British rule, even under highly advantageous terms to America.  On January 14, Congress complied, passing a resolution unanimously affirming that the US would not enter into any peace with Britain, without France’s agreement.

Lafayette Goes Home

With no Quebec invasion on the agenda, Lafayette requested to return home to France.  Even before Congress made the final decision not to take Quebec, Lafayette saw the writing on the wall.  He also knew that with the war between France and Britain, he should probably go home and return to duty in the French army.

By late October, 1778 Lafayette traveled to Philadelphia to request an indefinite leave from the Continental Army.  Congress granted the request and passed a resolution thanking the young general for his service.  Lafayette departed Philadelphia for New England, planning to catch a ship from Boston to take him home to France.

One the way to New England, the general visited many prominent American leaders and enjoyed a great many stops as he made his way to Boston, in part to lobby important leaders for an invasion of Quebec. By the time he reached New York, Lafayette fell ill and was bedridden for several weeks.   He would not reach Boston until some time in December, and would not get on a ship for France until early January, 1779.  I want to pick up Lafayette’s story in Europe in a couple of week, but before I leave this week, I want to note a few other important issues Congress was dealing with.

Money Problems

Congress’ concern about money was always behind any of its policies.  It never had enough, well maybe it had too much.  It was printing lots of paper money that continued to lose value.  It was always struggling to reduce its financial commitments or put off repayment of debts.  This often led to very real problems.

Representing America's largest creditor was French Minister Gérard.  On his agenda was the issue of payment for all the aid France had provided in the early years of the war.  This was, in part, tied to the whole Silas Deane Affair.  The core of the complaint that Arthur Lee had made against Deane was that Lee claimed France had provided covert assistance free of charge.  Deane had reported that France had fronted the supplies, but very much wanted to be repaid for them.  Lee accused Deane of lying about the demand for payment and wanted to pocket all that money for himself.

When Deane went public with his frustration in December, Paine had responded publicly with the accusation that the French aid was free.  This got the attention of Gérard, who wanted to make clear that yes, they actually did want to be paid.  He began reaching out to members of Congress about getting paid for what many cash-strapped delegates still thought had been free assistance.  It may have gone something like this.

Congress was not able to come up with money to repay France.  Congress was divided on the issue.  They did not want to cause a break in the alliance over a few boatloads of tobacco.  On the other hand, the Lee faction did not want to admit that the accusations made against Deane were completely false and without merit.  In the end, Congress passed a vague resolution disavowing Paine’s articles, and assuring France that America would comply with all agreements, once they had all the details.

At the same time Congress was assuring France that it would pay for the early assistance, it was also asking France, along with anyone else in Europe, to lend them even more money toward the war effort.  

Continental three dollar bill

So far, Congress had managed to keep the economy afloat by printing millions of paper continental dollars.  These were essentially promissory notes that permitted the bearer to receive a certain amount of gold or silver at some future point.  The value of the dollars depended on people believing, (1) that Congress would still exist in the future, after having won the war, and (2) that Congress would come up with some way to acquire enough gold and silver to pay off those notes.

By the end of 1777, a Congressional committee reported that it had put $28 million worth of Continental dollars into circulation over the course of three years.  In fact, by that time, they had actually put about $36 million into circulation. 

Congress also tried to make requests for money from the states, but those were not very forthcoming.  It skimped wherever it thought it could, for example, not paying the soldiers, and requiring the states to provide food, clothing, and other supplies for their soldiers in the Continental Army.  Congress also seemed happy to stiff people where they could, such as refusing to pay the debts incurred by Silas Deane or Benedict Arnold, to name just two examples of probably hundreds of men who believed that Congress would never pay what it owed.

The dollars that Congress had released in 1775 would start coming due for redemption in gold or silver beginning in 1779.  At the beginning of that year, delegates still had no way of repaying those. Future emissions of currency had no fixed redemption rate.  Even so, Congress knew that at some point, it needed to find a way to make good on its financial promises.  Congress directed its European agents to obtain loans so that it could repay some of its commitments, but the loans of course just kicked the problem down the road as they would have to be repaid with interest.  European lenders were highly dubious that Congress would ever be able to pay off any loans and were reluctant to offer credit at any terms.

Instead, Congress doubled down on printing money.  In 1778, it emitted about $68 million and in 1779 it would emit another $100 million.  I will get into the currency crisis of 1779 in a future episode, but the headline is that as more money was printed, the less value it retained. By the end of 1778, the Continental Dollar was worth about 12.5 cents.  By the end of 1779, that would fall to about 2.5 cents.

Congress came up with a creative way to push this economic burden onto the states without collecting taxes directly.  It ordered states to collect a certain amount of Continental currency each year in order to protect the value of the money.  The idea was that states would accept Continental dollars for payment of taxes or other debts, then turn over those bills for destruction and help to keep the remaining dollars in circulation to maintain their value.  It would take an estimated twenty years to redeem all the currency, but they at least had a plan in place.  We'll see how all that works.

Next Week, We will take a closer look at George Washington’s visit to Congress.

