The 2nd Connecticut Regiment at Edge Hill

A fire fight erupted on the densely wooded Pennsylvania ridge. Caught in a crossfire from three sides, men of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment began falling. Several got off a few shots in response, but the pressure was too great to withstand. In a matter of minutes, before they could form a proper line, one of Washington’s trusted Continental regiments was badly cut up and driven from the field, leaving their dead, wounded and personal possessions behind them. Their story has generally been forgotten amid the notoriety of so many larger battles, but details can still be found in many personal accounts and letters.[1]

The 2nd Connecticut Regiment was raised in January 1777, under a new military structure following the near-dissolution of the American Army at the end of 1776. The new year saw each state responsible for recruiting its own units, which were to be placed on the Continental establishment. Eight regiments were authorized in Connecticut, a state which contributed men out of proportion to its small size. To ensure each outfit contained a cadre of experienced soldiers, the state government decided to rearrange officers and men from previous units, creating an entirely new organization.[2]

Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford took on the task of assembling the regiment in April at Danbury. Eight veteran captains were identified, and assigned responsibility for recruiting their own companies, each to consist of about fifty men, drawn from Fairfield, Hartford and Windham Counties. The captains, who gave their names to the companies, were Stephen Betts, Samuel Granger, Ichabod Hinckley, William Manning, John Mills, Jonathan Parker, David Parsons, and Amos Walbridge. To fill their quotas and ensure the support of reliable men, the captains frequently signed those they knew personally, including members of their own families. Many of the soldiers, particularly officers and sergeants, had served during 1775 and 1776, had campaigned around Boston and New York, and had taken part in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton.[3]

The new body was assigned to the Highlands Department, based along the Hudson River. Much of the unit marched there, camping at Peekskill through the fall. But raising a regiment took time, and some companies were not completed until May. When the Tory governor of New York, William Tryon, led a raiding force 2,000 strong from Long Island to destroy the rebel supply depot at Danbury, some of the 2nd Connecticut’s men were still near home. Called on to defend their new state, they suffered several casualties, including Stamford native Seth Weed, the 1st lieutenant of Betts’ company, who took a musket ball in the left leg, causing him to resign by September.[4]

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The Highlands force was charged with preventing the main British army on Manhattan Island from advancing up the Hudson River, denying them forage, supplies and the hearts and minds of local inhabitants. Constant low-level skirmishing took place outside the city, as both sides attempted to assert control. British Gen. William Howe relied heavily on Loyalist units to fight this ugly petite guerre, particularly upon the men of Brig. Gen. Oliver De Lancey’s brigade. On the night of June 30, a force of sixty men detailed from the 2nd Connecticut set out under Captain Parsons, headed toward West Chester on a cattle raid. A similar party of Tories was afoot, and the two stumbled into one another in the dark near Rye, with De Lancey’s men gaining the advantage. In the ensuing clash, the Tories and supporting light horse took many prisoners—nearly half of Parsons’ command. Parsons himself was captured along with his 1st lieutenant, Erastus Wolcott, four non-commissioned officers and ten other men from his company. Granger’s company had six men “taken,” while Betts’ and Walbridge’s each lost three. It took months, in some cases years, before these men were released. Many died in captivity. Of seven captives from Roxbury, “but one ever returned.”[5]

Within a couple of weeks, Howe and the majority of his force sailed for the Chesapeake on their roundabout journey to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Gen. Henry Clinton had been left in charge of a smaller force in the city of New York. On October 6, in a show of support for Gen. John Burgoyne’s beleaguered northern army, Clinton marched upriver forty-five miles to the Hudson Highlands to destroy American fortifications protecting the approaches to West Point. There the 2nd Connecticut participated in Gen. Israel Putnam’s unsuccessful attempt to stop them from destroying Fort Montgomery.[6]

