A worthy cause/Brandywine battlefield

[jon_norstog]

This came over the transom today, electronically speaking. I have been donating to the Civil War Foundation for some years - they are a pretty decent organization that buys up pieces of private ground at CW battlefields. They have started doing the same for Revolutionary War sites.

This appeal is for a major piece of the Brandywine battlefield. It includes the hill where Cornwallis set up his C&C and directed the battle. It was fall of '77 and the British were marching on the Capital, Philadelphia. Washington had the Continentals in full strength and positioned them at a line on Brandywine Creek, SE of the city about 30 miles. The local Tories told the British about an undefended ford at some distance up the Brandywine. Cornwallis took the Lobsters on a 9-hour force march to the ford and back which allowed his troops to flank the Continentals, while the Hessians kept the Continentals busy with a frontal attack. Cornwallis staged his troops around Osborne Hill for a flanking attack. It could have been the end, right there, but Kosciusko fought a rear guard action to delay the British while Washington managed a retreat with the main force and sent messengers to Philadelphia warning the Congress to get away while they could. It was a terrible defeat. The Continentals lost almost 1500 men. The British did occupy Philadelphia and the Continentals spent that winter suffering at Valley Forge. But the Revolution, its leadership and its armed forces survived and Cornwallis got his finally at Yorktown.

Anyway, Osborne Hill is for sale and the CW Trust wants to buy it. https://www.civilwar.org/help-save-brandywine-88-acres-osborne-hill

I'm gonna give them some. Anyone else?

jn

[Vern Humphrey]

If they're telling you the British commander at Brandywine was Cornwallis, they're scamming you. Howe was the British commander in that battle.

[JOHN COOK]

[QUOTE][On the afternoon of this day in 1777, General Sir William Howe and General Charles Cornwallis launch a full-scale British attack on General George Washington and the Patriot outpost at Brandywine Creek near Chadds Ford, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the road linking Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Howe and Cornwallis spilt their 18,000 British troops into two separate divisions, with Howe leading an attack from the front and Cornwallis circling around and attacking from the right flank. /QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure they were both there.

john

[Vern Humphrey]

I repeat, Howe was the British commander in that battle.

[JOHN COOK]

[QUOTE][/I repeat, Howe was the British commander in that battle.QUOTE]

Ok, what ever rings your bell......

john

[barretcreek]

Fwd to a friend; he said he has been a longtime contributor to that organization. I will send them some money.

[Dan Shapiro]

Sounds like a worthy cause to me.

[jon_norstog]

Hey, thanks for helping the cause guys. It means a lot to me and I bet many other people as well. That organization is really good at getting match funds for battlefield land purchases so any $$ you give them is multiplied.

It's true, Howe was OIC in the campaign but it was Cornwallis who organized and led the flanking operation.

Brandywine, Germantown and then the Valley Forge winter lost about 1/3 of the entire Continental Army. Meanwhile in Paris, Ben Franklin was hard at work. The French recognized the United States in February of 1778 and by spring the supplies were rolling in. The French navy was seen off shore and the British decided to abandon Philadelphia. The last major battle in the northern colonies was in June at Monmouth where the Continentals attacked the retreating British and their 12-mile baggage train. The last chance for the British was the deal with Benedict Arnold ... they would get West Point and cut the colonies in two.

jn