hat season of the year southerly winds prevail on the coast; and it was the 30th of July before the British commander reached the capes of the Delaware.

His original intention was to sail up the river to Philadelphia; but, being informed that the Americans had obstructed the navigation, he altered his plan, and, still steering southward, entered Chesapeake bay. On the appearance of the British armament off the Delaware, General Washington moved toward Philadelphia; but, being told that the fleet had again put to sea, his perplexity returned, and he held himself in readiness to march with the the utmost rapidity toward the North river, if needful. But, on the 24th of August, he was relieved from his painful suspense by certain information that the British fleet had sailed up the Chesapeake bay, and that the army was landing at the head of the Elk

river.

At the place of debarkation, the British army was within a few days' march of Philadelphia; no great rivers were in its way; and there was no very strong position of which the enemy could take possession. On landing, General Howe issued a proclamation, promising pardon and protection to all who should submit to him; but, as the American army was at hand, the proclamation produced little effect.

General Washington distinctly understood the nature of the contest in which he was engaged; and, sensible of the inferiority of his raw and disorderly army to the veteran troops under Sir William Howe, he wished to avoid a general engagement; but, aware of the effect which the fall of Philadelphia would produce on the minds of the multitude, who have no fixed principle or steady purpose, he determined to make every effort in order to retard the progress and defeat the aim of the royal army. Accordingly, he marched to meet General Howe, who, from want of horses, many of which had perished in the voyage, and from other causes, was unable to proceed from the head of the Elk before the 3d of September. On the advance of the royal army, General Washington retreated across the Brandywine, a creek which falls into the Delaware at Wilmington. He took post, with his main body, opposite Chad's Ford, where it was expected the British would attempt the passage; and ordered General Sullivan, with a detachment, to watch the fords above. He sent General Maxwell, with about 1,000 light troops, to occupy the high ground on the other side of the Brandywine, to skirmish with the British, and retard them in their progress.

On the morning of the 11th of September, the British army advanced in two columns; the right, under General Knyphausen, marched straight to Chad's Ford; the left, under Lord Cornwallis, accompanied by the commander-in-chief and Generals Grey, Grant, and Agnew, proceeded, by a circuitous route, toward a point named the Forks, where the two branches of the Brandywine unite, with a view to turn the right of the Americans and gain their rear. General Knyphausen's van soon found itself opposed to the light troops under General Maxwell. A smart conflict ensued. General Knyphausen reinforced his advanced guard, and drove the Americans across the rivulet, to shelter themselves under their batteries on the north bank. General Knyphausen ordered some artillery to be placed on the most advantageous points, and a cannonade was carried on with the American batteries on the heights beyond the ford.

Meanwhile the left wing of the British crossed the fords above the Forks: Of this movement General Washington had early notice; but the information which he received from different quarters, through his scouts, was confused and contradictory, and consequently his operations were embarrassed. After passing the fords, Lord Cornwallis took the road to Dilworth, which led him on the American right. General Sullivan, who had been appointed to guard that quarter, occupied the heights above Birmingham church, his left extending to the Brandywine, his artillery judiciously placed, and his right flank covered by:

woods. About four in the afternoon, Lord Cornwallis formed the line of battle and began the attack; for some time the Americans sustained it with intrepidity, but at length gave way. When General Washington heard the firing in that direction, he ordered General Greene with a brigade to support General Sullivan. General Greene marched four miles in forty-two minutes, but, on reaching the scene of action, he found General Sullivan's division defeated and fleeing in confusion. He covered the retreat; and, after some time, finding an advantageous position, he renewed the battle, and arrested the progress of the pursuing enemy.

General Knyphausen, as soon as he heard the firing of Lord Cornwallis's division, forced the passage of Chad's Ford, attacked the troops opposed to him, and compelled them to make a precipitate and disorderly retreat. General Washington, with the part of his army which he was able to keep together, retired, with his artillery and baggage, to Chester, where he halted, within eight miles of the British army, till next morning, when he retreated to Philadelphia. Night, and the exhaustion of the British troops, saved the Americans from pursuit.