After Howe landed at Head of Elk in late August, he won a series of victories—Brandywine, Paoli, the capture of Philadelphia, Germantown, the destruction of the Delaware River defenses, and subsequent opening of the waterway to British navigation, allowing the British to supply their men and adherents in the occupied American capital. These actions levied a toll on both armies, causing their commanders to send to New York for reinforcements. Howe requisitioned additional troops from a reluctant Clinton. Washington sought the return of Daniel Morgan’s Rifle Corps, its work at Saratoga now finished, from an equally unwilling Gen. Horatio Gates. He also requested men from the Highland command, and, on November 13, the 2nd Connecticut left to join the main army near Philadelphia. “We did not take a change of linen—no provisions,” Zachariah Greene wrote of their hasty march to Whitemarsh, fifteen miles northwest of the city. Arriving at the beginning of December, they found the army dug in on a line of hills, threatening the British occupiers while denying them access to food and fodder in the fertile Pennsylvania hinterland. Webb’s men were posted to the far right flank of the American line to serve as a tripwire should the British approach. They were ordered to act in detachment to delay and harass the enemy.[7]

Despite Howe’s victories, the Continental army was still in the field, pressuring the British to take decisive action before winter set in. To this end, on the night of December 4 the British commander marched 10,000 men out the Germantown Road toward Whitemarsh. They arrived at Chestnut Hill early the next morning, then spent the day trying to spy out weaknesses in the American lines and skirmishing with the militia.[8]

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After a second day trying to draw the Continentals off the hills into open battle, Howe decided that, if the Americans couldn’t be tempted out of their lines, he would employ the flanking stratagem which had worked so well at Long Island and Brandywine, to see if he might once again catch Washington flat-footed, this time conclusively. On the evening of the 6th the British army turned away from Whitemarsh, marching back down the Germantown Road, vengefully burning the villages of Cresheim and Bebberstown along the way. Passing Cliveden, Benjamin Chew’s ruined house, scene of heavy fighting during the Battle of Germantown two months before, they headed north at Abington Lane, hoping to appear on Washington’s left flank via the Susquehanna Street Road. Upon reaching Jenkins Town, the main body continued north along the Old York Road, but Maj. Gen. Charles Grey’s command, at the rear of the column, was ordered to split off, turning west into the road to St. Thomas Church (modern day Church Road), its mission to demonstrate against the American center and distract the rebels from the flanking maneuver.[9]

By morning, American pickets realized they had lost touch with their opponents. Brig. Gen. James Potter, with 1,000 men of the Pennsylvania Militia, and Lt. Col. Isaac Sherman, leading about 400 men of the 2nd Connecticut in Webb’s absence, were sent off from Militia Hill to find where the British had gone and reestablish contact. While the two units were expected to work in concert, it was not clear who should be in charge. Though Potter outranked Sherman, he was not part of the Continental establishment. In Sherman’s mind, he should have command of his own regulars.

This force made its way south along the Bethlehem Road. Climbing the slope of Chestnut Hill they found the enemy decamped. Gen. John Sullivan, having intelligence that Howe was maneuvering toward Edge Hill, ordered Potter and Sherman to pursue them and attack the enemy’s left flank and rear. They tracked the British as far as a little lane that ran northeast along Edge Hill ridge. Here Potter detached eighty men to continue down the Germantown Road to follow Howe’s rear. He turned his own force up the lane, with the Connecticut men in advance, to head off the British near the village of Edge Hill.[10]

Neither leader was familiar with the ground, nor could they find any inhabitant willing to serve as a guide. At the head of the column, Sherman took issue with Potter’s reconnaissance, repeatedly asking the general to send out scouting parties to reconnoiter before they contacted the enemy. Grudgingly, Potter sent only one group ahead under Maj. John Brook, so Sherman took it on himself to ride “forward of the Brigade to make what discoveries I could.” Near Church Road, he came upon a detachment of American light horse under Capt. Allan McLane, who were observing enemy movements. Here they sighted the head of General Grey’s column nearing Twickenham, the country estate of Thomas Wharton, current President of Pennsylvania. British flankers and advance guards were fanning out across the fields below the ridge as the column turned north onto the Limekiln Road.[11]

After marching six miles through the night, Grey had halted his detachment near Jenkins Town, awaiting word of Howe’s disposition before advancing further. His 3rd Brigade was composed of four veteran units, the 15th, 17th, 42nd and 44th Regiments of Foot. Hessian jägers, under command of Capt. Johann Ewald, made up his advance guard, with the Queen’s Rangers, under Maj. John Graves Simcoe, flanking the left of the column, and the light infantry company of the Brigade of Guards, commanded by Col. Thomas Twisteleton, covering the right. About 11:30 that morning, Grey received orders to stay until he heard signs of Howe’s main column moving forward.

