By Michael F. Duggan
Yesterday is the anniversary of one of the most devastating attacks ever delivered by a foreign enemy on American soil. I refer of course to the defeat of the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777.
The American forces under Washington were aligned along the east bank of Brandywine Creek at Chads Ford, Pennsylvania, attempting to block the British advance on Philadelphia. With him were Nathaniel Greene, Anthony Wayne, and the Marquis de Lafayette (it was his first battle and he would be wounded in the leg).
Sir William Howe, the British commander, saw the strong defensive position of the Americans. With the aid of local loyalists, he moved a portion of his forces under Charles Cornwallis north and crossed the Brandywine further upstream at Jefferis Ford. Moving south along the creek, they turned Washington’s right flank, and after a vicious fight, defeated the Americans. This opened the way for the capture of Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress. The remaining American forces withdrew intact and would fight again.
Also present on the British side was a Scottish officer, Patrick Ferguson, who had invented, and was now armed with, the technically-sophisticated Ferguson Rifle, an early breechloader based on the La Chaumette design. He wrote in his diary that at one point in the battle, he had an American officer in his sights, but did not take the shot; he considered the targeting of an individual enemy officer to be dishonorable. The American officer may have been George Washington, who was on the part of the field described by Ferguson. Ferguson was wounded—shot through the elbow—at Brandywine.
Major Ferguson was killed on October 7, 1780 at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina. A near-contemporary source alleges that his body was stripped and urinated on by undisciplined American militiamen before burial.