- - -

Next Episode 206 George Washington in Philadelphia 

Previous Episode 204 British Capture Savannah 

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Further Reading

Websites

Norton, Louis Arthur “The Connecticut Activity of William Franklin, Loyalist” Journal of the American Revolution, November 1, 2017: https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/11/connecticut-captivity-william-franklin-loyalist

Wilson, Megan "A Damned Set of Rascals" The Continental Army vs. The Continental Congress: Tensions Among revolutionaries, LSU Master’s Thesis, 2012: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2199&context=gradschool_theses

The Affair of Silas Deane, Thomas Paine Historical Society: https://thomaspaine.org/essays/american-revolution/the-affair-of-silas-deane.html

Address of Silas Deane to the Free and Virtuous Citizens of America, https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQrAIUZiKFv5_cKX4NCwqayfFIftj_3BJeHjFxlrOm6Y_6iOR46CAStc3LfVTRQtZ80LCBzc3nvap1i/pub

“From George Washington to Henry Laurens, 14 November 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-18-02-0147

Laurens, Henry. “The Resignation of Henry Laurens, President of Congress, 1778.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 13, no. 2, 1889, pp. 232–236. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20083317

Grubb, Farley The Continental Dollar: Initial Design, Ideal Performance, and the Credibility of Congressional Commitment, 2013: https://www.eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Grubb.pdf

Grubb, Farley. “The Continental Dollar: How Much Was Really Issued?” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 68, no. 1, 2008, pp. 283–291. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40056783

Farley Grubb. “State Redemption of the Continental Dollar, 1779–90.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 1, 2012, pp. 147–180. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0147

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, vol. 12, US Govt. Printing Office, 1904. 

Deane, Silas The Deane Papers, Vol. 3, New York Historical Society, 1889. 

Ingraham, Edward D. Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane, Philadelphia: Seventy-Six Society, 1855. 

Laurens, Henry “The Resignation of Henry Laurens, President of Congress, 1778” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1889. 

Lee, William Reply of William Lee to the charges of Silas Deane,1779, Brooklyn: Historical Printing Club, 1891. 

Pellew, George John Jay, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1890. 

Wallace, David Duncan The Life Of Henry Laurens, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1915. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Burnett, Edmund Cody, The Continental Congress, Macmillan Co. 1941 

Montross, Lynn The Reluctant Rebels, Harper & Brothers, 1950. 

Stahr, Walter John Jay: Founding Father, Bloomsbury Academic, 2005. 

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP187 Evacuation of Philadelphia

As I discussed over multiple episodes, General William Howe’s major initiative for 1777 was the capture of Philadelphia.  As was his usual practice, Howe went about the process slowly and methodically, Leaving New York in July, he sailed down to the Chesapeake and then marched north to Philadelphia, fighting several battles before finally entering the city two and a half months later, in late September.  He then had to spend even more time defending the city against attacks and clearing defenses on the Delaware River to allow the navy to link up to the city and bring in supplies. 

Philadelphia was as close as the patriots had to a national capital.  It was the largest city in the colonies and the seat of the Continental Congress.  Its capture, however, seemed to evoke only a collective yawn on both sides of the Atlantic. Congress simply moved to York, Pennsylvania, and continued its work.  The Continental Army continued its efforts to keep the British pinned down in the city.  Most importantly, Howe’s focus on Philadelphia divided British forces.  This allowed the Continental Northern Army to capture General Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga.  The capture of that army was a major setback to the British war effort.  It also encouraged France to enter the war, which completely changed events.

As I discussed in more detail last week, the entry of France into the war completely upended the plans of war strategists in London.  Instead of simply focusing on putting down the rebellion, Britain had to defend colonies all over the world as well as a potential invasion of the British Isles themselves.  that was why the Carlisle Commission wanted to wrap up the war based on whatever terms they could get.

London’s New Leader & New Strategy

Shortly after capturing Philadelphia, General Howe submitted his resignation to London.  He had been frustrated for over a year that the Ministry would not provide him with sufficient troops to launch multiple campaigns and capture larger areas of the continent.  Without such reinforcements, Howe thought the whole strategy was unwinnable, and wanted out.  

Gen. Howe's HQ, later Gen. Arnold's

It’s not clear if Howe really wanted to resign, or whether he thought his offer might wake up some folks in London to the need for a substantial increase in soldiers to take and hold North America.  But shortly after his resignation request arrived in London, news of Saratoga also reached the ministry.  The King told Prime Minister, Lord North, that someone had to go as a result, either General Howe, or Secretary of State Lord Germain.  Firing Germain might have brought down the whole government, leading to new elections.  So North opted to accept Howe’s resignation and recall him to London.

Lord North tried to replace General Howe by asking General Jeffery Amherst to take the North American Command.  Amherst had served as commander during the French and Indian War.  Amherst, however, wanted an army of 75,000 in North America before he would agree to the command.  That was more than double the number of troops in North America at the time.  The ministry wasn’t going to pay for an army of that size for General Howe, and it was not going to do so for General Amherst either.   Instead, the King promoted Amherst to full general, what we would call a four star general today, and gave him a title of Commander-in-Chief of Forces, a position that had been vacant for nearly twenty years and which gave him a seat in the cabinet.  Amherst would remain in London, organizing the worldwide effort against France and providing military advice directly to the cabinet.

