9/11, Battle of Brandywine remembered
“Gen. George Washington” made a special appearance at a remembrance ceremony marking both the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 241st anniversary of the Battle of Brandywine, Tuesday, at Brandywine Battlefield Park.
Gen. Washington (Carl Closs) read a letter to an audience of 40 from the general to John Hancock. Washington wrote several times that the American troops “were obliged to retire” at the Battle of Brandywine.
Washington’s army then spent the winter at Valley Forge and the British captured Philadelphia.
Closs travels extensively while portraying the first president and talked about Tuesday’s solemn ceremony.
“It’s somber and not something I generally like to do,” he said about the remembrance ceremony.
State Rep. Stephen Barrar, R-160, talked about the battle waged 14 months after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
“The founders staked their lives on the belief that a free society could not only survive, but also thrive,” Barrar said. “The Revolutionary War was fought at this very place for the right to govern their country and of the God given rights they believed in so deeply.”
Barrar also noted that the 9/11 terrorist attack was not an attack on Americans, but on fundamental values.
“There is no other country on earth where people come from all different ethnicities, religions, races, statuses and creeds, yet all declare themselves unified as one, willing to lay down their lives to defend each other,” he said. “Never believe that the best days of America are behind us because the best days are still to come, so long as we never forget why we fought here at this battlefield on the Brandywine in 1777 or why we came together as a country following the attacks in 2001.”
Andrew Otten, director of education and museum services at the park, discussed the battle which matched 18,000 British against 12,000 American troops on a hot and foggy day. The battle was the largest and longest single-day battle in the Revolutionary War.
The British made a 17mile march and forded the Brandywine Creek. They then staged a two-front battle in what was technically a loss for Washington.
Curtis Cheney, of the Providence Forum, talked about the recent planting of the “Freedom Tree” at the park, just outside Washington’s Headquarters.
The tree is a clone of the last standing Liberty Tree, a 400-year-old tulip poplar that stood at St. John’s College until 1999 until damaged by Hurricane Floyd.
Large Freedom Trees gave shade from Boston to Charleston and were meeting spots and centers for protest and rebellion for Patriot sympathizers.
“It was a place to share ideas,” Cheney said about Liberty Trees. “This is a very fitting place to plant the tree, in front of Washington’s Headquarters.”
The 1st Delaware Regiment was dressed for the occasion and fired off several rounds of musket fire.
Charlotte Daw Paulsen sang several patriotic songs, including the National Anthem.