As the day wore away, Grey finally decided on his own that the hour had come and sent his troops toward the village of Edge Hill. There the Limekiln Road passed through a gap in the ridge on its way to the limestone quarries and kilns at Fitzwatertown, which lay along the Sandy Run Creek, at the foot of the Camp Hill ridge, where Washington’s army was posted. The British discovered the nearby American detachment as they turned north at the intersection of the Church and Limekiln Roads. On seeing the enemy, Potter hurried his men forward along a lane that converged at the village of Edge Hill, hoping to intercept and worry the head of Grey’s brigade.[12]

In the lead, Sherman’s regiment was “advancing in a Column by Ranks,” which would allow it to form a line spreading out to either side of the road. As they were moving parallel to the British left, they would need to come about to their right in order to face the enemy properly. Where the lane neared the village, a heavily forested ridge rose steeply to the west, coming to an abrupt dead-end at the gap. Sherman began filing off into this wood “which was very full of under Brush, that we could see but a few Rods either way.”[13]

At this point, Joseph Reed and John Cadwalader, a brigadier of militia, entered the scene. Reed was influential in Pennsylvania politics and a confidant of General Washington. A recognizable authority among the regulars, he had recently served as adjutant general of the Continental Army, and had been summoned from his home at Norriton to give counsel to the commander in chief when it became clear that Howe planned to march against Whitemarsh. Having resigned his commission in January, then declined a brigadier generalship in the militia in June, he held no actual rank in either organization—but he was well known to have Washington’s ear. He and Cadwalader had teamed up often to perform reconnaissance. Reed explained his presence: “General Cadwalader and myself, at the general’s request, were observing the advance of the enemy and their intended plan of attack.”[14]

Reed assumed command of Sherman’s regiment, sowing confusion in the Continental ranks by issuing orders that conflicted with those given by the Lieutenant Colonel. Sherman’s later complaint to Washington described the ensuing chaos.

In this Wood General Reed, formerly Adjutant General to Your Excellency came to the Regiment, hurried it forward with such rapidity, altering its Disposition, ordering one Division this way, another that, putting Officers and Men into such confusion, that rendered it impracticable to keep that regularity so necessary when going into Action. The Regiment advanced 60 or seventy Rods in the Wood when the Vanguard was fired upon, they having gained our Left Flank. A Front was formed as expeditiously as possible, though hardly effected, before the Enemy fired upon us in front and upon the right Flank. The Militia having halted, and the Enemy got between us and them, there was hardly a succession of a minute from the first fire, to our being fired upon in Front and both Flanks.[15]

The American position on the ridge threatened the British route of march. As the Limekiln Road turned through the Edge Hill gap, the column would be subjected to musket fire on its left and rear for up to half a mile. Grey’s vanguard moved swiftly to confront and envelop the opposition.

The Hessian and Anspach Jägers, green-clad light troops experienced at operating in forests, were armed with rifles and hunting swords. They advanced toward the ridge in two columns on either side of the main road, firing and pinning Sherman’s regiment from the front. To the Jägers’ left, the Queen’s Rangers flanked the Connecticut men, penetrating the gap between them and the militia. Meanwhile, on the right, the ninety men of the Guards’ light infantry ran quickly up the road, through the gap, then wheeling left, climbed the ridge, and fell onto the Americans’ open flank.[16]

The 2nd Connecticut was caught in a crossfire before they were prepared to give battle. Men dropped as bullets came in at close range from the front and both flanks. Within minutes, ten men were shot dead, including Lieutenants John Harris and Silas Bonham. Many others were seriously wounded. In the regiment’s advance guard, Zachariah Greene took a ball that shattered his shoulder blade. His brother Joseph had his coat pierced by eleven balls, one of which gave him a bad flesh wound. Their captain, Amos Walbridge, shot in the head, was brought off the field by his kinsman Joshua Walbridge. Lewis Hurd saw a man by him “shot through” and stooped to minister to his mortally wounded messmate.[17]