The ministry then turned to General Sir Henry Clinton to take command in North America.  Clinton, of course, had been second in command under Howe for many years.  He had famously chafed at his position and attempted to resign several times.  With this change, however, he finally got the full command that he had so long wanted.  But his army became a shell of its former self, and nowhere near large enough to retake control of North America.  

General Amherst

Along with his orders to take command, the ministry ordered Clinton to send thousands of his best soldiers to Florida and the West Indies to protect British colonies there from possible French invasions.  Lord Germain had sent orders to deploy 5000 men to take the French island of St. Lucia and another 3000 men to St. Augustine in East Florida.  That was about 40% of the total force what was in Philadelphia at the time.

Between those transfers and the loss of General Burgoyne’s 7000 man army a few months earlier, the British had a much smaller military presence in North America, from the numbers they had a year earlier, when General Howe was complaining that they did not have nearly enough soldiers to get the job done.

To prevent these reduced troop levels from being spread out too much and subject to an attack (like the outpost at Trenton) the military planners in London ordered Clinton to abandon Philadelphia and move the army to New York.  He even had discretion to abandon New York and Rhode Island and take his army to Halifax if he deemed that appropriate. 

This was about the same time that the ministry formed the Carlisle Commission that I discussed last week.  The Commission tried to see if there was any possible diplomatic solution that would end hostilities in North America.  Britain was writing off control of North America for the time being, and focused on not losing more of its empire to France.  

Sir Henry Clinton received his orders in New York and traveled to Philadelphia to take command of the army.  He arrived on May 8, 1778, spending the next few weeks conferring with General Howe, before Howe left for England.  Even before General Howe set sail at the end of May, Clinton focused on packing up the army in Philadelphia and getting ready to move to New York.

For the loyalists in Philadelphia, this was their worst nightmare.  Many of these people had remained quiet during the early war years, trying to avoid being attacked or harassed by patriot mobs.  When the British army arrived in the fall of 1777, the loyalists came forward.  They professed their support and even assisted the occupying army.  So, in 1778, when the British made the decision to leave, the loyalists knew that they would have to answer for what the patriots considered to be treason.

Before the army made public its plans to abandon Philadelphia, rumors abounded that it was about to happen.  One loyalist who had joined the police force in Philadelphia that the British army established, attended the Mischianza party for General Howe's departure.  At that party, he asked the General what the locals should do.  Howe’s suggestion was that they try to “make peace” with the Continental Congress.  That, of course, was a frightening prospect.  The Pennsylvania patriots considered the loyalist actions to be criminal.  At best, their property could be confiscated.  They could also face prison or even the gallows.  The time for making peace with Congress was long gone.

Gen. Sir Henry Clinton

On May 25, the day after Howe left Philadelphia, the city’s leading loyalist, Joseph Galloway, submitted a petition to General Clinton, asking the army to remain in Philadelphia.  Galloway suggested raising a force of several thousand loyalist soldiers. With the backing of British regulars, they could continue to hold Philadelphia against the Continentals.  Of course, Galloway had suggested raising a loyalist army when the British first arrived.  It had not happened because loyalists in the area were unwilling to enlist.  Other than out of a sense of desperation, it was unclear why Galloway or anyone else thought that another attempt on the eve of evacuation would inspire more loyalists to make themselves and their property a target for patriot wrath.

Loyalists, of course, were not the only ones who objected to abandoning a city they had worked so long and hard to capture.  Generals Grey and Erskine still wanted to take the offensive.  They proposed an attack on Valley Forge, pushing the Continentals to retreat across the Susquehanna River and allowing the British to take control of the region.  Erskine said the prospect of retreat made him “ashamed of the name of a Briton.”

Additionally, the recently-arrived Peace Commissioners, who were blindsided by the retreat orders, told Clinton that the decision to retreat completely undercut any attempts to bargain from a position of strength.  It made the British look weak and desperate.  The army had to remain and put up a strong front in order for negotiations to succeed.  The Commissioners requested that Clinton at least keep the army in Philadelphia until the Commission could negotiate an agreement with the Continental Congress.

Despite all these objections from loyalists, his own officers, and the Commission, Clinton had very clear and non-discretionary orders to abandon Philadelphia.  Even a delay was dangerous.  The French Navy was expected to arrive soon.  If the French bottled up the British by occupying the Delaware Bay, the British army might find itself trapped and face the prospect of surrender.

The one concession that Clinton did make was to free up the British ships for civilian evacuation.  Loyalist families could board the ships with what limited property that could fit aboard, and sail with the army to New York.  The soldiers, other than those who were wounded, sick or at risk of desertion, would march to New York across New Jersey.

Evacuation 

On May 20th, the same day that the army marched out to Barren Hill in hopes of catching the Marquis de Lafayette, General Clinton issued orders to remove artillery and stores that could not be carried by the army when it marched.  The heavy ordinance would be loaded aboard ships.  Clinton continued to order offensive forays out of the city toward the American lines, in hopes of keeping the enemy from realizing an evacuation was underway and attacking.

Washington, of course, was well aware that he British were leaving.  On June 10, he wrote to his brother that he had been expecting the British to leave for the prior two weeks and could not figure out why they had not left yet.  Washington also suggested to Congress that it offer a conditional amnesty to the loyalists in Philadelphia.  An amnesty would allow the Continentals to benefit from these artisans and skilled workers who were ready to jump at the chance of continuing to work in Philadelphia.  Congress however, was unwilling to consider such a plan.

