When winter set in, many of the troops, and all the officers, occupied the public buildings and houses of the inhabitants, also the old British barracks in the Northern Liberties. The artillery were quartered in Chestnut Street, between Third and Sixth Streets, and the State House yard was made a park for their use. During the winter, General Howe occupied a house on High Street, where Washington afterward resided; ** his brother, Lord
* The following composed the entire number of public buildings in Philadelphia at that time: State House; Market; Jail; Work-house; Barracks, built in 1755; College and Academy; City Alms-house; Quakers' Alms-house; two Quaker meeting-houses; Christ Church; Anabaptist meeting-house; Presbyterian meeting-house; German Lutheran Church; Roman Catholic Church; St. Paul's Church; St. Peter's Church; the Swedes' Church; Quakers' School-house; and a small city court-house. The hospital and play-house were in the unsettled part of the town.
** See engraving, page 302. Watson has the following notice of the personal appearance of some of the British officers: "Sir William Howe was a fine figure, full six feet high, and well proportioned, not unlike in his appearance to General Washington. His manners were graceful, and he was much beloved by his officers and soldiers for his generosity and affability. Sir Henry Clinton, his successor, was short and fat, with a full face and prominent nose. In his intercourse he was reserved, and not so popular as Howe. Lord Cornwallis was short and thick-set, his hair somewhat gray, his face well formed and agreeable, his manners remarkably easy and affable. He was much beloved by his men. General Knyp-hausen was much of the German in his appearance; not tall, but slender and straight. His features were sharp; in manners he was very polite. He was gentle, and much esteemed. He spread his butter upon his bread with his thumb! Colonel Tarleton was rather below the middle size, stout, strong, heavily made, large muscular legs, dark complexion, and his eyes small, black, and piercing. He was very active. General Howe, while in Philadelphia, seized and kept for his own use Mary Pemberton's coach and horses, in which he used to ride about town."—Annals, ii., 287.
Loss of the Delaware Frigate.—Torpedoes sent down the River from Bordentown.—"Battle of the Kegs."
Howe, resided in Chestnut Street, in the building occupied by the Farmers and Mechanics Bank; General Knyphausen lived in South Second, opposite Little Dock Street; Cornwallis's quarters were in Second, above Spruce Street; and Major André dwelt in Dr. Franklin's mansion in a court back from High Street. *
As soon as the British had taken possession of Philadelphia, they erected three batteries near the river, to protect the city against the American shipping. ** Before the batteries were finished, Commodore Hazlewood ordered the Delaware and Montgomery frigates, each of twenty-four guns, and the sloop Fly, some galleys and gondolas, to move near and attack them. On the morning of the 27th of September, they opened a cannonade upon 1777 the works. The Delaware grounded, at the falling of the tide, near the present Upper Ferry to Camden from Kensington, and, before she could be got off, the guns of the British batteries compelled her colors to be struck. A schooner was driven ashore, and the remainder of the vessels escaped down the river. The affair was badly managed, and disaster followed. These batteries, as well as the lines of fortifications from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, have long since passed away.
During the occupation of the city, the enemy were annoyed by the patriots in various ways. In January, some Whigs at Bordentown sent a number of kegs down the Delaware, which were filled with powder, and furnished with machinery, in such a manner that, on rubbing against any object in the stream, they would immediately explode. These torpedoes were the invention of Mr. Bushnell, of Connecticut, and will be noticed hereafter. They were intended for the destruction of the British shipping then lying in the river opposite Philadelphia. It so happened that, on the very night when these kegs were sent down, the vessels were hauled into the docks to avoid the effects of the ice then rapidly forming. They thus escaped mischief. One of these kegs exploded near the city, and spread general alarm. Not a stick or chip floated for twenty-four hours afterward but it was fired at by the British troops. This battle of the kegs furnished the theme for a facetious poem from the pen of Francis Hopkinson, Esq., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. ***
* Mrs. Bache, daughter of Dr Franklin, occupied his house when the enemy approached Philadelphia. She left the city, and took refuge with a friend in the eountry. After her return in July, she thus wrote to her father, who was then in France: "I found your house and furniture, upon my return to town, in much better order than I had reason to expect from the hands of sueh a rapacious crew. They stole and carried off with them some of your musical instruments, viz., a Welsh harp, ball harp, the set of tuned bells which were in a box, viol-de-gamba, all the spare armonica glasses, and one or two spare cases. Your armonica is safe. * They took likewise the few books that were left behind, the chief of which were Temple's school-books, and the History of the Arts and Sciences in French, which is a great loss to the public. Some of your electric apparatus is missing; also, a Captain Andre took with him a picture of you which hung in the dining-room."
** One of these, with three guns, was on the site of the present navy yard; another, with four guns, was below the navy land near Reed and Swanson Streets; another, with three guns, was in front of Wharton's Mansion, upon an eminence below Front and Christian Streets.
*** Mr. Hopkinson was also the author of "Hail Columbia," one of our most popular national songs. The following is a copy of