Brandywine Battlefield

Brandywine Battlefield covers roughly seven thousand acres around Chadds Ford in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where Washington's Continental Army fought Howe's British forces on September 11, 1777. Howe sent a force under Knyphausen across the Brandywine at Chadds Ford while Cornwallis marched twelve miles north and crossed at Jefferis Ford, flanking the American line. Washington's intelligence on the flanking movement was contradicted by a later report, and Sullivan's line broke near the Birmingham Meetinghouse. Greene held a delaying action while Wayne's troops at the ford were forced back. Nightfall ended the fighting, and the Americans withdrew to Chester. The landmark is significant as the only major clash in the campaign against Philadelphia, and the district includes stone houses dating from the 1700s, the Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse, Brinton's Mill, and the Ring House and Gideon Gilpin House within the state park.