At the same time, the loyalists in Philadelphia hoped to send a delegation to York to ask for terms.  General Howe had recommended that they be allowed, but General Clinton refused.  If the Philadelphia loyalists sought and received amnesty, what would prevent New York loyalists from doing the same thing?  For Clinton, the loyalists would have to leave with the army or suffer the wrath of the patriots when they retook control of the city.

In total, between 3000 and 5000 loyalists boarded British transports or merchant ships and sailed to New York.  Some remained there, while others went from there to London or other parts of the Empire.  Thousands of other loyalists, unwilling to give up their homes, opted to remain in Philadelphia and take their chances under patriot rule.

Meanwhile, the army began the process of destroying its defenses and any supplies that they could not take with them.  Rumors spread that the army planned to burn Philadelphia as it left, although those proved to be just rumors.  Thousands of extra blankets, tons of food, even several ships that were under construction, were burned.  Some of the fires ended up burning a few houses, but these were unintentional.  Even some large cannons were spiked and dumped into the river to make room for more civilians and their property aboard the ships.

Many refugees sat aboard ships for weeks, waiting for departure.  These people could not return to land for fear of losing their spots on the ship.  But at the same time, they were getting sick and running out of food before they even left port.  Many of these refugees would arrive in New York in very poor condition.

Prior to the evacuation, Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council and attainted hundreds of named individuals of committing treason by cooperating with the enemy.  The vast majority of these people, remarkably, remained in Philadelphia and hoped for mercy.  For many well-to-do Philadelphians, the thought of abandoning all of their property to board ships to live as refugees in another colony was simply too much to bear.  

Hessian Map of Philadelphia area

By June 15, the last of the rearguard British and Hessian regiments began crossing the Delaware into New Jersey from various ferries in or near the city.  It had taken days to cross the thousands of soldiers and their supplies, all the while facing the fear of an enemy attack as the process continued.  By the morning of June 18th, the ships had set sail and the army was fully in New Jersey.  

At 10:00 AM on the morning of June 18, Lieutenant Colonel Cosmo Gordon, a British regular officer, woke up in Philadelphia after a night of heavy drinking.  He quickly discovered that the city had been completely abandoned.  His unit, along with the rest of the army, was marching away in New Jersey.  The final British ships in the river had set sail and were away from port.  The panicked officer quickly grabbed his things and rushed down to the port.  There, he found a friendly boatman who he paid to take him across the river.  As far as we know, Gordon was the last officer to leave Philadelphia.  Around 11:00 AM, Admiral Howe, already aboard his flagship Eagle, weighed anchor and sailed down the Delaware River.

The Continentals Return

That same morning a militia scout named George Roberts, rode out to Valley Forge to report that the British had abandoned Philadelphia.  About the same time that Colonel Gordon was making his escape across the Delaware River to New Jersey, Washington received Roberts’ report.  Another group of Delaware militia on horseback had entered the city that morning and captured about thirty enemy soldiers who had not left the city in time.

Washington dispatched Major General Benedict Arnold with a brigade of 400 soldiers to take control of the city.  Arnold was still recovering from his leg wound at Saratoga when he turned up at Valley Forge a month earlier, ready to return to duty.  Still not ready for combat, Washington designated Arnold to serve as military commander of Philadelphia following the British evacuation.  

Riding with Arnold into Philadelphia was Washington’s Aide-de-camp, Colonel Tench Tilghman, who had been a Philadelphia merchant before the war, as well as Washington’s former aide-de-camp Joseph Reed, a Philadelphia lawyer before the war. At that time Reed was a delegate to the Continental Congress.  Continental General Henry Knox and Philadelphia militia General John Cadwalader also rode with the first occupying force to enter the city.

Home Destroyed During Occuption

The comments of everyone who entered the city was that it was a complete and utter mess.  Piles of garbage lay everywhere, in the streets, in public buildings, and in private homes.  Occupying troops and others had used houses, public buildings, even Independence Hall as to relieve themselves.  The smell of human feces and urine was everywhere.  Some occupying soldiers had filled entire basements with their human waste.

Many churches had their gravestones knocked down so that the churchyards could be turned into horse-riding areas.  Church pews, and a great deal of other furniture had been used for firewood.  Almost no wooden fences had survived the occupation.  In some cases, entire houses had been dismantled and used for firewood.

Even some of the better houses were looted.  Major John Andre, who had occupied Benjamin Franklin’s house, left with a full length portrait of the founder, his musical and scientific equipment, as well as most of his library.  Andre blamed Franklin for bringing France into the war and for getting General Howe recalled.  He defended his looting as a form of payback against his enemy.

Damage to the city was severe.  It would take months of clean up and repair to make Philadelphia functional again.  

Aside from assuming formal control of Philadelphia, the purpose in sending in Arnold and other key officers was to take control of any supplies that the British had left behind that the Continental Army needed.  The following day, Arnold issued a proclamation of martial law and ordered all citizens to provide an inventory of any items held in the city.