In Philadelphia the American commander-in-chief remained two days, collecting his scattered troops, replacing the stores lost in the battle, and making arrangements for his future movements. On the third day after the engagement he marched up the north side of the Schuylkill, crossed it at Sweet's Ford, and proceeded toward Lancaster.

In the battle at the Brandywine the Americans suffered considerable loss, having about 300 men killed, 600 wounded, and 400 taken prisoners. They also lost ten small field-pieces and a howitzer. The loss of the British was much less, not exceeding five or six hundred killed and wounded. In the battle several foreign officers of distinction served in the American army: among these was the celebrated Marquis de la Fayette; he was only about twenty years of age, and, animated by a youthful and enthusiastic love of liberty, had quitted his country, a plentiful fortune, and all the endearments of polished society, to fight under the banners of the infant republic at the most gloomy period of the contest. At his own expense he purchased and fitted out a vessel to convey him to the American continent, and sailed, notwithstanding a prohibition of the French government, which did not then deem it expedient to throw off the mask. This battle was his first military service in the American cause, and in it he received a wound in the leg, but did not leave the field. Some other French officers were in the battle on the same side, and also Count Pulaski, a Polish nobleman.

On the 16th of the month Monsieur du Coudray, with some other French gentlemen, set out to join the army. Monsieur du Coudray was mounted on a spirited young mare, on which he rode into the flat-boat used for ferrying across the Schuylkill, and being unable to stop her, she went over the boat into the river with her rider on her back. Monsieur du Coudray disengaged himself from the saddle, but was drowned, notwithstanding every effort being made to save him.

On the evening after the battle General Howe sent a party to Wilmington, who seized in bed Mr. McKinlay, governor of the state of Delaware, and took a shallop lying in the rivulet loaded with the rich effects of some of the inhabitants, together with the public records of the county, and other valuable and important property.

General Wayne, with a detachment of 1,500 men, had taken post in the woods on the left of the British army, with the intention of harassing it on its march. On the evening of the 20th of September, General Grey was despatched to surprise him, and successfully executed the enterprise; killing or wounding, chiefly

with the bayonet, about 300 men, taking nearly 100 prisoners, and making him self master of all their baggage. General Grey had only one captain and three privates killed, and four wounded.

On the evening of the 18th, congress left Philadelphia for the second time, and proceeded first to Lancaster, and afterward to Yorktown. On the afternoon of the 22d, and early on the 23d of September, Sir William Howe, contrary to the expectation of the American commander-in-chief, crossed the Schuylkill at Flatland and Gordon's Ford. The main body of his army encamped at Germantown, a long village, seven miles from Philadelphia; and, on the 26th, with a detachment of his troops he took peaceable possession of the city, where he was cordially received by the quakers and other royalists. During these movements, both armies were much incommoded by cold and heavy rains.

On receiving information of the success of the royal army under his brother at Brandywine, Admiral Lord Howe left the Chesapeake and steered for the Delaware, where he arrived on the 8th of October. As soon as General Howe had gained possession of Philadelphia, he began to clear the course of the river, in order to open a free communication with the fleet.

The Americans had labored assiduously to obstruct the navigation of the Delaware; and, for that purpose, had sunk three rows of chevaux-de-frise, formed of large beams of timber bolted together, with strong projecting iron pikes, across the channel, a little below the place where the Schuylkill falls into the Delaware. The upper and lower rows were commanded by fortifications on the banks and islands of the river, and by floating batteries.

While the detachment employed in assisting to clear the course of the river weakened the royal army at Germantown, General Washington, who lay encamped at Skippach Creek on the north side of the Schuylkill, about seventeen miles from Germantown, meditated an attack upon it. Germantown consisted of one street about two miles long; the line of the British encampment bisected the village almost at right angles, and had its left covered by the Schuylkill. General Washington, having been reinforced by 1,500 troops from Peekskill, and 1,000 Virginian militia, marched from Skippach Creek on the evening of