The ground is very undulating; in fact, the whole scene of the battle of Brandywine is a broken but very fertile country, highly cultivated, and remarkable for the good character of its inhabitants. They were chiefly Quakers during the Revolution; and their descendants, professing the same faith and discipline, own a large portion of the land at present.
From Dilworth we proceeded toward Chad's Ford, by the way of Brinton's Mills. Upon the brow of an eminence near the mills, and overlooking the Brandywine, the old Brinton mansion (16 on the map) was yet standing, a gray and moss-grown relic of the war. In the gable toward the river is a hole made by the passage of a cannon-ball, fired from Knyphausen's batteries on the west side of the Brandywine. About a mile below it, upon a road running parallel with the river, is Chad's house, a small stone building, and another relic of the Revolution. It is upon a slope on the east side of the road. The sketch here given was made from the highway, looking northeast. Upon a loftier knoll, a few rods south of Chad's, is the place where Wayne stationed Proctor with his artillery. It was an eligible point for commanding the passage of the ford.
Turning eastward from the road leading to the bridge over the Brandywine at the ford, I visited the head-quarters of Washington (22 on the map), delineated on the opposite page, then the residence of Benjamin Ring, now the dwelling of Joseph P. Harvey. It is somewhat modernized, but its general aspect is the same as when the patriot chief occupied it. Mr. Harvey gave me a grape-shot which was plowed up on his farm a few weeks before. Hundreds of pounds of cannon-balls have been
The Quarters of Washington and Howe.—Kennet Square.—A Storm.—New London and Elkton.
found in the vicinity of Chad's Ford, and are now preserved by relie-seekers. From Washington's temporary residence I rode to the reputed quarters of La Fayette (21), situated a little more than a mile east of Chad's Ford; and thence, up the New Road, to George Gilpin's, the quarters of Howe after the battle.