The Continental Congress, still in York, had passed resolutions ordering the army to put an embargo on all trade and to secure all valuables within the city until a joint committee made up of delegates from Congress and the executive council of Pennsylvania could determine which items were British property, and therefore subject to seizure without compensation.

Continental and state forces secured warehouses and deployed guards to prevent looting.  They locked down the city to prevent any goods from entering or leaving Philadelphia until there could be an accounting.

General Arnold set up his headquarters at the Penn Mansion, where General Howe had kept his headquarters for the prior nine months.  Arnold spent a considerable amount of money refurbishing the mansion and hiring a domestic staff to run it.  

Despite the condition of Independence Hall, the Continental Congress voted to adjourn its session in York on June 27 and to resume work in Philadelphia the following week.  Although Congress planned to resume on July 2, they did not get a quorum to do business until July 7.

Although General Arnold took control of the city with a few hundred soldiers, the bulk of the army did not waste any time with an entrance back into Philadelphia.  Instead, Washington deployed his army directly to southern New Jersey in pursuit of his foe.  The Continental Army began its summer fighting season with an aggressive pursuit of the British Army as it retreated toward New York.  That is where we will take up the story next week.

- - -

Next Episode 188 Pursuit Across New Jersey 

Previous Episode 186 Carlisle Peace Commission

Contact me via email at mtroy.history@gmail.com

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Further Reading

Websites

The British in Philadelphia https://www.ushistory.org/march/phila/britishphila_1.htm

Loyalists and the British Evacuation of Philadelphia: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/09023_FPS_0.pdf

Duffy, Shannon, Loyalists: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/loyalists

Sullivan, Aaron “In but not of the Revolution: Loyalty, Liberty, and the British Occupation of Philadelphia” Dissertation, Temple Univ. 2014: https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/api/collection/p245801coll10/id/276077/download

Coleman, John M. “Joseph Galloway and the British Occupation of Philadelphia” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (July, 1963), pp. 272-300: https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/download/22953/22722

Secrest, Jeremy British Policy Towards Loyalists in the Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778, School of Advanced Military Studies, 2017: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1039927.pdf

Mishoff, Willard O. “Business in Philadelphia during the British Occupation, 1777-1778.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 61, no. 2, 1937, pp. 165–181. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20087037

Fisher, Darlene Emmert. “SOCIAL LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA DURING THE BRITISH OCCUPATION.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 37, no. 3, 1970, pp. 237–260. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27771875

Rightmyer, Nelson Waite. “Churches under Enemy Occupation: Philadelphia, 1777-8.” Church History, vol. 14, no. 1, 1945, pp. 33–60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3161021

Wiener, Frederick Bernays. “The Military Occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-1778.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 111, no. 5, 1967, pp. 310–313. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/986047

A History of the Royal Provincial Corps of Pennsylvania Loyalists:  http://royalprovincial.com/military/rhist//paloyal/pal1hist.htm

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Cuthbert, Anthony "Assessment of Damages Done by the British Troops during the Occupation of Philadelphia, 1777-1778" The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1901: 

Siebert, Wilbur Henry The Loyalists of Pennsylvania, Univ of Columbus, 1920. 

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Commager, Henry Steele Commager (Ed) and Richard B. Morris (Ed) The Spirit of Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told by Participants, 2002.  

Drury, Bob & Clavin, Tom Valley Forge, Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Jackson, John W. With the British Army in Philadelphia 1777-1778, Presidio Press, 1979. 

Johnson, Donald Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution, Univ. of Penn Press, 2020. 

McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign, Vol. 2, Stackpole Books, 2007.

Sullivan, Aaron The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia During the American Revolution, Univ. of Penn. Press, 2019

Taaffe, Stephen R. The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778, Univ. Press of Kansas, 2003

Ward, Christopher The War of the Revolution, Macmillan, 1952.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

ARP160 The Paoli Massacre

Last week, we followed the Continental Army as it crossed the Schuylkill river, and sat on what was then the eastern border of Philadelphia, awaiting the British Army’s final push to take the city.  General Howe had defeated Washington at Brandywine.  After the rained out battle of the clouds, he faced virtually no military opposition as his army advanced toward Philadelphia.

British Delay Advance

General Howe, though, seemed in no particular hurry to enter the city.  After the Battle of Brandywine, the bulk of his army remained in camp for five days.  After learning that the Continentals were advancing toward him, Howe finally marched out his army to do battle, only to see the Continentals withdraw under a heavy thunderstorm.

Battle of Paoli (from Wikimedia)

The British advanced northward, but made no attempt to cross the Schuylkill River and enter the city.  On September 18th, Colonel Alexander Hamilton warned Congress that the British could be in Philadelphia, that very night.  Hamilton’s letter and those of other officers set off a panic within the city.  The President of Congress, John Hancock, reportedly passed along the alarm to the rest of Congress, then loaded everything he could into a collection of wagons and carriages, leaving the city at 3:00 AM the next morning.  Most other delegates did the same.

Two days later, the expected arrival of the British army in Philadelphia was still -- just an expectation.  The British Army camped patiently along the west bank of the Schuylkill River. On September 21, John Adams, who had fled to Trenton, NJ, wrote in his diary “It was a false alarm which occasioned our Flight from Philadelphia. Not a Soldier of Howes has crossed the Schuylkill.”  Adams went on to speculate that General Howe would wait for his brother Admiral Howe to bring the fleet up the Delaware River before entering the city.

