He tried to reach the British pickets at Chestnut Hill before daylight; but the roughness of the roads over which his army marehed prevented, and it was almost sunrise when he emerged from the woods on that elevation. His approach had been discovered at early dawn by the British patrols, who gave the alarm. The troops were soon called to arms, and placed in battle order on Mount Airy, about a mile north of Chew's house in Germantown. At seven o'clock Sullivan's advanced party, drawn chiefly from Conway's brigade, and led by that officer, fell upon the British pickets at Allen's house, at Mount Airy, where they had two six-pounders, and drove them back to the main body near, which consisted chiefly of the fortieth regiment and a battalion of light infantry. Sullivan's main body now left the road, moved to the right through the fields, formed in a lane leading from Allen's house toward the Schuylkill, and joined in the attack with so much vigor and such overwhelming numbers, that the enemy, after a sharp engagement of twenty minutes, gave way, and fell back to the village, closely pursued by the victors. Colonel Musgrave, who commanded the British center, thus furiously attacked, threw himself, with five companies of the fortieth regiment, into Judge Chew's large stone house, pictured on page 314, from which such a severe discharge of musketry was poured upon Woodford's brigade, which was
* Sparks, v., 78.
Scenes at Chew's House.—Remissness of the Militia.—Victory lost to the Americans.
pursuing the flying enemy, that their progress was checked. The fire of the small arms of the patriots upon this refuge was quite ineffectual. General Reed, it is said, proposed to continue the pursuit of the remainder of the enemy, who were then in great confusion, and turning their faces toward Philadelphia; but General Knox, of the artillery, opposed the suggestion, as being against all military rule "to leave an enemy in a fort in the rear. "What!" exclaimed Reed, "call this a fort, and lose the happy moment!" They sought for Conway to decide the point, but he was not to be found. Knox's opinion prevailed, and pursuit was abandoned.
A flag was now sent by a young man * to demand a formal and immediate surrender. The bearer was slain by a bullet when within musket-shot of the house. Cannons were now brought to bear upon the house by the artillery regiment of Maxwell s brigade; but so strong were the walls and so courageous were the inmates, that it was found impossible to dislodge them. Attempts were made to set the house on fire, but without success. ** Many of the Americans were killed in the assault, while scarcely a man of the garrison was wounded. The attempt to dislodge the enemy caused many of the American troops to halt, and brought back Wayne's division, which had advanced far beyond the house. This totally uncovered Sullivan's left flank, which was advancing toward the enemy's left, and disconcerted all their plans.
While this attack on Chew's house was in progress, General Greene had approached the enemy's right wing, and routed the battalion of light infantry and the Queen's Rangers. Turning a little to the right, he fell upon the left flank of the enemy's right wing, and endeavored to enter the village, not doubting that the Pennsylvania militia under Armstrong, upon the right, and the militia of Maryland and New Jersey on the left, commanded by Smallwood and Forman, would execute the orders of the commander-in-chief, by attacking and turning the first left and the second right flank of the British army. Neither of these detachments performed their duty. The former arrived in sight of the German chasseurs, but did not attack them; while the latter appeared too late for co-operation with Greene s movements. The golden opportunity was at that moment lost. The whole British army, as it appeared afterward, astonished at the valor of the assailants and ignorant of their numbers, were on the point of retreating, and had selected Chester, near the Brandywine, as the place of rendezvous; but General Grey, finding his left flank secure, marched with nearly the whole of the left wing, which was under the general command of Knyphausen, to the assistance of the center, then hard pressed in the village, where the Americans were gaining ground every moment. The battle now raged severely In Germantown, and for a while the issue was doubtful. Colonel Matthews, with a detachment of Greene's column, composed of a part of Muhlenberg's and Scott's brigades from the left wing, advanced to the eastward of Chew's house, assailed a party of English, took one hundred and ten prisoners, and drove the remainder before him into the town, whither he followed as far as the market-house. A thick fog, which began to form at daylight, now completely enveloped every thing, and the contending parties were unable to discover the movements of each other. Matthews, with his prisoners, was soon stopped at a breast-work near Lucan's mills. At the same time, the right wing of the enemy, after discovering that they had nothing to fear from the Maryland and New Jersey militia, fell back, and completely surrounded Matthews
* Lieutenant Smith, of Virginia, who was an assistant of Colonel Timothy Pickering in the office of adjutant general.
** Mrs. Chew informed me that, several years after the war, and soon after her marriage, while a young man named White was visiting her father-in-law, the old gentleman, in relating incidents of the battle in Germantown, mentioned the circumstance that a Major White, an aid of General Sullivan, and one of the handsomest men in the Continental army, attempted to fire the house for the purpose of driving out the British. He ran under a window with a fire-brand, where shots from the building could not touch him. He was discovered, and a British soldier, running into the cellar, shot him dead from a basement window. The young man was much affected by the recital, and said to Judge Chew, "That Captain While, sir, was my father." Mrs. Chew pointed out to us the window, near the northwest corner of the house, from which the shot was fired.
Battle of Germantown.—The Americans, deceived, abandon the Field.—Washington's Chagrin.—The Loss.