On the day of the battle of Brandywine the citizens of Philadelphia heard the sound of cannon in the west, and gathered in the streets to discuss and wonder what the future would bring forth. At night a messenger arrived with news of the disaster. Everything was in confusion, and when, on the morning of the 19th, about one o'clock, a letter was received from Colonel Hamilton stating that the British were marching on the city, the members of Congress were aroused from their beds, and departed in haste for Lancaster, where they had agreed to meet should their removal from Philadelphia become necessary. [Illustration: GENERAL HOWE. From Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the present War_, i. 280.] "It was a beautiful still moonlight night, and the streets as full of men, women, and children as on a market day." The alarm was premature, but on the 25th Howe's army encamped at Germantown. Through Thomas Willing, a leading citizen of Philadelphia, the inhabitants were promised by Sir William Howe that if they should remain peaceably in their dwellings they would not be molested. The next morning, Cornwallis, with three thousand men, took possession of the city. The troops marched down Second Street to the music of "God save the King", and were greeted by some of the inhabitants with "acclamations of joy", but the people generally "appeared sad and serious." Howe immediately began to throw up a line of intrenchments north of the city, extending from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, and informed his brother, the admiral, who was in Delaware Bay, that the army was in possession of the city. The defences of the river prevented the fleet from approaching, and the day after the occupation an attempt was made by the American flotilla to cannonade the city. The smaller vessels were driven off before they had done serious damage, but the frigate "Delaware" ran aground and was captured. [Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON. After a crayon in the Hist. Soc. of Pennsylvania. There is a picture in Independence Hall. Ceracchi's bust is given in stipple in Delaplaine's _Repository_ (1815). For view of "The Grange", Hamilton's home, see Valentine's _N. Y. Manual_, 1858, p. 468; Mrs. Lamb's _Homes of America_; Lossing's _Hudson_, 275.—ED.]