Instead, the British were moving further upstream along the Schuylkill, in an apparent attempt to flank the Continentals as they had done on the Brandywine.  Washington also moved his army further upstream to contest any crossing and prevent just such a flanking maneuver.

Continental Deployments

To further vex the British, Washington deployed divisions of soldiers on the west bank and behind enemy lines.  One division was a force of about 1500 soldiers under the command of General Anthony Wayne.  General William Maxwell commanded a second force working in cooperation with Pennsylvania Militia General James Potter.  The goal of these units was to keep a low profile in the enemy’s rear, then harass and attack the enemy when the opportunity presented itself.

Gen. William Smallwood
(from Wikimedia)

Washington also ordered General William Smallwood to bring up his Maryland regiments and attack the rear as well.  Smallwood had been in Baltimore when the British landed in Northern Maryland.  In the following weeks, he had mustered more Maryland soldiers and marched them north toward the rear of Howe’s army.

Washington anticipated that these actions would be similar to the hit and run raids of the forage war that they had conducted in New Jersey the previous winter and spring.  Those actions had left the British frustrated and distracted.  Each of these divisions had a large contingent of 1500-2000 soldiers, as well as a few cannons.  Smallwood’s division had marched to Sadsbury Township, which was probably still a day’s march from the main British force.  Maxwell and Potter deployed out near Valley Forge, north of the main British force and ready to pounce on the British left flank if it tried to cross the Schuylkill.  Wayne deployed near Paoli Tavern, just a few miles south of the main British army and was prepared to attack the British right flank.

Skirmishing

On September 19th British outposts at Valley Forge came under attack from General Maxwell’s soldiers.  Howe sent General Cornwallis with two grenadier battalions and a light infantry battalion to engage the enemy and reinforce the outpost at Valley Forge.  By the time Cornwallis arrived, there were no enemy soldiers to engage, although he reported that he could see elements of Washington’s Army across the Schuylkill river in the hills dotting the eastern bank.  Those were Maxwell’s and Potter’s divisions who were tasked with harassing the enemy but avoiding large direct engagements.  As during the forage war, they would attack the outposts, but then fade away when larger armies marched out to engage them.

Anthony Wayne (Wikimedia)

To the south, General Wayne saw Cornwallis’ troops on the march toward Valley Forge and thought that the British might have been alerted to his presence.  He moved his soldiers a few miles away into some hills that provided more protection.

The British detected the American movements and received intelligence from local Tories that these men were under the command of General Wayne.  General Wayne was born and raised in Chester County and was well known to the locals.  The British deployed a brigade of light infantry, along with Ferguson’s riflemen to launch a surprise raid.  However, Wayne’s pickets alerted the main force to the British approach.  The Continentals retreated before the British could engage them.  The British did not pursue them into the hills.

The following day, the British intercepted a letter from Washington to Wayne, confirming that Wayne was in command of a force in their rear.  Wayne was staying a few miles from the British camp, close enough to keep tabs on them, but able to slip away again if the British attacked in force.  Wayne’s hope was that General Smallwood’s Marylanders would link up with his force and that the combined force of about 3500 could attack the British rear when they tried to cross the river and advance on Philadelphia.

General Charles Grey

The British army opted to dispatch Wayne’s small and isolated force before it could become a bigger problem for them.  Howe tasked Major General Charles Grey to lead the attack.

Gen. Charles Gray
(from Ocean's Bridge)

General Grey deserves a brief introduction here.  Grey was born in 1729 to the 1st Baronet of Harwick.  Because Charles was the fourth son, he was not in line to inherit lands or title so dad thought he should have a career in the military.  At age fourteen, his family purchased an ensign’s commission for him.  Young Charles traveled to Scotland in time to be a part of the British massacre of the Scots at Culloden as one of his earliest military experiences.

During the Seven Years War, Grey served as an aide to the Duke of Brunswick.  He was wounded at the Battle of Minden and again in another battle a few months later.  He continued in active service though, participating in several more European battles as well as the invasion of Cuba.  By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The end of the war saw the end of active service for Colonel Grey, who had to go on half pay.  Fortunately, family money and connections kept him living the life of a proper English gentleman.  In 1772, he received a promotion to full colonel and served as aide-de-camp to King George III.  When the King sent General Howe to capture New York in 1776, Grey went along and within a year had risen to major general, most recently serving as a brigade commander at the Battle of Brandywine.

For the present mission, General Grey had to dispatch the American forces in the British rear.  Otherwise, General Howe could not cross the Schuylkill without fear of attack from both sides.

Paoli Massacre

In order to surprise the Americans, who seemed to run away whenever they saw the British advancing on their position, Grey ordered his forces camped at Tredyffrin to march out for a night time raid.  After dark on September 20th, 1200 men from the Second Light Infantry Brigade, along with two regiments of regulars and Ferguson’s rifles marched out of camp in search of the enemy.  Grey, however, was not interested in rifle fire, or musket fire. He ordered all of his soldiers to keep their guns unloaded and remove the flints to prevent firing.  He wanted complete silence and use of the bayonet against the enemy.