Sherman continued,

In this situation the Men stood till they fired some four or five, the greater part three and none less than two rounds per Man. The Enemy, having the advantage of the Ground, were at least eight times our number, advanced within 12 or 14 Yards and began to close upon the rear of the Regt before I gave Orders to retreat, or a single Man gave way. It is true the Regiment retreated in disorder, but it was not in my power to have prevented it and considering its situation, I don’t think any Troops in the World would have stood with more firmness, or have behaved with more Intrepidity.[18]

His horse shot through the head and killed, Joseph Reed fell to the ground, stunned. Several Queen’s Rangers rushed to bayonet the downed officer. Seeing this, Captain McLane ordered his horsemen to charge, driving the Loyalists away from Reed till one of the riders could pull him up onto his mount and dash away. Reed was chagrined to leave an expensive saddle, a bridle and pistol behind. Humiliated by Reed’s assumption of command, Sherman complained of Reed to Washington, “he took upon him the whole charge of the regiment. When it was brought into a disagreeable situation and the enemy began to fire, he left the regiment and field with precipitation.”[19]

Confusion reigned on the wooded hillside as the King’s men closed in. Men of the 2nd Connecticut ran, dropping their packs, blankets and camp kettles. The British snapped up prisoners, though a few who remained behind to aid their comrades managed to avoid detection. Hurd later wrote of his friend Joseph Stiles, “I was left with him alone to close his eyes and bury him.” He returned to his unit the next day, having been listed initially as missing in action. The regiment made its way back down to the Sandy Run, many crossing the creek in the vicinity of the Widow Emlen’s house, Washington’s headquarters at the foot of Camp Hill. Some of the wounded who had eluded capture were treated in the makeshift hospital. Zachariah Greene later wrote of his ordeal,

My wound was Dressed in one of General Washington’s rooms, and then we left the house to make room for others, and took up our lodging in a horse-shed, and lay on buckwheat straw. The night was sleepless, the cold distressing, and it was difficult to describe the anguish I endured in my shattered bones, but it was for American freedom. The next morning, General Greene procured rooms for myself and brother, where my wound was dressed by the young ladies of the family.[20]

Seeing the veterans routed, “the infection catched the militia like lightening” and they too began falling back toward the main line, following the Church Road axis. Reed attempted to stem the tide by rallying some of the men and attacking Grey’s light infantry who were now exposed on the British right. André reported that “The Light Infantry of the Guards were very briskly attacked about an hour after taking post, by very superior numbers, but they maintained their ground and repulsed the Enemy, with the loss on their side of only one man.”[21]

Writing to Thomas Wharton afterward, Reed observed:

I rallied a considerable body near your next neighbor’s, a Captain of militia. Upon their complaining of their officers and requesting me to lead them, we advanced upon the enemy again, with a favorable opportunity of flanking their flanking party, but the first impression could not be worn off. We got no honour. The enemy continued to advance and posted their pickets about half a mile from our army, their main body lying back of your house. In this manner we lay watching their motions and they ours, when, on Monday, to our great surprise, they moved off by the Old York Road, and got into town about midnight, burning a house or two on their way. Yours is not among the number. I believe the damage done to you is very inconsiderable.[22]

Potter reported five killed, ten militiamen wounded, ten taken prisoner and several, perhaps more than twenty-five, missing in action. Analysis of the 2nd Connecticut’s muster rolls show at least twelve killed, an unknown number of wounded, five taken prisoner, and eleven missing in action. Total American losses in this action numbered at least eighty men.[23]

The attackers did not escape unscathed. Ewald reported four Jägers killed and nine wounded. The Guards’ light infantry company lost one man, Robert Dixon, killed, while Edward Graham was wounded. As the trap had closed, the Queen’s Rangers crossed the front of the Hessian line. Peter Lasie, a mounted Hussar, had picked up an American Light Dragoon’s helmet in an encounter a couple of days before. In the crossfire, one of the Jägers, recognizing an enemy helmet through the trees, and perhaps mistaking the rider for one of the green-coated 4th Continental Dragoons, shot and killed the man. Simcoe lamented the cavalryman’s loss, and took action to prevent future mistakes: “The disaster that happened to the mounted Ranger determined Major Simcoe to provide high caps, which might at once distinguish them both from the rebel army and their own; the mounted men were termed Huzzars, were armed with a sword, and such pistols as could be bought, or taken from the enemy.”[24]

