A road well traveled in the war for freedom
Beginning in September of 1777 until June of 1778 southeastern Pennsylvania held center stage in America’s war for independence from Great Britain, the most important event in our country’s history.
From mid-September until the Americans went into winter camp at Valley Forge on Dec. 19, the Continental Army, or parts of it, marched hundreds of miles across Chester, Philadelphia and part of Berks County as well as land now in modern-day Montgomery and Delaware counties, ground on which we live, work and travel.
After the passing of 241 years and the intensive growth and development of this area (the current population is about 3.5 million when at the time it was only thousands) it is a wonder that any traces of these events survive other than in land set aside for that purpose, such as Brandywine Battlefield Park and Valley Forge National Park.
Fortunately, more remnants of these long ago and important events are still around as reminders of how fortunate we are.
In slightly less than a month, from Sept. 26 until Oct. 7, the Continental Army and various state militias would make camp around Pennypacker Mill in Perkiomen Township, move farther down the Skippack Pike to the Methacton Hills around Peter Wentz’s house, and then return to Pennypacker’s after the Battle of Germantown.
On the morning of Sept. 26, while part of the British army paraded unopposed into Philadelphia, with the rest camped around Germantown, Washington sent the Continental Army marching from its camps in New Hanover and Frederick townships to an area a few miles east around Pennypacker Mills in Perkiomen Township.
To get there, parts of the Army marched north from their camps and swung east onto Route 73 toward present-day Zieglerville. Today, the people who pilot cars along that road are traveling in substantially the same route used by thousands of Continental soldiers and hundreds of teamsters driving horse-drawn supply wagons.
While the soldiers camped on land on both sides of the Perkiomen Creek, their commander established his headquarters in Samuel Pennypacker’s farmhouse on the creek’s east side. Born in 1746 in Skippack Township, Samuel inherited the house and a large tract of land from his father, Peter Pennypacker.
Though these soldiers were on the side of local residents, having them camped nearby was not a good experience. These were hungry men dressed in worn and tattered clothing, with hundreds of horses that needed to be fed. And because the Army’s supply system was so poor, the soldiers systematically took what they needed from the locals.
There are very few sources documenting the Army’s actions while camped near Pennypacker Mills, but based
on what is known of the thorough foraging of supplies for the three days they were camped in the New Hanover area it is safe to assume that the locals living in the area around Pennypacker Mills were relieved of much of their edible livestock and grain.
The locals had the foresight to protect what property they could, so that woolen blankets were hidden under a house’s floor boards and horses that the farmers needed for their work were driven deep into the woods
Nevertheless, the Army did a thorough job of confiscating supplies. At some point after the troops left, Samuel Pennypacker wrote the following in the Pennypacker family Bible, “On the 26th of September 1777, an army of 30,000 (sic) men encamped in Skippack (sic) Township, burned all the fences, carried away all the fodder, hay, oats, and wheat and took their departure the 8th of October 1777. Written for those who come after me.”
Part of the problem was that the soldiers were poorly disciplined in that respect, and Washington’s strict orders against foraging with the threat to hang violators did little to curtail the practice.
The Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, who lived only a few miles away in Trappe, recorded in his journal that on Sept. 27 his church was “over run by a regiment of Pennsylvania militia.” He found “straw and manure on the floor, and that several (soldiers) “had placed the objects of their gluttony, etc. on the altar.” Outraged, Muhlenberg “sought out “the regiment’s commander” and inquired if this was the “protection of religious and civil liberty which had been promised.”
The colonel passed the buck, telling Muhlenberg that “the militia is made up of all sorts of nationalities and cannot be kept in proper discipline…”
On the same day, the schoolmaster came to the pastor and “complained with tears that his needed “vegetables and “buckwheat” which “had just ripened, had been trampled underfoot and stolen.” To this Muhlenberg wrote, “I could not help him inasmuch as in I myself had three acres of buckwheat in fine bloom” that was
destroyed when the soldiers “placed some twenty heads of horses and cattle in the field and let them eat and trample it all down.”
The amazing part of this was that Muhlenberg’s son, the Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, was a general in the Continental Army.
While the Army was camped around Pennypacker Mills, word was received of Gen. Horatio Gates’s victory over the British army at the Battle of Bemis Heights or Freeman’s
Farm in the upper Hudson River Valley on Sept. 19.
In retrospect, this would be one of the most important battles of the war, but at the time it was a great morale booster for Washington’s troops who, up to this point, had little military success against their enemy. To celebrate the news on Sept. 28, a 13gun salute was fired (the Rev. Muhlenberg and his friends at Trappe counted 14). The troops were paraded and each man was given a gill (4 ounces) of rum.
Fortunately for the locals, the Army’s stay
around Pennypacker Mills was brief, and on the morning of Sept. 29 the men marched down Skippack Pike — present-day Pennsylvania Route 73 — moving gradually closer to the British army at Germantown.
By Oct. 3, the Army was on and around Methacton Hill in Worcester Township with Washington’s headquarters in Peter Wentz’s house on the north side of Route 73, about a mile east of present-day Center Point.
Until then the general’s operations against the British had been unsuccessful, but despite that, Washington showed his aggressive spirit by planning an attack for Oct. 4 on the part of the British army that was camped at Germantown. It was while he was at Peter Wentz’s that the final plans for the attack were made.
The general order, which was issued on Oct. 3, began “Covet! My Fellow countrymen and fellow soldiers! Covet! The share of glory due heroic deeds!” Though Germantown was another British victory, Washington’s “Fellow countrymen” did perform “heroic deeds” there before retreating.
On the retreat, most of the American Army went all the way back to Pennypacker Mills. The long trek coupled with the long march to the battle was a severe trial. Lt. Richard McMichael wrote in his journal that even though he “had previously undergone many fatigues,” he had never had “any that so much overdone me as this.
“Had it not been for the fear of being taken prisoner I should have remained on the road all night. I had marched in twenty-four hours 45 miles, and in that time fought four hours, during which we advanced so furiously thro’ buckwheat fields that it was almost an unspeakable fatigue.”
The Army remained at Pennypacker Mills until the morning of Oct. 8, when the soldiers, never to return, continued their southeastern Pennsylvania odyssey by marching down the Skippack Road in a heavy rainstorm. Before them were two more months of camping and marching until the Army finally entered its winter camp at Valley Forge.
During these grim days one bright spot emerged, and it is no surprise that it involved a representative of “man’s best friend.” A day or two after the battle, a “little stray dog” wandered into the American camps in need of a good meal. The little guy was someone’s pet because he wore a very nice collar on which was inscribed the owner’s name: “Sir William Howe.” That is how the Americans came to have the pet of the man who commanded the British army.
On Oct. 6, under a flag of truce, the dog was returned to his owner with a note from the American commander, “General Washington’s compliments to General Howe — does himself the pleasure to return to him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands and by the inscription on the collar, appears to belong to General Howe.”