Paoli Map (from British Battles)

Grey’s brigade moved out into the night, knowing that Wayne’s force was in the area but not knowing their exact position.  As they got closer, Grey’s officers were able to compel a local to give up Wayne’s location nearby.

Some time shortly after midnight, the British ran into Continental camp pickets and dispatched them with bayonets.  The pickets, however, alerted the camp which began to form into lines.  Before they could get organized, the British light infantry charged the camps and bayoneted everyone they could find.  Some Americans mounted a brief defense.  Officers attempted to form their men into lines, but the British light infantry was on top of them before most could react.  Without sufficient time to organize a defense, the surviving Americans fled into the woods.  The British set the camp on fire, again bayoneting any soldier who tried to escape from a burning tent.

The same darkness that gave the British cover in their advance also gave the Americans cover in their retreat.  General Wayne was able to escape and bring with him the artillery and some of his wagons.  Several others, however, fell into enemy hands.

British Attack at Paoli (from British Battles)

American reports from the attack said that British soldiers mercilessly bayoneted the wounded and those trying to surrender.  In truth though, the British did capture about 70 or 80 prisoners, about half of whom were seriously wounded.  Estimates of Americans killed range from around 53 to 120, although that higher estimate almost certainly includes wounded who died after the fact. The British reported only five killed and seven wounded among the attackers.

During the attack on Wayne’s division, General Smallwood’s 2000 Marylanders were camped only about a mile away.  They heard the battle as it erupted.  Had they marched to the aid of Wayne’s brigade, they would have outnumbered the British considerably.  However, these were mostly inexperienced newly-recruited soldiers.  Instead of organizing a counter-attack, most of them fled into the woods themselves, never engaging with the enemy.  Half of Smallwood’s force deserted that night and returned home to Maryland.

Aftermath

The British considered the raid a great victory.  General Grey got the nickname Charles “no flints” Grey for his command to remove the flints from their guns before the battle.  He would continue on in the war with his reputation enhanced, and we will hear more about his later exploits in future episodes.

Wayne Carried from field
(from British Battles)

Most of the surviving Continentals were able to cross the river and join up with the rest of Washington’s main force.  General Wayne took much of the blame for the loss.  Several accusers, including some of his own officers, accused Wayne of failing to deploy sufficient camp guards to warn of the attack.  There was no time to hear these accusations for the next few weeks.

In October, the army assembled a court martial to question whether Wayne was guilty of neglect of duty.  Wayne’s defense laid out that he was well aware of the possibility of an attack based on a civilian tip.  He had increased the pickets and taken other precautions.  Wayne, in turn, accused one of his subordinates and accusers, Colonel Richard Humpton, of failing to react quickly enough to the attack and mount a proper defense.  In the end the court martial acquitted Wayne and did not seek to pin blame for the success of the attack on anyone.

British Enter Philadelphia

Having dispatched the enemy in their rear, the British prepared to advance once again. Howe moved various divisions further up the Schuylkill river toward Reading.  From that movement, he could either attack the depot at Reading, or cross the river further upstream and then descend on Washington’s flank, just as he had done at Brandywine.  Washington was determined not to let that happen.  He kept his own army moving upstream to confront the British wherever they attempted to cross

As Washington moved his army upstream to block Howe’s next movement, Howe simply turned his army around, went back downstream, and crossed the river at the fords Washington had just abandoned.  Only a few local militia defended the fords.  They turned and ran at the first sight of the British advance.  With the Continentals out of position, there was nothing to prevent the British from entering Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, 1777 Schuylkill on left, Delaware on right
(from Journal of Am Rev)

Howe crossed his army on the night of September 22 and the morning of September 23.  He marched his army to a camp in Norristown, a little less than twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia.  He was now between the Continental Army and the city.

Howe spent the next day in camp, neither attacking Washington’s Continentals nor marching into the city.  His army plundered and burned the homes of known rebels.  Many locals fled with whatever they could carry, but others greeted the army as liberators.  A great number of area loyalists had remained silent for years for fear of incurring the wrath of patriots. These families saw the British as saviors, returning law and order to the region.

The next day, the British marched to Germantown, which today is part of the city of Philadelphia, but at that time was a few miles outside the city limits.  As you might guess from the name, most of the population of this area were German speaking colonists.  Even so, the German speaking Hessian soldiers found the local population rather hostile to them.  Most of the inhabitants were members of a pacific sect that had emigrated from the Palatine region of what is today Germany.  They had hoped to escape the continual warfare of many of their neighbors, including Hesse.  Many saw this as a return of the military oppression that they had tried to leave behind in Europe.  Because they were pacifists, most of them did not take up arms, but they did greet the invaders with a cold hostility.

General Howe paused to see if the Continentals would attempt some sort of desperate counterattack to defend the city.  When that did not happen, Howe left the bulk of his army in Germantown, about 10,000 soldiers, and deployed General Cornwallis to march into Philadelphia with about 3500 men.  On the morning of September 26, Philadelphians saw the redcoats march through their streets, taking control of the city.