Meanwhile, fighting broke out further north along the ridge, to the American left, as Col. Daniel Morgan’s riflemen ambushed Gen. Charles Cornwallis’s lead units, stalling their attempt to slip onto Washington’s flank. Fighting continued for much of the afternoon before Morgan and the Maryland Militia commander, Col. Mordecai Gist, were driven off Edge Hill. Daylight fading, Howe reordered his troops, then marched down to the Sandy Run to assault the American position. Ruefully, the British leaders noted that Washington had shifted his force and fortified his position during the skirmishing. The line now strengthened and supported with dozens of cannon, it seemed clear that any attempt to storm Camp Hill would be met with determined resistance and disastrous losses. Howe had not forgotten his at Pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill two years before. Having failed to achieve surprise, he pulled back for the night. Next day, seeing no change in his enemy’s dispositions, he returned to Philadelphia to ride out the winter in relative comfort.

Three days after Howe’s departure, the Americans pulled up stakes, headed for less commodious winter quarters of their own at Valley Forge. After a string of defeats, they had finally faced down the British Army and held the field. But for many of the 2nd Connecticut, who went on to fight at Monmouth and Yorktown, the action of December 7 remained etched in their memories as their severest trial, that sharp action “where so many were killed”[25]

[1]I would like to express my gratitude to Tasha Caswell, of the Connecticut Historical Society, and David B. Martucci for their assistance in identifying the 2nd Connecticut’s color. The reverse side of the flag, which is shown at the start of this article, though probably dating to the 1790s, depicts the flag carried by the regiment during the American Revolution. Edward W. Richardson, Standards and Colors of the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press and the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution and Its Color Guard, 1982), 80-81.

[2]Fred Anderson Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments and Independent Corps (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1972), 19. Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1983), 110, 233-234.

[3]Pension Application of Abiathar Evans, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 0938 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration) 6, www.fold3.com/image/18310332. Muster Roll of the Field and Staff Officers of a Connecticut Regiment Commanded by Colonel Charles Webb, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, M246, Roll 5, September – December 1777 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), 2, www.fold3.com/image/7656613.

[4]Pension Application of Seth Weed, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 2521 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), 4, www.fold3.com/image/28766700.

[5]Worthington C. Ford, “British and American Prisoners of War, 1778,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 17 (1893), 165, 171. Lewis Hurd, “Sergeant Lewis Hurd’s Account of the American Revolution,” in Dena D. Hurd, A History and Genealogy of the Family of Hurd in the United States (New York: privately printed, 1910), 72.

[6]Pension Application of Jacob Ward, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 2488 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration) 19, https://www.fold3.com/image/19913452.

[7]Israel Putnam to George Washington, November 14, 1777, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0243.Pension Application of Zachariah Greene, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 1124 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration) 44, www.fold3.com/image/22091037. Valley Forge Orderly Book of General George Weedon of the Continental Army under command of Genl. George Washington, In the Campaign of 1777-8 (New York: Dodd & Mead, 1902). Order of Battle, 4-5 December, 1777, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0494.

[8]William Howe to George Germain, December 13, 1777, The Parliamentary Register: or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, vol. 10, (London: 1802). Carl Leopold Baurmeister to Friedrich C.A. von Jungkenn, December 16, 1777, “Letters of Major Baurmeister during the Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 60, issue 1, January, 1936, tr. Bernhard A. Ullendorf & Edna Vosper, 40-42.

[9]Journal of John André, HM 626, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. At General Howe’s Side, 1776-1778, The Diary of General William Howe’s aide de camp, Captain Friedrich von Muenchhausen, trans. Ernst Kipping and annotated by Samuel Smith (Monmouth Beach, NJ: Philip Freneau Press, 1974), 45-46.

[10]James Potter to Thomas Wharton, December 16, 1777, Pennsylvania ArchivesSeries 1, Vol. 6, 98-99, www.fold3.com/image/896499. Isaac Sherman to George Washington, March 11, 1778, Founders Online, George Washington Papers, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-14-02-0116. Called Willow Grove Avenue today, the lane was laid out in the eighteenth century to connect the Germantown Road, near the southeastern foot of Chestnut Hill, with the Limekiln Road.

