A Brief History of the United StatesSteele, Joel Dorman
History
A Brief History of the United States
Steele, Joel Dorman
United States -- History
CAMPAIGN IN PENNSYLVANIA--Howe, having spent the next summer at New
York, where he was closely watched by Washington, finally took the
field, and manoeuvred to force the patriot army to a general fight.
Finding the "American Fabius" too wary for him, he suddenly
embarked eighteen thousand men on his brother's fleet, and set
sail. Washington hurried south to meet him. The patriot army
numbered only 11,000, but when Washington learned that the British
had arrived in the Chesapeake, he resolved to hazard a battle for
the defence of Philadelphia.
[Illustration: MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.]
BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE (Sept. ll).--The Americans took position at
Chad's Ford, on the Brandywine. Here they were attacked in front
while Cornwallis stole around in the rear, as Clinton did in the
battle of Long Island. Sullivan, Sterling, La Fayette, Wayne, and
Count Pulaski, in vain performed prodigies of valor. The patriots
were routed, Philadelphia was taken, and the British army went into
quarters there and at Germantown.
[Footnote: La Fayette's full name was Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves
Gilbert Motier, Marquis de la Fayette. At a banquet in honor of the
brother of the English king, he first heard the Declaration of
Independence. He was won by its arguments, and from that time
joined his hopes and sympathies to the American cause. Yet, how was
he to aid it? The French nobility, though disliking England, did
not endorse the action of her colonies. He was not yet twenty years
of age, he had just married a woman whom he tenderly loved, his
prospects at home for honor and happiness were bright, to join the
patriot army would take him from his native land, his wife, and all
his coveted ambitions, and lead him into a struggle that seemed as
hopeless as its cause was just. Yet his zeal for America overcame
all these obstacles. Other difficulties now arose. His family
objected, the British minister protested, the French king withheld
his permission. Still undaunted, he purchased a vessel fitted it
out at his own expense, and, escaping the officers sent to detain
him, crossed the ocean. As soon as he landed at Charleston, he
hastened to Philadelphia, and offering himself to Congress asked
permission to serve as a volunteer without pay. A few days after,
his acquaintance with Washington began, and it soon ripened into a
tender and intimate friendship. His valor won for him a commission
as major-general before he was twenty-one.]
[Footnote: The British army was sadly demoralized by the
festivities of their winter quarters. Franklin wittily said, "Howe
has not taken Philadelphia so much as Philadelphia has taken Howe."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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