British Enter Philadelphia (from Pintrest)

Cornwallis led a triumphant march down Second street, then turning west to march through town, past Independence Hall where the rebels had declared independence just a year earlier.  By his side was General William Erskine, along with several leading loyalists from the city, Joseph Galloway and two of the Allen brothers (from the family for whom Allentown is named).  Governor John Penn probably would have liked to have joined them, but he was being held prisoner by the patriots in New Jersey.

The conquering army received a rather muted response.  The majority of Philadelphia's residents had fled the city.  A few weeks earlier the town had a population of 40,000.  As Cornwallis entered the city, an estimated 10,000 -15,0000 remained.  Congress had ended its session and moved to Lancaster eight days earlier.  Patriots had taken the State House bell, what we today call the Liberty Bell, out of the city to be hidden in Allentown.  Thousands of patriot refugees, many the families of men fighting, had fled the city with only what they could carry.

Those who remained did not know what to expect.  Even loyalists had their concerns. Those with finer homes might find them confiscated for use as officer’s residences.  Many remembered a year earlier when the British occupied New York and half the city was burned in order to deny it to the enemy.  Despite capturing Philadelphia, the British still had not opened up the Delaware River.  The British were without access to food and supplies.  There was the possibility that the patriots might besiege the city and attempt to starve out the occupants.  No one was quite sure what the next step would be.

The British believed that the capture of Philadelphia was the decisive victory they had long sought.  Traditionally, the capture of an enemy capital marked its surrender and ended the war.  It had been just over a month since the British had landed at Head of Elk, Maryland.  The British Army had overcome every obstacle in its path with relative ease.  General Howe had taken his time, avoiding any sorts of ambushes or traps that could surprise his army.  His faith in the professionalism of his officers and soldiers against an ill-trained rebel army seemed well-founded.

For the patriots, of course, the loss of Philadelphia was a setback, but not a fatal one.  As Thomas Paine had written a couple of weeks earlier, they were fighting for a cause, not for a couple of acres of ground.  Although Philadelphia had been the seat of Congress, it was not the home of some single leader who could offer surrender.  Congress could simply move to another town and continue its business, as it had a year earlier when it moved to Baltimore.

When Benjamin Franklin received the news in Paris a few weeks later that Philadelphia had fallen, he rhetorically asked: “Has Howe captured Philadelphia, or has Philadelphia captured Howe?”  One could easily dismiss this as Franklin’s attempt to spin some very bad news.  But his point was that Howe’s capture of the city had not ended anything.  Howe would be stuck in this inland area forced to defend it against attack and unable to move his armies elsewhere.

This had immediate consequences.  Remember, London had hoped that Howe would capture Philadelphia early in the summer, recruit local Tories to garrison the city, and move the bulk of his army north to assist with General Burgoyne’s march through the Hudson Valley.  By the time Howe finally took Philadelphia, it was practically October.  He was still not in any position to redeploy soldiers northward to New York. Shortly after taking Philadelphia, he received word that General Burgoyne had suffered a setback in New York and that his army could be in real trouble.

- - -

Next Episode 161 Battle of Freeman's Farm 

Previous  Episode 159 Battle of the Clouds

Click here to donate

American Revolution Podcast is distributed 100% free of charge. If you can chip in to help defray my costs, I'd appreciate whatever you can give.  Make a one time donation through my PayPal account.

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Further Reading

Websites

John Adams Diary: “1777 Septr. 21. Sunday.,”  https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0007-0003-0006

Charles “no-flint” Grey: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/charles-no-flint-grey

The 1st Earl Grey https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Grey-1st-Earl-Grey

Paoli Massacre: https://www.ushistory.org/march/phila/paoli.htm

Fyers, Evan W. H. “GENERAL SIR WILLIAM HOWE'S OPERATIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1777. The Battle on the Brandywine Creek—11 September—and the Action at Germantown—4 October.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, vol. 8, no. 34, 1929, pp. 228–241. www.jstor.org/stable/44232285

Futhey, J. Smith “The Massacre of Paoli.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 1, no. 3, 1877, pp. 285–319. www.jstor.org/stable/20084293

Pleasants, Henry. “The Battle of Paoli.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 72, no. 1, 1948, pp. 44–53.  www.jstor.org/stable/20087956

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Lisle, Clifton Diamond Rock A Tale of the Paoli Massacre, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 (this is a fictional novel based on the events of the Paoli Massacre) (Google Books).

Pennypacker, Samuel W. Anthony Wayne, J.B. Lippincott company, 1908.

Reed, John Ford Campaign to Valley Forge, July 1, 1777-December 19, 1777, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1965 (borrow only)

Futhey, J. Smith “The Massacre of Paoli” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 1, no. 3, 1877, pp. 285–319,

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Brownlow, Donald G. A Documentary History of the Paoli Massacre, Kessinger Publishing, 2010.

McGuire, Thomas J. Battle of Paoli, Stackpole Books, 2000 (book recommendation of the week).

McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign Vol. 1, Stackpole Books, 2006.

Nelson, Paul D. Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic, Indiana Univ. Press, 1985

Reed, John Ford Campaign to Valley Forge, July 1, 1777-December 19, 1777, Pioneer Press, 1980 (orig. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1965).

Taaffe, Stephen R. The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778, Univ. Press of Kansas, 2003

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.