[11]Sherman to Washington, March 11, 1778. Joseph Reed to Thomas Wharton, December 10, 1777, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, ed. William B. Reed (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847), 350-353. McLane’s company was fifty men strong at the time. Pay Roll of Captain Allen McLane’s Company, December, 1777, Revolutionary War Rolls, M246, Roll 0126 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), 73, www.fold3.com/image/10126656.

[12]Journal of John André, 60-61.

[13]Sherman to Washington, March 11, 1778. The Military Companion: Being a System of Company Discipline (Newburyport: Thomas & Whipple, 1810), 34. The battle with Grey’s advance guard took place at this location: 40° 6’24.02″N, 75° 9’58.79″W. It is no longer possible to stand on the ground occupied by the 2nd Connecticut; the site has changed significantly. Over the years, about 600 yards of the exposed end of the hill, southwest of the Edge Hill gap, has been quarried away.

[14]Reed to Wharton, December 10, 1777. Reed and Cadwalader had scouted together in front of the army near Burlington in December 1776 prior to the attack on Trenton and again before the battle of Germantown. Horace W. Smith, Nuts for Future Historians to Crack (Philadelphia: Horace W. Smith, 1856), 11. Thomas Livezy to Generals John Cadwalader and Joseph Reed, October 29, 1777, John Cadwalader Papers, Incoming Correspondence, 1777, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1454, Series II, Box 15, Folio 18.

[15]Sherman to Washington, March 11, 1778. Spelling and punctuation have been normalized to render the text more easily understood.

[16]Morning Report of the Brigade of Foot Guards, 4th December, 1777, microfilm of British Orderly Books in the David Library of the American Revolution. Howe’s aide, Muenchhausen, said there were 120 men; Diary, 45.

[17]Muster Roll of Capt. Stephen Betts’ Company, January 1777, Revolutionary War Rolls, M246, Roll 5, (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), 6, www.fold3.com/image/7657607. Muster Roll of Capt. William Manning’s Company, January 1777, Revolutionary War Rolls, M246, Roll 6, (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration), 11, www.fold3.com/image/10282848. William J. Buck, “The Battle of Edge Hill,” Historical Sketches, A Collection of Papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Vol. II (Norristown, PA: Herald Printing, 1900), 225. Pension Application of Zachariah Greene,40. Zachariah Green to D.E. Delevan, July 3, 1851,www.tvhs.org/bench-talks. Pension Application of Joshua Walbridge, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 2471 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration) 14, www.fold3.com/image/19770859. Sergeant Lewis Hurd’s Account, 73.

[18]Sherman to Washington, March 11, 1778.

[19]John Armstrong to Council, December 7, 1777, Pennsylvania ArchivesSeries 1, Volume VI, 71, www.fold3.com/image/894999. Reed, Life and Correspondence, 351. Sherman to Washington, December 14, 1777, Founders Online, George Washington Papers, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0555.

[20]Sergeant Lewis Hurd’s Account, 73. Buck, Battle of Edge Hill, 225.

[21]Potter to Wharton, December 16, 1777. Journal of John André, 61v-62r.

[22]Reed, Life and Correspondence, 352. Potter’s line of retreat took the militia across the land of Nicholas Hicks, adjacent to the west of Wharton’s property, then along the axis of Church Road, across the properties of two captains in the Springfield Township militia, William Hicks and Andrew Redheiffer, both of whom saw active service in 1777. Capt. William Hix’s Company, State of the Accounts of the County Lieutenants During the War of the Revolution, 1777-1789, Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Volume V, 608, www.fold3.com/image/3038719. Pension Application of Frederick Hesser, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, M804, Roll 1262, (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration) 4-6, www.fold3.com/image/23220694.

[23]John Armstrong to Thomas Wharton, December 16, 1777, Pennsylvania Archives Series 1, Volume VI, 101, www.fold3.com/image/896623.

[24]Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal, trans. & ed. Joseph P. Tustin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 109. Foot Guards Report, 9th December, 1777. John Graves Simcoe, Simcoe’s Military Journal: A History of the Operations of a Partisan Corps, Called the Queen’s Rangers (New York: Bartlett & Wellford, 1844), 31-32. Donald J. Gara, The Queen’s American Rangers (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2015), 98.

[25]Sergeant Lewis Hurd’s Account, 73.